Difference between revisions of "Mario Scaramella"
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Revision as of 20:13, 13 April 2008
Italian associate of Alexander Litvinenko.
Contents
Background
- Although a baby-faced man of only 36, Scaramella claims to have been recruited several years ago by the CIA to trace relationships between South American narco-traffickers and Russian spy agencies. He has claimed to have been educated in England, Belgium, and France, without saying exactly where. He says he taught at the University of Naples (which says it has no record of him) and at various American universities, including San Jose University (which doesn't exist—though there is a San Jose State University, which says it knows nothing of Scaramella)—and Stanford University. He claims to have been a judge, but this appears to have consisted of an unpaid position as a justice of the peace.[1]
Mitrokhin Commission
Scaramella was employed as a consultant to the Mitrokhin Commission set up by Silvio Berlusconi to investigate links between the KGB and Italian politicians.
- Critics suggest that the real purpose of the Mitrokhin commission was to discredit the left and Romano Prodi's leadership. In a telephone conversation between Scaramella and Paolo Guzzanti, the commission's president, on 28 January 2006 (intercepted by Corriere della Sera), Scaramella is overhead telling Guzzanti that Romani Prodi was "cultivated by the KGB", citing the ex-KGB colonel Oleg Gordievsky as his source. Guzzanti responds: "In that case he is our man?" "Yes" is Scaramella's reply. "That's enough. I don't want to know anything else", Guzzanti replies.[2]
Death of Alexander Litvinenko
Scaramella met Alexander Litvinenko on the day that the latter fell ill with Polonium poisoning.
- It was at the Itsu sushi bar in Piccadilly, where the two men met at 3pm on 1 November, that the highest levels of polonium-210 radiation have been found. Mr Scaramella says he only drank water, while Mr Litvinenko had miso soup and sushi. Traces of the radioactive substance have also been found in the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, where the defector had tea with Russian associates, including a former colleague in the FSB, the successor service to the KGB, later in the afternoon.[3]
Litvinenko accused Scaramella of poisoning him before his death.
Affiliations
Connections
References
- ↑ The Secret Life of Mario Scaramella, by Alexander Stille, [[Slate], 11 December 2006.
- ↑ The strange case of Mario Scaramella, by Geoff Andrews, openDemocracy, 12 December 2006.
- ↑ The Litvinenko murder: Scaramella - The Italian Connection, Peter Popham, The Independent on Sunday, 3 December 2006.
