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Comment by at-fates-hands | Hacker News Reader

If the CIA wanted to grab him, they could, regardless of where he is.

The fact that it might ruffle a few feathers diplomatically is hardly something the CIA considers when they handle operations like the one they're describing. Also, if they did grab him, trust me, he wouldn't be heard from again. Considering Snowden has an army of governments after him, it would be easy for the CIA to run a disinformation campaign to keep people guessing who really kidnapped him.

It would be easy for the CIA to rotate him between several of their "black sites" around the world and basically let him wither and die in one these miserable places.

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It'll look pretty bad when the headline is "Six CIA operatives killed, three captured in Moscow trying to abduct Snowden"

I'm probably foolish for doubting we'd ever see such a headline.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324303/Russia-seize...

I really doubt that the Russians would kill CIA operatives.

At least as long as the CIA operatives are not crazy enough to run an armed operation in Moscow.

I assumed snatching Snowden would imply an armed op, and even without weapons trying to physically grab him could very well results in Russians shooting.

But yeah, I seriously doubt they'd kill anyone unless they needed to.

Spies generally operate under diplomatic cover and are returned to the embassy after being caught since they have "diplomatic immunity." Then they fly home, have their alias changed, and never return to that country. Killing a diplomat, spy or not, would cause some huge issues between the two nations involved. So, no, countries are not likely to ever kill spies.

There's a difference between spies & gun-toting operatives. Spies usually work under diplomatic cover, but operatives (think seal team six) probably don't get their passports stamped when they enter a country.

Wouldn't they just use hired proxies ?

It probably isn't that easy to find competent people to do that.

I doubt this. It's likely the FSB has him under constant surveillance.

Moreover, even if the US managed to grab him, it'd be easier to manufacture a bogus story explaining how he suddenly ended up in custody. After that, he'd just be sent off to ADX Florence for life.

Not in Russia, probably not in Iran or North Korea. Challenging in China.

They could likely assassinate him in most places, although in NK/RU/CN/IR it would likely involve a lot of collateral damage, although probably not global thermonuclear war.

If the CIA wanted to grab him, they could, regardless of where he is.

Umm, no. That's not quite how things work.

They could do it, it would absolutely destroy our geopolitical relations with important countries in the process, which is hopefully why they didn't try.

? An ex KGB guy was assassinated in London with radioactive poison and lived to name the killers.

That ruffled the feathers until a few years later when it was all swept under the carpet.

Now the disagreement is over Ukraine and Syria. So Russia is in the bad books again for the killing

The UK isn't a major superpower though. Russia sees the UK as the poodle of the United States, and although it loves it's poodle, poodles can easily be replaced. Putin was sending a very specific and threatening message to any Russian dissidents living in the UK. You aren't safe even if you thought you were. Shut up.

Haha, best characterization - "loves its poodle, but"

Hardly swept under the carpet. It's an ongoing diplomatic headache. Just a couple of weeks ago, a public enquiry (which Litvinenko's widow had pushed for) publicly announced that Litvinenko was most probably murdered by the FSB with Putin's approval.

People would continue to ask questions. These things come out after a period of years. Look at UK's experience of 'the troubles' for examples.

If the CIA wanted to grab him, they could, regardless of where he is

In Russia? Spetsnaz would eat them alive. Maybe Mossad could pull it off but no way the CIA.

What does Spetsnaz do with this? It's the same as you would say that Delta would prevent some crime in US soil.

Domestic counter-terrorism is a Spetsnaz mission too https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vympel

They could never keep it secret. If they had got him the pressure on the CIA to prove they didn't do it would be immense, let alone we can be damn sure if Russia could prove it then Putin would waste no time. Then the pressure would be right back on the Obama Administration to produce him, alive.

Life isn't an action movie. Killing (in?)famous people without getting caught or creating repercussions isn't a simple sure thing, unless you're bombing shepherds with drones.

While I agree life isn't an action movie, perhaps the long list of Iraqi scientists being assassinated or the even longer list of Russian, North Korean or Chinese dissidents being done away with seems to be a very simple thing for those oppressive, murderous regimes to do without much interference.

And what has anybody ever done about it? Maybe sent out a few strongly worded memos, if anything at all.

None of those people have anything remotely like the global profile Snowden created with his actions. It's not really comparable to a no-name nuclear scientist getting assassinated.

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