Litvinenko and "The Family"

I am preparing what I hope will be a major piece which will attempt to connect the Litvinenko affair with, god help us, 9/11. If that seems outrageous -- well, I beg you to withhold judgment until you see the details.

In the meantime, this teaser:

The late Alexander Litvinenko was a former FSB spook who became a paid liar in the employ of Boris Berezovsky, the shadowy exiled Russian oligarch (and business partner of Neil Bush). Berezovsky hopes to destabilize Putin and take control of what was once the second superpower.

Before the assassination, few in Russia respected Litvinenko. Few outside of Russia heard of him. Now, a film will be made of his life. The project, starring Daniel Craig (the new James Bond), will derive, in large part, from Litvinenko's book Blowing up Russia.

In that work, Litvinenko attempts to demonstrate that Vladimir Putin was responsible for the apartment bombings of 1999. However, in “Storm in Moscow”: A Plan of the Yeltsin “Family” to Destabilize Russia, an extremely important paper written by the Hoover Institution's John B. Dunlop, a starkly different picture emerges. (Oddly, the Hoover Institute has wiped all trace of this paper from its site.) As Peter Dale Scott summarizes:

Dunlop's thesis is in itself an alarming one. It is that men of influence in the Kremlin, building on the connections established by the wealthy oligarch Boris Berezovskii, were able to arrange for staged violence, in order to reinforce support for an unpopular Russian government. This staged violence took the form of lethal bombings in the capital and an agreed-upon incursion by Chechens into Russian Dagestan.

Dunlop argues that Litvinenko's one-time employer, Boris Berezovsky -- the man who would rule Russia -- arranged these provocations in the final months of the Yeltsin era to prevent reformists from taking control.

Yeltsin, a heavy drinker in poor health, was not the true leader of Russia. Decisions were made by a conspiratorial group calling itself "The Family," which still wields enormous power. Despite the title of Dunlop's monograph, the leader of the Family was not Yeltsin; Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana, Boris Berezovsky (who was vying to become the Rupert Murdoch of Russia) and a handful of others held the real power.

Putin was once a member of this Family. Upon achieving power, he turned against the oligarchs. Ever since, Berezovsky has plotted vengeance.

Long-time readers of this blog will recall that we have encountered the term "The Family" before, in relation to 9/11. I will argue in my upcoming piece that the Berezovskii Family and the Family mentioned by Mohammed Atta were, in fact, one and the same.

You will see subtle evidence to that effect for yourself if you carefully read the Dunlop and Scott pieces cited above. You should also study an important piece by Yuri Yasenev (obviously derived from Russian intelligence files), "An Orange Revolution is in store for Russia."

A mysterious company called Far West Ltd. may have functioned as a business front fro the Family. One of the partners in Far West is Dick Cheney's Haliburton.

An officer of Far West described the firm's business as "connected with the secured transport of commercial shipments from Afghanistan." Decide for yourself how best to interpret those words.

The Family established a wide array of international contacts. Key decisions were taken at a 1999 meeting in Adnan Khashoggi's villa in the south of France. That such a meeting took place is beyond question; Khashoggi himself has admitted as much, although the actual topic of the discussion remains disputed. It is known that French intelligence and the Israelis had a good idea of what went on.

And yet the very existence of this meeting was denied by none other than Alexander Litvinenko. (See footnote 24 of Scott's piece.)

Why would Litvinenko lie about such a thing?

We have many indications that, after the publication of this book, Litvinenko and his patron had a falling out. We know that Litvinenko had planned to blackmail certain exiled oligarchs. Although he did not mention Berezovsky by name, we may fairly presume that he was a potential target.

Virtually all of the suspects in the Litvinenko murder have some tie to Berezovsky.

What was said at Khashoggi's villa? What did Alexander Litvinenko threaten to reveal to the world?

Nota bene: If you are going to do follow-up research, I suggest beginning with Dunlop's thesis, which will reward a leisurely study. Professor Scott covers a wider scope and spotlights some of Dunlop's shortcomings; however, Scott writes in an academic style which some will find impenetrable. (Like many scholars, he assumes that his readers have already familiarized themselves with the material listed in the footnotes.) Dunlop provides a clear, linear narrative which manages to be both gripping yet scrupulously annotated.

I know that I have offered a simplistic and crude introduction to a very complex tale. This is, as I said, but a teaser.