Spy case focus turns to mysterious Italian

THE focus of the inquiry into the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko shifted towards his Italian contact today, amid suggestions that he may have had a hand in his poisoning.

Mario Scaramella was under police guard in a safe house after returning to London from Rome for tests to determine whether he was contaminated by the same radioactive polonium 210 that was found in Litvinenko’s body.

The Italian academic met Litvinenko at a central London sushi bar on November 1. Litvinenko fell ill soon afterwards and died on November 23 and, according to one of his friends, believed Scaramella may have been responsible.

“When I talked to Alexander around 12 November about who poisoned him, we were talking only about the Italian guy Mario,” Yuri Felshtinsky, co-author of Litvinenko’s book Blowing Up Russia: The Terror From Within told The Sun newspaper.

“He was sure at this time it was Mario. He was telling me that he was in a scheme,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. Mr Scaramella has denied any involvement in the poisoning and said the meeting was to discuss an alleged Russian secret services “hit list” on which both their names featured. – more

If Professor Mario did it, the irony is interesting: A guy who has you on his hit list asks to meet you to discuss the fact that you are on a hit list. Then he poisons you to death. Deception sucks. Sometimes it even kills.

Lightning Strikes Rare White Buffalo

Lightning on Sunday night struck and killed two buffalo cows and three buffalo calves, including a white buffalo-Miracle’s Second Chance-on the Heider farm south of Janesville, Dave Heider said this morning.

Heider discovered the five dead buffalo when he went to check on the animals this morning before going to work. … White buffalo are extremely rare and are said to fulfill a Native American legend foretelling peace. – more

Report: 11 EU Countries Knew of Secret CIA Prisons

Germany and 10 other states knew about secret CIA prisons in Europe, and obstructed investigations into the case, the European Parliament said in a report.There were 11 European countries knew about secret US jails for terror suspects and obstructed the investigation into the transport and illegal detention of prisoners within Europe, European Parliament committee said in a draft report on Tuesday. … The draft, which was based on classified documents and secret informants, noted at least at least 1,245 suspicious flights through European air space or stopovers at European airports that took place at the request of the CIA.

The report was the result of an investigation by a special committee of the European Parliament into “extraordinary rendition” — the US practice of transporting terrorist suspects to third countries for questioning. …

Meanwhile, a US appeals court in the state of Virginia has agreed to hear the case of German-Lebanese citizen Khaled el-Masri against ex-CIA chief George Tenet. El-Masri accused the CIA of taking prison in Afghanistan, where he was allegedly beaten, in a case of mistaken identity.El-Masri is seeking damages of at least 75,000 dollars on allegations of unlawful capture, imprisonment, torture and other human rights violations. A decision is expected next week, a spokesman for the Richmond court said. – more

If you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t mind a little torture to prove you are innocent, right? How many tortured people are represented by those 1200+ flights?