Russian, KGB Expert Shot in Front of His Home

Washington, DC- Paul Joyal, the Russian expert who spoke out last weekend against the KGB (the Russian security service) on "Dateline NBC", suggesting that it was involved in the poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko, was shot Thursday night. Joyal was shot in front of his home in Adelphi, Maryland, as he was getting out of his car. Two men were seen running away following the incident. Currently, Joyal is hospitalized, having survived a gun shot wound to his midsection. Authorities are not revealing whether they've been able to question him for further information.

Joyal is a long-standing expert on Russian and KGB-related security matters. He was also the director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee from 1980 to 1989. More recently, Joyal was interviewed on "Dateline", where he discussed Litvinenko's bizarre poisoning death, saying that "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.'"

Alexander Litvinenko was a Russian dissident who died under mysterious circumstances late last year, wasting away from the toxic effects of the radioactive element Polonium 210. He started out as a KGB agent, and was later promoted to senior operational officer in the department investigating organized crime at the FSB, as the KGB was renamed following dissolution of the U.S.S.R. In 1998 he fell out of favor with Vladimir Putin, who was head of the FSB at the time. Along with four other FSB agents, Litvinenko accused Putin for approving the assassination of Boris Berezovsky, an ally of Boris Yeltsin.

After notifying Berezovsky of the assassination plot, Litvinenko was fired, arrested three times, and jailed for a month. He then sought political asylum in London, bringing his wife and young son with him. Once there, Litvinenko became an outspoken journalist, writing unceasingly against the abuses of the Russian government.

Litvinenko's accusations of Russian government abuse grew more and more extreme with time. He claimed that the FSB had trained Ayman al-Zawahiri, the deputy leader of al-Qaida, in the late 1990s. He then published a newspaper article saying that Putin was a pedophile. Finally, when fellow journalist Anna Politkovskaya, reknown for her exposés of the Russian government's activities in Chechnya, was shot to death, Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering her assassination.

That accusation may have been his undoing. Not soon after, two Russian businessmen, Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent, and Dmitri Kovtun, a former army officer, met with Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel in London. That was the night that Litvinenko was poisoned with Polonium 210. Later investigations showed that Litvinenko's teapot and cup, as well as the hotel bar and several members of the bar's staff, were contaminated with Polonium 210.

The Russian government denied any involvement with Litvinenko's death, and a spokesman for Putin told "Dateline" that the assassination was probably the work of individuals who wanted to smear Russia's image in the popular media. Meanwhile, the public watched as Litvinenko wasted away from the poisonous effects of Polonium 210. He died on November 23^rd, within 3 weeks of the meeting at the Millenium Hotel.

Due to the highly bizarre nature of Litvinenko's death, many journalists and other security officials took notice and started raising questions. The fact that the poisoning was the result of Polonium 210, a radioactive isotope that few people have access to, and of which most is manufactured and maintained in Russia, immediately pointed the finger at Russian intelligence. Paul Joyal, with his views about the KGB already well-known, was one of those officials raising questions. Therefore, his recent shooting has understandably raised eyebrows. For the moment, though, the police and FBI cannot attribute anything more to his shooting other than the rising crime rate in Washington's and Maryland's suburbs.

Interestingly, Joyal's shooting happened less than a month after reporter Daniel McGrory, who had also written and spoken out about the Litvinenko case, died suddenly of a heart attack at age 54. He had also recently appeared on "Dateline" to discuss Litvinenko's bizarre poisoning.

Sources: Expert in Russian poisoning case is shot http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17424538/

Litvinenko assassins likely to escape justice http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17246562/