I almost never read the (UK) Guardian : which I view for the most part as "the respectable version" of The Daily Worker : same general slant, but better cricket and football scores. It's the sort of paper the "inwardly rebellious" junior bureaucrat can bring to work without attracting undue attention.
Given their decidely left-wing outlook, I was a bit shocked to see an article counselling Britons to be cautious about blaming the Russian Security Service (FSB) for the death of former FSB officer Alexander V. Litvinenko !
"Don't Rush to Judgment !" says the Guardian's Moscow Bureau Correspondent , Tom Parfitt.
If you have read my previous entries, I had said much the same thing - but had speculated ( a bit wildly) that Litvinenko might have deliberately consumed something he thought would make him a bit sick for a day or so - but had been "double-crossed" by someone in his rather dubious circle , who was perfectly willing to commit a murder or two-just for drill.
Bu the next day, I realized the idea was probably stupid- and said so. ( It would be easy to pretend infallibility by deleting previous posts -as some undoubtedly do-but I prefer to keep them in front of me as a humiliating reminder to gather more information before posting .)
Nonetheless, I'll stick with yesterday's opinion : The "deathbed statement" allegedly dictated by Litvinenko to his "friends" sounds more like something composed by his companions , because: (a)The dying are usually much too involved in the intensely personal business of departure to make speeches; (b) News accounts I read today spoke of the victim as being on a ventilator .(Being kept alive by a machine generally has an adverse effect on one's ability to dictate deathbed declarations.)
Looking at today's crop of breathless news stories, I see five locations were contaminated to one degree or another with radioactive Polonium - the poison used in this murder: The sushi bar where he had his last-known meal, his home,the offices of his financial patron Boris Berezovsky,and the hotel lounge, where the victim often met his "circle".
Does this suggest the complicity of someone in that circle - or - the devious minions of Vlad Putin ? The media has, by and large, subscribed to the latter theory , because...well, just because !
Litvinenko was said (by this same circle of confidants) to have been "investigating the murder of Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya , who was shot to death while in her elevator,by two assailants.The two pistols used in the attack were left at the scene : a rather professional touch, and so far, nobody but the media has a clue as to who did it and why.
The media assures us it was done by hired assassains - in the pay of Putin, or someone in FSB.
They know this has to be true, because the late journalist was a vocal critic of Putin, and the FSB, and the way the poor (murderous,al-Qaeda trained) "Chechen separatists" were treated.What other explanation could there be ?
At the risk of grossing folks out , accounts I've read suggest Politkovskaya's face was practically shot off. What is not generally mentioned is that this comes close to being a "Chechen signature" to the crime. Those who have had AQ training quite often "sign" their kills this way : as a means of showing how much they disapproved of the victim-( some would definitely disapprove of a liberated woman poking into Islamic-related affairs !) - and sometimes, as a means of delaying identification of the victim, so escape may be facilitated.
As remarked earlier, I am not infallible .Putin and his Merry Monsters MAY have been responsible for these two murders ... but at the moment , I seriously doubt it !
Comments