[tikumo]

Why is this weird? It's logical the highest person has to be responsible? The CIA or MI6 would probably do the same for their spies. I think it's better than the alternative of an unknown high person within the ranks to make this call..

[mavdi]

Exactly, Russian secret service were either dumb to do it in such obvious way or just wanted to send a message to other spies. There are plenty of unexplained British and US spy deaths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_(weapons_expert)

[tlrobinson]

'His decomposing naked remains were found in a red The North Face bag, padlocked from the outside, in the bath of the main bedroom's en-suite bathroom.'

...

'A subsequent Metropolitan Police re-investigation concluded that Williams's death was "probably an accident."'

... what?

[rdancer]

If you want to send a message, you don't make it a plausible accident. And if you really want to send a message loud and clear, you let it be understood that this was no rogue element; the whole government backs this up: another branch of the executive, the judiciary (no review), and the legislative (no investigative committee).

[elthran]

Yeah - completely farcical ruling.

However, surely if he was killed to order, the people responsible would make it far less obvious, and if it was attempted to be covered up - surely it wouldn't be as poorly done as this?

[mavdi]

Yes, but exactly the same logic could be applied to Litvinenko. Death by plutonium is so obvious that one might think it was meant to be that way.

[elthran]

I can see the use of killing someone with a painful, elongated death by polonium poisoning, it's obvious, and makes a statement. I don't feel the same can be said for making the body of someone appear in a locked bag though - people's reactions are closer to "WTF?" rather than shock.

[bshimmin]

If it weren't so awful, the Met's verdict after their investigation into Williams' death is almost comical - sort of like Occam's Razor taken to some sort of incredible extreme. I mean, of course he accidentally padlocked himself into a bag and died - happens every day, right?

[DyslexicAtheist]

indeed MI6 and CIA go way beyond targeting isolated threats and are no better when using pre-emptive strikes in countries they have not declared war on.

https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/

US politics are a major annoyance with their blanket surveillance and pushing TTP and they affect me over here in Europe while I can't vote them out of power because I'm not a US citizen and also have no rights to complain ... so yes I don't care much what Putin is doing and I seriously don't mind as long as Russia provides a bit of a counter balance to the Bull in a China shop that is the US.