Alexander Litvinenko

Peter McKenna · December 14, 2006

The following is an article by David Satter, a fellow of the Hudson Institute. Mr. Satter also has written articles on the Russian FSB and their freewheeling use of terror to consolidate their power base in Russia. Mr. Satter's articles may be viewed at the following website. He contributed to the film "Disbelief", about the bombing of apartments in Moscow, which seem to have been orchestrated by the FSB, and which Litvinenko wrote about in his book "The FSB Explodes Russia”, which was held up in publication by the FSB before being a limited release.

The upshot is that it seems that Russia seems to be returning to a totalitarian regime.

"The Return of the Soviet Union

May 6, 2005

by David Satter

When President Bush ascends the reviewing stand in Red Square on May 9 for ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, he may find that his presence is being used less to mark a historic anniversary than to rehabilitate the Soviet Union.

The anniversary has unleashed a wave of nostalgia for the Soviet Union. A report by the RIA press agency said, "all the veterans agree that the great love that the Soviet people had for their country and their belief in the righteousness of their cause helped the Soviet Union survive the worst war of the twentieth century." Russian President Vladimir Putin in a speech last year at the Victory Day ceremonies said, "We were victorious in the most just war of the twentieth century. May 9 is the pinnacle of our glory." In his state of the nation address, April 25, Putin referred to the breakup of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century."

This type of nostalgia, however, is not harmless. Not only does it ignore the fact that the Soviet Union was just as terroristic as Nazi Germany. It also reflects what Hannah Arendt referred to as a "pervasive, public stupidity." This is the failure to understand that the truth about the past is not irrelevant and, in fact, is the best hope for a decent future.

The re-sovietization of Russia is possible because when the Soviet Union fell, the new Russian state did not break irrevocably with its communist heritage. To do this, it needed to define the communist regime as criminal and the Soviet period as illegitimate, open the archives, including the list of informers and find and commemorate all mass burial grounds and execution sites. Unfortunately, none of this was done with consequences that are being felt today.

There is still no legal evaluation of the Soviet regime. The communist regime has never been declared criminal and no Soviet official has ever been tried for crimes committed under communism. The result is that former communist leaders in Russia are viewed as leaders first and criminals second (if at all), no matter how heinous their actions. Under these circumstances, Russians frequently lack the conviction, intrinsic to free men, that an individual answers for his actions no matter what the external conditions.

At the same time, because the Soviet regime was not repudiated, the Russian government became the Soviet regime’s legal successor. This has meant that millions of victims of repression were rehabilitated, usually posthumously, by being cleared of official charges rather than because those charges were the product of a deranged system. The regime therefore continued to judge its victims rather than the other way around.

In addition to not declaring the Soviet regime criminal, the new Russian government did nothing to reveal the identities of KGB informers. In March, 1992, the Russian Supreme Soviet passed a new law on investigative activities that declared the list of the millions of informers to be a state secret. One reason for the vote was believed to be that many of the deputies had themselves been KGB informers. The decision, however, had serious consequences. It established a precedent for concealing the truth about the past that was to become increasingly important as new decisions were made regarding access to vital records, for example, the KGB, Comintern and foreign ministry archives.

Perhaps most important, the Russian authorities made no serious attempt to find and memorialize the mass graves and execution sites that cover the country. The victims of Stalin era terror were executed in secret and the Soviet leaders intended that the bodies would never be found. Nonetheless, some sites have been discovered. This, however, has usually been the achievement of the Memorial social movement operating with little or no help from the outside.

In August 2002, after a five year search, the execution grounds for the majority of the victims of the Great Terror in Leningrad were discovered by Memorial in a firing range near the village of Toksovo. It is estimated that the site holds 30,000 bodies, making it possibly the largest on the territory of the former Soviet Union. Neither the federal nor the local authorities, however, have shown any interest in excavating the site and analyzing the remains let alone memorializing the victims. Instead, they have cautioned the volunteers from Memorial not to interfere with the operations of the firing range.

The result of the indifference of the authorities is that the burial grounds and execution sites that stand in silent witness to the horrors of Russian communism play almost no role in the moral and spiritual life of the country.

Without a concerted effort to memorialize the horrors of communist rule in Russia, the growing nostalgia for Soviet power is a natural tendency. Although communism was the moral nadir of modern Russian history it was also the period when Russia was at the height of its power.

Increasingly, however, nostalgia for the Soviet Union is taking frightening forms. Statues of Stalin have begun appearing in Russian cities and in Orel, the town council has written to Putin, demanding that Stalin’s "honor" be restored to the history books, his statue re-erected and his name given to streets and squares. In mid-April, the communist party leader, Gennady Zyuganov said Russia "should once again render honor to Stalin for his role in building socialism and saving human civilization from the Nazi plague."

In another sign of the time, a group of leading political and cultural figures in St. Petersburg has called for the erection of a monument to Alexei Kuznetsov, a party official who organized Leningrad’s defenses during the Second World War. Kuznetsov was later shot in the postwar "Leningrad Affair" and he is buried in the Levashovo Cemetery along with many of Stalin’s other victims.

Before the war began, however, Kuznetsov himself was a key participant in Stalin’s atrocities as a member of the three man extrajudicial board or "troika" that signed death sentences for the Leningrad oblast during the terror. The troika operated in Leningrad from August, 1937 to November, 1938 issuing almost 40,000 death sentences and from January to June, 1938, Kuznetsov, as the second secretary of the oblast party committee, was a member.

It is too late to decline to go to Moscow as the presidents of Lithuania and Estonia have done, citing Russia’s refusal to admit and apologize for the crimes committed in the Baltics. In any case, for the U.S., such a move would be unjustified. Bush, nonetheless, would be doing a real service to history if, in addition to participating in the celebrations, he would also visit the Butovo firing range south of the city where the bodies of at least 20,000 victims of Stalin’s Great Terror lie in mass graves.

In contrast to the meticulous attention devoted to anything to do with the Second World War, Butovo is neglected. There is no museum or general memorial. The common graves are marked off with ropes. Until recently, the area was choked with weeds and used as a garbage dump. The number of visitors is miniscule, about 4,000 a year, mostly Orthodox believers and relatives of those buried there.

The Soviet Union did indeed achieve a great victory in defeating Nazi Germany. The cost was 27 million Soviet dead, including 8.6 million soldiers. The failure to put the victory in perspective and describe the true nature of the Stalinist regime, however, means that the May 9 events, in addition to a celebration of the victory are also an exercise in propaganda that glorifies the Soviet system. As a result, the visiting heads of state risk endorsing with their presence a view of history that works against the interests of Russia’s democratic future.

A visit by Bush to Butovo during the May 9 celebrations would help to redress this balance and by injecting an element of reality into the event emphasize that for the Western allies the goal of the war was not just the defeat of Germany but the eradication of totalitarianism, in 1945 and in the future as well.

This article originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal on May 6, 2005."

Peter McKenna · December 14, 2006

The following is an article by David Satter, a fellow of the Hudson Institute. Mr. Satter also has written articles on the Russian FSB and their freewheeling use of terror to consolidate their power base in Russia. Mr. Satter's articles may be viewed at the following website. He contributed to the film "Disbelief", about the bombing of apartments in Moscow, which seem to have been orchestrated by the FSB, and which Litvinenko wrote about in his book "The FSB Explodes Russia”, which was held up in publication by the FSB before being a limited release.

The upshot is that it seems that Russia seems to be returning to a totalitarian regime.

Sorry the webstite copied is as follows:

If I didn't get the entire address, try deleting everything to the right of the last = sign.

http://www.hudson.org/learn/index.cfm?fuse...mp;eid=SattDavi

Peter McKenna · December 14, 2006

The facts so far in the case of Alexandre Litvinenko seem to indicate that his assasination orders probably origiated from within the FSB. Putin has placed ex-FSB agents and officers in at least 70% of leadership positions within the Russian politcal infrastructure. The wealth of Russia has been systematically nationalized and anyone who complains or brings information to the public eye seems to be systematically eliminated.

The amateurish handling of Litvinenko's murder doesn't seem to bear the signature of the security services, once the largest and most elaborate secret service on Earth.

Any ideas?

Bob Goodman · January 19, 2007

I don't know anything about the authors credentials, interests, prejudices, pet peeves, etc., etc. but I thought that this article is interesting and certainly on topic. It's also is in agreement with my orginal gut-reactions regarding this affair. If this gentleman is a nazi, commie, quaker, liberal <forgive the foul language> I have no idea. I am unaware of his prejudices and they are in no way reflective of my own (hmmm). Now, that being said, his reports always seem to have deep sources. Perhaps this is another example of the left wing of the CIA fighting the right wing of the CIA. Or maybe it's the tattered remmants of the american wing of the CIA fighting the neocon wing of the CIA.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com

January 2, 2007 -- SPECIAL REPORT. Scaramella-Berezovsky link to World Trade Center security firm emerges in Italian law enforcement investigation.

Mario Scaramella, the Italian interlocutor for the poisoned Alexander Litvinenko and Russian-Israeli media/mobster tycoon Boris Berezovsky, is now under investigation by prosecutors in Rome, Naples, and Bologna for international arms smuggling, divulging official judicial secrets, conspiracy, international trafficking in radioactive materials, and the dumping of hazardous waste through unauthorized third parties. Scaramella was arrested last month by Italian police and his offices have been searched by police several times.

The Italian media is reporting on transcripts of phone conversations between Scaramella and two former U.S. intelligence officers. One conversation, reported in La Repubblica, is a January 25, 2006 conversation between Scaramella and a mysterious ex-CIA agent from California who uses the name "Perry." In the conversation, Scaramella stresses to Perry that his activities are not "just my activity, but the activity of the organization.' It is becoming clear that the :organization" to which Scaramella is referring is a private and global intelligence organization involving former members of the KGB and Russian Federal Security Bureau (like Litvinenko), private military and intelligence companies, and ex-CIA and British intelligence officers. Scaramella discussed the political dirty “trick” they are preparing for Italian center-left leader Romano Prodi and it is clear from the conversation that Perry gives Scaramella his orders, though politely. When Scaramella goes into a tangent on his international activities, Perry merely replies, 'You must work on the Italian politics.' When Scaramella presents a list of the possible future options open to him, Perry very curtly suggests, “You could be part of the cabinet of the minister.” But Scaramella is pessimistic when he states, “most probably Prodi will win, even if we will launch our attack…"

The "attack" is key to the conversation. WMR was the first media outlet to suggest that the Scaramella-Litvinenko affair was a dirty bomb plot gone bad and that the intelligence services of Russian President Vladimir Putin may have actually derailed the plot.

Scaramella relates to Perry his conversation with then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in which he asked the right-wing and now-indicted politician for a job, preferably at NATO or the United Nations. Scaramella claims that he was first offered a seat in the Italian parliament but declined because he feared a rough political campaign against him after he had made public his "KGB claims" against Prodi and that he "preferred a post outside Italy in an international organization."

The Italian paper Corriere della Sera is also reporting on a telephone conversation between Scaramella and Paolo Guzzanti, the Miktrokhin Committee's chairman on 28 January 2006, three days after the phone conversation between Perry and Scaramella that Romani Prodi was "cultivated by the KGB" and cited ex-KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky as his source. Guzzanti responds, "in that case he is our man?" "Yes," replies Scaramella's." "That's enough. I don't want to know anything else", Guzzanti replies.

It has also been revealed that while talking to Perry, Scaramella declared that he had obtained taped testimony against Prodi from Gordievski and that the testimony was given in the presence of "Lou Palumbo," who has now been identified as a 22-year veteran of the CIA. Gordievski, who is under the protection of the British intelligence services, has since denounced Scaramella as a fraud. It is also clear that Scaramella's mission was to seek out prominent Russian exiles and defectors in order to trick them into brining false charges against leftist politicians like Prodi.

Previously, WMR reported that Scaramella was linked by Italian investigators to Filippo Marino, who is involved in the security business and founded the Special Research Monitoring Center (SRMC), claims he was a member of the elite Italian Army 131st Regiment and member of an Italian law enforcement organized crime task force targeting the mob in Naples. One of Marino's companies, Securitydirector LLC, is registered at P.O. Box 190487, Miami Beach, FL 33119-0487. According to La Stampa, a link has now been discovered between Marino and Hallandale, Florida-based Incident Management Group (IMG). Marino has been a senior consultant for IMG, according to La Stampa. IMG's Managing Partner is none other than Louis F. Palumbo, Scaramella's task master in the reported attempt to tarnish Prodi. Palumbo's bio at the IMG website states that in 1977, he founded the security consulting firm Ackerman & Palumbo. The Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) lists a Louis F. Palumbo at 7980 N. Biscayne Point Cir., Miami Beach, FL 33141.

Palumbo's partners at IMG include Daniel Donohue, a former CIA clandestine services agent in Southeast Asia and India; Harley Stock, a "forensic hypnosis" expert with the FBI and US Secret Service; and, perhaps most intriguingly, Christopher Hagon, a 21-year veteran of the London Metropolitan Police or "Scotland Yard."

Hagon told La Stampa that Marino did work as a consultant for IMG as a consultant. In fact, IMG's consultant profiles list Marino as:

"FILIPPO MARINO, SENIOR CONSULTANT, has 10 years of international experience in the areas of security and environmental crime prevention. Marino has worked on a variety of security-related assignments ranging from investigative support of judicial authorities to personal awareness training and private consulting worldwide. He is one of the founders of Special Research Monitoring Center (SRMC) and a founding member of the Permanent Intergovernmental Conference for Environmental Crime Prevention. He is currently Director of Security & Operations, for the SRMC. Marino served as an officer of the prestigious 131st Regiment of the Italian Army, and is an inspector for a law-enforcement, environmental task force against organized crime in Naples, Italy. He holds a magna cum laude B. A. in Behavioral Sciences from San Jose State University, and has obtained multiple certifications in security and protection services. He speaks fluent Italian and German."

Note that Marino's links to Scaramella's ECPP is also cited above. Also of interest is the listing of a Curtis Perry as an IMG consultant:

"CURTIS PERRY, SENIOR CONSULTANT, has 27 years experience in government and private sector security. He served for ten years in the CIA and was stationed throughout the Far East. Mr. Perry is fluent in several Chinese dialects and has access to numerous government agencies in the Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia. Previously he was employed as a Senior Consultant by the security firm of Ackerman & Palumbo and was a Managing Director for Kroll Associates in Manila from 1992 -1996. Mr. Perry has undertaken numerous investigations for Corporate America – including those involving kidnappings, extortions and product contaminations – in the Far East and Australia."

Another IMG consultant is Robert Wager, whose bio claims he manages security for the US Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. Scaramella claims to have also worked in Bogota. The bio of another IMG consultant, Ned Timmons, states, "for two years Timmons directed an international import/export corporation operating undercover in Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and Central America [and] ... He currently serves as a consultant to the U.S. and Cayman Governments on drug trafficking matters." There is yet another Colombian link, "John Stabler, Senior Consultant, has 17 years experience in security management and consulting profession, with 13 years of specialization in Colombia. He has designed security for plantations, mines, pipelines, piers and airfields in hostile locations in Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Chile."

Also of interest is another "environmental" link that ties the various Scaramella-Litvinenko players under the cover of an international environmental network. An SEC EDGAR search revealed a stockholders' agreement between Harrison-Kroll Environmental Services, Inc. of Louisiana and Palumbo Partners, a Delaware corporation dated December 31, 1992, in which Kroll acquired Palumbo Partners. A Google search also revealed that former Secret Service Presidential Protective Division agent Jim Holt served as Training Director for Ackerman & Palumbo and was "one of the original directors and consultant partners with Palumbo Partners, Inc., Miami." An office of Harrison-Kroll Environmental Services is listed at 300 S. Grand Avenue, Suite 1300, Los Angeles, CA 90071.

Kroll Associates is an enigmatic "security services" company which has close links to the CIA. Not only is Kroll active in private military contracting in Iraq but it has long been associated with dubious U.S. intelligence activities at home and abroad. According to a knowledgeable source, Jules Kroll, who founded Kroll Associates in 1972 obtained needed funding for his firm from Foothill Capital in the 1980s. Foothill was deeply enmeshed in the Savings & Loan collapses in the 1980s but salvaged itself to become a part of Wells Fargo Bank. Kroll, who helped Curtis Publishing (renamed Cadence Industries after a merger) cut waste in the 1970s (and pilfer the company's pension fund in the process), got his first big break when he helped locate the stolen millions of Philippine ex-President Ferdinand Marcos (he would later go after the off-shore bank accounts of Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier and Iraq's Saddam Hussein).

According to our well-placed source, Ray Steffans (aka diStefano of New Jersey), Jewish mobster Gideon Chern, and Eddie Baker of Vanguard Petroleum met in Houston in September 1983 to discuss, among other items, funding for Kroll. In December 1977, Bernard Taubenfeld, Gideon Chern and Shalom Goldburd, officials of B'nai Torah Institute affiliate, Nutrition for Youth, were convicted of defrauding the government by submitting bills for food that was never served to poor children in the New York City summer lunch program. Chern's other organized crime activity in the 1980s reportedly had an important protector -- former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudolph Giuliani. The former New York Mayor and prospective GOP presidential candidate reportedly suppressed a wealth of evidence against Chern.

Litvinenko-Scaramella case now linked to World Trade Center security firm.

Two days after the Houston meeting, a Jaguar supposedly with the body of Baker in it was found charred outside of Houston. A fire investigator later revealed that no body was found in the car at the time of the fire. Kroll, after Enron's bankruptcy, purchased Zolfo-Cooper, and thus owned Zolfo-Cooper's Steven Cooper, the attorney appointed by New York bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez to run Enron in bankruptcy. In July 2004, Marsh-McLennan bought Kroll and Associates. Marsh-McLennan is run by Jeffrey Greenberg, son of Maurice (Hank) Greenberg of AIG. Chase and Citibank notes from Kenneth Lay/Enron were purchased in May 2001 by AIG and the MacArthur Foundation.

Kroll was responsible for the security of the World Trade Center on 9/11. The firm had hired FBI top counter-terrorism agent John O'Neill as Director of World Trade Center security upon his retirement from the FBI. O'Neill died in the 9/11 attacks. Kroll also markets Identity Theft Shield, the first time Kroll has offered its services to individuals as opposed to governments and companies. As of June 30, 2006, Kroll had amassed over 560,000 customers for its Identity Theft Shield program.

The Chern link brings us back to the Russian-Israeli Mafia connections of Scaramella and company. Berezovsky's friend, former Yukos co-owner Leonid Nevzlin, a Russian-Jewish oligarch and former President of the Russian Jewish Congress who now lives in Tel Aviv and is wanted by Russia for tax evasion and corruption. As the Democrats prepare to assume control of Congress, Nevzlin is now in the United States, protected by the FBI from arrest based on previously-issued Russian and Interpol arrest warrants. This is not Nezvlin's first visit to the United States. In the summer of 2005, he appeared before the US Congress' Helsinki Committee to criticize the government of Vladimir Putin. Nevzlin's sponsors were incoming House International Relations Committee chairman Tom Lantos (D-CA) and New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith. Nevzlin used the hearing to argue for the expulsion of Russia from the G-8. Another Nevzlin supporter is Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, another prospective GOP presidential candidate.

In a further example of the dubious activities of the Arlington, Virginia-based Fellowship Foundation, dubbed the "Christian Mafia" by many local residents, two of Nevzlin's wanted Yukos fellow shareholders, oligarchs Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov, who were indicted in Russia on charges similar to those brought against jailed Yukos former chairman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, were invited the have breakfast with President George W. Bush at the February 5, 2005 "National Prayer Breakfast." The annual Prayer Breakfast contrivance of the Fellowship Foundation is a ruse designed to provide a series of top level intelligence and organized crime meetings under the sanctioning smile of "Jesus." The person who invited Brudno, Dubov, and the jailed Khodorkovsky to the prayer breakfast was Lantos, whose wife, daughter, and son-in-law are devout Mormons. Brudno and Dubov, citizens of Israel, were assured by the FBI that it would ignore the Interpol and Russian arrest warrants, just as the FBI is ignoring the arrest warrant for Nevzlin, who is now in the United States, most likely with the acquiescence of Lantos. Lantos, who has his own connections with mob-run unions operating at San Francisco International Airport, does not seem to mind the fact that Nevzlin has been under investigation by Israeli police for illegally laundering $500 million through a Tel Aviv branch of Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest bank. Nevzlin also took over assets of Khodorkovsky's collapsed bank, Menatep, which was also linked to money laundering involving the Bank of New York. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev supports Putin's attempt to bring the Russian-Israeli oligarchs to justice. He told Britain's Sunday Times that it is believed that the exiled oligarchs have hidden away $1 trillion.

Nevzlin's and Berezovsky's activities with Litvinenko are the tip of a huge iceberg of private intelligence intrigue that involves a number of wanted Russian exiles, including Nevzlin, Berezovsky, ex-Russian media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky, Mikhail Chernoy, Roman Abramovitch, and Chechen "Foreign Minister" Akhmed Zakayev. Berezovsky's [and Litvinenko's] spokesman, Russian exile Alex Goldfarb, freely operates out of both London and New York. All are involved in various efforts to destabilize Russia with the help of neo-cons in the Bush administration and the government of Israel. However, the Israel Lobby's pressure on the U.S. media, most notably the Associated Press, New York Times, and Washington Post, ensures that the Russian exiles' links to Israel and organized crime are studiously ignored.

Alexander Litvinenko not the only Russian poisoned by Russian-Israeli mafia gangsters.

In another full circle between Tel Aviv and Italy, Menatep's former chief for investment management Alexei Globuvich said, after his arrest last Spring in Italy, that Nevzlin may have tried to poison him and his family after mercury was found in his office, home, and car. Globuvich said he was a threat because he knew where Yukos and Menatep assets were located. Shortly thereafter, a Scotland Yard officer handed over to the British security firm ISC Global plans by the British government to extradite a number of Russian-Israeli exiles in Britain to Russia. ISC Global had been part of Menatep and Nevzlin was one of its chief customers. The London offices of ISC Global, now known as RISC Management, were visited in November 2006 by Litvinenko and Russian businessmen Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun and traces of polonium-210 were discovered there. According to the Sunday Times of London, Russian police are also investigating whether the poisoning of Litvinenko and the attempted poisoning of Globuvich are connected to the radiation poisoning death two years ago of Roman Tsepov, a former bodyguard of Putin when he was deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg. Tsepov was involved in the Russian government's tracking of Yukos assets. Also of interest are connections to the June 2004 assassination of Forbes Russian edition editor-in-chief Paul Klebnikov, a U.S. citizen who wrote a damaging expose of Berezovsky. Three Chechen contract killers were charged in Klebnikov's murder. The same Russian-Israeli mob ring is also being looked at in the investigation of the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya of Novaya Gazeta as a way to embarrass Putin.

Forbes Russian edition editor Paul Klebnikov murdered in 2004 by Chechen contract killers. Russian-Israeli tycoon Boris Berezovsky claims to be the godfather of the Chechen rebellion. Klebnikov wrote an anti-Berezovsky book.

The connection of Nevzlin to the polonium and the receipt of classified British secrets is more of a reason for Russia's Prosecutor General's office to seek his extradition -- but the FBI refuses to cooperate due to the orders coming from people like Lantos, McCain, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and others who do the bidding of the Russian-Israeli mob and their Italian mafiosi underlings.

The Russian Prosecutor-General's office has stated, "“A version is being looked at those who ordered these crimes [polonium poisoning, etc.] could be the same people who are on an international wanted list for serious and very serious crimes, one of whom is ... Leonid Nevzlin."

The connections now discovered by Italian and Russian investigators between the Russian-Israeli-Italian-British-US private intelligence network of former intelligence agents and billionaire mobsters suggest that the "serious crimes" committed may be more than the poisoning of Litvinenko and others with radioactive materials. The investigators are wise to pursue the links to U.S. security firms and former CIA personnel involved in pre-9/11 protection functions. The FBI cannot or will not investigate the actual perpetrators of 9/11. However, the Italian and Russian law enforcement professionals are beginning to get very close. It is a shame that American law enforcement is not interested in pursuing real leads in the biggest crime in American history.

Sid Walker · January 19, 2007

Once again, I rather think Shamir is closer to the truth than the largely orchestrated chorus of western talking heads...

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
By Israel Shamir

The villain kills innocent people in order to frame Roger Rabbit, that much I remember of the marvellous Zemeckis 88’ cartoon. The movie spoofs Hitchcock private eye films where the hero wades waist-deep in dead bodies, all killed to frame him. Chandler and Hammett developed this genre being bored by always-safe violin-playing Holmesian detectives: their heroes unravel murders while being accused and pursued by police.

The Russian president Vladimir Putin found himself in the uncomfortable position of Roger Rabbit. Soon after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist, a defected spy died in London – and accused Putin on his death bed. The third death, that of obese ex-Prime Minister Gaidar, was avoided but not a new accusation. It appears that every violent or suspicious death is automatically placed at the doorstep of Putin, in the best Chandleresque tradition. Roger Rabbit was framed in order to take over the Toon Town; Putin is framed in order to take over Russia’s policies and resources.

Only a very young, innocent and sincere person may believe that media owners and editors, the Masters of Discourse care about minor Russian political figures like Politkovskaya and Litvinenko. They put Putin on the hot seat so he’ll surrender Iran to the US bombers and Sakhalin-2 to the Western oil companies, sell gas and other national assets at cheap price, forget about his independent political course. They show him and us the impressive might of the mass media machine, this unique device built to zombify millions. They can establish the world agenda and present Putin as a killer, Clinton as a sex offender, Chavez as an antisemite, Ahmadinejad as a new Hitler, Palestinians as the offenders and Israelis as victims. Not even the popes had such power in their best days: whatever they say, goes.

They never fail to mention the KGB career of Putin, though the CIA past of Bush and the Mossad past of Tsipi Livni is never referred to in polite society. They remind us of a Bulgarian defector killed 20 years ago, but they do not refer to the greatest organised assassin of our days, of the Jewish state, unless with admiration moderated by political correctness as in Spielberg’s Munich. However, Israel kills, kidnaps and jails its political opponents on a daily basis: all Palestinian leaders active 20 years ago have since been assassinated by the Jews. They use poison as well as guided missiles and bunker-busting bombs, and Nes Tsiona centre for chemical and biological warfare produces poisons and other tools for 007, like “bionic killer wasp”

They used their poison in an assassination attempt on Khaled Mashal, the Hamas leader; the assassins were apprehended and caught red-handed. There is no doubt that they used poison to assassinate Yasser Arafat: the Haaretz published a clear hint to that effect; and intelligence-related Israelis are convinced of it. And here we come to the most interesting part: Arafat’s post mortem revealed the presence of Polonium-210, the same poisonous medium that killed the Russian defector. However, the Masters of Discourse and their world-opinion-producing machine pooh-poohed this discovery and connected it to chemotherapy treatment possibly given to the Palestinian leader. Now they say this isotope points to Putin, though Polonium-210 is freely sold over the internet in the US.

Everything points to Putin. In today’s Israeli paper, a Russian demand for reciprocity in the treatment of arrested criminals (quite an ordinary and usual request) is described as “Putin’s blackmail”; a Russian desire to own petrol stations in the West, to sell oil at the pump and not only at the well, is described as “Putin’s world dominance drive”. Putin is not made of iron like the old Bolsheviks, and he is liable to submit to pressure, to allow Israel to bomb Iran, to give the Western oil companies a free run in his land, like Gorbachev and Yeltsin did. Then he will become a darling of the mass media and his alleged crimes will be forgotten.

This was the case with Muammar Qaddafi – he was personally accused of every mishap and his country was forced to pay zillions for the Lockerby disaster though they had no connection to it, as admitted by international observers at the trial. Qaddafi surrendered to the supreme will of the Masters of Discourse, and all attacks on him ceased immediately. It will happen to Putin, too, if he will just fulfil the desire of Israel and expose Iran to bombs.

Wonderful Indian writer Arundhati Roy wrote that all our leaders are awful; but as long as they let the West to steal their assets they are safe. Only when they object to it, do they become monsters in the eyes of ever so docile public opinion. We should try to stop this trend; we can’t fight off the US Cruise missiles, but we may and must sabotage the Masters of Discourse’s most powerful weapon, their mass media brainwashing machine by never accepting their line.

Edited January 19, 2007 by Sid Walker

Bob Goodman · January 19, 2007

Another article from Wayne Madsen

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

January 12, 2007 -- Scaramella links to network of individuals out to bring down anti-neocon Italian politicians.

The Italian newspaper Repubblica is reporting on more details of the police investigation of Neapolitan right-wing intelligence operative and swindler Mario Scaramella. The paper is reporting on the contents of a computer file on Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi confiscated in Scaramella's office. The file was created in September 2006, during the consolidation of the Prodi government following the election campaign earlier in the year that brought down rightist Prime Minister and neo-con Silvio Berlusconi. The document reveals that all of Prodi's associates were suspected of being Russian agents. The reporters on the story are Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo, the same two journalists who uncovered details of the Nigergate fraudulent documents used by George W. Bush to justify his invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The Scaramella computer file claim that Bonini and D'Avanzo, Gen. Giuseppe Cucchi (chief of CESIS -- Comitato Esecutivo per i Servizi di Informazione e Sicurezza that coordinates both the Italian services SISMI and SISDE -- and an adversary of ex-Italian intelligence chief Nicolo Pollari), and Milan magistrates Armando Spataro and Guido Salvini were all said to be Russian agents, "according to SVR [Russian Foreign Intelligence Service] sources." All those who helped expose the Nigergate fraud are labeled in the seized computer file as Russian agents or Russian-manipulated operatives. The Scaramella file claims, "Russian SVR considers as its serious enemies those involved in the Nigergate and Abu Omar scandals, like the then-head of SISMI and his faction (Marco Mancini, Gustavo Pignero, Nicolò Pollari).

Italian prosecutor: Scaramella investigation is "only the beginning."

Further information obtained by Repubblica show that the neo-con apparatus was trying to taint Italian officials and journalists as Russian agents much in the same manner as bogus Iraqi documents were used to attack anti-war politicians in Europe as paid agents of Saddam Hussein. The paper said that during a court hearing pause after rejecting Scaraemella's request for bail, Sergio Rastrelli, Scaramella's lawyer and cousin, stated, "I asked my client who the source of this [computer] file was and he said that the information concerning Prodi came from Yevgeni Limarev, the son of an SVR general who had been a "covert" consultant for the Mitrokhin Parliamentary Committee that was trying to taint a number of Italian officials as Russian agents. Reached by phone by Repubblica, Limarev stated: "I am not the source. But I am not surprised. This is another fabrication by Scaramella. If tomorrow they would link my name to the dossier on the death of Pinochet, I wouldn't be surprised."

State attorney Carlo Saviotti stated in the hearing: “The documents confiscated from Scaramella prompt me to say that this investigation is only the beginning. On behalf of whom, in September 2006, did Mario Scaramella receive this dossier? And who paid for it?”

Italian law enforcement has discovered the couriers who supplied Scaramella with cash was Battistolli Group, a security firm, that among other services, provides transportation of foreign currency and security for international jewelry shows, including the Jan. 2007 JEW.INT (Jewelers' International) Showcase in New York; Feb. 20-22, 2007 Fashion Jewels and Accessory Fair in Dubai, the March 6-10 International Jewelry Show in Hong Kong, the May31-June 3, 2007 International Jewelry Show in Moscow, the October 24-28, 2007, and the Mideast Watch and Jewelry Show in Sharjah, UAE. Law enforcement has tracked terrorist financial deals to a number of international jewelry shows where diamonds and other precious gems are fenced for cash to purchase weapons and other materials, including radioactive materials.

The bottom line is that the neo-cons are trying to play the old Joe McCarthy card -- if you try to expose the machinations of the right-wing networks that worked with leading neo-con interests in Washington, London, and Tel Aviv, you are a Communist agent.

John Simkin · January 20, 2007

One theory why Alexander Litvinenko was murdered was because he had discovered a “9/11” type conspiracy. Last week saw the publication of Litvinenko’s “Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within” (co-written with the Russian historian, Yuri Felshtnsky). In the book he argues that the official rationale for the Russian invasion of Chechnya in 1999 was a fabrication. In September of that year terrorist bombings of apartment blocks in Moscow killed hundreds of innocent citizens. Chechen separatists were blamed for the bombings and therefore Putin gained popular support for sending in the Russian Army into Chechnya in December, 1999.

According to Litvinenko’s book, Russian security agencies had arranged for the apartment blocks to be bombed. Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist who was shot dead on Saturday, 7 October 2006 in the elevator of her apartment block in central Moscow, also subscribed to this theory. As the authors pointed out, Bush and Blair kept quiet about the invasion of Chechnya in return for Putin’s support for their war on terror.

The book includes a confession from Achemez Gochiyaev, who claims he was responsible for some of the bombings. Gochiyaev, a Karachai and not a Chechen, claims he was used by Putin as a pretext for the invasion.

Those politicians from the State Duma who have questioned the truth about these bombings have also been dealt with. Sergei Yushenkov and Vladimir Golovlyov were gunned down in Moscow and Yuri Schekochikhin died from suspected poisoning.

John Simkin · January 29, 2007

It has been reported in the British media that Scotland Yard detectives have identified the two men who murdered Alexander Litvinenko: Andrei Lugovoi and Dimitri Kovtun. Both men are former KGB officers. However, Putin has refused to extradite the men and so no charges will be brought. It seems that the Russian government has not really changed since the fall of communism in 1989. However, Putin will escape criticism from Blair and Bush because he believes in the "war on terrorism" (in reality, the death of Litvinenko is linked to this so called war). It is back to the days of the Cold War. You could be the most evil dictator in the world, but as long as you were "anti-communist" you were not criticised and allowed to continue in power. In fact, we now know that the CIA was sent to help you remain in power and to carry out your assassinations of internal critics.

Peter McKenna · January 30, 2007

It has been reported in the British media that Scotland Yard detectives have identified the two men who murdered Alexander Litvinenko: Andrei Lugovoi and Dimitri Kovtun. Both men are former KGB officers. However, Putin has refused to extradite the men and so no charges will be brought. It seems that the Russian government has not really changed since the fall of communism in 1989. However, Putin will escape criticism from Blair and Bush because he believes in the "war on terrorism" (in reality, the death of Litvinenko is linked to this so called war). It is back to the days of the Cold War. You could be the most evil dictator in the world, but as long as you were "anti-communist" you were not criticised and allowed to continue in power. In fact, we now know that the CIA was sent to help you remain in power and to carry out your assassinations of internal critics.

I don't know, John. As far as the Government of Russia having experienced no real change since the fall of communism in 1989, it seems that the current government of Russia may be resorting to terror tactics which haven't been prolific since the days of Djerjinsky and Beria. It seems that we are heading into some dark times.

Sid Walker · January 31, 2007

Beware 'Tricky Headlines' and other spin promoted by folk who

(i) either truly believe in a 'neo-liberal' economic agenda (complimented by a neo-con military agenda)

or

(ii) have become unwitting dupes of these oppressive agendas.

John Geraghty · March 2, 2007

Here is an article that I wrote for our newly founded College newspaper 'The Advocate'. It centres around former Russian Prime minister Yegor Gaidar's visit to my college, Maynooth.

http://www.maynoothadvocate.com

Sorry about the disfunctional copy and paste job, I don't know what went wrong.

Yes, Yegor Gaidar was poisoned in Maynooth

Four months after the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, a group of suspects has been assembled, evidence has been compiled and fingers have been pointed. We are, however, as far away from any real resolution of this case, as we were when it happened. Blame falls at the doors of two people, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin and exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky. The debate surrounding the case is due to see an increased amount of media

attention in the coming months when a book, authored by Litvinenko’s wife, is due to come into circulation. The death of Alexander Litvinenko can not be treated as a case in isolation, there have been several similar deaths in recent years, most

notably that of outspoken journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. One poisoning does not fall into the category of political assassinations as neatly as that of Litvinenko or Politkovskaya. Yegor Gaidar’s illness at NUI Maynooth has now been verified (by Gaidar and not his doctors) as a case of

intentional poisoning. Gaidar penned an op-ed piece tellingly entitled ‘How I was poisoned and why Russia’s political

enemies were surely behind it’. Gaidar

believes that his poison lay in an odd

tasting cup of tea which he drank in the University canteen on the old campus. The poison given to Litvinenko, though

radioactive in nature, was also believed to have been administered via a cup of tea. Culinary similarities aside, the poisoning of these two prominent Russian figures within two days of each other was,

naturally, treated with a great deal of suspicion.

Allegations as to who was responsible for Mr.Gaidar’s poisoning were slow in

coming, due to the incomprehensibility of an attack on a man now as politically

inconsequential as Mr.Gaidar. Anatoly

Chubais, a Gaidar associate, himself the target of an assassination attempt in 2005, is quoted as saying that an “unconstitutional and forceful change of power in Russia” is what links the deaths and attempt on the life of Mr.Litvineko, Anna Politskovaya and Yegor Gaidar. In this scenario, it would be Vladimir Putin and his colleagues in the FSB (Russian

intelligence service) that committed or at least sanctioned the crimes. One factor, and the only one of note, that links these three characters is their committal to print their deep mistrust of President Vladimir Putin. Litvinenko authored ‘Blowing up Russia’, which alleged that Putin and

others planned a series of bombings in Moscow to legitimise a re-entry in

Chechnya, Politkovskaya wrote a scathing attack on the president in her book ‘Putin’s Russia’ and Gaidar has been highly critical of Putin’s rule, commenting that

‘Today’s Kremlin thinks that democracy

was being built too quickly in Russia.

TheGovernment does not say that it is

against democracy, only that it is untimely and needs to be delayed-a logic that

manifests itself in most official decisions’.

Litvinenko’s account of the apartment bombings is important not only because it implicates Putin in state sponsored terror, but also because it implicates Putin and the FSB in a coup d’etat, removing Boris Yeltsin and installing Putin. All three were worrisome over the course down which Putin was leading Russia; all three were attempting to counter the myth of Putin as a stern yet fair leader. . To this list of

mysterious deaths we must add a man by the name of Yuri Schekochikhin, a

journalist at Novaya gazetta, the same magazine that Anna Politkovskaya worked for. He also authored ‘Slaves of KGB: 20th Century, The religion of betrayal’. Tests showed that he was poisoned with

Thallium, the same poison first believed to have been used on Litvinenko.

It was not only the close proximity to the poisoning of Litvinenko that set alarm bells ringing in the case of Gaidar, but also shared cast members. The man named by Scotland Yard as the chief suspect in the Litvinenko murder, Andrei Lugovoi, was at one time the bodyguard of Yegor Gaidar and Boris Berizovsky. Lugovoi was also a former agent of the KGB, now FSB, the

service at which Vladimir Putin sat at the helm for many years. A trail of polonium 210 followed Lugovoi on planes around Europe, including his meeting point with Alexander Litvinenko on the day he was taken ill. Lugovoi was reported to have been in London to watch CSKA Moscow play Arsenal in the champion’s league. This story has become less credible with the revelation that Lugovoi and his

travelling companion Dmitry Kovtun held no tickets for the game upon their arrival in London. Boris Berezovsky broke his

silence recently and spoke candidly of his impression of Andrei Lugovoi and the

Litvinenko poisoning. While in hospital

Litvinenko allegedly confided to Mr.Berezovsky that he thought that

Lugovoi was the one who poisoned him, furthermore, he added that there was no such thing as a ‘former’ KGB agent and that Lugovoi was still on the same payroll as he was during his intelligence career, though now it was unofficial. Berezovksy claims that Litvinenko was in the process of compiling very damaging evidence

implicating unnamed figures in criminal dealings. In perhaps the most open

accusation to date, Berizovsky declared that ‘they (The Russian Prosecutor

general’s office) know who actually

contracted and carried out this crime’.

It would be disingenuous to place Gaidar in the same category as Litvinenko or Politkovskaya, Litvinenko having refused to murder oligarch Boris Berezovsky and Politkovskaya having sided with Chechnya in their conflict with Russia. Motives for Putin to have the two murdered are

numerous, an explanation for an attempt on Gaidar’s life is more difficult to

envisage. One explanation for this spate of plots is that a power struggle is ensuing in the Kremlin. Putin has not named his

preferred successor, thus different factions are vying for power as the 2008 elections approach.

The involvement of the FSB or any other arm of the Russian Government in the

attempt on the life of Yegor Gaidar is very much open to debate, Gaidar himself

dismissing the claims, whereas close

associates of his are more cautious to

absolve guilt. The initial reaction of the

Russian embassy in Dublin to Mr.Gaidar’s illness was to say that he was diagnosed as suffering from gastroenteritis, when no such diagnosis was made. Such an account is at odds with the report from James

Connolly memorial hospital and Gaidar’s personal physicians. Mr.Gaidar’s doctors in Russia could not use the term ‘Poisoned’ due to the fact that they could not determine the cause of his illness, they could, however, confirm that the illness was not a natural occurrence. Gaidar checked himself out of Connolly hospital a day after he was committed, against the advice of doctors. Gaidar’s quick flight would indicate that he was not so much returning to the safety of home as

escaping from possible danger. One

possible reason for the lack of any firm

diagnosis is the fact that traces of some poisons are not apparent 48 hours after their administration.

What makes the cases of Litvinenko and Gaidar so extraordinary is the fact that they are both prominent critics of the Putin administration, they were both poisoned within two days of each other and both poisonings occurred outside of Russian territory. The likelihood that two high

profile poisonings would happen in such close proximity to other and not be

somehow related is slim. One must wonder if the Gardai have acted on the new

information that Yegor Gaidar was indeed poisoned and whether they have set about trying to ascertain who prepared his tea that morning. This tale of intrigue has not yet seen its end and it is quite possible that it is in Maynooth that some vital

evidence may be found.

Edited March 2, 2007 by John Geraghty

Peter McKenna · March 3, 2007

One possible reason for the lack of any firm diagnosis is the fact that traces of some poisons are not apparent 48 hours after their administration. What makes the cases of Litvinenko and Gaidar so extraordinary is the fact that they are both prominent critics of the Putin administration, they were both poisoned within two days of each other and both poisonings occurred outside of Russian territory. The likelihood that two high profile poisonings would happen in such close proximity to other and not be

somehow related is slim. One must wonder if the Gardai have acted on the new information that Yegor Gaidar was indeed poisoned and whether they have set about trying to ascertain who prepared his tea that morning. This tale of intrigue has not yet seen its end and it is quite possible that it is in Maynooth that some vital

evidence may be found.

John,

Having had taken a radioisotope (taken orally, I can't remember the exact element though) for a bone scan, I know that in as little as two hours the isotope can be evident (by radiation detection equipment) in the urine (just like any element taken internally).

The poisoning of Gaider by use of thallium is indeed interesting. That would establish that the assasinations were planned and carried out as an organized effort. The actual poisons would have had to have been taken from a controlled location (i.e. Pollonium is produced by bombardment in a reactor, Thallium is not produced in a reactor; Pollonium is also very expensive, I read somewehere that the amount probably used to poison Litvinenko was probably worth several million dollars) which would have to have been under some type of security controls, or they were taken from a company which might use the materials in some manufacturing process. But, although I cannot offer a reference, there are no manufacturing processes that use both pollonium and thallium in either processes or product. Polonium is used to reduce or eliminate static charge, where thallium is used for nuclear medicine or eyeglasses manufacture. This is an informed opinion, on my part, but I doubt that anyone could find any company that uses both these isotopes at the same location (I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt it).

The similarities in the murders, imply that these isotopes had to be taken either with the knowledge of, or from, a governmental agency or from a governmental controlled facility (as the polonium came from Russia).

The Polonium is known to have been from a Russian reactor (based upon the energy signature and half life, it can be traced). It would be interesting to know where the thallium came from, although thallium is produced by harvesting the trace thallium from heavy metals.

Thallium used to be known as a "Poisoner's Poison", and was actually used as rat poison long ago.

This would seem to add tremendous weight to the suspicion that the murders were sanctioned by the Russian Government, although Putin would hardly benefit and actually this would hurt his carefully constructed and polished public image.

I would hazard a guess that the radio-isotope poisoning murders were hatched by the FSB, and possibly either contracted out, or performed by low level illegal agents, as the polonium 210 fiasco had the earmarks of a low grade amateur, based upon the traces found all over London, commercial aircraft, and I'd bet in Russia, as well.

To allow assasinations of such high profile and vocal public critics of Putin and his policies, with devices that could only be originating from Russia or associated agnecies would be idiocy for Putin himself (not to say he's a genius, I don't know, actually). But I'd think that someone in the FSB has an agenda, to silence these people and at the same time cast Putin as a man who isn't afraid to spread radioactive contamination around other countries in order to silence his critics.

Otherwise, does this make any sense to you?

Peter McKenna · March 3, 2007