Saudi Arabia seems to have decided on a Friday evening confession on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in their Istanbul consulate. The information is slowly trickling out, and likely the intention is to give pro-Saudi factions the weekend to manage it.
Saudi state media is reporting that the official investigation determined that Khashoggi “got in a fight” with the people who met him at the consulate, which of course was a 15-man hit team sent specifically to Turkey to kill Khashoggi.
Officials seem to be trying to shift blame away from the crown prince, and toward one of his top aides, intelligence official Gen. Ahmed al-Asiri. Asiri and royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani and several others have reportedly been “dismissed” following the investigation, and the Saudis are also claiming 18 others arrested over it.
Ironically, Saudi King Salman is also increasing the authority of the crown prince following this incident, announcing that after the sacking of Asiri he is ordering a new ministerial committee, headed by the prince, to “restructure” the intelligence agency.
Here it comes. The story will be spun, but it will not go away, unless the media owners all stand behind the deal. This is most likely the continuation of the purge started with the palace coup. A golden opportunity especially in the world of spooks. It will be interesting to see if this becomes anti-Trump issue for democrats. In the lingbrun Saudi relations are damaged, and will stay so. Saudis do not sell enough of oul to US to make it worthwhile. Buying ifbweapons to buy security is not ghe best way. After all Saudis do not have population that will provide the backbone of a powerful army , as many residents are not citizens. Mercenaries will disappear as soon as prospects of real war energe. Witness Yemen war.
it will go away within 1-2 weeks.i don’t think you understand how corrupt and stupid at the same time America’s foreign policy is. Americans don’t care about any of this, or even begin to comprehend it.
Never bring a typewriter to a bone saw fight.
Perhaps these bright lights of Saudi Royalty need a bit of brushing up on iterating information which answers questions, but doesn’t generate scores of new questions.
Where is the body and when can his family claim it? Who was present when this “fight” occurred. What injury did Mr.Kashoggi recieve? How long sfter the fight passed before medical assistance was begun. When & where was he pronounced dead. What cause of death did the examining physician state? Who signed the death cirtificate or Saudi equilavent?
Hope you’re not hoping this administration will be trying to find those answers.
These are indeed answers which any decent law officer of a civilized nation would want to have very soon after he/she begins the investigation of a non-biological death. There can be little doubt that the Saudi Crown prince and his murderous entourage already had the answers to every one of your questions a few hours after the killing and disappearance of Khashoggi. They know who was present. Probably quite a few of the 15 monsters. From the information of the Turkish authorities it is also fairly certain that the Saudi Consul General was present because he protested but was silenced. He is back in Riyadh and may never return to Istanbul. The Saudi’s know what the status of Kahshoggi’s remains is. They know where the remains are if there are any. They know that there was no medical examination of the dead Khashoggi. They know that there is no true death certificate. They even know why Khashoggi was murdered.
What the Saudi authorities are now probably doing is “massage the questions for answers”.
A fake medical inspection document and a fake death certificate are easy to make. The big, big hole they are in is the body. No one will believe any of the fake stories which the Saudi’s may concoct. How can they climb out of that hole? To quote Trump: “we will see”. He might help them out of that hole.
On the body the Saudi’s will stall in the hope that the story will be replaced here by the election results. Could that happen? Yes, that could happen. On and after election day.
They could always say they dumped the body in the ocean…….
Like Peron did.
If they were going to invade anyone after 9/11 it should of been Saudi Arabia. What a mess!
An interesting aftermath. The two top aides fired are …. one, the advisor on the war on Yemen, and two, advisor on the Qatar mess. How interesting. Both holdovers from Nayaf rule as Criwn Prince. Looks MbS just got rid of two unsucessful policy advisers. It will be interesting to see if thise policies get more radical or lead to unwinding Saudi positions towards political solution. Contrary to the appearances US needs war on Yemen mire then Saudis do. And the price MbS extracted for providing way out for US may be in those two areas. Curious to see the political fallout here. I think that there is a high probability of neocon attempts at getting Saudis to curb MbS. Iran will be the test. Saudis need China and Russia, and not likely to ruin their commercial chances by getting focused in Iran. Even if Saudis act like maleable on Iran, the trust is lost. One thing is to come up with a narrative to paper this over, quite another to trust an ally who so brazenly torpedoed the cruical relationship with US and Israel.
And by the way. The aides sacked are focused on Yemen and Qatar — how do they figure in what is basjcally domestic law enforcement special ops? Many lise ends here, but the contours of the patch in progress are visible. Still, much can go wrong. If Israel thinks Saudis cannot be trusted again, the matter will mutate into a conflict of a sort. Luckily for Saudis there are no obvious candidates to stir against Saudi borders in the region. But internal situation can always be promising. But itvwill be VERY hard to find a NGO or an activist to start calling for demicracy and human rights in Saudi Arabia.
Calling Khashoggi’s slaughter a fistfight is like saying Julius Caesar died brawling with some Roman senators. But the Saudi Royals are used to a police state where they control the media and heads roll and people disappear if anyone questions the credibility of the Royal family.
Can we really blame the Saudis for expecting the Western media to buy their crazy explanation? After all, Saudi intelligence operatives read the MSM coverage of the weekly “battles” between the IDF and Gazan protestors, the unthinking acceptance of the White House narratives that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons or that Iraq had WMD’s. So Saudi’s are righteously indignant that the MSM won’t give them the same blind faith our media gives to the Zionists and the neoCons.
In another tape, an unknown person tells Otaibi: “If you want to live when you come to Saudi Arabia, be quiet!”
What a way to shut everyone up – just arrest them so no one can ask them anything.
Did the Saudi consulate in which Khashoggi was murdered remain open for business after he entered? Could anyone just walk in?
The Saudi TV is a Saudi troll.
news report, after hearing that Turkey has audio and maybe video relating to the death.
Erdogan has said that Turkey will be the Muslim master in the Middle East, and nailing bin Saud for torturing and killing Khashoggi might be decisive in that direction. Erdogan has been holding back, allowing Saudi (also Trump) to go out on its limb. Will Erdogan drop the dime?
Why should we care what happens in Turkey or Saudi Arabia? You guys are falling for the globalist trap. These happenings are none of our business. The Internationalist media demands us take sides, while we should take the third position.
The media demands the US intervene in some international affair, of which has nothing to do with the US.
the mass of this board ” TRUMP IS BAD WE SHOULD DO WHAT THE MEDIA SAYS!! “