Posted on 12/01/2006 11:25:16 AM PST by MadIvan
A secret assassination squad was set up to poison former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, it was claimed today.
The allegations are contained in two letters smuggled out of a Russian jail and passed to a close friend of Mr Litvinenko.
The letters were apparently written in jail by Mikhail Trepashkin, a former Russian intelligence officer. In one, Mr Litvinenko is warned that both he and his family are at risk. Mr Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb said scans of the letters came into his possession yesterday and he passed them to Scotland Yard.
In 2004 Mr Trepashkin, who worked for the KGB's successor the FSB until 1997, was accused of being a British spy and passing secret information to Mr Litvinenko and his close friend tycoon Boris Berezovsky, both exiled in London. He is currently serving a four-year sentence.
In a message to Mr Litvinenko on 20 November, Mr Trepashkin recalls a conversation in August 2002 in which he warned Mr Litvinenko - already living in London - that he and his family were at risk from the FSB.
Mr Trepashkin tells his friend that he had met an FSB contact in Russia who told him that a "very serious group" had been set up, which "will knock out all those associated with Berezovsky and Litvinenko".
"My understanding then was that they were planning to take out your relatives quietly, without much fuss," he wrote.
Mr Goldfarb said the other letter, addressed to him and written on 25 November this year, detailed an offer to be a witness in the British investigation into Mr Litvinenko's death.
Following fresh poisoning claims involving former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar, the Foreign Office said today that it was not linking the two cases.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said today: "We have noted the reports of Yegor Gaidar's illness and wish him a speedy recovery. We know of no information which suggests any connection with the Litvinenko case and will continue to follow any developments closely."
Among those caught up in the radiation scare was Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell who, along with London 2012 Olympics organising committee chairman Lord Coe, flew to Barcelona last month on a BA jet checked for contamination.
"I'm feeling absolutely tiptop," she said today. "This was a scare that never was."
Zakaev is the Chechen, both Litwinenko and Zakaev worked for Berezovsky.
Hey Ivan, want to start a live thread on this?
Turn this into the live thread. Then all the info will be in one place. Just a thought.
Admin - what do you think, should this be the live thread on developments on Litvinenko?
I think it's pretty sure that they would have inspected his corpse until they found the substance which was responsible.
Because they didn't know what poison was used till a urine sample taken not long before he died tested positive for Po210. Considering how much polonium was in his body, I wouldn't be surprised if she got contaminated just by kissing him.
Litvinenko's wife not ill. Radiation just on her clothing.
The story took on a new twist today when the Health Protection Agency confirmed that one more person has tested positive for polonium poisoning.
An HPA spokesman said the quantity of Polonium 210 in the unnamed person's body were "likely to be of concern for their immediate health".
Someone has been poisoned enough to die.
FOX just reported that it's the Italian, and that he is in immediate danger.
Sounds like he's on the way out as well, doesn't it?
Yup.
From Reuters--
>Litvinenko family member also exposed to polonium
Fri Dec 1, 2006 7:32 PM GMT
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LONDON (Reuters) - A female adult relative of poisoned Russian Alexander Litvinenko has been exposed to radioactive polonium 210 but is not in any short-term danger, officials said on Friday.
Home Secretary John Reid told Sky News: "It is a fraction of the lethal dose that Mr Litvinenko himself had."
A spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency said the isotope had shown up in a urine test.
"The levels are not significant enough to result in any illness in the short term, and the results are reassuring in that any increased risk in the long term is likely to be very small," she said, adding that the woman was not in hospital.
Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who became an outspoken Kremlin critic, was poisoned by polonium and died last week.<<
Officers went to the Ashdown Park Hotel and Country Park in Wych Cross, near Forest Row, East Sussex to "assist in minimising the risk to the public", a spokesman for Sussex Police said.
The hotel is set in 186 acres of landscaped countryside in the heart of the Ashdown Forest.
Regards, Ivan
Ivan it's in Wych Cross....is that near the entrance to the Chunnel?
Regards, Ivan
There goes that theory...:-)
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