Citing internal Saudi intelligence documents,an unnamed Saudi official is offering an alternative version of the death of reporter Jamal Khashoggi at the Istanbul consulate, just a day after the “official” version of the story came out, and was rejected as nonsensical.
Instead of the official claim that Khashoggi picked a fight with 15 different people and then suddenly died, this official said the 15 told Khashoggi they were there to kidnap and drug him, and send him to Saudi Arabia. He “resisted,” at which point they choked him to death, which officials say wasn’t meant to be part of the plan.
And while choking Khashoggi to death wasn’t the plan, the kill team seems to have been well prepared for that eventually, fetching a rug and giving him to a “local cooperator” to be disposed of. It’s not clear what happened after that.
While this version of events raises at least as many questions as the previous one, it again attempts to build around the one thing that is vital to the US, that the crown prince didn’t know about it. While this is something they desperately want to say is true, it is also one of the least credible things about any narrative.
What’s the difference between the versions really? They “only” wanted to drug and kidnap him to a country where they can quietly make journalists disappear, as they probably have done already to many others.