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Saudi Dissident Disappears in Saudi Consulate Istanbul

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
have you noticed less news about this from the msm today, or is it just me? seems like the Saudi troll farms and the lobbyist have gone into full gear to silence this story as much as possible. this is what i expect, there will be no repercussions on Saudi for this. it will be swept under the proverbial rug. Trump already said; relations with Saudi are awesome! lmao....who wants to give back 110 billion after all....

Saudi royals 'disappear' after asking about Khashoggi

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018...ls-disappear-fate-journalist-Khashoggi-Turkey

Fri Oct 12, 2018 09:35AM

At least five Saudi royals have reportedly disappeared after they attempted to voice dissatisfaction with the disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi who recently vanished upon entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Khaled bin Farhan Al Saud, a dissident prince who lives in exile in Germany, told The Independent in an interview that the royals were grandsons of King Abdul-Aziz, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia. He added that they had voiced dissatisfaction with Khashoggi's disappearance in a meeting with the authorities in Riyadh last week.

The royals were promptly detained and their exact whereabouts are unknown, the dissident Saudi prince alleged.

Khashoggi, a journalist known for his critical views of the kingdom's policies, went missing after reaching the diplomatic mission on October 2.

Turkey says it fears that he has either disappeared or been murdered.

“Just five days ago, a group tried to visit King Salman, saying they were afraid for the future of the Al Saud family. They mentioned Mr Khashoggi’s case," Prince bin Farhan said. "They were all put in jail.”

He further said Riyadh regularly tried to "lure" dissident royals into its diplomatic premises abroad, offering them financial incentives.

Prince bin Farhan said he believed this was part of an escalating crackdown orchestrated by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman to silence his critics.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the dissident Saudi prince said the authorities had tried to make him enter the facilities “over 30 times."

Last time, they tried to prompt his family to bring him to the Saudi consulate in Cairo by promising them a “large cheque” and millions of dollars, just 10 days before Khashoggi's vanishing.

He was told that the Saudi authorities had heard he was in financial trouble and “wanted to help”. They promised he would be safe, The Independent wrote in its report over the development.

“I know what can happen if I go into the embassy,” Khaled bin Farhan said.

Ghanem al-Dosari, a London-based Saudi satirist, verified bin Farhan's account, saying dissident expats now feared travelling abroad, and some were even afraid of leaving their homes.
 

theJointedOne

Active member
Veteran
Had to have the pop "star" and an older version come by and distract the cameras with some Apple iPhone oval office advertising, so we don't get reports on this murder.

I wonder what it feels like to stand behind such a great man like ChumpTrump? Must be many proud proud people, I mean look at his "rallies" we the taxed pay for, reelection campaign stops more like it. Fine group. They don't care about murder, of humans or the Earth
 
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Gry

Well-known member
Foreknowledge of this may have a lasting effect over political futures.
Audio is said to be disturbing.
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
it looks like he must be dead for sure, apparently his murder was recorded. probably the Turkish intelligence agencies had the consulate bugged as it was being built. although it is possible that
it really was his applewatch that recorded events, check this out from the independent.

if i was building a consulate i'd be damn sure to search and destroy every bug in the building before beginning operations from there. it's not like you don't have bug detection tech which could be used. then there is ways to block signals from leaving the building. either way it will be interesting to see what happens next, i noticed there are quite a few new articles again today, so saudi attempts to bury this have not been successful so far, even Trump is being pushed to saying he will punish the Saudis, without giving up on the 110 billions worth of weapons contacts. this might actually be the day when the tide finally turns against the Saudis, we will see i guess, in the end only 19 billions worth of contracts are actually signed and legally sealed, the other 90 billion isn't actually guaranteed yet by Saudi, it's just a pre pre agreement that in theory the Saudis want to spend that much.

truth is they should be cut off from weapons from anyone, not because of this fat rich spoilt Saudi, but because of what they have been doing in Yemen. that is why the whole world should agree not to sell the Saudis one more bullet till they make peace with the Houthis and get the fuck out of Yemen and mind their own business.

Jamal Khashoggi: Saudi journalist 'recorded his own torture and murder on Apple Watch', Turkish paper claims

https://www.yahoo.com/news/jamal-khashoggi-saudi-journalist-apos-103106121.html

Samuel Osborne,The Independent 7 hours ago

A missing Saudi journalist may have recorded the moments he was allegedly tortured and killed on his Apple Watch, a Turkish newspaper reported.

Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, went missing more than a week ago after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Turkish officials have said they believe the 59-year-old was murdered there by a 15-member Saudi “assassination squad”.

“The moments when Khashoggi was interrogated, tortured and murdered were recorded in the Apple Watch’s memory,” Turkish newspaper Sabah reported.

The pro-government, privately owned daily, said the watch had synced with his iPhone, which he had left with his wife outside the consulate.

Two senior Turkish officials previously told Reuters that Mr Khashoggi had been wearing a black Apple Watch when he entered the consulate, and said it was connected to a mobile phone he left outside.

Footage shows the writer entering the consulate on Tuesday of last week, but there is none showing him leaving.

Sabah, which cited “reliable sources in a special intelligence department”, said Mr Khashoggi was believed to have turned on the recording feature on the phone before entering the consulate.

The paper said Saudi intelligence agents had realised after he died that the watch was recording and initially tried to gain access by guessing Mr Khashoggi’s PIN, then using his finger to unlock it and delete some files, but not all of them.

However, unlike iPhones, Apple Watches do not have fingerprint identification – something the newspaper did not address in its report.

It said the recordings were subsequently recovered from his iPhone and iCloud account.

The watch can record audio which can sync with an iPhone over a Bluetooth connection, though is it unclear whether data from Mr Khashoggi’s watch could have been transmitted to his phone outside – or how investigators could have retrieved the data without obtaining the watch itself.

It comes after US intelligence officials told The Washington Post they had been presented with video and audio recordings of the murder.

“The voice recording from inside the embassy lays out what happened to Jamal after he entered,” The Post quoted a source as saying. “You can hear his voice and the voices of men speaking Arabic. You can hear how he was interrogated, tortured and then murdered.”

While it is unclear whether the alleged audio recordings came from Mr Khashoggi’s watch, it remains possible the Turkish intelligence service obtained them by bugging the Saudi consulate and used the Apple Watch as a cover story to avoid revealing their espionage.

“Spy agencies’ main goal when foreign embassies are built is to slip in as many devices as possible without detection,” Theodore Karasik, of Gulf State Analytics, a research and security consultancy, told The Independent. “It is a common practice.”

Saudi Arabia’s interior minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif, has condemned the “lies and baseless allegations” against the kingdom, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

Donald Trump has declared the US will uncover the truth about what happened to Mr Khashoggi, who was a US resident.

The US president promised to personally call Saudi Arabia’s king, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, about “the terrible situation in Turkey”.

“We’re going to find out what happened,” Mr Trump pledged on Friday when he was questioned by reporters in Cincinnati, where he was headlining a political rally.

Mr Khashoggi had reportedly been banned from writing in newspapers, making TV appearances and attending conferences in Saudi Arabia after criticising Mr Trump when he was president-elect.

On Friday, a delegation from Saudi Arabia arrived as part of the investigation into the writer’s disappearance. The Turkish foreign ministry said the Saudi consulate in Istanbul would be searched as part of the investigation.

Additional reporting by agencies
 
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Brother Nature

Well-known member
So it looks like Saudi is even willing to admit they did in fact kill him, though it was an accident...


Saudi Arabia to concede journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed, says CNN








Saudi Arabia is reportedly ready to concede that a missing Saudi writer was killed in its consulate in Istanbul.
CNN reports that the Saudi government is preparing to say Jamal Khashoggi died during an interrogation that went wrong.
The report was attributed to two unnamed sources. It says one of the sources told them that the intention was to abduct Khashoggi and it had not been authorised by the Saudi government.

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi went missing during a visit to his country's consulate in Istanbul.





US president Donald Trump told reporters Monday (Tuesday NZT) that he was aware of the report but did not know if it was correct. He says the US is working with Saudi Arabia and Turkey to figure out what happened.


Khashoggi was last seen in public on October 2nd when he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish police officers gather as they prepare to enter the Saudi Arabia's Consulate in Istanbul.




SAUDI CONSULATE SEARCHED
Turkish crime scene investigators searched the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Monday (Tuesday NZT) over the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.
The search came nearly two weeks after Khashoggi, a Saudi critic, vanished after entering the building.


Cleaning personnel enter Saudi Arabia's Consulate in Istanbul.


A joint Saudi-Turkish team arrived at the consulate in Istanbul's upscale 4th Levent neighbourhood as journalists filmed and shot photographs of their arrival.


Turkish officials have said they fear a Saudi hit team killed and dismembered Khashoggi, who wrote columns in The Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.


A cleaning crew walked into the consulate hours ahead of the investigative team's arrival.

TRUMP SUGGESTS 'ROGUE KILLERS' IN WRITER CASE
President Donald Trump is suggesting that "rogue killers" may be responsible for whatever happened to missing columnist Jamal Khashoggi.


Trump told reporters as he departed the White House en route to Florida that he spoke by phone with Saudi Arabia's King and that "The King firmly denied any knowledge" of the disappearance.

US president Donald Trump talks to members of the media before departing for Florida.



Trump says he doesn't "want to get" into King Salman's mind, but says, "it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers."
He adds: "We're going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial."
- AP
 

Brother Nature

Well-known member
Here's another interesting article regarding how much of a 'dissident' he really was, offers a much more believable explanation for his murder. It will be rather interesting to see what the US does now, I think it would be a somewhat positive but provocative move for Trump to actually punish the kingdom like he said.


Khashoggi Was No Critic of Saudi Regime

October 15, 2018 • 25 Comments

Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist, who disappeared in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week is not quite the critic of the Saudi regime that the Western media says he is, writes As’ad AbuKhalil.


By As`ad AbuKhalil


Special to Consortium News


The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week has generated huge international publicity, but unsurprisingly, little in Saudi-controlled, Arab media. The Washington Post, for whom Khashoggi wrote, and other Western media, have kept the story alive, increasing the pressure on Riyadh to explain its role in the affair.


It’s been odd to read about Khashoggi in Western media. David Hirst in The Guardian claimed Khashoggi merely cared about absolutes such as “truth, democracy, and freedom”. Human Rights Watch’s director described him as representing “outspoken and critical journalism.”


But did he pursue those absolutes while working for Saudi princes?
Khashoggi was a loyal member of the Saudi propaganda apparatus. There is no journalism allowed in the kingdom: there have been courageous Saudi women and men who attempted to crack the wall of rigid political conformity and were persecuted and punished for their views. Khashoggi was not among them.


Some writers suffered while Khashoggi was their boss at Al-Watan newspaper. Khashoggi—contrary to what is being written—was never punished by the regime, except lightly two years ago, when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) banned him from tweeting and writing for Al-Hayat, the London-based, pan-Arab newspaper owned by Saudi Prince Khalid bin Sultan.


By historical contrast, Nasir As-Sa`id was a courageous secular Arab Nationalist writer who fled the kingdom in 1956 and settled in Cairo, and then Beirut. He authored a massive (though tabloid-like) volume about the history of the House of Saud. He was unrelenting in his attacks against the Saudi royal family.


For this, the Saudi regime paid a corrupt PLO leader in Beirut (Abu Az-Za`im, tied to Jordanian intelligence) to get rid of As-Sa`id. He kidnapped As-Sa`id from a crowded Beirut street in 1979 and delivered him to the Saudi embassy there. He was presumably tortured and killed (some say his body was tossed from a plane over the “empty quarter” desert in Saudi Arabia). Such is the track record of the regime.

Finding the Right Prince
Khashoggi: Eager to please (April Brady/Project on Middle East Democracy)
Khashoggi was an ambitious young reporter who knew that to rise in Saudi journalism you don’t need professionalism, courage, or ethics. In Saudi Arabia, you need to attach yourself to the right prince. Early on, Khashoggi became close to two of them: Prince Turki Al-Faysal (who headed Saudi intelligence) and his brother, Prince Khalid Al-Faysal, who owned Al-Watan (The Motherland) where Khashoggi had his first (Arabic) editing job.


Khashoggi distinguished himself with an eagerness to please and an uncanny ability to adjust his views to those of the prevailing government. In the era of anti-Communism and the promotion of fanatical jihad in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Khashoggi was a true believer. He fought with Osama bin Laden and promoted the cause of the Mujahideen.

The Washington Post‘s David Ignatius and others want to embellish this by implying that he was an “embedded” reporter—as if bin Laden’s army would invite independent journalists to report on their war efforts. The entire project of covering the Afghan Mujahideen and promoting them in the Saudi press was the work of the chief of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turki, Khashoggi’s principal patron-prince.


Western media coverage of Khashoggi’s career (by people who don’t know Arabic) presents a picture far from reality. They portray a courageous investigative journalist upsetting the Saudi regime. Nothing is further from the truth: there is no journalism in Saudi Arabia; there is only crude and naked propaganda.
Editors are trusted individuals who have demonstrated long-time loyalty. Khashoggi admitted to an Arab reporter last year in an interview from Istanbul that in Saudi Arabia he had been both editor and censor. Editors of Saudi regime papers (mouthpieces of princes and kings) enforce government rules and eliminate objectionable material.


Khashoggi never spoke out for Saudis in distress. He ran into trouble in two stints as Al-Watan editor because of articles he published by other writers, not by himself, that were mildly critical of the conservative religious establishment—which he at times supported. He was relocated to another government media job— to shield him from the religious authorities.


Khashoggi was the go-to man for Western journalists covering the kingdom, appointed to do so by the regime. He may have been pleasant in conversation with reporters but he never questioned the royal legitimacy. And that goes for his brief one-year stint in Washington writing for the Post.

A Reactionary
Khashoggi was a reactionary: he supported all monarchies and sultanates in the region and contended they were “reformable.” To him, only the secular republics, in tense relations with the Saudis, such as Iraq, Syria and Libya, defied reform and needed to be overthrown. He favored Islamization of Arab politics along Muslim Brotherhood lines.


Khashoggi’s vision was an “Arab uprising” led by the Saudi regime. In his Arabic writings he backed MbS’s “reforms” and even his “war on corruption,” derided in the region and beyond. He thought that MbS’s arrests of the princes in the Ritz were legitimate (though he mildly criticized them in a Post column) even as his last sponsoring prince, Al-Walid bin Talal, was locked up in the luxury hotel. Khashoggi even wanted to be an advisor to MbS, who did not trust him and turned him down.


Writing in the Post (with an Arabic version) Khashoggi came across as a liberal Democrat favoring democracy and reform. But he didn’t challenge Saudi regime legitimacy or Western Mideast policy. Mainstream journalists were enamored with him. They saw him as an agreeable Arab who didn’t criticize their coverage of the region, but praised it, considering the mainstream U.S. press the epitome of professional journalism. Khashoggi was essentially a token Arab writing for a paper with a regrettable record of misrepresenting Arabs.


In Arabic, his Islamist sympathies with Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) were unmistakable. Forgotten or little known in the West is that during the Cold War the Saudis sponsored, funded, and nurtured the Muslim Brotherhood as a weapon against the progressive, secular camp led by Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser. Ikhwan controlled the Saudi educational system raising Saudi students to admire the Brotherhood. But Sep. 11 changed the Saudi calculus: the rulers wanted a scapegoat for their role in sponsoring Islamist fanaticism and the Ikhwan was the perfect target. That made Khashoggi suspect too.

Hints Against Him
Recent articles in the Saudi press hinted that the regime might move against him.He had lost his patrons but the notion that Khashoggi was about to launch an Arab opposition party was not credible. The real crime was that Khashoggi was backed alone by Ikhwan supporters, namely the Qatari regime and the Turkish government.


A writer in Okaz, a daily in Jeddah, accused him of meeting with the Emir of Qatar at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York and of having ties to “regional and international intelligence services.” If true it may have sealed his fate. Qatar is now the number one enemy of the Saudi regime—arguably worse than Iran.
Khashoggi was treated as a defector and one isn’t allowed to defect from the Saudi Establishment. The last senior defections were back in 1962, when Prince Talal and Prince Badr joined Nasser’s Arab nationalist movement in Egypt.
Khashoggi had to be punished in a way that would send shivers down the spine of other would-be defectors.


As’ad AbuKhalil is a Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. He is the author of the Historical Dictionary of Lebanon (1998), Bin Laden, Islam and America’s New “War on Terrorism” (2002), and The Battle for Saudi Arabia (2004). He also runs the popular blog The Angry Arab News Service.
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
Did Saudis, CIA Fear Khashoggi 9/11 Bombshell?

https://theduran.com/did-saudis-cia-fear-khashoggi-9-11-bombshell/

Jamal Khashoggi may have gleaned highly sensitive inside information on what actually happened on 9/11.

Published 17 hours ago on October 15, 2018 By Finian Cunningham

The macabre case of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi raises the question: did Saudi rulers fear him revealing highly damaging information on their secret dealings? In particular, possible involvement in the 9/11 terror attacks on New York in 2001.

Even more intriguing are US media reports now emerging that American intelligence had snooped on and were aware of Saudi officials making plans to capture Khashoggi prior to his apparent disappearance at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week. If the Americans knew the journalist’s life was in danger, why didn’t they tip him off to avoid his doom?

Jamal Khashoggi (59) had gone rogue, from the Saudi elite’s point of view. Formerly a senior editor in Saudi state media and an advisor to the royal court, he was imminently connected and versed in House of Saud affairs. As one commentator cryptically put it: “He knew where all the bodies were buried.”

For the past year, Khashoggi went into self-imposed exile, taking up residence in the US, where he began writing opinion columns for the Washington Post.

Khashoggi’s articles appeared to be taking on increasingly critical tone against the heir to the Saudi throne, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The 33-year-old Crown Prince, or MbS as he’s known, is de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom, in place of his aging father, King Salman.

While Western media and several leaders, such as Presidents Trump and Macron, have been indulging MbS as “a reformer”, Khashoggi was spoiling this Saudi public relations effort by criticizing the war in Yemen, the blockade on Qatar and the crackdown on Saudi critics back home.

However, what may have caused the Saudi royals more concern was what Khashoggi knew about darker, dirtier matters. And not just the Saudis, but American deep state actors as as well.

He was formerly a media aide to Prince Turki al Faisal, who is an eminence gris figure in Saudi intelligence, with its systematic relations to American and British counterparts. Prince Turki’s father, Faisal, was formerly the king of Saudi Arabia until his assassination in 1975 by a family rival. Faisal was a half-brother of the present king, Salman, and therefore Prince Turki is a cousin of the Crown Prince – albeit at 73 more than twice his age.

For nearly 23 years, from 1977 to 2001, Prince Turki was the director of the Mukhabarat, the Saudi state intelligence apparatus. He was instrumental in Saudi, American and British organization of the mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan to combat Soviet forces. Those militants in Afghanistan later evolved into the al Qaeda terror network, which has served as a cat’s paw in various US proxy wars across the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, including Russia’s backyard in the Caucasus.

Ten days before the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City, in which some 3,000 Americans died, Prince Turki retired from his post as head of Saudi intelligence. It was an abrupt departure, well before his tenure was due to expire.

There has previously been speculation in US media that this senior Saudi figure knew in advance that something major was going down on 9/11. At least 15 of the 19 Arabs who allegedly hijacked three commercial airplanes that day were Saudi nationals.

Prince Turki has subsequently been named in a 2002 lawsuit mounted by families of 9/11 victims. There is little suggestion he was wittingly involved in organizing the terror plot. Later public comments indicated that Prince Turki was horrified by the atrocity. But the question is: did he know of the impending incident, and did he alert US intelligence, which then did not take appropriate action to prevent it?

Jamal Khashoggi had long served as a trusted media advisor to Prince Turki, before the latter resigned from public office in 2007. Following 9/11, Turki was the Saudi ambassador to both the US and Britain.

A tentative idea here is that Khashoggi, in his close dealings with Prince Turki over the years, may have gleaned highly sensitive inside information on what actually happened on 9/11. Were the Arab hijackers mere patsies used by the American CIA to facilitate an event which has since been used by American military planners to launch a global “war on terror” as a cover for illegal wars overseas? There is a huge body of evidence that the 9/11 attacks were indeed a “false flag” event orchestrated by the US deep state as a pretext for its imperialist rampages.

The apparent abduction and murder last week of Jamal Khashoggi seems such an astoundingly desperate move by the Saudi rulers. More evidence is emerging from Turkish sources that the journalist was indeed lured to the consulate in Istanbul where he was killed by a 15-member hit squad. Reports are saying that the alleged assassination was ordered at the highest level of the Saudi royal court, which implicates Crown Prince MbS.

Why would the Saudi rulers order such a heinous act, which would inevitably lead to acute political problems, as we are seeing in the fallout from governments and media coverage around the world?

Over the past year, the House of Saud had been appealing to Khashoggi to return to Riyadh and resume his services as a media advisor to the royal court. He declined, fearing that something more sinister was afoot. When Khashoggi turned up in Istanbul to collect a divorce document from the Saudi consulate on September 28, it appears that the House of Saud decided to nab him. He was told to return to the consulate on October 2. On that same day, the 15-member group arrived from Riyadh on two private Gulfstream jets for the mission to kill him.

Official Saudi claims stretch credulity. They say Khashoggi left the consulate building unharmed by a backdoor, although they won’t provide CCTV images to prove that. The Turks say their own CCTV facilities monitoring the front and back of the Saudi consulate show that Khashoggi did not leave the premises. The Turks seem confident of their claim he was murdered inside the building, his remains dismembered and removed in diplomatic vehicles. The two private jets left the same day from Istanbul with the 15 Saudis onboard to return to Riyadh, via Cairo and Dubai.

To carry out such a reckless act, the Saudis must have been alarmed by Khashoggi’s critical commentaries appearing in the Washington Post. The columns appeared to be delivering more and more damaging insights into the regime under Crown Prince MbS.

The Washington Post this week is reporting that US intelligence sources knew from telecom intercepts that the Saudis were planning to abduct Khashoggi. That implicates the House of Saud in a dastardly premeditated act of murder.

But furthermore this same disclosure could also, unwittingly, implicate US intelligence. If the latter knew of a malicious intent towards Khashoggi, why didn’t US agents warn him about going to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul? Surely, he could have obtained the same personal documents from the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, a country where he was residing and would have been safer.

Jamal Khashoggi may have known too many dark secrets about US and Saudi intel collusion, primarily related to the 9/11 terror incidents. And with his increasing volubility as a critical journalist in a prominent American news outlet, it may have been time to silence him. The Saudis as hitmen, the American CIA as facilitators.
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
this is getting stranger and stranger, check this out...had a feeling they might find a scape goat, saudi is just too important to the US.

Saudi Arabia to 'admit killing Jamal Khashoggi in botched interrogation'

https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkish-police-apos-search-istanbul-104643032.html

Saudi Arabia is to admit journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in its consulate in Istanbul in a botched interrogation, according to reports on Monday night.

Officials from the kingdom were expected to lay out a series of events which blamed intelligence operatives, and shielded Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince, from responsibility over the journalist's death.

It came as Donald Trump, after speaking to Saudi Arabia's King Salman, suggested "rogue killers" could have been behind the death of Mr Khashoggi, who was a US permanent resident and wrote columns for the Washington Post.

The US president also dispatched Mike Pompeo, his secretary of state, to fly directly to Riyadh to meet the king and seek answers about the alleged murder.

Saudi Arabia was said to be preparing a report that would confirm Mr Khashoggi was killed as a result of questioning that went wrong, CNN reported, citing two unnamed sources.

One source cautioned that the report was still being prepared and could change.

The other source said the report would probably conclude that the operation was carried out without clearance, and that those involved will be held responsible.

Another person with knowledge of how Saudi Arabia intends to explain the episode told the New York Times the crown prince had approved an interrogation, or rendition back to Saudi Arabia, of Mr Khashoggi.

But the kingdom intended to say that a member of its intelligence services, who happened to be a friend of the crown prince, had been "tragically incompetent" in trying to prove himself during the operation, the newspaper reported.

Following his first phone call with King Salman about the crisis, Mr Trump said the monarch had “firmly denied” his state was behind the killing of Mr Khashoggi.

Speaking on the White House lawn, Mr Trump said: "I don’t want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like maybe it could have been rogue killers, who knows? We’re going to try get to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial."

Turkish officials had already speculated that the Saudi government would blame "rogue" elements within its security services as a way of protecting the crown prince, who has close links with the Trump family, from international criticism.

King Salman had ordered Saudi prosecutors to launch an internal probe after two weeks in which Riyadh did little except issue blanket denials of responsibility.

The apparent shift in the Saudi position came as the kingdom remained under intense pressure from Washington and business leaders over the Khashoggi case.

The White House said it expected Saudi Arabia to carry out "a swift and transparent” investigation "this week”.

Larry Kudlow, Mr Trump’s economic advisor, said the US would take “stern action with the Saudis if necessary” and brushed off Riyadh’s threats to drive up oil prices if America tried to impose sanctions.

The chiefs of two major US investment firms, Blackstone and BlackRock, joined an exodus of executives pulling out of Crown Prince Mohammed’s “Davos in the Desert” summit.

A number of major media outlets have also pulled out of the summit.

Analysts said it was risky for Riyadh to blame rogue Saudi operatives because it would raise questions about whether Crown Prince Mohammed, who is Saudi Arabia’s defence minister, was in charge of his own forces.

Dr Neil Quilliam, senior research fellow at Chatham House, said it was “highly unlikely” that US senators would be convinced by the rogue killer theory, but it was still Riyadh’s best chance to avoid sanctions.
 

944s2

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
So it begins in earnest,,,,,
some lackys who are loyal to the saudi crown will take the fall for this,,,,,
I imagine the "rogue hit squad " lol,,lol,, working independently of the saudi government will be the next move/cover up,,,
I have worked for middle east embassys in the past and the level of secrecy is amazing and i am shocked the saudis were so sloopy in this " execution ",,,,,,,
stories now that the Turkish secret service had messed with the apple watch and now have the torture and murder on a recording!,,,,,,
Getting the feeling that at this moment in time,,anything goes???????,,,,,
scary,,very scary,,,,,,s2
 

Gypsy Nirvana

Recalcitrant Reprobate -
Administrator
Veteran
There will always be skulduggery , smoke and mirrors and cover-ups - there always has been - and probably always will be sadly.

Most cover-ups you don't hear about - because they are covered up, lol.

Maybe there is a hidden reason for the media reporting on this particular cover-up attempt? - with so much finance involved - maybe look at who benefits from all this - certainly the media does - but they are just a tool with an agenda in the hands of something greater imho.


Definitely an unpleasant time we are living in.
 

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
The Saudi's biggest defender has been...Trump! The US just finalized a 100 billion dollar arms sale to the Saudis.

President Trump on Tuesday criticized people blaming Saudi Arabia for the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying they are prejudging the case.

"Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that. I think we have to find out what happened first," he said. "Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I'm concerned."

If I was Kavanaugh I'd consider the comparison highly unflattering. The Saudi's defense will always be 'rogue agents' or they killed him by accident during interrogation. When you're torturing people it happens sometimes. Which will be enough for the US, at least the president and the senate.
 

Gypsy Nirvana

Recalcitrant Reprobate -
Administrator
Veteran
I'm sure that with the wealth the Saudi's have they can afford to get the best torturers out there - since torturing is a known profession - and some say an ancient art. One of the basic tenets of torturing would be to keep the victim alive so that they could be tortured in the first place - So I presume the Saudi's defense will say something like:

..'Oh we just couldn't get the right quality of torturing staff - and they fucked up and killed the fella - instead of doing their job properly'...



And as for the accuracy of the worlds media to report on any of it - lets pop back a few decades and hear what one prominent journalist/editor had to say:

picture.php

The Saudi's biggest defender has been...Trump! The US just finalized a 100 billion dollar arms sale to the Saudis.

President Trump on Tuesday criticized people blaming Saudi Arabia for the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying they are prejudging the case.

"Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that. I think we have to find out what happened first," he said. "Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I'm concerned."

If I was Kavanaugh I'd consider the comparison highly unflattering. The Saudi's defense will always be 'rogue agents' or they killed him by accident during interrogation. When you're torturing people it happens sometimes. Which will be enough for the US, at least the president and the senate.
 

Gry

Well-known member
Pulled screaming from the office of the Counsel General.
Forced on a table in another room and injected with an unknown substance.( A paralyzing substance)
Dissected while still breathing by Dr bone saw, wearing head phones playing music as he worked.
It took over 7 minutes before he died.

Source for the above is Democracy Now.
Speculation as to the injected compound is my own
 

St. Phatty

Active member
Getting the feeling that at this moment in time,,anything goes???????,,,,,
scary,,very scary,,,,,,s2

Might be a good idea to fill up 10x 5 gallon gas tanks, and to keep them in the garage.

Any fall-out between the US of Israel & Saudi Arabia ... well they are talking about $400 per barrel oil.

Not sure how that would 'mix in' with USi domestic oil production, the US can produce oil for about $70 per barrel.
 

Zeez

---------------->
ICMag Donor
They showed the passports of the 15 man team.
One was a doctor. Another was "close to the prince".

Nothing will happen. Trump will take a payoff.
 

Storm Shadow

Active member
Veteran
Trump a few min ago was touting about how the Saudis are spending $450 Billions dollars purchasing "THINGS" in Addition to the $100 billion in Arms to the Head Choppaz.. claimed its the biggest deal of its kind in global history lol

This dude sounds like a such a Con Artist
 

St. Phatty

Active member
I don't understand the torture.

Were the Saudi's just being like Israel - they enjoy being cruel to people ?

Or was their a goal to the torture, trying to get information from him.


If I was so craven as to be on a CIA torture team, I would use teeth torture. Give the man a root abscess infection, then withhold pain meds and treatment until he "cooperates".
 

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