The death of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko from Polonoium-210 poisoning reads like something out of a thriller novel. The ex-spy was in the midst of investigating the murder of his compatriot Anna Politkovskaya -- Anna Politkovskaya was shot to death only last month -- when he himself was poisoned. The day he fell ill, he met two Russians and later in the day, his Italian friend at a sushi bar. Just before he died on 23 November 2006, he made a statement blaming Mr. Putin for his death.
I was following the story on the BBC news and I had to have some serious suspension of disbelief. A sushi bar, an uncommon radioactive substance that is not easily traced, a statement blaming the top man in Russia, what in the world is going on?
It reeked of the Cold War and the ubiquitous fear in the 80s that a nuclear bomb would take out the entire civilized world, except that this time, it was somebody else's problem. In a completely selfish way, it made me grateful for the simple life. It is enough when you can have the peace of mind to sleep at night and the composure to enjoy the little things in life.
The situation concerning powerful nations, policies and hidden agendas is so complicated that I don't even know what to hope for. The naive hope that the world will be a better and more ethical place? Perhaps. Because I don't know how else to articulate it.
Thanks to God for my Redeemer,
Thanks for all Thou dost provide!
Thanks for times now but a memory,
Thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,
Thanks for dark and stormy fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten,
Thanks for peace within my soul!Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,
Thanks for what Thou dost deny!
Thanks for storms that I have weathered,
Thanks for all Thou dost supply!
Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure,
Thanks for comfort in despair!
Thanks for grace that none can measure,
Thanks for love beyond compare!Thanks for roses by the wayside,
Thanks for thorns their stems contain!
Thanks for home and thanks for fireside,
Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow,
Thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee!
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow,
Thanks through all eternity!
Believe it or not
Sept 11, 1978
A man in a bowler hat fires a pellet of ricin from an umbrella into the thigh of Georgi Markov. He dies four days later. An umbrella! That's like the The Penguin in Batman!
September 2004
Viktor Yushchenko, an Ukrainian opposition presidential candidate, is poisoned with dioxin, causing a drastic change in his appearance.
2 comments:
the assassinations are totally believable... think about it... with the end of the Cold War, the KGB's services were suddenly unrequired - superfluous even... what was going to happen to all its agents in this one of the most powerful organisations Mother Russia had nurtured, and the wonderful gadgets it had amassed over three or four decades? a BBC documentary some time ago said that quite a few set up private organisations, not unlike the retired army's ex-special forces units forming "mercenaries for hire" type outfits - selling their services to the highest bidder... and of course, all its toys went along too... including the tools for assassination... in contrast, the US's CIA was dramatically weakened with budget cuts and weak politically-affiliated leaders were appointed the head of the CIA... where did all the disenchanted spooks go?
i think some movies even went as far as to suggest that the CIA and the KGB collaborate/colluded with each other by destabilising the global political situation on purpose, so as to keep their services in demand by their respective states...
more food for thought... Osama bin Laden was once an operative for the CIA...
doesn't seem so far fetched after all, does it? o_O
Was he? Hmm.
Do you think that nations are above the laws that govern ordinary men and women? Let's say, hypothetically, they prove that Russia did order the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Can the top politicians be charged in Britain?
"Mercenaries for hire" remind me of a hilarious book by Pratchett. :)
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