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[ominous music playing]
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[narrator] In the shadowy world
of espionage,
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the act of assassination must be discreet.
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[man] The importance
of these various methods
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is to leave no trace behind
when possible.
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[narrator] While there are
many ways to kill,
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poison is one of the most common.
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He pushed it into his face.
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Fired it, the cyanide gas was inhaled…
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[narrator] Intelligence agencies
have created innovative delivery systems
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for the poisons.
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Some of these substances
were considered for use
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against leaders,
such as Fidel Castro in Cuba.
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[narrator] For some, death comes quickly,
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but others take time to die.
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He died a gruesome death
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as his organs literally exploded inside.
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[narrator] The attacks are audacious.
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The Russian government used…
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a nuclear weapon
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to kill someone in downtown London.
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[narrator] The use of poison
to assassinate sends a clear message.
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Their people should not defect,
their people should not cooperate.
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Their people should not
turn against the leaders.
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[theme music playing]
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[narrator]
Intelligence agencies use espionage
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to gain military
and political intelligence
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on their foreign adversaries,
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but sometimes intelligence services
also train operatives
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to carry out assassinations.
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One preferred method is to use poison.
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Engineers and chemists
within the intel world
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have armed assassins with a variety
of ingenious and discreet devices
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to carry out the operations,
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using everything from gas guns
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to radioactive pellets,
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to make sure their targets
pay the ultimate price.
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[Joyal] There's a long history
of assassination being used as a tool
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of espionage to eliminate people.
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It's been used in many ways,
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not only to kill them
but to make them useless.
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[narrator] One incident during
the Cold War utilized a poison umbrella
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against Georgi Markov,
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who had defected from England
from the People's Republic of Bulgaria.
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Now, Markov was a dissident,
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but was also a commentator
for BBC's Bulgarian Service.
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And between 1975 and 1978,
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he did a devastating series of reports
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that pointed to the ineptitude,
the corruption,
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of then Bulgarian President Todor Zhivkov.
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Zhivkov wanted him dead.
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And the idea was to create
a pneumatically fired device
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that would shoot a tiny pellet,
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a little larger than the head of a pin.
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That pellet would be cross-drilled
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and inside would be filled
the poison ricin.
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[narrator] Georgi Markov
was followed by an assassin
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as he walked across the Waterloo Bridge
to catch a bus on the other side.
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[Joyal] Someone came up
from behind him
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and hit him on the back of his thigh
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with the umbrella tip and injected
the ricin pellet into his calf.
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He was brought to the hospital.
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He was complaining, "Something happened.
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I believe I've been poisoned."
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[narrator] Four days later,
49-year-old Markov was dead.
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Another clever and lethal device
was developed by the KGB in the mid-'50s.
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They called it
the poison gas assassination gun.
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This weapon had the capability
to kill instantly.
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[Melton] It was essentially
a small cylinder
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hidden inside a newspaper.
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And inside was a small vial
of prussic acid,
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a detonator cap,
and a triggering device.
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The trigger would impact the detonator.
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It would cause the vile of prussic acid
to vaporize,
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and it would emit cyanide gas.
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The trace of that substance
would dissipate rapidly.
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So by the time you would perform
an autopsy, you don't find anything.
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The importance of these various methods
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is to leave no trace behind
when possible.
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[narrator] In this case,
the target for elimination
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was anti-Soviet Ukrainian national
and dissident leader Dr. Lev Rebet.
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The assassin selected for the mission
was KGB officer Bohdan Stashynsky.
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Thirty minutes before the attack,
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he had to take an antidote
that would protect him
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from the accidental over-spray
or a back-spray
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of any of the gas
that he may inhale accidentally.
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[narrator] After taking the antidote,
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Stashynsky lay in wait for Dr. Rebet
to return to his Munich apartment.
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[Melton] So Stashynsky
positioned himself one floor above
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and he began to walk down
as Dr. Rebet walked up.
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And holding the newspaper
in his right hand,
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he pushed it into his face,
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and the startled Dr. Rebet recoiled,
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-breathed deeply just as he fired it.
-[coughing]
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The cyanide gas was inhaled.
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Stashynsky simply continued
walking down the steps and left.
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[narrator] Dr. Rebet died instantly
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and Stashynsky continued
on his next mission,
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to kill Stepan Bandera,
a Ukrainian radical politician.
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This time he used the KGB's improved
version of the single-barrel gas gun.
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The KGB decided
if the single-barrel gas gun was good,
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well, then they should have
a double-barreled gas gun.
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And they simply duplicated this weapon,
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mounted it together
so that when you squeezed,
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you would trigger two barrels
of cyanide gas.
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[narrator] The Soviets weren't
the only ones experimenting
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with poison assassination devices.
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In the 1960s, an infamous secret project
called MK-ULTRA
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was formed by the United States
Central Intelligence Agency
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Office of Technical Services, or the OTS.
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MK-ULTRA was the overall program name
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for 149 separate projects,
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that was originated in 1953
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by the director of CIA at the time,
Allen Dulles.
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Some of them, by standards
of the 21st century,
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uh, seem to be absolutely
out of…
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uh, out of responsible research,
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in that research
was done with unwitting people.
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Uh, substances were given,
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particularly LSD, to some unwitting folks.
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Uh, the results
were not always constructive.
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[Melton] As part of the program,
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they had a target to achieve
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a assassination device
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that could silently fire a projectile
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that could impart a lethal substance.
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What they used was a modification
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of essentially a tranquilizer gun
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that was used to shoot animals.
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And they gave it the name
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the "non-discernible
bio-inoculator pistol."
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Does this pistol fire the dart?
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[man] Yes, it does, Mr. Chairman,
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and a special one was developed
which potentially would be able
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to enter the target without perception.
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[narrator]
During the Church Committee hearings,
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CIA Director William Colby testified
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that toxic agents were being used
in CIA assassination devices.
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It certainly showed the capability
of what could be done
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by using a pneumatically powered fléchette
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that could carry a very toxic substance,
such as shellfish toxin.
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[Wallace] There was
no prohibition at the time
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of assassination programs
by the United States government.
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And so some of these substances
were considered for use against leaders,
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such as Fidel Castro in Cuba.
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Then subsequently in the 1970s,
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by executive order,
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the CIA was prohibited
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from engaging in any
assassination operations,
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and that executive order stands today.
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[narrator] No such orders
were given in Russia,
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where assassinations
have historically been used
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against critics of the regime.
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[tense music playing]
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[Melton] Yushchenko
was not a friend of Russia.
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As prime minster of the Ukraine,
Yushchenko was a very viable candidate
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and appeared to be on his way
to be elected president.
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He was invited to a dinner
at the intelligence service.
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He soon became very ill,
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was flown out
of the country to Western doctors
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and discovered levels
of the toxic substance
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that were thousands of times higher than
one would find in the normal environment.
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[narrator] The attack was traced back
to the dinner Yushchenko had attended
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with two leaders
of the Security Service of Ukraine,
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the SBU.
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He was served a soup,
and the soup was laden with dioxin.
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[narrator] Yushchenko had ingested
hazardous amounts of TCDD,
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the most potent dioxin,
and a contaminant in Agent Orange.
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It left him horribly disfigured,
but it didn't kill him.
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And ultimately he survived
and was elected president.
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But to this day he still bears marks
of the disfigurement.
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[narrator] Till then,
assassinations had been creative affairs
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with an emphasis on masking
the actual cause of death
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to make it look like an accident.
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But 2006 marked a new era
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and a new level of aggression
by the Russian state.
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Russians have always felt
justified in reaching out
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and touching their own people,
their own nationals, wherever they are.
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And they wanna send a message.
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Their people should not defect.
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Their people should not cooperate
with foreign intelligence services.
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Their people should not turn against
the leaders, their own leadership.
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[narrator] Alexander Litvinenko,
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an outspoken critic
of Russian President Putin,
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may have known the risks
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but could never have imagined
the lengths they would take for revenge.
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[Melton] Litvinenko was a former officer
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in the Russian FSB,
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which was the former second directorate,
the counterintelligence directorate.
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He operated in Moscow.
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He was married
to a very beautiful ballerina
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by the name of Marina.
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Alexander Litvinenko was really
a remarkable person
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in the history of the modern Russia,
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because he was a law enforcement officer
who focused on corruption.
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In fact, he presented to Putin
his analysis of corruption rings,
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uh, and at that point Putin dismissed him.
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Eventually his unit was asked
to participate
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in the assassination
of Boris Berezovsky,
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who was a famous, or infamous, oligarch,
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who at the time was serving
in a national security capacity
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for the Yeltsin government in trying
to broker peace in Chechnya.
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[narrator] Litvinenko
and other members of his unit
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refused to go through with the hit,
instead they went public.
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Most of the men
all had balaclava masks on,
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but Alexander did not.
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He gave a press conference
and they announced this.
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It was an extraordinary event.
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And soon after that, he was arrested
on some trumped-up charges
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and put in prison
for a particular period of time.
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[narrator] Upon his release,
Litvinenko and his family left Russia
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and were granted asylum in Great Britain.
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[Melton] Litvinenko had maintained
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a greater public profile
than he should have.
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And he wrote a book which asserted
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that the key to Putin's election in Russia
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had been that he had placed bombs
in Russian apartments
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which went off and killed people
and were blamed on Chechen rebels.
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And as a strong nationalist,
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he asserted that Putin had then
ridden that wave of popularity.
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But he went further to claim
that Putin was a pedophile.
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[audience clapping]
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[narrator] On the day he was poisoned,
Litvinenko took a series of meetings,
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one of them with a man named
Scaramella at a sushi restaurant,
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the other with Dmitry Kovtun
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and former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi
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at the Millennium Hotel's
Pinewood Bar in London.
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He went home that night,
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became violently ill.
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[Joyal] And his wife thought that it was
some type of food poisoning,
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but then he could not stop the vomiting
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and all the rest
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and realized that, uh…
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"I've been poisoned."
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Now, Alexander was a very fit individual.
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He would run three to five miles a day.
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Uh, he was an extremely tough man
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and determined to help the authorities
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find who was behind this,
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because all of us knew that the Kremlin
was definitely behind this.
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This is not something
that is done by anyone else.
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And it was only within the last 24 hours
that they detected,
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through an analysis of his body fluids,
that it was, in fact, polonium.
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If he had died 24 hours before,
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he would have been buried
with "cause unknown."
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[siren wailing]
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[narrator] The Counterterrorism Unit
at the Metropolitan Police
248
00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:02,800
determined that Litvinenko had been given
a lethal dose of polonium
249
00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:06,680
at his meeting with Lugovoi and Kovtun
at the Millennium Hotel.
250
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:15,000
[Joyal] At that hotel,
he was presented with the opportunity
251
00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:16,520
to have some tea, green tea.
252
00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:18,520
He had it, didn't taste right.
253
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:21,000
Apparently in the tea,
254
00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:24,440
was a grain of polonium
255
00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:27,600
and the grain of polonium
would be the size,
256
00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:31,640
if you took a packet
of artificial sweetener,
257
00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:33,960
one tiny grain of the sweetener…
258
00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:38,040
with that as polonium,
259
00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:39,920
once it was in the tea,
260
00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:44,440
from the moment he ingested it,
he was dead.
261
00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:46,560
He became radioactive.
262
00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:48,560
Everything he touched,
263
00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:51,000
the seat that he sat.
264
00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:54,400
When he went to the men's room,
he placed his hand on the door.
265
00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:56,520
The area above the urinal.
266
00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:04,280
[narrator] The British authorities
were also able to track the movement
267
00:17:04,360 --> 00:17:08,120
of Litvinenko's assassins,
Lugovoi and Kovtun.
268
00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:11,520
[Melton] The British authorities went back
269
00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:15,320
and tracked the flights they had…
270
00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:19,200
that the individuals carrying
the compound had flown
271
00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:20,880
from Moscow on British Air.
272
00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:26,000
And they could tell which seat they were
sitting in because it was radioactive.
273
00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:28,880
They track… they flew
to an apartment in Germany.
274
00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:32,120
They could track that apartment,
it was still radioactive.
275
00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:34,720
-[monitor clicking rapidly]
-[Joyal] These men had no idea…
276
00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:36,840
…that this was polonium.
277
00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:38,160
I guarantee you…
278
00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:44,720
because they were absolutely
careless with it.
279
00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:50,880
And that explains why it's messy, to me.
280
00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:56,320
And clearly to get access to polonium,
281
00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:59,080
anyone would know it had to be
state-sanctioned.
282
00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:02,760
There had to be approval
at the very top of the Kremlin
283
00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:06,280
to authorize this particular operation.
284
00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:12,480
[Melton] There is a famous picture of him
laying in the hospital,
285
00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:15,400
uh, giving kind of a last will
and testament.
286
00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:21,000
So it was a pointed message and the first
287
00:18:21,840 --> 00:18:24,600
nuclear assassination that we know of.
288
00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:27,520
[narrator] Along with being
a security analyst,
289
00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:32,040
Paul Joyal was also
a close personal friend of Litvinenko's.
290
00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:33,760
He appeared on Dateline
291
00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:38,600
to publicly accuse the Kremlin for being
responsible for his friend's death.
292
00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:40,480
Four days after the show aired,
293
00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:41,960
Joyal was attacked.
294
00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:43,560
One shot was fired.
295
00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:47,480
It entered about right here
and exited over here,
296
00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:50,120
uh, blew right through me.
297
00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:52,720
And then, uh…
298
00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:57,920
he came in close
and I heard him-- the gun click.
299
00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,640
And he chambered…
300
00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:05,040
tried to re-chamber the round
and it jammed.
301
00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:09,080
[narrator] Joyal survived the attack,
but in the months that followed,
302
00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:12,840
many other prominent critics of Putin
were not so lucky.
303
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:17,560
[Joyal] You have Boris Berezovksy who died
under very mysterious circumstances.
304
00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:23,320
He was found hanged in his bathroom.
305
00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:26,240
His partner, Badri Patarkatsishvili,
306
00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:30,360
with a heart attack in London…
307
00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:32,760
-[camera shutters clicking]
-…at his home.
308
00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:35,520
Countries tend to eliminate people
309
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,080
for many more reasons
than national strategic policy.
310
00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:42,680
The most recent visible example
311
00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:46,600
would be the attempted assassination
of Sergei Skripal.
312
00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:49,720
[tense music playing]
313
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,680
[narrator] Skripal was one of four
alleged double agents
314
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:57,640
released from Russia in a spy swap
with the US in 2010.
315
00:19:57,720 --> 00:19:59,320
[plane engine running]
316
00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:04,160
And Skripal had been a member of GRU,
317
00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:06,040
Russian military intelligence,
318
00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:10,800
and is believed
to have been actively cooperating
319
00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:15,720
with British intelligence to identify
other GRU agents around the world.
320
00:20:15,800 --> 00:20:18,000
According to the British authorities,
321
00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,960
Sergei Skripal
was living somewhat openly.
322
00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:25,200
His daughter Yulia had just come
to visit him from Moscow.
323
00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:27,880
[narrator] Sergei Skripal
and his daughter Yulia
324
00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,760
had spent a day together
in Salisbury, England,
325
00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:35,000
stopping at Bishops' Mill Pub,
then to Zizzi, an Italian restaurant.
326
00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:40,840
They're last spotted on CCTV footage
outside the restaurant at 3:47 p.m.
327
00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:44,720
before being found unconscious
25 minutes later on a bench.
328
00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:48,320
They were foaming from the mouth
so they thought there was an overdose.
329
00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:55,080
[narrator] With CCTV cameras
installed all over London,
330
00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:58,960
it didn't take long for authorities
to identify two suspicious men
331
00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:02,240
in and around the vicinity
of Skripal's home.
332
00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:13,200
[Joyal] They were able to get
some images and then later
333
00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:17,880
use those images to go back
and identify the two individuals,
334
00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:22,720
who were identified as members of the GRU,
the Russian military intelligence.
335
00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:30,080
With this, again,
a forensic trail of video,
336
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:33,680
they got a timeline,
so now they see that these people
337
00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:37,800
were in close proximity to the site
338
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:43,200
in which Skripal and his daughter
were discovered
339
00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:47,120
and were able to conduct
the forensic analysis
340
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:48,520
on the house,
341
00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:51,760
in which they identified the Novichok.
342
00:21:57,480 --> 00:21:59,080
It was used against them
343
00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:02,360
by spraying it on his door handle.
344
00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:07,400
[spraying]
345
00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:10,400
[narrator]
Assassins used a modified perfume bottle
346
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:12,240
to carry the Novichok,
347
00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:15,480
which they sprayed on the handle
of Skripal's front door,
348
00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:19,240
then discarded seven miles away
in the trash can.
349
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:22,320
[monitor beeping]
350
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:25,360
[narrator] Although Skripal
and his daughter both survived,
351
00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:29,760
a woman who came in contact
with the poison almost three months later
352
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:31,600
became an unwitting victim.
353
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:41,320
It was later found by a man and a woman
searching through rubbish bins.
354
00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:45,400
When she saw the perfume,
he found it, gave it to her.
355
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:48,000
The first thing she did
was spread it on her wrist.
356
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:49,280
She died.
357
00:22:49,360 --> 00:22:51,200
He ultimately survived.
358
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:56,080
If it had not been discovered
in the trash bin
359
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:58,720
by the two people searching
and the woman died,
360
00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:02,720
it is unlikely the authorities
would have ever learned
361
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:05,480
how the nerve agent was applied.
362
00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:09,160
But, because of that quirk
of the rubbish divers
363
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:13,840
that were going through the rubbish bin,
that's what exposed the device itself.
364
00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:19,640
Novichok is produced only
in probably three places in the world.
365
00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:25,600
So, it had to be produced
at a nation-state-level facility.
366
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:28,280
Whether or not this was ordered
367
00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:31,360
at the highest level
of the Russian government
368
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:34,440
is known only to the authorities
in the Russian government.
369
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:38,040
But certainly it appears
that someone within the GRU
370
00:23:38,120 --> 00:23:41,960
consciously made a decision
to go forward with this action.
371
00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:46,160
[narrator] In response to the attack,
the British government
372
00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:49,080
publicly accused Russia
of attempted murder
373
00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:53,120
and, in a coordinated response
with its Western allies,
374
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:55,800
announced a series of punitive measures,
375
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:57,800
including the expulsion
376
00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:02,000
of an unprecedented 153 Russian diplomats.
377
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:09,520
[Melton] The cleanup that's taken place
in Salisbury, England, at the restaurant
378
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:14,360
and the area has cost
the British government enormously.
379
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:17,640
One police officer was hospitalized
for a long period of time.
380
00:24:18,360 --> 00:24:21,720
His home and personal effects
had to be basically destroyed
381
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:24,400
because of the potential contamination.
382
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:27,680
No one knows the shelf life of Novichok.
383
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:32,040
It is one of the most virulent,
dangerous substances in the world.
384
00:24:32,120 --> 00:24:35,240
[Joyal] The idea that Novichok,
this, um…
385
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:36,720
banned, by the way.
386
00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:43,440
Banned by treaty,
by the chemical weapons convention.
387
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:47,120
Banned… was used again
388
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:51,240
in a foreign country to kill somebody.
389
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:53,880
It's just brutal, it's barbaric.
390
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:56,360
[Melton] And it was
a very pointed warning.
391
00:24:56,440 --> 00:25:01,680
I would believe every defector
in any country in the world
392
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:04,440
that had betrayed Russia
393
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,360
would sleep with one eye open.
394
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:12,200
So Russians don't have a problem
reaching out, touching their own people,
395
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:14,960
and neither apparently
do the North Koreans.
396
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:21,440
[narrator] Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son
of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il,
397
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:24,120
was considered the heir apparent,
until he was caught
398
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:28,160
trying to go to Tokyo Disneyland
and embarrassed the regime.
399
00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:31,440
Kim Jong-nam went into exile,
400
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:35,520
allowing half-brother Kim Jong-un
to become North Korea's leader.
401
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,800
[crowd applauding]
402
00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:43,600
Now, the brother who was living in exile
403
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:46,280
had very poor tradecraft.
404
00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:50,440
He was using the same passport
405
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:52,600
and had not changed his name
406
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:54,720
and had been living very openly,
407
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:57,120
knowing that his brother wanted him dead.
408
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:00,080
[narrator] The North Koreans
devised an elaborate plan
409
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:02,520
of the likes of a James Bond movie
410
00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:05,600
to carry out the assassination
in broad daylight
411
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:09,600
at the Kuala Lumpur
International Airport in Malaysia.
412
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,680
The North Koreans apparently
were able to send in a team
413
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:14,440
in advance of his arrival.
414
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:15,840
They were waiting in the airport.
415
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:17,760
[narrator] In this disturbing footage
416
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:22,720
captured on Kuala Lumpur's
International Airport CCTV cameras,
417
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:26,440
Kim Jong-nam is seen walking
through the departure terminal
418
00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:28,080
when two women approach.
419
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:31,600
One lunged at him from behind,
covering his face,
420
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:33,560
then quickly walking away.
421
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:36,880
The attack takes
less than three seconds to carry out.
422
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:40,440
He immediately complained
to the authorities
423
00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:43,200
that he believed…
this was trying to kill him.
424
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:46,560
He fell ill within minutes and died
425
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:49,320
before there was no way
they could resuscitate him.
426
00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:56,200
Two women, a Cambodian
and a Vietnamese, were both arrested.
427
00:26:56,280 --> 00:27:00,240
And what they explained was
that they thought they had been paid
428
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,160
to take part in a prank
429
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:06,440
and the prank was to be televised
and put on YouTube
430
00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:09,320
and the idea,
they would identify a traveler
431
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:12,560
and they would take a rag
and then rub it on his face.
432
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:14,920
All the time this would be
a hilarious joke.
433
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:18,880
[narrator] The women had been paid
by North Korean agents
434
00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:23,680
posing as television producers
to take part in a prank.
435
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:27,640
What the women didn't know
was who the victim of the prank was
436
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:32,920
or that the substance they used
was a deadly nerve agent called VX.
437
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,240
[tense music playing].
438
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:43,280
Kim Jong-nam died
within 20 minutes of the attack.
439
00:27:43,360 --> 00:27:46,160
Experts suggest the women
may have been unaffected
440
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,720
because they washed their hands
immediately after the attack.
441
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:54,600
Another theory is that the assassins
used a binary concoction,
442
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:58,040
smearing two non-fatal elements of VX
443
00:27:58,120 --> 00:28:01,840
that mixed on the victim's face
to make it lethal.
444
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:06,280
Murder charges were dropped
against the women in 2019
445
00:28:06,360 --> 00:28:09,800
and it's widely believed
that Kim Jong-nam was murdered
446
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:13,560
on the orders
of his half-brother Kim Jong-un.
447
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:19,440
Interestingly,
North Korea issued an apology to Vietnam
448
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:25,000
for causing one of their citizens
to be involved in this event,
449
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:27,680
though they never admitted
any involvement with the event.
450
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:35,240
[narrator] Although assassinations
are no longer sanctioned by the CIA
451
00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:36,400
in the United States,
452
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:39,520
targeted assassinations
have been the norm
453
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:42,680
in the fight against terrorism
for the past 20 years.
454
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:45,960
[Melton] So, targeted assassinations
455
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:49,320
against terrorists are considered
456
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:54,800
viable elements of US policy
regardless of administration.
457
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:59,000
Poisons do not play any role
in conventional espionage.
458
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:03,040
However, it's certainly
reasonable to believe
459
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,680
that future adversaries will continue,
460
00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:10,480
for reasons of vanity
or revenge against defectors,
461
00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:12,280
to want to eliminate them.
462
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,360
And you have very clever services
463
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:19,720
with access to some of the most toxic
substances in the world,
464
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:21,560
such as nerve agents,
465
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:25,080
that will continually
be looking at new ways
466
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:27,440
to deliver the poisons and kill people.
467
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:29,320
So it's a viable threat.
468
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:34,080
The deaths are so horrible
that a public death
469
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:36,760
serves as an ample warning,
470
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:39,480
and there are careful reasons,
471
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:41,600
that when people commit to become spies,
472
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:44,960
should they be so fortunate
enough to escape and live,
473
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:49,160
probably there's good reason for them
to live quiet lives ever after,
474
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:53,040
because if they take a public presence,
they are at great risk.
475
00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:07,760
[Joyal] Through human history,
we see poisons being used,
476
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:10,720
but today, the variety of means
477
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:12,960
is certainly greater.
478
00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:18,640
And, unfortunately, the will
to use these weapons to kill people,
479
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:21,200
I believe, has never been higher.
480
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:25,160
[atmospheric music playing]
40736
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