US expert on Russian intelligence shot in Washington

[Manedwolf]

Uh-oh.

Either a random crime, or a MAJOR international incident. 

(AFP) US authorities were Saturday investigating the shooting of a US expert on Russian intelligence who was shot outside his house in a Washington suburb, an FBI spokeswoman said.

Paul Joyal, 53, was hit several times as he returned home on Thursday evening, FBI spokeswoman Michelle Crnkovich told AFP.

The shooting came four days after Joyal alleged in a a major television network interview that the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin was involved in the radiation poisoning of a former KGB agent in London.

US media reported that Joyal was in a critical condition, but Crnkovich said she could not confirm his state of health although he was still alive.

"The Prince George's County Police Department is doing the investigation and the Baltimore FBI is just available to assist them if they need us to," she said, adding the case was so far being treated as an ordinary crime.

Joyal told NBC's Dateline program that he had struck up a friendship with former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko during trips to London.

Litvinenko died in a London hospital on November 23 and was found to have high levels of the radioactive isotope polonium 210 in his body.

He and his associates have accused Russia of carrying out the poisoning because of his fierce opposition to Putin.

Joyal repeated the accusations in his interview saying: "A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin: 'If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you and we will silence you -- in the most horrible way possible.'"

A former police officer, Joyal set up a consultancy in the 1990s specializing in intelligence information for companies wishing to invest in the former Soviet republics. He is often interviewed by US media as an expert on the region.

[Loucks]

Could be a random crime, I guess, but isn't it fairly well-documented that Putin is a borderline-sociopathic thug? I wouldn't be surprised...

[Antibubba]

Yeah, it has to be Putin, because how often is someone shot in DeeCee?   

Of course, Putin is such a genius that he would think of staging it there, to make it look like a random crime in America's gun-free Capitol...

[drewtam]

Yeah, it has to be Putin, because how often is someone shot in DeeCee?   

Of course, Putin is such a genius that he would think of staging it there, to make it look like a random crime in America's gun-free Capitol...

Hasn't it been documented Ad Nauseum that most murders are between poeple who know each other: gangs, family, drugs. Don't we point that out every time someone tries to ban guns, that they are not removing the motivation for violence, and so the violence will be carried out with or without guns.

Therefore, I would be VERY hesistant to call such theories of Russian attack, tinfoil-hattery.

Drew

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I'd be very surprised if this turned out to be your average murder.  Yeah, it's true that lots of people are murdered in Washington, and yeah, it's also true that most murders are committed by someone close to the victim.

But most murder victims aren't heavily involved in exposing Russian intelligence agencies.  Most murder victims aren't murdered within days of making a credible and believable accusation against Vladimir Putin.  This murder victim is so unique that the usual rules and statistics simply don't apply here.

Here are some statistical questions that do apply: 
- How often do Vladimir Putin's critics and political opponents wind up murdered?
- When American intelligence experts involved in exposing a major Russian intelligence operation wind up murdered, how often does the murder turn out to be a random coincidence?
- What are the odds of an upper-class, elderly, white male being murdered on his front yard of his home in the suburbs?  (Note that the vast majority of DC's violent crime is committed by impoverished, young, inner city minorities...)

[Stand_watie]

Yeah, it has to be Putin, because how often is someone shot in DeeCee?   

Of course, Putin is such a genius that he would think of staging it there, to make it look like a random crime in America's gun-free Capitol...

Hasn't it been documented Ad Nauseum that most murders are between poeple who know each other: gangs, family, drugs. Don't we point that out every time someone tries to ban guns, that they are not removing the motivation for violence, and so the violence will be carried out with or without guns.

Therefore, I would be VERY hesistant to call such theories of Russian attack, tinfoil-hattery.

Drew

I don't know which burb of DC he lives in, but I suspect street shootings are a lot less common there than the projects of DC proper.

.. who was shot outside his house in a Washington suburb, an FBI spokeswoman said.

I'm guessing this guy was wealthy (by my standards) and lived in a cushy neighborhood.

[El Tejon]

This wasn't in my old neighborhood of D.C.  He lived in a nice area.  I attend a lecture of his many moons ago.

Classic KGB backshooting.

[Manedwolf]

Apparently, this one mysteriously fell out a window...with his hat and coat on.

Respected Russian journalist Ivan Safronov, who reported on military affairs, mysteriously plunged to his death from the 5th floor of his apartment building Friday, making him the 14th journalist to die under questionable circumstances in Putin's Russia, according to statistics compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"They killed Ivan. They killed Ivan," said a distraught former U.S. intelligence staffer familiar with Safronov when he learned the news today. "Another Russian journalist is dead. Ivan fell out of the window with his coat and hat on? Come on," said the former official who frequently visits Moscow and asked to remain anonymous.