Still Missing Turkey - Jamal Khashoggi, 59, Washington Post columnist, Istanbul, 3 Oct 2018

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Herat said:
There is a report from Daily Mail (?MSM or not?) that King Salman of Saudi Arabia is now personally intervening in the case by sending his own trusted envoy to Turkey.

With MBS as his own blood son, Crown Prince, and heir apparent, there is a lot on the line with the SA royal succession here.

The worldwide condemnation isn't yet loud, but the withdrawl of signficant financial interests from the "Davos in the Desert" program will surely hurt SA and cause great concern about what MBS has done. His recent radical imprisonment of other Saudi royals and questionable behavior are an issue, worldwide, in regards to him becoming the King of Saudi Arabia upon his father's death and what that will do to the oil business and Saudi investments worldwide.

The investigation will go on and I do expect Turkey to be more or less trustworthy in their findings.

The real issue for the future is what King Salman will do about MBS and the succession.
Click to expand...


Not sure about trusting Turkey(erdogan). He is not happy with the way SA is taking islam.

.....

In harsh but indirect remarks addressed to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the Saudi official does not own the Islamic faith.


PressTV-Erdogan to Saudi crown prince: You don’t own Islam
 
As Khashoggi crisis grows, Saudi king asserts authority, checks son's power: sources

As Khashoggi crisis grows, Saudi king asserts authority, checks son's power: sources | Reuters

Initially the king, who has handed the day-to-day running of Saudi Arabia to his son, commonly known as MbS, was unaware of the extent of the crisis, according to two of the sources with knowledge of the Saudi royal court. That was partly because MbS aides had been directing the king to glowing news about the country on Saudi TV channels, the sources said.

That changed as the crisis grew.
 
For Erdogan, the benefits of turning up the heat on Saudi Arabia and its young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, were apparent, analysts said. The two countries have competed for influence in the Middle East and clashed over Turkey’s support for Qatar in a feud that divided the region.

Erdogan has little personal affection for Mohammed, who referred to Turkey this year as part of a regional “triangle of evil,” along with Iran and regional Islamist groups. The Khashoggi investigation, with its allegations of high-level collusion by Saudi officials, provided Turkey an opportunity to damage the crown prince’s reputation, analysts said, and to drive a wedge between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The Turkish president has also said he regarded Khashoggi as “a friend.”

How Turkey’s president pressured the Saudis to account for Khashoggi’s death

“The Turks have leaked information in drips and drops, ultimately in my estimation to increase the price of settlement,” said Joshua Walker, a former Turkey specialist at the State Department. “Turkey has been in a tough economic situation since the summer, and as we have seen with its relationship with Qatar, it is not above leveraging its relationships,” he said, referring to a pledge by Qatar in August to invest $15 billion in the Turkish economy.


“They don’t want the Americans to base their whole policy on Mohammed bin Salman,” she said, but at the same time, Turkey does not expect the United States to pivot from the alliance with Saudi Arabia. Turkey’s aim, she added, is to deter “the more thuggish behavior associated with Mohammed bin Salman and the United Arab Emirates,” a key Saudi ally.

But the leaks, and the pressure they created, carry risks for Turkey as it tries to avoid a total diplomatic break with the Saudis and worries about Saudi retaliation, analysts said.
 
Credible

Donald Trump has said he found Saudi Arabia’s explanation about the death of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi credible and termed it an “important first step.”

The US president added that if the US takes action, he does not want it to impact arms sales to the kingdom, where authorities announced late on Friday that Khashoggi was killed in a fight at its Istanbul consulate. Turkish officials pointed to a state-sanctioned hit.

Donald Trump says he finds Saudi explanation of Khashoggi death 'credible'
 
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Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman appears to have bowed to US pressure to blame one of his favoured generals for the death of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a move the Trump administration believes could allow Washington and Riyadh a way out of the escalating crisis.

The sacking of Gen Ahmed al-Assiri, one of the embattled crown prince’s most trusted security officials and deputy head of Saudi intelligence, was announced on state television. Assiri was a senior air force officer who was the Saudi face of the Yemen war for more than a year before being thrust into the role. He was entrusted with the most sensitive state secrets.

Officials in Washington have suggested for the past three days that a senior figure in Riyadh was central to the apparent plot to lure Khashoggi into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he was believed to have been tortured and killed by state security officials.

However, their insistence had been met with blanket rejections by Bin Salman, who denied any Saudi link to Khashoggi’s disappearance.

Saudi prince pins blame for Khashoggi death on favoured general
 
Deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri and Saud al-Qahtani, senior aide to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, were sacked over the affair, it says.

US President Donald Trump said what had happened was "unacceptable" but added that Saudi Arabia was a "great ally".

This is the first time the kingdom has admitted Mr Khashoggi is dead.

The acknowledgement follows two weeks of denials that Saudi Arabia had any involvement in the disappearance of the prominent Saudi critic when he entered the consulate in Istanbul on 2 October to seek paperwork for his forthcoming marriage.

Khashoggi died in consulate fight - Saudis
 
1:50 p.m.
The deputy head of Turkey’s ruling party says Turkey will “never allow a cover-up” of the killing...
Photo: A man enters Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. A Turkish official said Friday that investigators are looking into the possibility that the remains of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi may have been taken to a forest in the outskirts of Istanbul or to another city — if and after he was killed inside the consulate earlier this month. (Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press)
Washington Post: Breaking News, World, US, DC News & Analysis
 
Saudi Arabia has admitted the death of missing Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, claiming he died in a fistfight involving more than a dozen Saudi officials at the country’s consulate in Istanbul.

After 18 days in which it insisted it had no involvement in the journalist’s disappearance, Riyadh asserted that Khashoggi died as a result of the altercation after he had come to the consulate to obtain paperwork needed for his forthcoming wedding.
The consequences touch some of bin Salman’s inner circle. Five high- ranking officials have been removed from their posts, including the deputy head of the Saudi intelligence service.
The apparent circumstances of Khashoggi’s disappearance caused worldwide revulsion. Businesses pulled out of an investment conference due to be held in Saudi Arabia next week, and Trump came under pressure to issue an unequivocal condemnation. On Thursday — before the Saudi statement — US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced he would not participate in the conference.
Jamal Khashoggi died in fistfight at Istanbul consulate, Saudi Arabia claims
 
This whole media and rights and responsibilities of information release from selected outlets is so confusing. Our brave and courageous journalists. Where would we be without them? They are our only source of truth but are now being irradiated from our ever growing violent and retaliatory nations and their collective ideology. It is pervasive and invasive. Someone needs to protect these journalists. There is a very scary trend towards violating the basic rights of the accepted and talented unafraid journalists of today. How far will it spread down the totem pole? Who’s the next fair game for these people? It’s
an irretrievable cancer.
 
Sitting in my suburban American kitchen, it is easy to feel that Saudi Arabia is a world away, that events at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul — as gruesome as they now seem to have been — have little to do with me.

Except for one thing.
...
A non-believing American blonde and a tall devout Saudi — we must have been a sight as we traversed Yemen, visiting mosques and meeting Islamic leaders of various persuasions. Jamal was protective of me in danger zones while respectful of my personal space.

He shared with me time and again the many ways that Yemen reminded him of the beloved Saudi Arabia of his childhood. I never met anyone who loved his homeland more.

His adherence to the values of Islam, and the depth of his desire to help outsiders like me understand the wide spectrum of Islamic ideologies, was real. Before 9/11 and after, Jamal was a much-needed bridge between ever-evolving political Islam in all its iterations and the West.

He was also ready to listen to criticism of Islam. On one holiday in Yemen, Jamal went into a mosque while I — along with dozens of Yemeni women — was left to listen to the sermon while seated in the dusty streets outside. It was a long sermon, and as it went on I became angrier and angrier. "Why should 50 percent of the population cover themselves and be forced to sit outside because the other 50 percent of the population can't behave themselves?!" I shouted at him later.

I don't remember his reply. But he listened. And he understood my frustration.
More at link:
The Jamal Khashoggi I knew: mentor, bridge between cultures
 
We are not preemptively blaming anyone but we will also not allow a cover-up," Celik said on Saturday, in the first official Turkish reaction to Saudi Arabia's midnight statement claiming Khashoggi's death was accidental. "It is a matter of honor for us that this is uncovered. We will shed light on this using all means we have. That is the will of our president," Celik said.
...
His killing at the consulate comes amid a wave of arrests that have targeted clerics, human rights advocates and members of Saudi Arabia's intelligentsia.
The crackdown has largely been led by a powerful security apparatus, known as the State Security Presidency, created and led by bin Salman.
Jamal Khashoggi death: Turkey won't allow a Saudi 'cover-up' - CNN
 
rebel123 said:
Turkish officials raced to intercept Saudi plane after suspecting Jamal Khashoggi had been killed

Jamal Khashoggi: Turkish officials suspected Saudi journalist killed within hours of disappearance - CNN
Click to expand...

This article has some remarkable information I had not read before

Turkish officials searched one Saudi Gulfstream at the airport the day he disappeared. Posing as airline workers, they searched the plane and the luggage was x-rayed, but showed nothing of interest. The claim is made that the airline scanners would have picked up body parts. I assume the data and images from those scans have been saved.

Another report mentions two planes, one of which stopped in Dubai before returning to Riyadh, the other of which stopped in Cairo before returning to Riyadh.

The Turkish authorities are searching at least 3 sites in the general area of Istanbul - one of which is a residence.

It's all so mystifying. They could have kidnapped him and sent him back alive to Saudi Arabia, they could have assassinated him in the street. So many questions
 
Khashoggi has been reported as a personal friend of Turkish President Erdogan

I wonder if he told them of his plans to visit the SA consulate and his concerns to him, in advance.

Turkey certainly knew enough to monitor his visit as it happened, not just compiling surveillance tapes that went into a folder.

I wonder if he was deliberately wearing a surveillance device of some sort. They seem to have been monitoring him in real time, in my opinion
 
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Fox News "the murder" had been a "tremendous mistake" and denied the powerful crown prince had ordered it.

"The individuals who did this did this outside the scope of their authority," he added. "There obviously was a tremendous mistake made, and what compounded the mistake was the attempt to try to cover up."

"Even the senior leadership of our intelligence service was not aware of this," he said, calling it a "rogue operation".

However, a media outlet close to Turkey's government, says it has information showing that the office of the crown prince had received four phone calls from the consulate after the killing.

The paper, which has leaked many details of the Turkish investigation so far, suggested embassy official Maher Mutreb had used his own mobile phone to call the office, as well as an American number believed to belong to the crown prince's younger brother, Khaled, who was Saudi ambassador to the US. Prince Khaled bin Salman left the US soon after Khashoggi's disappearance.

Wow, just how many versions are we going to have on this. I can't believe anyone would believe the crown prince was unaware of this, or that anyone other than him ordered it.

Saudis now admit journalist was murdered
 
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