Most people now know about Alexander Litvinenko, the ex-Russian spy who was poisoned with a radioactive material in the UK. The substance he was poisoned with was Polonium-210, an especially toxic substance which is not especially easy to detect. The news media claimed this pointed to the Russian secret service and I even saw it stated that it would be difficult for anyone but a government agency to get Polonium-210.
This is simply not true.
The fact is that anyone can buy Polonium-210 legally. Anyone. You, me, your next-door neighbor. You don't need a license to buy it in the U.S. and if you can buy it in the U.S., you can get it to the UK where I suspect it has similar legal status. Even if it doesn't, it could be very easily smuggled there from the U.S.
Don't believe me? Look here: http://www.unitednuclear.com/...
As the site itself says, "This is currently the only legal Alpha source available without a license." ANYONE can get it. It's not even that expensive. That site is obviously only selling a small amount, but you only need a small amount to poison someone and you can get it there for under 70 bucks.
I could certainly see, for example, an enemy of Putin's coming up with a great way to embarrass him by poisoning Litvinenko. It could even have been unrelated to his spywork!
I just discovered this today while having an unrelated discussion. I was just floored. I feel like the media has totally misrepresented the entire case. What do you think?