(I just have to start this post the same way as the previous one on the subject) .
It is already five days since Alexander Litvinenko died – a slow and horrible death. And the vultures are circling, getting closer each day.
Now the scumbags are trying to start another line of slander. In a big way too, take a look:
No matter that the contents of the article do not confirm in any way the stink bomb dropped in the headline:
Detectives investigating the death of Alexander Litvinenko were last night examining the possibility that the former spy killed himself to discredit Vladimir Putin.
Detectives were examining a possibility. Quite sure going by the book written a heck of a long time ago. And this means that police probe claims suicide? I guess even the police could sue the wretched scum now. Most probably wouldn’t.
There are all the necessary telltale signs of intractable stupidity in this article:
Traces of the material – powerful enough to trigger a nuclear warhead – were found on tables…
How does the Indys’ troika (Sophie Goodchild, Francis Elliott and Sonia Elks) think polonium 210 triggers that nuclear warhead, I am too afraid to imagine. One thing is clear: not only aren’t they nuclear scientists, all three taken together hardly amount to a person literate enough to open a Wiki site and do themselves a favor, instead of disgracing themselves. Or take this one:
Detectives are still no nearer to establishing just how Mr Litvinenko, a fierce critic of President Alexander Putin’s regime, came to ingest such high doses of polonium.
How high is “such high” in the opinion of the troika? Do they imagine the late colonel greedily stuffing himself from a heap of polonium on his plate? You know, it is highly probable they do – but do not ask how high, please…
Still, there is a distance between mere stupidity and malignancy. And that headline is nothing but sheer malignancy. And the source powerful enough to trigger this mix of malignancy and stupidity is, apparently, an unattributed Russian one:
Some reports in the Russian press have suggested that Mr Litvinenko’s death could have been a “martyrdom operation”, on the grounds that no state would want to attract the attention of a radioactive poison plot.
Some reports… Now you can see it – a hack from Indy repeating some slander from a Russian rag, undoubtedly close to the powers that be. Merde.
But the malignancy does not stop at the headline. Here is the shining pinnacle:
One source close to the investigation said: “He was a guy with a colourful past. It’s not straightforward.”
Now, I can easily agree that a senior KGB/FSB officer collects some colors during his career. And he may have not necessarily been always straightforward. But could he imagine that a liberal and progressive Independent will descend that gutter-low?
Nah – not while alive…
Cross-posted on SimplyJews
A wonderful little a bit of distortion there. I’ve coming up with three different ways that could be parsed — And the funny thing is, for two of them, it’s a true statement.
Interpretation #1 – The most common reading, and clearly the way they’d hope you’d read it (They found enough material in the room to build a nuclear bomb) is clearly false. I know of no element who critical mass would be considered a “trace”. While the critical mass of polonium should only be about a 1/4 of that of plutonium (9kg-100kg depending on the isotope), that’s still means at least nearly five pounds (or maybe over 50lb) is needed to build a bomb.
Interpretation #2 – “powerful” describes “material”, not “trace”. or, “They found some material which could be used to build a bomb, but only trace amounts”
Interpretation #3 – The important word is “trigger”. The essence of a nuclear bomb is that you have a bit less than a critical mass of some fissionable material lying around, and then you shot it with just enough more to put it over the limit. I think that “just enough” is just a few atoms, so that “trace” could be several million times enough to “trigger” a nuclear warhead. It’s kinda like saying, “They found a bullet, which could be used a kill someone — if you had a gun”.
The latest theory is that the polonium was sprayed with some sort of atomizer onto Litvinenko’s food, or otherwise sprayed on him surreptitiously. The sushi bar has been decontaminated after polonium traces were found there. Scotland Yard and MI-5 (6?) are investigating why traces of polonium have turned up in several locations in London.
chsw
You are right in your interpretations, James. The laughable thing (besides the fact that even a broken clock shows the right time twice a day) is that by “powerful” the jerks meant something entirely different, of course…
Chsw – this “decontamination” brohaha is largely for show. I seriously doubt that traces of polonium could hurt a person.
But let them play with the MSM for a while. Meanwhile the culprit(s) are surely getting scot-free.
Ooops… I must apologize for my screwed up math. “The critical mass is inversely proportional to the square of the density” (Wikipedia) — so the less dense polonium requires a larger critical mass than the more-dense plutonium, specifically, four times than mass rather than 1/4th.
So, a critical mass of polonium should be at least 36kg (80 lb) and might be as high as 400kg (880 lb) — so we’ve closely left “trace” behind and are oving to needing a small suitcase to a large truck.