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Apparent KGB Hit John LeBoutillier Last week's death of former KGB Col. Alexander Litvinenko in London from poisoning by a nuclear isotope, polonium 210, raises a number of disturbing questions. Let us examine:
Facts: All we know for certain is that a healthy 43-year-old Litvinenko somehow ingested the deadly polonium on Wednesday, Nov. 1 in London — either in his frequent haunt, Isto — a sushi restaurant, the Millenium Hotel, or at his house. (All three places have been found to have traces of Polonium.)
Mr. Litvinenko died three weeks later after losing 28 pounds, all his hair, and suffering massive organ failure and finally a heart attack. Those are all indisputable facts; the rest is subject to conjecture and investigation.
Theories:
1) Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB officer, ordered the "hit" because Litvinenko was a vocal and fierce critic of Putin. In Moscow, over the weekend, the following theory predominates: Several years ago Litvinenko was ordered to kill Russian oligarch and vocal Putin critic, billionaire Boris Bereshovsky, who was living in exile in England.
Instead of killing him, Litvinenko approached Bereshovsky and said he would not kill him if Bereshovsky would pay him more than the KGB was paying him to do the hit.
Bereshovsky indeed paid Litvinenko — and in fact they became friends who even did business deals together.
So, when Litvinenko gave an October speech in London again criticizing Putin, a new hit was ordered: this time on Litvinenko himself — to send a message to all other KGB personnel: You disobey orders at your own peril.
2) Putin and his spokesmen over the past few days have gone out of their way to deny any involvement in this polonium poisoning. Doth they protest too much?
Does Vladimir have any credibility? Does he have - as G.W. Bush so naively once stated — a soul?
Putin's PR team is of course denying any involvement — and instead trotting out their own theory: The murder was done by someone out to embarrass Putin. Hmmmm . . . Does that sound credible? Would someone really murder someone — using a very-difficult-to-obtain weapon — just to pin it on Russia's president?
Obtaining polonium 210 is far more problematic than using a gun with the serial number removed. This is a weapon more likely used by a government which has access to nuclear isotopes.
3) The third theory floating around is that some rogue KGB group — not under Moscow-control — carried out this hit on their own.
Of course the obvious questions are: Who are these people and why would they do it? Or is this so-called rogue operation a convenient way for the KGB to do their dirty work and maintain their all-important deniability?
Conclusion:
A man has been murdered in London with the most deadly weapon made by man: a "small atomic bomb" as Litvinenko's father called it.
This sounds and smells like a hit.
It also has the earmarks of payback and a message murder.
It is doubtful that British authorities will conclusively prove who did it; the perpetrators are too clever to be caught.
But we can surmise much from just what we know so far: The Soviet Union may have imploded, but the Russian police state is back — and more dangerous than ever.
Editor's note:
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