While we were celebrating Thanksgiving, Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died from poisoning. Litvinenko served in the KGB counter-intelligence department but became a critic of the agency and its successor, the Federal Security Service. As the result, he was jailed several times. After his last release, he fled to Britain.
Litvinenko, 43, fell ill three weeks ago and claimed he was poisoned. His conditioned deteriorated rapidly, although the poison was not identified. After his death, a large dose of polonium-210 was found in Litvinenko’s body.
Roger Cox, head of the HPA’s radiation protection branch, confirmed that the radiation was found in Litvinenko’s body.
“A large quantity of alpha radiation from polonium-210 was found in the urine of Mr. Litvinenko”, Cox said, adding that it was “unlikely” that the radioactive material came from natural sources.
This being the week of the 43rd anniversary of JFK’s death, I am reminded of Jack Ruby’s request to be moved after he shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby thought he had been poisoned as well. No one listened to him and he died not long after. Polonium-210 is relatively scarce. I hope they are able to trace the source of this poison and figure out how it ended up in his body. The perpetrators of this horrible crime should be brought to justice.
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VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I think we can go ahead and put this one in the Unsolved Mysteries file, even at this early date. This will never be sorted out.