Radiation Found In Ex-Spy's Home, Haunts
Investigators are tracing Alexander Litvinenko's last steps to find out how a rare radioactive substance could have killed the former KGB agent and vociferous critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
High levels of polonium-210 were found in the ex-KGB spy's body, who in his last days blamed President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning.
The radioactive isotope polonium-210 was found at the former Russian spy's North London home, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth, as well as at the fashionable Mayfair area's Millennium Hotel's dimly lit bar and the Itsu Sushi restaurant near Piccadilly Circus.
Litvinenko had meetings in both spots before he was taken to the emergency room suffering from stomach pains and nausea.
Officials called this poisoning case "unprecedented," Roth reports.
"For somebody to have this level of radiation they would either have to have eaten it, inhaled it or taken it in through a wound," Pat Troop of the British Health Protection Agency told reporters.
Polonium-210 has industrial use, and minute amounts occur naturally, but its radiation can't penetrate the skin; it's only deadly if it gets inside the body, Roth reports. Whomever killed the former spy, say poison experts, needed special knowledge and skill to deliver the fatal dose.
Although Litvinenko had been critical of Putin and his government, he was not widely known until he fell ill, CBS News Moscow Bureau Chief Beth Knobel reports.
On the morning of Nov. 1, he went to the hotel to see another ex-KGB spy, Andrei Lugovoy, who was in London to attend a soccer match involving the Russian team CSKA Moscow, and two other men Litvinenko had never met before.
Lugovoy said in Moscow on Friday that he was accompanied by a friend named Dmitry Kovtun and a third man he didn't identify. He told Russian media that Litvinenko discussed a business venture and said he was homesick for Russia.
Friend Alex Goldfarb said Litvinenko reported having a cup of tea during the meeting, but Lugovoy said he didn't recall the former agent either eating or drinking.
Litvinenko's friends said his patriotism coupled with a sense of false protection from his British asylum prompted him to reach out to potential Russian dissenters who might have bolstered allegations that Putin's government was involved in corruption in the spy service.
"Alex was open to approaches from people who said they had information about abuses in Russia," Goldfarb told The Associated Press. "He would meet people without precautions, because he felt as a British citizen he would be protected from falling prey to Russian government forces."
While at the hotel, Litvinenko told the group of his next meeting, Lugovoy said.
Litvinenko had arranged to see a contact who claimed to have information about the slaying of a friend, investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya — a death that critics of the Russian government have blamed on state security forces.
That meeting was the afternoon of Nov. 1 at Itsu Sushi, a frequent rendezvous spot for Litvinenko and his friend Italian academic Mario Scaramella.
Scaramella said he brought along an e-mail purporting to list emigres to Britain being targeted by Russian agents as well as the identities of Politkovskaya's killers. The academic declined to say who sent the e-mail to him.
Litvinenko ate a bowl of soup before he headed for a table where the two could discuss the secret e-mail, Goldfarb said.
Akhmed Zakayev, a Chechen rebel exiled in London and a Putin critic, said he saw Litvinenko after the sushi meal and said the former spy was excited by the meeting. But Goldfarb said that after Litvinenko carefully analyzed the four-page e-mail, he doubted its authenticity.
Hours after the sushi bar meeting, Litvinenko was taken to Barnet General Hospital in north London with stomach pains. His condition gradually worsened over the next two weeks.
In a weakened state, he gave an interview to British Broadcasting Corp.'s Russian Service, saying for the first time that he thought he had been poisoned.
Unable to determine the cause of his illness, doctors transferred Litvinenko to a specialist unit at University College Hospital in central London on Nov. 17.
He died late Thursday, and investigators announced Friday that he had been poisoned with radioactive polonium-210, a rare substance.
"We will trace possible witnesses, examine Litvinenko's movements at relevant times, including when he first became ill and identify people he may have met," said Peter Clarke, head of London's anti-terrorist police.
© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. High levels of polonium-210 were found in the ex-KGB spy's body, who in his last days blamed President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning.
The radioactive isotope polonium-210 was found at the former Russian spy's North London home, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth, as well as at the fashionable Mayfair area's Millennium Hotel's dimly lit bar and the Itsu Sushi restaurant near Piccadilly Circus.
Litvinenko had meetings in both spots before he was taken to the emergency room suffering from stomach pains and nausea.
Officials called this poisoning case "unprecedented," Roth reports.
"For somebody to have this level of radiation they would either have to have eaten it, inhaled it or taken it in through a wound," Pat Troop of the British Health Protection Agency told reporters.
Polonium-210 has industrial use, and minute amounts occur naturally, but its radiation can't penetrate the skin; it's only deadly if it gets inside the body, Roth reports. Whomever killed the former spy, say poison experts, needed special knowledge and skill to deliver the fatal dose.
Although Litvinenko had been critical of Putin and his government, he was not widely known until he fell ill, CBS News Moscow Bureau Chief Beth Knobel reports.
On the morning of Nov. 1, he went to the hotel to see another ex-KGB spy, Andrei Lugovoy, who was in London to attend a soccer match involving the Russian team CSKA Moscow, and two other men Litvinenko had never met before.
Lugovoy said in Moscow on Friday that he was accompanied by a friend named Dmitry Kovtun and a third man he didn't identify. He told Russian media that Litvinenko discussed a business venture and said he was homesick for Russia.
Friend Alex Goldfarb said Litvinenko reported having a cup of tea during the meeting, but Lugovoy said he didn't recall the former agent either eating or drinking.
Litvinenko's friends said his patriotism coupled with a sense of false protection from his British asylum prompted him to reach out to potential Russian dissenters who might have bolstered allegations that Putin's government was involved in corruption in the spy service.
"Alex was open to approaches from people who said they had information about abuses in Russia," Goldfarb told The Associated Press. "He would meet people without precautions, because he felt as a British citizen he would be protected from falling prey to Russian government forces."
While at the hotel, Litvinenko told the group of his next meeting, Lugovoy said.
Litvinenko had arranged to see a contact who claimed to have information about the slaying of a friend, investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya — a death that critics of the Russian government have blamed on state security forces.
That meeting was the afternoon of Nov. 1 at Itsu Sushi, a frequent rendezvous spot for Litvinenko and his friend Italian academic Mario Scaramella.
Scaramella said he brought along an e-mail purporting to list emigres to Britain being targeted by Russian agents as well as the identities of Politkovskaya's killers. The academic declined to say who sent the e-mail to him.
Litvinenko ate a bowl of soup before he headed for a table where the two could discuss the secret e-mail, Goldfarb said.
Akhmed Zakayev, a Chechen rebel exiled in London and a Putin critic, said he saw Litvinenko after the sushi meal and said the former spy was excited by the meeting. But Goldfarb said that after Litvinenko carefully analyzed the four-page e-mail, he doubted its authenticity.
Hours after the sushi bar meeting, Litvinenko was taken to Barnet General Hospital in north London with stomach pains. His condition gradually worsened over the next two weeks.
In a weakened state, he gave an interview to British Broadcasting Corp.'s Russian Service, saying for the first time that he thought he had been poisoned.
Unable to determine the cause of his illness, doctors transferred Litvinenko to a specialist unit at University College Hospital in central London on Nov. 17.
He died late Thursday, and investigators announced Friday that he had been poisoned with radioactive polonium-210, a rare substance.
"We will trace possible witnesses, examine Litvinenko's movements at relevant times, including when he first became ill and identify people he may have met," said Peter Clarke, head of London's anti-terrorist police.
Popular on CBSNews.com
-
One year after Afghan massacre, villagers work with U.S. troops One year after U.S. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was accused of slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians, the villagers in the town where the atrocity took place have joined the U.S. special forces stationed there to assist in the fight against the Taliban.
- 50th Paris Air Show 19 Photos
- Celebration and devotion in India 14 Photos
- Rare twin birth for gorilla in Dutch zoo Play Video
- John Paul II a step closer to sainthood
- Nameplate to blame for halt in Afghan-Taliban talks
- Brazil protesters flood Sao Paulo streets for 2nd night
- Ex-Chinese official executed for child rapes, state media reports
- Somali militants wage deadly attack on U.N. office
Thanks for getting it said and saving me the trouble. "Not newsworthy," "no one cares"---hardly surprising that America is going down the toilet, and will doubtless have swirled out of sight in another half-century. "You say you wanna revolution?" Be serious. Americans would have to drag their fat ***** from behind the XBox first, and that ain't gonna happen. I do agree with FeelFree1 too on most points (6:33pm post, 24 Nov), but what happens elsewhere in the world affects us, as well.
In a previous article, Putin said,"This was not a violent death...". I disagree. Mr. Litvinenko was tortured to death. He died a slow, agonizing death over a span of (2) weeks while his family watched.
To ZykraCosmos:
A good post; very informative.
To all who say: "Why is this news?" or "No one really cares.", read, or re-read, this post.
Also remember that Putin is the leader of & in charge of, one of the largest countries on earth; a country which is still quite powerful. A country which has a long history of calculated ruthlessness.
Putin is a killer. I see many similarities
between Vladimir Putin & Richard Cheney. What cold-blooded jackals both of them are!
Man's character is his fate.
-Heraclitius(540-580BC)
Greek philosopher
Russia is the world's largest country, has the greatest untapped supply of natural resources, most of the fresh water in the world, and still has the largest nuclear weapons cache on earth.
The implications:
In 50 years Russia will be the most powerful nation on earth, after China's economy levels off and implodes due to the demands of providing for the world's largest population, severe pollution, and flawed internal management policies.
Russia's back-sliding into a totalitarian regime is a terrible blow to western nations, many of whom have become dependent on Russia's oil and natural gas, but also for cooperation in solving problems with renegade regimes, such as North Korea and Iran.
Only 20 years ago Russia was ruthless in its efforts to control Afghanistan.
Today the Russian government controls all media outlets, squashes the democratic election of provincial governors and installs government appointed by the head of state, eliminates wealth and capital gain by arresting or eliminating venture capitalists, inserts itself back into major industries and banks, has vigorously reinstituted domestic spying, and hardly resembles a partner in peace.
With that said, Putin seems more interested in restoring order from the chaos of Yeltsin, but in ways that are frighteningly reminiscent of old Communist regimes.
Re: "That's why (bushrocks1) greatly respect(s) and admire(s) those who have made the attempt--the Bush administration...facing a high chance of failure...(The Bush Butchers)would send your son to fight in them (illegal and disgraceful wars)....(and face the) nightmares of battle...I can't command my son to go to war. He has to make that choice."
"They (Bush Butchers) may/(will) not succeed...(b)ut now those (Bush sypathizing)traitors have apparently occupied the high ground. Yet... we're still in Iraq. Why?"
``````````````````````````````````````````````````
Good question.
(part 1)
This man prostituted himself out to one of the most horrific terrorist organizations of all time, the KGB. His activities with this group undoubtedly led to the torture/execution of countless people.
Now, he is dead, almost certainly as a result of past activities in support of the KGB terrorists. Very predictable, and it's hard to feel sorry for this man. His passing almost certainly leaves our world a little bit safer.
(part 2)
This story is nowhere near as newsworthy as the 92-year-old woman, for example, who was recently summarily executed by US "law" enforcement officials, and yet that story did not even receive the same attention is this spy-killing nonsense.
Anything else going on today? For one thing, a US helicopter was reportedly shooting into yet another funeral gathering today, in Iraq. If the American public had any idea how profoundly disgraceful our military and moral defeats have become in Iraq, we would have been out of there a long time ago.
Yet, the Western media continues, instead, to endlessly distract us with sensational pointless stories such as this one. Operation "Distract and Blame" is in full swing among our mainstream press, with a ballooning array of shopping tips and celebrity gossip, and with an increasingly visible and shameless campaign to blame Iraqis and the Iraqi puppet-officials for the unmistakable US inflicted catastrophe and failure in Iraq.
The Western mainstream press has turned into a caricature of itself, now closely resembling the Soviet-era %u201CPravda%u201D of yester-year.