British media are reporting that the GCHQ, the British version of the NSA, had intercepts giving them three weeks of advanced notice before the death of Jamal Khashoggi that a plot was in the offing.
At the time, the plot was believed to be a kidnapping plot to force Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia. This is in keeping with some of the Saudi preliminary reports, which suggest the “kill team” told Khashoggi this is what was going to happen, before ultimately killing him.
The intercepts suggested the Saudis were concerned about some forthcoming Khashoggi reports on the war in Yemen, and that was what precipitated the plot. Britain apparently “begged” the Saudis not to follow through, but to no avail.
Britain’s intercepts also apparently attributed the plot to a member of the “royal circle” of the Saudis, though they concede they don’t know for sure if this is the crown prince, as would generally be assumed.
Legally, it’s unclear if Britain was obliged to tell Khashoggi all of this. It will raise concerns again about the US, who did have a legal obligation to warn Khashoggi, a permanent resident, but chose not to do so.
So what did the Brutish colonial puppet regime do, tell the Saudi Barbarian headchopper regime, “Don’t kill him, we’ll still you another £500 billion worth of bombs to murder Yemeni civilians with”?
Britain apparently “begged” the Saudis not to follow through, but to no avail.
LOL The UK is as closely allied to arms sales to the Saudis as the USA is, and the Royal Family are very close to the Saudi Royals too.
Hm, begged the Saudis not to act eh? You mean not act against Khashoggi? Or not kill him, just abduct him? Or not to kill him in Turkey. Or not in that way.
Or maybe UK admits it knew but actually contacted the Saudis to tell them to get moving because Khashoggi was becoming dangerous.
The central question for the UK currently is whether to keep Bin Salman or replace him as smoothly as possible. Maybe the UK just wants to put some distance with Bin Salman. They’re remarkably free of blame in the scenario above.
How long till we find out, someone in the US shadow government told the English to shut up. Assuming this sudden incident of English conscience is even true.
Whether or not the Brits were ‘legally’ obliged to tell Khashoggi about his death being planned, wouldn’t you think that someone in the loop would have had the moral fortitude to let the poor guy know? Fair play and all that, you know. Now the guy is dead, killed by the people the Brits knew were planning his death, and not one of them spoke up to give him a chance.
This is getting bearly as comical as Skripal case. Except Skripals did not die, but are merely kidnapped. Now, another story worthy of yellow journalism award. They begged? Whom? Who was being told not to do it? Seriously!
This is just the case of friendly Western government pile on. One cannot leave poor Bob Corker alone in his newly discovered indignation. What did the Prince do to displease. And there a plenty of them. So, any bets on Saudi card up their sleave.
As for starving children, US just needs to lift blockade in food shipping.
Look at Yemeni web site Saba.net. The byline says: US killing American people. Even the starving nation is not blaming Saudi Arabia as the main cause.