[lostlogin]

There are obvious examples of this and you may be entirely correct, but does this apply to countries that aren’t dictatorships or similar? Israel, China, USA, Britain, France, Germany, Italy et al seem to be doing ok at keeping their dirty work quiet, or am I just missing the news? It seems unlikely that they all have clean hands.

[psergeant]

I think killing a political dissident in another country that’s not actively at war is considered a bit beyond the pale by most democracies, doubly so if you’re putatively on good terms with them.

Mossad, alternatively: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Mahmoud_Al-... — although the victim was far from either a dissident or turncoat.

[lostlogin]

Extraordinary renditions come to mind. While murder wasn’t the primary aim, it happened. That involved numerous democracies.

[psergeant]

While I’m sure there are occasional counter examples, weren’t these largely from either war zones or with the cooperation of the host country?

[lostlogin]

Yes - I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.