(Forge Books) is about the turf wars between the Pentagon and the CIA and the privatization of national security.
Oh the Good ol Days of Killer Umbrellas and Ricin Microcapsules!
The tradecraft in the radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB/FSB agent turned critic of the Putin regime hasn't made much sense to me because the KGB/FSB were such masters of death by faux-natural causes. (And yes, I realize the Bulgarians were the ones who used the killer umbrella in London, but it was believed they had technical assistance from the KGB.)
I've been discussing the Litvinenko poisoning with an expert on such shadowy matters and here's her take:
It sure sounds like the FSB to me, but it also sounds like they’re experiencing the same blowback from an exodus of experience that the CIA is currently contending with. Back in the old days, an appropriate dose would’ve been discretely shot into the guy in a dissolving subcutaneous pellet that would’ve killed him in a couple of months, left no real traceable evidence as to the perp, and sent the right message to other potential ex-FSB/KGB critics who understood the technology via the symptoms.
Feeding it to him in a restaurant while lunching with known Russian intel types and then him leaving traces of it all over London, possibly contaminating innocents in the process, is really amateur hour. If the Agency’s Italian rendition team weren’t so busy doing commercials for cellphones, the two could hook up for a match made in espionage screw-up heaven.
It kind of makes you wonder what happens to companies caught in the KGB canteen recruiting away mid-level operators....I'm guessing they don't get awards as entrepreneurs of the year.
THE UMBRELLA FELL FORWARD.
WHICH WAY WAS IT POINTING?
PRESUMABLY TO BULGARIA. HA!HA!
Posted by: mandy | March 05, 2007 at 10:01
THE UMBRELLA FELL FORWARD.
WHICH WAY WAS IT POINTING?
PRESUMABLY TO BULGARIA. HA!HA!
Posted by: mandy | March 05, 2007 at 10:01