Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Litvinenko and the Syrians
Of course, there is plenty of plausible deniability available to the Russians in the case of the poisoning in London of Alexander Litvinenko. It could have been a rogue element within the state or a gangster element outside. The same can be said of the poisoning of the Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko and the shooting of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The old KGB did specialise in the assassination of critics and dissidents and, for any unemployed Cold War veterans, it must be a hard habit to shake. The KGB also trained the Syrian secret service and there have been an awful lot of killings lately of critics of Bashar Assad's regime. This week there was the Lebanese minister Pierre Gemayel. Also in Lebanon there have been Samir Kassir, Rafik Hariri, George Hawi, Gibran Tueni and attacks on May Chidiac and Eias Murr, all open critics of Syria. There appear to be a large number of Soviet-trained killers on the loose busily engaged in murdering opponents of the Russian and Syrian governments. Perhaps they should try to cut down to just one murder a month prior, one hopes, to quitting completely. Anyway, at least I am sure that the nice Mr Assad's hands are clean. After all, he studied opthalmology in London.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Though on similar lines, does anyone really believe the weapons inspector David Kelly verdict of suicide? He allegedly ingested up to 29 tablets of co-proxamol, an analgesic drug. He then allegedly cut his left wrist with a knife. Pretty bizarre and slipshod methods to begin with.
ReplyDeleteIn a letter from three medical doctors published in The Guardian reinforced by support from two other senior physicians in a later letter to the Guardian, these doctors argued that the autopsy finding of a transected ulnar artery could not have caused a degree of blood loss that would kill someone, particularly when outside in the cold (where vasoconstriction would slow blood loss). Further, this conflicted with the minimal amount of blood found at the scene. They also contended that the amount of co-proxamol found was only about a third of what would normally be fatal. Dr Rouse, a British epidemiologist wrote to the BMJ pointing out that the act of committing suicide by severing wrist arteries is an extremely rare occurrence in a 59 year old man with no previous psychiatric history. Nobody else died from that cause during the year.
Dave Bartlett and Vanessa Hunt, the two paramedics who were called to the scene of Kelly's death, have since gone public with their view that there was not enough blood at the location to justify the belief that he died from blood loss. Bartlett and Hunt told The Guardian that they saw a small amount of blood on plants near Kelly's body and a patch of blood the size of a coin on his trousers. They said they would expect to find several pints of blood at the scene of a suicide involving an arterial cut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly
I do sympathise with the assasins. Although I've never murdered a critic, I'd imagine that once you start it could be a tough habit to kick. I suppose the best advice we can give the next generation is: Just don't read 'em!
ReplyDeleteCareful Bryan, now the lists have been shortend they will be looking for new names. Don't want to end up unemployed do they?
ReplyDeleteInteresting article here about the Russians and poisoning,
ReplyDeleteAlexander Litvinenko: the poison of power
Zygmunt Dzieciolowski
20 - 11 - 2006
A poisoned Russian defector in London is only the latest official enemy to be targeted, reports Zygmunt Dzieciolowski.
——————————————
Their dream was a poison which would kill a man instantly but which could not be found in a corpse’s blood during the post-mortem examination. For years, the secret poison laboratory of the Soviet-era biologist Grigory M Mairanovski, founded on the orders of Lavrenti Beria in 1938, researched deadly substances.
Th rest of the article here from the site of writer David McDuff.
http://halldor2.blogspot.com/
Includes details such as the following
Yuri Shchekochikhin, a Russian journalist (deputy editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta) and member of the Duma (parliament), died on the night of 2-3 June 2003 after returning from a business trip to the city of Ryazan where he had sought to investigate a furniture-store corruption scandal involving high-ranking intelligence officials.
His illness was first described by Moscow doctors as allergy but when he lost his hair, and the skin on his face changed its structure, it became obvious that his body was reacting to a strong, unidentifiable poison. Doctors were unable to save him; he died within a few days.
MICHAEL
ReplyDeleteMy father's no different than any other powerful man - Any man who's responsible for other people. Like a senator or a president.
KAY
You know how naive you sound?
MICHAEL
Why?
KAY
Senators and presidents don't have men killed...
MICHAEL
Oh, who's being naïve, Kay?
(from 'The Godfather')
Testing, testing- though not the sushi at Itsu's.
ReplyDeleteThe Baker (and latterly Blair) 'realist' approach will, doubtless, involve such high-minded trade-offs as turning a blind eye to Syria's murderous meddling in Lebanon, in the vain expectation that Assad can be detached from the Iranians, or 'help out' in extricating the US from Iraq. Perhaps he can contribute some assassins to knock off the militia leaders? Meanwhile, in the real world, Sheikh Nasrullah announced last week that Hizbollah did not fear a civil war in Lebanon 'because we will win it'. Charming people.
Why has no one considered the possiblity that the Gemayel murder could have been a flase flag operation? False flag should always figure in a list of possibilities when high-profile murders are committed. Assasination is a legitimate political tool for some; but it remains barbarous unjustified and criminally insane for most of us.
ReplyDelete