Years after the Vietnam war, a Canadian Forces intelligence officer was told to drive his Jeep to a specific location along the Cambodian-Vietnam border. No other information except to wait there and perform a possible extraction..Need to know only..He waited, and waited, and waited … until nightfall..Suddenly, out of the jungle came three black-faced commandos carrying weapons — even now, I cannot tell you who they were or what military they belonged to. However, I can tell you that two men were carrying a wounded third man between them who was bloodied and dragging his feet..No words were spoken as they placed the man on the back of the Jeep and told the intel officer to get going..A covert operation, with a specific target — a target which we will never know. And there is a good reason for that..Killing foreign nationals on foreign soil, is not something nations wanted to admit. But yes, it does happen. And it will continue to happen..In fact, there is no neutrality when it comes to espionage and assassination..According to the Toronto Star, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, a strong supporter of an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, was alone in his truck when he was shot to death on June 18. He was outside the Surrey temple, Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, where he served as president..In the days before his death, Nijjar had told close associates and a local radio journalist that he feared for his life, the report said. Investigators with the RCMP’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said they were seeking two "heavier-set" male suspects in the shooting..The killers likely had false ID’s and false passports, and were out of the country within 48 hours. Their weapons, to a safe house for destruction, or tossed into a mountain lake..But this week, the story took a major turn..Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that “agents of the Indian government” carried out the killing of a Sikh community leader in British Columbia last June, New York Times reported..Speaking in the House of Commons, Trudeau said that he raised India’s involvement in the shooting of Nijjar directly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Group of 20 summit meeting earlier this month “in no uncertain terms.”.He said the allegation was based on intelligence gathered by the Canadian government, the Times said..“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau told lawmakers..He said Canada would pressure India to cooperate with the investigation into the killing..Later, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly announced Canada has expelled an Indian diplomat over the assassination. Your basic slap on the wrist..Government sanctioned assassination is not something new, of course..From poisonings to shootings to falls from windows, the Kremlin has been accused of numerous lethal attacks..Attacks have varied from underwear daubed with the nerve agent Novichok and polonium-laced tea to more straightforward assassinations by bullet, but throughout Vladimir Putin’s 23-year rule, Kremlin critics, journalists and defected spies have met with similarly ruthless treatment..Russian intelligence officials have turned political poisonings into something of an art form. Soviet scientists are believed to have worked for decades to develop colourless and odourless poisons, the Guardian reports..According to an interview in 1954 with a KGB operative, the testing of poisons was carried out on living prisoners..In December 2022, Russian tycoon Pavel Antov reportedly fell from a hotel window in Rayagada, India, on December 25 days after his 65th birthday. The politician and millionaire had criticized Putin's war with Ukraine on WhatsApp..Businessman Dan Rapoport publicly condemned the Russia-Ukraine war on social media multiple times and emphasized his support for Ukraine, the Daily Beast reported..He was discovered dead in front of an apartment building in Washington, DC, in August 2022, according to the Beast story.Russian press minister Mikhail Lesin was found dead of "blunt force trauma to the head" in a Washington, DC, hotel room in November 2015..Lesin, who founded the English-language television network Russia Today was considering making a deal with the FBI to protect himself from corruption charges before his death..Boris Berezovsky was a Russian oligarch who fled to Britain after he fell out with Putin. During his exile he threatened to bring down Putin by force..He was found dead at his Berkshire home in March 2013 in an apparent suicide, although an inquest into his death recorded an open verdict..Berezovsky was found dead inside a locked bathroom with a ligature around his neck. The coroner couldn't explain how he had died..Alexander Litvinenko was a former-turned KGB agent who died three weeks after drinking a cup of tea in 2006 at a London hotel. The tea had been laced with deadly polonium-210. A British inquiry found Litvinenko was poisoned by FSB agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, who were acting on orders that had probably been approved by President Putin..And then there was the curious case, of Canadian Gerald Bull, an artillery genius who was working on Project Babylon, a “super-gun” for Saddam Hussein’s rogue government in Iraq..According to media reports, the assassination of Bull had been sanctioned by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. The potential of a super-gun targeting Israel put the fear of God into the Mossad..He had to go. A three-man hit team would be sent to Brussels where Mossad agents shot Bull at his door-step. Within hours of the killing, the Mossad was engaged in distributing false stories to the European media, alleging that Bull had been shot by agents from Iraq..Perhaps the most famous assassination in Washington, DC, was that of Orlando Letelier, a leading opponent of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Letelier, work colleague Ronni Moffit and her husband Michael, were in the car when it blew up on Embassy Row, on September 21, 1976..The assassination was carried out by agents of the Chilean secret police (DINA), and was one among many carried out as part of Operation Condor. Declassified U.S. intelligence documents confirm that Pinochet directly ordered the killing..Investigators determined the explosion was caused by a plastic explosive, molded to concentrate the force of its blast into the driver's seat..And world leaders are not immune either..On February 14, 2005, former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic Hariri was killed along with 21 others in an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. Explosives equivalent to around 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel. Among the dead were several of Hariri's bodyguards and former Minister of the Economy, Bassel Fleihan. Hariri had been part of the anti-Syrian opposition in Lebanon.Strangely enough, the assassins usually get away with their tasks. Slinking away back into the darkness, where they live, black-on-black..India will no doubt throw dirt on this investigation or deny it entirely. And why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released the information right now is also a mystery..At the moment, the US military is courting India to create a strong opposition force to tackle China’s aggression. Why Canada therefore would openly damage diplomatic relations at this juncture, is also a mystery.
