If our secret ninja assassins wanted to take him out because he Knew Too Much or whatever, they could do that any old time. Why do it on the day his extradition was approved instead of some random day 6 months ago or something.
On the other hand, it seems much more reasonable that a man whose extradition to the US to face Federal Criminal charges was just approved might suddenly decide to kill himself rather than deal with that.
Unless of course the Secret Ninja Assassins knew that and decided to kill him today to make it look less suspicious. But then we're really getting into the weeds of conspiracy, where any crazy thing we could dream up might have happened.
“Camp Delta at Gitmo is used...” is more accurate here than “Gitmo is specifically not on US soil...”; Johnson v. Eisentrager (1950) was not a motivating factor in securing the lease at Guatanamo Bay (in 1903) but was a factor in siting the temporary (Camp X-Ray) and later permanent (Camp Delta) detention facilities for War on Terror detainees there.
That said, he was 75, so I guess even a few years could potentially be a life sentence.
Usually, without aggravating circumstances, federal sentences would run concurrently, though thr multiplicity might push them up within the range permitted. So, lots of nonviolent up to 5 years per count crimes with no particular extreme factors likely adds up to...about 5 years.
Which at his age might still be a sizable fraction of his life, and he wouldn't be the first person to act based on an unrealistic estimate based on what is theoretically possible rather than likely.
Also, what benefit is there to the US to kill him? They already won. Being able to kill people you have custody of is a weak message compared to "nowhere is safe from us".
He killed himself to damage the reputation of the US government.
He couldn't escape from imprisonment, and he couldn't do much to harm the government. But he could do this.
It was the most he could do, so (I think) it's what he did.
Really, honestly, seriously. Have you even tried to consider it could be that way around? Occam's razor suggests -- no, it screams! -- that he killed himself:
* People get desperate and kill themselves in some situations. McAfee was in a typical such situation.
* Having killed himself -- or not, as some would have it -- at the moment McAfee is big news. People (such as yourself) are (literally) screeching bloody murder. If there is anything to find, investigative journalists now have lots of incentive to look for it. If he'd just been extradited, probably no one would have cared; there might have been a few short articles noting the fact, and that would be that. Wouldn't it be stupid, then, to kill him since that would only attract all this attention (that you and I are lavishing on it)? How plausible is it that any actor that has the resources to have someone "whacked" is that stupid?
* Lots of people (you possibly among them?) have suggested that he was killed because "they wanted him silenced". I have asked a few what, exactly he is supposed to have had on anyone that would warrant "silencing" him. So far nobody has had any suggestions. Do you?
So, yeah, it does indeed look like some are doing their best to avoid facing the truth: You all who see a conspiracy here.
More to your point -- replacing one weakly substantiated theory with another -- there are still degrees of plausibility among unsubstantiated theories.
He's also indicated much more recently that any "suicide" wouldn't be such.
what's the optimal cooldown to post affirmations of life so that you believe they're true?
Instead of trying to look for evidence in someone's tweets, how about we look at the facts on the ground. Such as: was he on suicide watch? Is this jail reliable? Is there a history of conspiracy and/or corruption in this jailhouse?