Probe into Litvinenko blackmail plot

LONDON/MOSCOW/ROME: The FBI of the United States has been dragged into the investigation of the death of the former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, after details emerged that he had planned to make tens of thousands of pounds by blackmailing senior Russian spies and business figures.
Remarkable testimony from a Russian academic, Julia Svetlichnaja, who met Litvinenko earlier this year and received more than a hundred emails from him, reveals that the former Russian secret agent had documents from the FSB, the Russian agency formerly known as the KGB. He had asked Ms. Svetlichnaja, who is based in London, to enter into a business deal with him and "make money".
Contact goes into hiding
Scotland Yard officers involved in the investigation into the poisoning of Litvinenko travelled to Washington to interview a former KGB agent, Yuri Shvets, who said he had vital information. He was a contact of Mario Scaramella, the Italian security consultant who is also now suffering from polonium poisoning.
"I believe I have a lead that can explain what happened," Mr. Shvets confirmed last week before he was interviewed as a witness in the presence of FBI agents. Mr. Shvets, who lives in Virginia and is now apparently in hiding, declined to elaborate further. However, a business associate of Mr. Shvets, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Litvinenko had been claiming in the weeks before his death that he possessed a dossier containing damaging revelations about the Kremlin and the break-up of the Yukos oil company. The associate claims that Mr. Shvets, who spoke to Litvinenko in the days before his death, compiled the dossier.
Yukos was once owned by the oligarch Mikhail Khordorkovsky, who is serving seven years for tax evasion. His supporters say he was convicted as a result of a show trial orchestrated by the Kremlin.
The claims that Litvinenko had a dossier containing damaging information about big business interests and the Kremlin echo separate claims he made to Ms. Svetlichnaja, who interviewed the former KGB agent earlier this year for a book she is writing about Chechnya.
In Sunday's London-based Observer, Ms. Svetlichnaja, a politics student at the University of Westminster, says Litvinenko claimed he had access to Russian intelligence documents containing information on individuals and companies that had fallen foul of the Kremlin.
"He told me he was going to blackmail all kinds of powerful people including oligarchs, corrupt officials and sources in the Kremlin," she said. "He mentioned a figure of £10,000 that they would pay each time to stop him broadcasting these FSB documents. Litvinenko was short of money and was adamant that he could obtain any files he wanted."
Claims dismissed
Litvinenko's access to such documents could have made him an enemy of both big business interests and the Kremlin. However, his claims are almost impossible to verify and some political analysts have gone as far as to dismiss him as a fantasist.
Mr. Shvets (53), emerges as yet another character in an increasingly impenetrable espionage saga linking Britain, Italy, the U.S. and Russia. Like Litvinenko, Mr. Shvets has worked for the Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, whom the Kremlin has tried unsuccessfully to extradite from Britain. Mr. Shvets was a major in the KGB between 1980 and 1990, during which time he worked under cover in Washington as a correspondent for the Russian news agency, Tass. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1993. In 1999 he testified before Congress, claiming his evidence helped the U.S. authorities expose a $1-billion KGB money-laundering operation.
Mr. Shvets met Mr. Scaramella in Washington last year to discuss the Italian's role as a consultant to the Mitrokhin Commission, set up by the Italian Government to investigate Russian infiltration during the Cold War. It has been alleged that Mr. Scaramella discussed with the commission's chief, Paolo Guzzanti, whether they should look for evidence that Romano Prodi, Italy's Prime Minister, was linked to the KGB. Mr. Prodi denies any link.

Curtsy:www.hindu.com

Who is behind the assassination?

Who is behind the death of Alexander Litvinenko? Whomever be, It is a cold blooded assassination. The victim claimed Mr.Bladimir Putin, president of Russian federation is behind his death. As of the circumstances, no one can denie the claim and no one can confirm its genuineness.

But above all, once Putin was the head of the notorious KGB. Poisoning enemies are not a new thing for the KGB. FSB, the successor of KGB also posses the brutality.

Alexander Litvinenko became unfair to Kremlin when he criticised Mr. Putin for his involvement in Moscow serial blast. Litvinenko accused it is a plot, designed by Mr. Putin to for run his Presidential election. I am sure that the investigation report is not going to be published. Only time can give answer.

Litvinenko statement

Russian former spy Alexander Litvinenko dictated a statement two days before his death, which was read out by his friend Alex Goldfarb outside University College Hospital in London on Friday.
"I would like to thank many people. My doctors, nurses and hospital staff who are doing all they can for me, the British police who are pursuing my case with vigour and professionalism and are watching over me and my family.
I would like to thank the British government for taking me under their care. I am honoured to be a British citizen.
I would like to thank the British public for their messages of support and for the interest they have shown in my plight.
I thank my wife Marina, who has stood by me. My love for her and our son knows no bounds.
But as I lie here I can distinctly hear the beating of wings of the angel of death.
I may be able to give him the slip but I have to say my legs do not run as fast as I would like.
I think, therefore, that this may be the time to say one or two things to the person responsible for my present condition.
You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed.
You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value.
You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilised men and women.
You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life.
May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people".
Alexander Litvinenko ----Curtsey : BBC
21 November 2006

It is a human mistake only!

The convoy of Dr. Manmohan singh, the honarable Prime Minister of India had been led in wrong way when he visited Kerala. It made a slight agitation among the security offficials. The incident had been taken as a big issue by the state congress leadership as well as union government. Union govt. sought explanation from State govt. It is actually nothing but a human mistake of a hired taxi driver. But the first statement issued by the state congress leadership said that they suspected a plot. It is not a sign of a matured political leadership. They did not studied the facts.
The state govt. should have taken necessary steps to avoid these such situations. It is obviously, a fault from govt.side. It is highly contemptible behavior by Mr.Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, State home minister. He supposed to be there in the aerodrome in order to receive P.M . But unfortunately he was absent.

Subramanya Bharathi- Great Poet

Achamillai achamillai
Achamenbathu illaye
Ichahathil ullorellam
Ethirthunindra pothinum,
Achamillai achamillai
Achamenbathu illaye
Thuchamake enni nammai
Thooruseitha pothinum,
Achamillai achamillai
Achamenbathu illaye ...
Uchimeethu vaanidinthu
Veezukindra pothinum,
Achamillai achamillai
Achamenbathu illaye
- Bharathiyar

"Fear have not. Fear have not. Even the whole world became my opponent , Fear have not. No fear at all. Even if the world conside us as negligible and its inhabitants whispered and shouted agaist us, Fear have not, Fear have not. If even the sky breaks to fall on head Fear have. Fear have not. "

This is a great poem from a great poet. Subramanya Bharathi. His poems stimulated the vains of all Tamilians and they eagerly participated in Indian freedom struggle. And he himself was, not was, is a great freedom fighter. He was not only fight for the freedom of India from the British but for the freedom from fear, freedom from cast system. Even though he lived only 39 years, he is still living in the minds of all Tamilians

Emerging I T Field. serging towards where?

India, The most efficient, Qualitative and cheapest IT service provider of the world. Now our friends or relatives are getting lacks as salary. But anyone of us are thinking about their social life? If you analyses these IT profesionals, u can find something that their family life is not as happy as they are showing. The main problem is sex. Premarital, unotherised free-sex leads every IT professional in depressive suicidal mentality. Our social life is going towards where? How many of Indian IT professionals are here who reads newspaper regularly?

Hi all of you.

Most of you are thinking that journalism is as good as u think? right?...I was in mainstream journalism and fed up with the third rite media manipulation of the management so resigned. Nowadays medias are managed by international smugglers. Now working with a software firm as content developer. Even though it is not as glamorous as Journalism, it gives some mental satisfaction. We don't want surrender our self existence to any mafia gang. Even the culprits of Singapore kidney foundation cheating case is also running a news paper.