The Litvinenko Murder Case Gets Stranger and Stranger

This just in (from Reuters UK): Second case of radiation poisoning

Scientists probing the death of Alexander Litvinenko said on Friday a second man had been poisoned by the same radiation that killed the former Russian spy.

Media reports said the man was Mario Scaramella, an Italian contact whom Litvinenko met at a London sushi restaurant on November 1, the same day he fell ll.

There's lots more, here and here and here for example.

Meanwhile: reports from Britain claim Letters 'revealed secret hit squad'

Detectives are investigating letters smuggled out of Russia purporting to show the existence of a secret squad set up to target poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko and others.

Scotland Yard has been passed copies of two letters apparently penned in jail by former Russian intelligence officer Mikhail Trepashkin, in one of which Mr Litvinenko is warned that both he and his family are at risk.

Mr Litvinenko's London friend Alex Goldfarb said scans of the letters came into his possession on Thursday and he passed them to Scotland Yard.

Mr Trepashkin, who worked for the KGB's successor the FSB until 1997, was tried in 2004, accused of being a British spy and passing secret information to Mr Litvinenko and his close friend the tycoon Boris Berezovsky, both exiled in London.

Meanwhile: Larisa's latest on this case is cool.

Her blog is way cool and getting cooler by the day. Guest journalist David Dastych boils it all down:

On Litvinenko's assassination:

1. The only truth: he was killed by Polonium-210 isotope (and perhaps by some other poisonous substance, too).

2. Cause: not known; given: his opposition to the Putin's regime.

3. Perpetrators: not known, possibly Russian intelligence operators.

and so on...

BTW Seeing Luke Ryland on Sibel Edmonds and Heroin at Larisa's blog is ultra-cool.

And as I've been saying, they all know a lot more than I do. So you can leave comments here if you like but don't expect me to answer your questions except for the occasional "I dunno", which I throw in every now and then simply in order not to appear rude.

That said, please consider this a half-open thread; not quite as open as the threads which start with cartoons, but certainly a place where you can speak freely about the Litvinenko murder case, no matter what you think about it...

as requested; ;-) BB2!