6 ms·

Why do people immediately assume death rays? Poisoning agents designed to avoid detection are pretty much Russia's specialty. They might have something that th

Why do people immediately assume death rays? Poisoning agents designed to avoid detection are pretty much Russia's specialty. They might have something that the CIA is unable to detect, or is unwilling to advertise its ability to detect.

chrisco255 6y ago
Why would they go through the trouble of poisoning someone just to give them migraines?
- verroq 6y ago
  Because it disables a person that CIA has spent years and countless $$$ training. Since symptoms are psychological, there no way to even prove that you did anything.
  - chrisco255 6y ago
    One person. That's an awful lot of coordination and risk and planning to pull it off for one guy. No offense, but he can't be that important. There's tens of thousands of agents in the CIA. He still has his memory, so it's not as if there's some secrets being protected there.
    - verroq 6y ago
      Looks like it scales fine to an embassy in Cuba.
- Inconel 6y ago
  As someone who suffers from infrequent migraines, I can attest to the fact that they are completely debilitating to me. That seems reason enough. I haven’t had the time to read this particular story but a recent one I did read claimed that this led to the retirement of a CIA officer.
  - dvsfish 6y ago
    This article indeed includes that detail.
  - chrisco255 6y ago
    Ok, but this officer can't be THAT important to U.S. goals in Russia. Let's say they did give him migraines, ok, now what? The U.S. just sends in 5 other agents with protective headgear. It just doesn't really achieve anything.
- clusterfish 6y ago
  I dunno, why go through the trouble of deathraying them towards the same goal? To send a message? To test it out? Could be anything. Poisoning is not that hard when you're a nation state. Light coat of magic dust on your door handle is just one of many methods.
- kebman 6y ago
  What would you do if the world's most powerful state sent undercover agents to your country? This is a powerful message to send. It says, "We know what you're doing. Moreover we known who's doing it. And there's a risk and a price for doing that on our sovereign soil." This message isn't just sent to the leaders and higher-ups, who has most likely already gotten protests through diplomatic channels. Instead it's directly targeted at agents, of whom many will have second thought about accepting such assignments if they know they're putting their own life and health at stake. On the other hand, I'm not truly convinced about case. It also sounds a bit like American made spin, to increase hostility towards Russia. On the other hand, Russia has indeed increased their undercover activities, and some of them might be eager to show or warn the world that they're capable and dangerous. But death rays? Sounds like something out of an old James Bond film lol. So if nothing else, perhaps more people will write good spy flicks from this...
  - tacon 6y ago
    Since the world's most powerful states have been sending undercover agents to their adversary states for millennia, that is hardly a (new) reason to take action against them. Both states have plenty of tools to simply kill every identified agent of the other side, so how far they go in their actions is always a policy decision, balancing goals with retaliation. Plausible deniability helps, at least for awhile.
  - NullPrefix 6y ago
    >if they know they're putting their own life and health at stake Sounds like a default setting when operating on foreign soil
    - kebman 6y ago
      So tell me, if you got three choices, Russia, Ukraine or Afghanistan, which one would you preferr? The one that actively hunts agents, the one where you might die to an IED, or the one where they're more likely to try to pay you huge sums of money to look the other way?
      - 6y ago

chrisco255 6y ago

Why would they go through the trouble of poisoning someone just to give them migraines?

verroq 6y ago
Because it disables a person that CIA has spent years and countless $$$ training. Since symptoms are psychological, there no way to even prove that you did anything.
- chrisco255 6y ago
  One person. That's an awful lot of coordination and risk and planning to pull it off for one guy. No offense, but he can't be that important. There's tens of thousands of agents in the CIA. He still has his memory, so it's not as if there's some secrets being protected there.
  - verroq 6y ago
    Looks like it scales fine to an embassy in Cuba.
Inconel 6y ago
As someone who suffers from infrequent migraines, I can attest to the fact that they are completely debilitating to me. That seems reason enough. I haven’t had the time to read this particular story but a recent one I did read claimed that this led to the retirement of a CIA officer.
- dvsfish 6y ago
  This article indeed includes that detail.
- chrisco255 6y ago
  Ok, but this officer can't be THAT important to U.S. goals in Russia. Let's say they did give him migraines, ok, now what? The U.S. just sends in 5 other agents with protective headgear. It just doesn't really achieve anything.
clusterfish 6y ago
I dunno, why go through the trouble of deathraying them towards the same goal? To send a message? To test it out? Could be anything. Poisoning is not that hard when you're a nation state. Light coat of magic dust on your door handle is just one of many methods.
kebman 6y ago
What would you do if the world's most powerful state sent undercover agents to your country? This is a powerful message to send. It says, "We know what you're doing. Moreover we known who's doing it. And there's a risk and a price for doing that on our sovereign soil." This message isn't just sent to the leaders and higher-ups, who has most likely already gotten protests through diplomatic channels. Instead it's directly targeted at agents, of whom many will have second thought about accepting such assignments if they know they're putting their own life and health at stake. On the other hand, I'm not truly convinced about case. It also sounds a bit like American made spin, to increase hostility towards Russia. On the other hand, Russia has indeed increased their undercover activities, and some of them might be eager to show or warn the world that they're capable and dangerous. But death rays? Sounds like something out of an old James Bond film lol. So if nothing else, perhaps more people will write good spy flicks from this...
- tacon 6y ago
  Since the world's most powerful states have been sending undercover agents to their adversary states for millennia, that is hardly a (new) reason to take action against them. Both states have plenty of tools to simply kill every identified agent of the other side, so how far they go in their actions is always a policy decision, balancing goals with retaliation. Plausible deniability helps, at least for awhile.
- NullPrefix 6y ago
  >if they know they're putting their own life and health at stake Sounds like a default setting when operating on foreign soil
  - kebman 6y ago
    So tell me, if you got three choices, Russia, Ukraine or Afghanistan, which one would you preferr? The one that actively hunts agents, the one where you might die to an IED, or the one where they're more likely to try to pay you huge sums of money to look the other way?
    - 6y ago