ABC News Exclusive: Murder in a Teapot

[seemslikeadream]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/01/it_was_in_the_t.html

British officials say police have cracked the murder-by-poison case of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, including the discovery of a "hot" teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for Polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing.

A senior official tells ABC News the "hot" teapot remained in use at the hotel for several weeks after Litvinenko's death before being tested in the second week of December. The official said investigators were embarrassed at the oversight.

The official says investigators have concluded, based on forensic evidence and intelligence reports, that the murder was a "state-sponsored" assassination orchestrated by Russian security services.


Officials say Russian FSB intelligence considered the murder to have been badly bungled because it took more than one attempt to administer the poison. The Russian officials did not expect the source of the poisoning to be discovered, according to intelligence reports.

Russian officials continue to deny any involvement in the murder and have said they would deny any extradition requests for suspects in the case.

[gratuitous]

1. Pooty poot wouldn't murder anyone

After all, George looked into his soul. All those bodies dropping dead around the former head of the KGB is just, you know, bad luck.

[jeff30997]

3. I have a new nickname for Pooty poot :

Vlad the Irradiator!

[patricia92243]

2. Real life is more chilling than any book of fiction.

[rock]

5. Well, you've got to believe real life

I mean, unless you're a 'publican, of course.

[lyonn]

4. Unbelievable that they didn't check the kitchen where

Alexander the ex-spy had been during that time. Tea anyone?

[acmavm]

6. This is terrible. Killing is terrible. State sponsored killing is

terrible. No frigging matter who does it.

Like the British government collaborating in the killings of Irish Catholics.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Litvinenko killer 'will die of poisoning within three years'

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article2187571.ece

Friday, January 26, 2007

By Andrew Osborn in Moscow

The person who poisoned the former Russian counter-intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko in London will pay the ultimate price for his crime and die of radiation poisoning within three years, it has been claimed.

Mr Litvinenko died in a London hospital in November after being poisoned with polonium-210, a rare and expensive radioactive chemical, in a Cold War-style plot reminiscent of a John le Carré novel.


But according to Oleg Gordievsky, the most senior KGB spy to have ever defected to Britain, the extraordinary story has not reached its conclusion yet.


Mr Gordievsky, who was a close friend of Mr Litvinenko, has suggested that the radioactive poison used to kill him will claim at least three more lives before the curtain falls on a mystery that has raised more questions than answers.


In an interview with the Russian daily newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, Mr Gordievsky said that the person who administered the poison ­ supposedly in a cup of tea in a London hotel ­ would inevitably have received a fatal dose of polonium himself and will be dead within three years.


Two Russian businessmen, who have variously been described as suspects or witnesses, will also lose their lives due to their involvement, he claimed.

[northzax]

8. not true

neccesarily. PO-210 basically needs to be ingested to do damage.

[aquart]

9. So WHY did they use that stuff?

What's wrong with good old prussic acid? Cyanide? Arsenic? Ricin? Flesh-eating bacteria?

There's tried and true fatal stuff around, why use crap that kills the killer?

This is going to be a case of death by a sense of melodrama.

[lovuian]

10. Heres the ? who drank from that teepot since they found it

do they die??? and didn't they walk through the hotel with geiger counters

[hippiechick]

11. How incredibly James Bond-ish!

:hide:

[superconnected]

12. I have to put my tin hat on for that one

that this very public, very important investigation forgot to check the tea pot, and admit it's embarassing, sounds improbable.

I think it's more likely they are feeding us a line of crap about a tea pot than that they actually missed it.

Sorry, I've been lied to so much by the bush administration, that I can't just swallow the improbabilitys because a government says it's so, anymore.

[daleo]

13. So, how many would have been poisoned by this "hot teapot"?

"British health officials say some 128 people were discovered to have had "probable contact" with Polonium-210, including at least eight hotel staff members and one guest.

None of these individuals has yet displayed symptoms of radiation poisoning, and only 13 individuals of the 128 tested at a level for which there is any known long-term health concern, officials said."

Why did it take so long to find this teapot? It should have been easy to spot from its radioactivity, especially once the authorities knew about the Polonium. This whole story has been an odd one.