All Is Fair

They say all is fair in love and war but, dang!:

"This case of poisoning Yushchenko is not an isolated one at all,' says Andrei Piontkovsky, head of the Center for Strategic Studies in Moscow. 'This practice was routine for the KGB in Soviet times, and I don't think their successors have higher moral standards.'

Mr. Yushchenko Sunday checked out of a clinic in Vienna after doctors confirmed that dioxin poisoning was responsible for severe facial scarring and skin discoloration.

Yushchenko has long claimed that the condition was the result of an assassination attempt.
Ukrainian authorities on Saturday reopened a criminal investigation into the poisoning, which had been closed by the former prosecutor Gennady Vasilyev for lack of evidence.

Although dioxins are a common industrial pollutant, doctors said Yushchenko had 1,000 times the normal concentration in his system, leading to conclusions of foul play.

'We suspect involvement of an external party, but we cannot answer as to who cooked what or who was with him when he ate,' Dr. Michael Zimpfer told reporters in Vienna Saturday.

Whether by coincidence or not, Mr. Yushchenko fell ill soon after dining on Sept. 5 with the head of Ukraine's SBU secret service, Gen. Igor Smeshko. Officials and Ukraine's state-run media had scoffed at Yushchenko's claims of poisoning, pointing instead to his love of sushi and high living as the probable cause."

I hope Dubya has a food taster the next time he goes to visit his buddy Putin.