Wetwork

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title: "Wetwork" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["assassinations", "murder-for-hire-cases", "euphemisms"] description: "Euphemism for murder or assassination" topic_path: "general/assassinations" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetwork" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Euphemism for murder or assassination ::

Wetwork () is a euphemism for murder or assassination that alludes to spilling blood. The expression and the similar wet job, wet affair, or wet operation are all calques of Russian terms for such activities and can be traced to criminal slang from at least the 19th century and originally meant robbery that involved murder or the spilling of blood.

The operations are reputed to have been handled by the CIA and by the KGB's SpecBureau 13 (Spets Byuro 13), known as the "Department of Wet Affairs" (ru), or "Department 13".

References

References

1. Becket, Henry S. A.. (1986). "The Dictionary of Espionage: Spookspeak into English". Stein & Day.
2. [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wet%20work wet work]. Definition on Merriam-Webster (accessed Feb 2024)
3. Maksimov, S. V.. (1869). "Сибирь и каторга". S. V. Maksimov.
4. Dubyagin, Yu.. (1991). "Толковый словарь уголовных жаргонов". Inter-Omni.
5. Barkdoll, Robert. (November 22, 1965). "Russian Terror Agency Described by Defector". [[Los Angeles Times]].
6. Price, Anthony. (1972). "Colonel Butler's Wolf". Mysterious Press.
7. (November 1977). "Transcript of James Angleton [CIA] interview with Peter Williams". Thames Television.

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