What is with "liquidating" enemy spies?

[Trade-peror]

Whenever an enemy spy is caught, I get the message "[X country's] spy has been caught and 'liquidated'!" or something to that effect.

Is this just an extremely bizarre message, or am I not understanding some type of reference or allusion?

 

[Chaos_BF1942]

Well that means that nations spy had been stopped from doing something not-to-nice to your nation "liquidated" means the spy is dead.

 

[Trade-peror]

Yes, the spy is definitely dead, but the choice of the word "liquidated" to say that is still very strange...

 

[Crimso]

Soylent Green...

 

[Andygal]

that means they have been thrown in a pot of boiling hydrochloric acid!

 

[Meffy]

Soylent Green...

Joy, I get to use this picture twice in one day, on two forums.

Now tastes great with captured spies too!

 

[Hardvark]

Whenever an enemy spy is caught, I get the message "[X country's] spy has been caught and 'liquidated'!" or something to that effect.

Is this just an extremely bizarre message, or am I not understanding some type of reference or allusion?

Liquidate can mean to put to death or kill - so there's no clever or hidden reference.

 

[Red Boxer]

Its just a euphamism. A nice way for the minister of security to lean over to you and say, "Sir, our prior problem has been liquidated." During a luncheon with mother's of soldiers. It just wouldn't be polite to say, "Sir, we caught that Mongolian spy, and tore her fingernails out. Then proceeded to slowly cut her and force maggots and other necrotic parasites into her body and let them devour her from the inside out." Those things just don't go over well at luncheons.

/AFK

 

[oagersnap]

Well, at least in danish, "likvidere" means getting rid of enemies by killing them.

 

[thordk]

as in german "liquidieren". i'm certain the english term means exactly the same

 

[drjones]

Keep that in mind when you see an add for a 'Liquidation Sale' in your sunday suppliment.

-drjones

 

[ZiP!]

... "liquidé" in french also means the same...

 

[ZippyRiver]

Remind me to not liquidate my ASSets

 

[Luv_Muffin]

Soylent Green...

Hmmm...

"Is this the beginning or the end?"

 

[calyth]

Um... I thought I've seen "detained for questioning".....

 

[Uiler]

What I want to know is how you got a spy when you're still building the Parthenon. And are those warriors I spy at the top?

Um... I thought I've seen "detained for questioning".....

 

[calyth]

What I want to know is how you got a spy when you're still building the Parthenon. And are those warriors I spy at the top?

I was testing. So I cracked out my latest save, go to world builder, put the 4 spies, give me some cash, and do the most dangerous task a spy can do, until she got caught and get the message.

 

[Trade-peror]

When your spies get caught, it most definitely does say "detained for questioning." However, when the enemy's spies get caught, they are "liquidated," and that is terminology I find to be weird.

...although we seem to be enjoying it a lot in this thread.

 

[calyth]

However, when the enemy's spies get caught, they are "liquidated," and that is terminology I find to be weird.

...although we seem to be enjoying it a lot in this thread.

Oleg Penkovsky, who provided enough information to JFK to tell him there isn't a missile gap, and enough data to aid in identification of the missiles during the Cuban missile crisis, was given a show trial and shot.
Oleg Gordievsky defected to Britain, narrowly escaped eventual execution after losing his surveillance when recalled to Moscow, was sentenced to death in absentia.
It isn't that unusal that caught spies get killed. Spies, unlike their controllers, or even couriers, don't have diplomatic immunity.

 

[Trade-peror]

Sorry, what I mean is that the word "liquidated" seems like a strange way of saying the spies were killed. I'm not, however, surprised at all that caught spies are killed ("detained for questioning" obviously means a show trial or torture/execution of some sort).