Russian Ex-Spy a Terrorist?

Hat tip, Hot Air

When former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko died from polonium 210 poisoning , putting the blame squarely on Russian President Vladimir Putin, it looked like a clear case of political assassination. But new reports suggest that Litvineneko may have been a victim of his own misdeeds.

Daily Express

The radiation spy scandal took a sensational twist last night with the revelation that KGB defector Alexander Litvinenko had converted to Islam before he died. 

Scotland Yard detectives are now trying to discover if he had any secret links with Islamic extremist terror groups. Their biggest fear is that the former Soviet spy, who died of polonium-210 poisoning in a London hospital, may have been helping Al Qaeda terrorists or other extremist groups get hold of radioactive material to be used in a devastating “dirty” atom bomb.

The news comes on top of a claim by Litvinenko’s friend Mario Scaramella that the former spy helped smuggle radioactive material from Russia to Switzerland in 2000. Litvinenko’s sympathies with Chechen rebels, seeking to break away from Moscow and create an independent Muslim state, are well known.

In the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the old Soviet Union, there were rumors swirling around that the KGB had constructed atomic suitcase bombs, equivalent to one thousand tons of TNT.

PBS Frontline "If a device like this made its way to the U.S. it could destroy everything within a half-mile radius of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Within hours, prevailing winds would carry the nuclear fallout throughout Washington."

At this point there is no reason to believe that Litvinenko was gunning for the US,his concerns are reported to be with the Chechen Separatists, but the potential for catastrophe is so great that it should be of concern to everyone. Especially considering that Litvinenko may have sold the polonium 210 to terrorists.

Daily Express (cont.) Counterterrorism officers will now be scrutinising any possible Muslim links which could have assisted Al Qaeda’s avowed aim to detonate a radioactive bomb in America or Britain.

Litvinenko’s conversion to Islam was a closely guarded secret and came as a complete shock to his close Russian friends in Britain. The shock admission came from his next-door neighbour, moderate Muslim and Chechen dissident Akhmed Zakayev, who revealed: “He was read to from the Koran the day before he died and told his wife that he wanted to be buried in accordance with Muslim tradition.” Over the past week, traces of polonium-210 have been detected at 12 sites, including three British Airways planes which have flown between the UK and Russia.

I fear it's only a matter of time before we see a dirty bomb detonated in a major metropolis, all the more reason to keep a close eye on Iran, and stories like this .

The International Atomic Energy Agency has warned of increased smuggling of material that could be used to produce a radiological “dirty bomb,” the London Sunday Times reported yesterday (see GSN, March 28).

Between 2002 and 2004, there was a doubling of incidents of relocation, possession or loss of radioactive material. Criminal acts were behind roughly half those incidents, the Times reported.

Al-Qaeda is believed to have sought dirty-bomb material in Chechnya to use against Europe or the United States. Industrial or medical radioactive sources have provided much of the material found on the black market (Gareth Walsh, Sunday Times, April 9).

Global Security has a detailed description and history of Polonium.