Mike Sheehan
Raw Story
Tuesday, December 5, 2006

The right-wing news site WorldNetDaily is reporting a claim by conservative British tabloid The Sunday Express that Scotland Yard is checking into the possibility that dead Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, a KGB defector, may have been attempting to smuggle highly radioactive polonium to terror groups.

Mentioning reports that Litvinenko converted to Islam shortly before his death, the site repeats the paper's claim that "[Scotland Yard's] biggest fear ... is that Litvinenko, who died of polonium-210 poisoning in a London hospital, may have been helping al-Qaida or other extremist groups get hold of radioactive material to be used in a devastating 'dirty' atom bomb."

Not everyone supports the Express's assertion, or, by extension, believes in Scotland Yard's purported concern.

The Times Online, another conservative newspaper that is part of a subsidiary owned by Rupert Murdoch, scoffs that "one front page reported that Litvinenko had converted to Islam, raising 'fears' that he had helped terrorists to obtain a dirty bomb. The evidence? Gossip from his Muslim next-door neighbour. If it's good enough for the Sunday Express..."

More on the story as it develops.