So if you're asking who stands to gain... If you look at the tedious nonsense you have to go through to join the foreign services, and how hard it is to actual

So if you're asking who stands to gain... If you look at the tedious nonsense you have to go through to join the foreign services, and how hard it is to actually get in, and how long it takes to get a station somewhere... I doubt anyone would play that long game just so they could then fake some illness when they could just fall off a ladder at their local supermarket. Similarly, if you've got some hypersonic death ray that incapacitates people from a distance and you can use it with impunity, why not use it on people who may or may not be in an adversary's intelligence service but are definitely employed by an adversary's government? Even if you get caught, what are they going to do, complain? I don't particularly think that it is little-green-men with a sonic blaster, but I also don't particularly think it's just complaining complainers making crap up. It's a mystery and I'm interested in finding the answer. I'm certainly not "smart enough" to know something nobody else knows.. See also: Lyme Disease; ulcers