Alexander Litvinenko’s Friend Injured in USA
Last week’s end brought the news about the assassination attempt against former security officer of the Intelligence Committee of the US Senate, Vice President of National Strategies Inc. Paul Joyal. He has been considered an expert on Russian special services, often criticized the Kremlin, and knew former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko well. Some US media linked Moscow to Joyal’s case. US police and FBI think that Paul Joyal became the victim of common criminals.
On Thursday night, around 7:30 p.m. Paul Joyal drove up to his house in Adelphi town 16 kilometers of Washington. He came out of the car, made a few steps, and got a bullet in the lower part of his stomach. His wife Elizabeth heard the shot. She called police and ambulance. Now 53-year-old Joyal is in a local hospital in severe condition.
From 1980 to 1989, Joyal headed the security service of the US Senate’s Intelligence Committee. Thus, FBI department in Baltimore joined the investigation. Yet, the police has testimony that witnesses saw two African-American men running away from Joyal’s house right after the shooting. A police source said the investigators think the robbery version most likely.
However, US journalists began their own investigation, recalling that Joyal has often criticized Russian authorities and President Putin recently. Moreover, Joyal was friends with many former agents of Soviet and Russian special services, Alexander Litvinenko among them.
Nonetheless, the crime looks more like a common robbery than the Kremlin’s plot. There are greater names than Paul Joyal in the list of the Kremlin’s enemies.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 05, 2007
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