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I've been thinking that the most appropriate response to this situation is to send an extraction team to rescue him.
by thanatos519 5y ago
I've been thinking that the most appropriate response to this situation is to send an extraction team to rescue him.
- zionic 5y agoI’m not sure we can count on the governments that keep JA rotting in prison to rescue a journalist.
- thanatos519 5y agoDid I say anything about governments? Let's crowdfund it.
- H8crilA 5y agoImagine thinking that money solves such problems. Who are you going to pay for that? Your neighbor Joey, he will go and perform an intelligence operation in a foreign country? Or maybe some professional CIA-as-a-service corporation?
- sillysaurusx 5y agoI might go. But I'm not sure an out of shape balding programmer would be much help. It's appealing to try to help this person, though. Maybe other people feel the same.
- sam_lowry_ 5y agoFor sure I do.
- sillysaurusx 5y agoThe main problem is that a paramilitary group (us) has a disadvantage vs a government agency (them). They have the people, the equipment, and the home territory. There's also the language barrier; most of the people we'd recruit wouldn't be able to blend in, which is crucial for an op like this. There's also the question of logistics. It would be hard to transport weapons across country borders. The most likely way to do it might be to start the op in a neighboring country. But if you want to drive, you'll probably be stopped at a checkpoint. Walking isn't very appealing. I suppose you could parachute in, Fortnite-style, but that's pushing the boundaries of believability. Plus that Mig they sent to intercept the civilian plane might have a few things to say about that. That poor guy. I wish there was something to do for him.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dylan604 5y agoWe'll use you as a distraction. You can walk up to the guards and fake a heart attack. Larry, Moe & Curly will then sneak behind the guards. I promise, it will not be an episode of Keystone Cops.
- bagacrap 5y agoyou act as if you've never watched a heist movie
- glogla 5y ago> Or maybe some professional CIA-as-a-service corporation? Actually I'm pretty sure there are PCMs who could handle it. Crowdfunding mercenaries to go against nation states would be very cyberpunk.
- midasuni 5y agoAn actual useful reason for crypto (other than money laundering)
- glogla 5y agoYeah it's not like you were going ask Shadowrunners for a refund.
- medium_burrito 5y agoExecutive Outcomes returned this last year, IIRC. They pulled off some extremely crazy thing in Indonesia a long time ago, and still have access to top talent.
- rjsw 5y agoMoney seemed to be enough to get Carlos Ghosn out of Japan [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ghosn#Flight_from_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ghosn#Flight_from_Japan
- squarefoot 5y ago> Imagine thinking that money solves such problems. Money (ie, power) creates and solves such problems; it just doesn't do that under the sun.
- rodgerd 5y agoI mean Mark Prince has shown that he and his family's companies are happy to murder for hire. That's probably a good starting point if you want killers that operate with at the support of a major Western government.
- CamperBob2 5y agoIt's been done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Wings_of_Eagles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Wings_of_Eagles
- dylan604 5y agoAlso: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Eagle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Eagle
- throwaway803453 5y agoThe likelihood of collateral damage makes this a bad idea. It's better just to sanction all gov't officials (e.g., refuse to let them travel outside of Belarus, cancel their Netflix, etc.), until he is released.
- pjc50 5y agoThis reminds me of when Mark Thatcher tried to crowdfund a coup in guinea and failed spectacularly. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Equatorial_Guinea_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_attempt https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Equatorial_Guinea_coup_... (It is of course illegal to crowdfund coup attempts and jailbreaks in foreign countries, although whether a prosecution takes place is entirely political)
- mc32 5y agoThat reminds me of the guys who popped Carlos Ghosn from Japan. Lesson is don’t do it. It’s against the law even if you think it’s the right thing.
- chmod775 5y agoIf people used "the law" as their sole guidance and moral compass, we'd still be living under kings.
- hungryforcodes 5y agoHe totally got out of Japan though.
- IAmGraydon 5y agoYou want to crowdfund sending paramilitary operatives into a foreign country, an act of war. Got it. What could go wrong?
- SuoDuanDao 5y agoIt's 2021, things going wrong seems like a given at this point. Call me irresponsible, but I am weirdly optimistic about the potential for our floundering to have unexpected upsides
- medium_burrito 5y agoAbsolutely. 5th generation warfare, motherfucker. The Russians are the world's undisputed masters of this, so it's time we paramilitarize back. Also, time to fuck Russia, hard. Putin's parkinsons won't come soon enough, and what comes after might even be worse. We should offer a visa for every Russian woman under 18. Starve the country of mothers, and their birthrate is already abysmal.
- ALittleLight 5y agoThere must be a crypto betting market out there where you could create a "Journalist will not be rescued from Belarus" bet and people could start betting against it until it became profitable enough for a mercenary company to do it.
- e_proxus 5y agoThis is such a dystopian comment, sounds like straight out of a William Gibson / Neal Stephenson / Vernor Vinge book.
- ALittleLight 5y agoI've seen crypto betting markets [1] that have bets on whether or not Joe Biden will still be President at the end of the month. Ostensibly they are about his old age or Trump proving the election fraudulent or some such. But another way to construe them is as an inducement towards assassination. 1 - https://polymarket.com/market/will-joe-biden-be-president-of-the-usa-on-july-31-2021 https://polymarket.com/market/will-joe-biden-be-president-of...
- silexia 5y agoBetter solution: assassinate Lukashenko and all his henchmen. Put the fear of god in every dictator worldwide.
- smallstepforman 5y agoSnowden? Assagne?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- retrac 5y agoWhile Lukashenko may not, some of those dictators have the effective power to assassinate Western leaders in retaliation. I'm really not sure we want to open that can of worms. It'll also blow right up in our face in terms of the desired effect. In many cases, I figure doing that would actually boost support for the regime. Many dictators are ruling right now on nationalist sentiment -- "I may be a thug but I am strong and I keep our nation safe from the Americans [or whoever]". Bumping them off will not exactly dispel that myth. If they survive, or if power transfers stably to their second-hand-man or woman, they can now portray themselves and their nation as besieged by hostile foreign powers which will stoop as low as assassination to manipulate the nation's destiny for their ulterior objectives. (The best propaganda, after all, is the truth.)
- Mountain_Skies 5y agoI face palm pretty much every time any US administration, Democratic or Republican, makes statements about Venezuela. Seems like every single time it only makes things worse and gives whoever is running the place into the ground at the moment something external to point to as being the source of the people's misery. The desire to "do something" is strong and hard to resist but often is counterproductive.
- baybal2 5y ago> While Lukashenko may not Anybody can assassinate just anybody. Even heads of G7 can only afford security barely enough to defend against lone attacker with a battalion sized force constantly following them. It's just they don't want to because they are afraid.
- vbezhenar 5y agoHe's Belarusian citizen. Why do you want to rescue him? There are thousands of people in a similar situation all over the world. What about sending a team to UK to rescue Assange?
- 746487482 5y agoCitizenship does not imply loyalty to a government. I live in the UK and would fully support anyone rescuing Assange and everyone else in a similar situation, as long as they do it carefully and don't start a war.
- brandmeyer 5y agonit: Assange is an Australian citizen. The situation is not analogous.
- extraction_team 5y agoThe US State Department doesn't extract assets. It's a bit like being a spy: get caught and you're disavowed. Now, what I for one would love to see is an extraction of Julian Assange. He's a far more important journalist, who's been held in captivity far longer, and whose mental and physical deterioration as a result of the abuse he's endured has been far greater. He's the Griffith of the journalistic world. Who wouldn't love hearing that a crack Russian special forces unit dropped into London, hit the Belmarsh hard, incapacitated the prison guards, and sprang Assange? Then vanished from London under cover of night, nursed Assange back to health in Russia, and Assange eventually returns to journalism after a decade of suppression, assuming his mind can be pieced back together, while living as a free refugee, enjoying life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the former USSR? I think we're all owed a happy ending at this point. It's been an ugly decade.
- jp555 5y agoBelarus controls 20% of the world's potash, so nope. Geopolitics is much more a game of Go than Call of Duty.