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Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

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wraith808:
The US govt clearly can't just kill him now, otherwise they would have already done so, even at Moscow airport or in Hong Kong.
-dr_andus (July 09, 2013, 03:56 AM)
--- End quote ---

That's not so clear.  They've *chosen* not to kill him.  There's a difference.  They aren't *that* bloodthirsty that it's the first option on the table.  There are other less permanent options that leave other avenues open.  It really does take a bit for a kill order to go out on something like this.

dr_andus:
That's not so clear.  They've *chosen* not to kill him.  There's a difference.  They aren't *that* bloodthirsty that it's the first option on the table.  There are other less permanent options that leave other avenues open.  It really does take a bit for a kill order to go out on something like this.
-wraith808 (July 09, 2013, 07:59 AM)
--- End quote ---

I wasn't saying that that would have been necessarily their first option, I was just saying that they probably have the capability to do so (it is technically an option), but they can't exercise that option exactly because of the public and internationalised nature of the affair (plus the fact that Snowden might be a genuine whistleblower, not just a defector or rogue agent).

Let's not forget such an option was exercised against Anwar al-Awlaki (and there were plenty of such executions of double agents etc. during the Cold War. In fact I keep hearing about mysterious deaths of people (Westerners) even in recent years who have in one way or another had dealings with the security services).

wraith808:
^ Oh, they can, and would if it would suit their purposes/the benefits outweighed the chance of getting caught.  But, to his benefit, he's just not that big of an asset for many of the reasons that 40 has outlined.  If he was an operational asset, you can believe that this would not be happening- it would be over one way or another already, and the pieces sorted later. 

But without operational knowledge that has an expiration date, his death doesn't really serve a purpose.

app103:
At this point, you know what would make the US look really bad? If something horrible happened to him. Even if the US had nothing to do with it, nobody would ever believe that.

So, the US better hope if they have no plans on bring down whatever plane he might decide to fly on, that nobody else does, either...or that the flight doesn't meet with some other sort of actual accident, bad weather, engine malfunction, pilot error, crazy guy trying to impress a celebrity crush, etc.

wraith808:
It would make the US look bad in the short term.  In the long term, it would strengthen the clear and present danger that whistleblowers face/think about.  As long as there was no concrete evidence to link them, it wouldn't go past that, IMO.  There would be conspiracy theorists... but there already are, so the harm done would be minimal.

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