Is Russia Back In The Assassination Business?

John R. Schindler, Observer: The Return of Wetwork: KGB Goons Radiated a Former Associate in London

Putin's Kremlin employs assassination abroad as state policy in a manner not seen in Moscow since Stalin

This week’s announcement by a British court that Russian spies murdered Alexander Litvinenko in London in November 2006, made global headlines. Particularly because the massive report, based on a multi-year investigation, concluded that the Kremlin must have approved the assassination at the highest levels, “probably” including President Vladimir Putin himself.

This is a big story, given the sensational manner of Litvinenko’s death, notwithstanding that the complicity of Russian officialdom in the murder has been obvious for years, while the likelihood that Mr. Putin green-lighted the hit could be news only to those unacquainted with how his regime actually works.

The essential facts of the case were known almost from the outset.

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WNU Editor: When details on the murder of Alexander Litvinenko came out .... I said to myself that this had to be personal. This was not a "clean-cut bang you are now dead" sort of operation .... this assassination was done to maximize the pain for the target. It was also done to bring maximum pain to the family who had to watch him suffer and die, and to also send a clear signal to everyone else. But on the question .... did the order to kill him come from Putin .... on that I am not sure. In Putin's eyes Alexander Litvinenko was a small fish who defected to the West .... he was not important enough to be ordered killed. The blow-back and consequences would also make such an operation a no-go .... it was simply not worth having him dead .... and not in such an obvious and public way. But Alexander Litvinenko was murdered .... and a British court has ruled that the Kremlin ordered his killing. My guess is that it is one of Alexander Litvinenko's former bosses/colleagues who sanction the assassination .... they were embarrassed by the defection, and doubly so when he began to accuse Putin of corruption and even paedophilia. Putin .... being ex-KGB .... heard about it later ... and treated it as an internal-KGB affair .... distancing himself from it as far as possible, but probably satisfied inside that this KGB defector was taken out in such a fashion. I could of course be completely wrong .... that Putin ordered the hit directly, and left it at that. But I do know one thing .... after Putin and his generation is gone, the truth about this murder from Moscow's side will be known .... but it will be small comfort to Alexander Litvinenko's surviving son.

On a side note .... this has happened before .... Stalin ordered that assassination of Leon Trotsky .... and that order went out because it was personal, and it had to done publicly.

Hat Tip to James for the above Observer link.

Armenian Presidential Candidate Shot And Injured In An Assassination Attempt

Paruyr Hayrikyan

Armenian Presidential Candidate Injured In Assassination Attempt -- RT

An Armenian presidential candidate has been shot in the center of Yerevan, the country's capital, late Thursday. The 64-year-old Paruyr Hayrikyan of the Union for National Self-Determination party, was taken to hospital following the incident.

­Hayrikyan was taken to the Saint Gregory the Illuminator medical center with two gunshot wounds, in the shoulder and in the chest. The chest wound is considered serious, but not immediately life-threatening, medics said.

Read more ....

More News On Armenian Presidential Candidate Paruyr Hayrikyan Injured In An Assassination Attempt

Candidate in Armenia’s presidential election shot and wounded -- Washington Post/AP
Armenian Presidential Candidate Shot In Yerevan -- Radio Free Europe
Armenia presidential candidate Airikian shot in Yerevan -- BBC
Candidate Hayrikyan taken to hospital with gunshot wound -- Pan Armenian
Assassination attempt on Hayrikyan deliberate step to destabilize the situation in the country -- Public Radio Armenia

A Survey of Strange Assassination Tech

© Bettmann/CORBIS

Exploding Chocolate, Poisoned Scuba Suits, And The Bulgarian Umbrella: A Survey of Strange Assassination Tech -- The Atlantic

A newly revealed plot to kill Churchill with exploding chocolate prompts an investigation into history's weirder ways to assassinate.

"Dear Fish, I wonder if you could do a drawing for me of an explosive slab of chocolate," begins a letter from Lord Victor Rothschild, a British intelligence officer in World War II. "We have received information that the enemy are using pound slabs of chocolate which are made of steel with a very thin covering of real chocolate. Inside there is high explosive and some form of delay mechanism."

Read more ....

My Comment: The best tech developed so far to assassinate enemy combatants is this one.

Are Assassinations An Effective Way To Fight Terrorism?

Photo: 2011 has been a banner year for taxpayer-funded assassinations, including Osama bin Laden (left) and Anwar Awlaki (center). The U.S. can probably take a lot of credit for Moammar Kadafi's (right) messy end too. (AP Photo)

Assassination Backlash -- Andrew Cockburn, L.A. Times editorial

It's been a banner year for targeted killings, but are they an effective way to fight terrorism?

There is no denying that 2011 has been a banner year for taxpayer-funded assassinations — Osama bin Laden, Anwar Awlaki, five senior Pakistani Taliban commanders in October and many more. Given the crucial U.S. backup role in Libya, and the ringing exhortation for the Libyan leader's death issued by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton just before the event itself, we can probably take a lot of credit for Moammar Kadafi's messy end too.

Once upon a time, U.S. officials used to claim that we were merely targeting "command and control centers," rather than specific individuals, as in the hunt for Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Persian Gulf War or the raid on Kadafi in 1986. Nowadays no one bothers to pretend. Successful assassination missions, whether by elite special forces or remote-controlled drones, are openly celebrated.

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My Comment: I personally wished that the men who have been assassinated this year .... including Bin laden and Gaddafi .... were not killed. But do assassinations work? I know that in this case it did.

Remembering The Kennedy Assassination

Tragic image: Secret Service agent Clint Hill climbs onto the presidential limousine in a bid to protect Jackie after John Kennedy has been shot in the head.

'What Have They Done?': Jackie's Words As JFK Was Shot Are Revealed By Secret Service Agent Who Breaks Silence After Almost 50 Years -- The Daily Mail

The secret service agent who was at John F Kennedy’s side on the day he was assassinated has spoken for the first time of the moment he was killed.

Clint Hill told how he saw the former U.S. President collapse into the back of his car and into his wife’s blood-splattered arms after being shot while driving through Dallas in November 1963.

The couple were rushed to hospital and on the way Jacqui Kennedy looked at her dying husband and said: ‘What have they done? What have they done?'

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My Comment: So much for the Secret Service vow of silence. But I am glad that after almost 50 years these agents are now coming out with their story.

Kill or Be Killed? -- CIA Initiative Spurs Reflection On Targeted Terrorist Killings

Photo: Feb. 14: Hezbollah supporters carry the coffin of their slain top commander Imad Mughniyeh during his funeral procession in Beirut, Lebanon. AP

From The Wall Street Journal:

For months Israeli intelligence had hunted Salah Shehada, the leader of Hamas’s military wing and mastermind of dozens of terrorist attacks that had killed more than 200 Israelis. Israel aborted eight attempts to strike Mr. Shehada to avoid killing his daughter, who often stayed with him.

Eventually an informer presented Israeli intelligence with the opening it had been waiting for: on July 22, 2002, Mr. Shehada would be in an apartment building with no children nearby. Not knowing where in the building the master terrorist would be, the Israelis launched a 2,000-pound bomb, fearing that a smaller one would not kill him. But their intelligence was incomplete. When the bomb struck, Mr. Shehada was present, but so too were his wife and daughter, as well as squatters occupying the surrounding buildings. Fourteen civilians, including nine children, died in the strike.

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My Comment: Targeted killings work, the problem has always been having the right intelligence to pinpoint where your target is .... and when you have that information to then act upon it ASAP.

There were numerous instances in the late 1990s when intelligence knew where Bin Laden was .... but on numerous occasions the orders were never given out because of fears in having collateral damage and/or not having confidence with the intelligence.

After 9/11 this has clearly changed. If the U.S. has excellent information on where Bin laden is hiding, I am sure the order (if it is not a standing order already) will be sent out to have a Reaper drone visit him with a missile ASAP.