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Don't forget cia recommended assassinating him

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-lon...



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Joke or not, assassinating him was very seriously discussed at the highest levels.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-lo...


Also this, which wasn't directly the CIA but by CIA backed groups: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Letelier, a political assassination on US soil. (Although not a US citizen)

This is at least preferable to the older US practice of assassinating[1] world leaders.

1. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/05/cia-long-his...


I don't think assassinating the leader of a foreign power is particularly easy. I'm not sure the CIA ever managed it?

Two examples we know of of the CIA assassinating Americans without trial or consequences:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Awlaki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdulrahman_al-Awlaki

The potential murder of Gellman was stated by Snowden, who was trained by the CIA, and was stated on more than one occasion.


Well at least the CIA never talked about killing him [1] and they haven’t had access to unconventional weapons to make murder look like natural death for decades [2].

[1] https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2021/9/27/22696436/cia... [2] https://sofrep.com/amp/news/the-cia-heart-attack-gun-a-produ...


Yes, they were also trying to assassinate the leader of a country who was also on extremely high alert for that sort of thing. This journalist is regular joe, who also happens to be a drug user. Wouldn't it be easier to just spike his drugs, overdose him, shoot him in a "drug deal /robbery gone wrong".

There are so many better ways to assassinate someone, and I think the CIA of all people would know the appropriate amount of force required. Seriously take off the tinfoil, you're just spreading FUD.


> Surprised the cab to the airport didn't "break down" (or blow up) or he didn't get mugged on his way to the airport.

He's in no danger of being assassinated. There wouldn't be any point.

Killing him to "make an example of him" doesn't make sense. Killing him with plausible deniability wouldn't send a message and killing him openly would just would just make the CIA look bad.

However the US government can, publicly and openly, make his life very difficult.


The CIA killing him would have created a huge us pr nightmare.

The damage is already done. It's much more likely that every interested intelligence organization has already got their hands on everything he took (because that's their job) than 'US intelligence is plotting an assassination attempt' (not really their job).

He also attempted to hire an assassin.

Not assassinated, murdered. Assassination would mean there was a plot. This guy will just be an idiot.

Calling that a political assassination is a bit of a stretch, given that he helped kidnap and kill two people.

> Not only were his communication constantly monitored for years, already a breach of client attorney privilege, the US considered flagrant assassination as a potential way to handle him.

Not sure how OP could be more clearer


No, we don't do so much kidnapping (unless it leads to trial-less imprisonment at a CIA black site) as assassinations (the most public being Osama Bin Laden, of course).

You've identified 9 good reasons there.

There probably weren't any CIA plants involved and the US is unlikely to execute him.


Just some randos out for a little assassination fun. Happens all the time in the world that a bunch of foreigners attempt a stupid but audacious assassination attempt right in the middle of a concerted effort by an adversary to overthrow a government. You know the CIA wasn't involved because American movies depicts them as superhuman secret agents and these guys were the opposite of that.

Exactly what I thought.

It's much easier for a country to retire an engineer with a fat paycheck than to create an incredible amount of distrust killing him.

An assassination only makes sense if somehow he threatened to tell everything to the iranian goverment.


What's the point of assassinating anyone after the documents (Panama Papers) have already been leaked? Surely the cat's long out of the bag. Just ask Nawaz Sharif (ex-PM of Pakistan).
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