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Codebreaker found in bag attended US security conference before death (2012)

(www.wired.co.uk)
212 points ck2 | 6 comments | 30 Sep 13 11:58 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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ck2 ◴[30 Sep 13 12:51 UTC] No.6469267[source]▶
He might have been a pre-Snowden that didn't escape:

Williams was unhappy with his work environment at MI6 and felt he didn't fit in with his colleagues. During the inquest, testimony revealed that the coder had conducted unauthorised searches of an MI6 database

also: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/08/codebreaker-death/

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jaxytee ◴[30 Sep 13 13:37 UTC] No.6469518[source]▶
Killing someone and locking them up in a duffel bag in a hotel bathroom doesn't seem British governments style. Before claiming the victim was another Snowden/whistleblower, you might want to read this excerpt from the article:

"The source indicated that Williams' work to disrupt the Russian mafia could have put him at risk".

"Some of these powerful criminal networks have links with, and employ, former KGB agents who can track down people like Williams," the source said.

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bnegreve ◴[30 Sep 13 14:03 UTC] No.6469641[source]▶
Wait, so what exactly is the British government style of killing people?

If you assume the British government chooses to murder people, it also perfectly reasonable to assume that it does it using someone else style to cover its crime e.g. russian mafia style.

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1. atlantic ◴[30 Sep 13 14:09 UTC] No.6469681[source]▶
The style of a security agency generally would be to make it look like either an accidental death (car crash) or a natural death (exotic virus), so as not to attract the attention of the police or the press. The mafia style, on the other hand, would be to make it clear that he had been executed, so as to send a threatening message to the appropriate circles.
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2. VargardObyron ◴[30 Sep 13 14:19 UTC] No.6469729[source]▶
he could be potential leak, they could do it this way so rest knows how leak will end for them.

Easy and effective.

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3. Daniel_Newby ◴[30 Sep 13 14:39 UTC] No.6469837[source]▶
The general practice is to leave known spies operating and use them for counterintelligence. No other explanation is consistent with the small number of prosecutions and premature deaths.
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4. snowwrestler ◴[30 Sep 13 15:09 UTC] No.6470006{3}[source]▶
Counterintelligence is worthless if the plan is to leak to the public, rather than to the intelligence apparatus of another nation.
5. jlgreco ◴[30 Sep 13 16:50 UTC] No.6470653[source]▶
I wonder if state apologists on Russian web forums say the same thing whenever Alexander Litvinenko is brought up.

EDIT: To expand on this now that I'm not mobile: This notion of the "style" of security agencies might be what you get from Hollywood and spy novels, but you could only arrive upon this conclusion if you are selectively excluding examples from reality. Yeah, we know of the US's "heart attack gun", but we also know they are rather fond of "assassination via drone" and don't give a shit who knows it. The Russians tried to sneak the Georgi Markov assassination under the radar, but killed Alexander Litvinenko in one of the more flamboyant ways imaginable. Mossad tried to be sly with Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, but they've blown other peoples' heads off with telephone bombs on more than one occasion.

The conclusion that should be drawn from real-world examples of state assassinations should not be one that you find surprising: they do whatever they think will work best in any particular situation. That is their style.

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6. z999 ◴[02 Oct 13 00:04 UTC] No.6479870[source]▶
Actually, from the Mossad example, many of the more "known" Mossad deaths have been from bombs. So you can say that at least some spy agencies have a pattern.