Jamal Khashoggi

Is this the story? There is a lot that is hard to figure about the apparent killing of Jamal Khashoggi. But one of the biggest for me is, why? He was a critic and a dissident. But he actually didn’t oppose the regime itself. He wasn’t calling for a change of government. He even supported a number of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s initiatives. Consolidating autocrats don’t like critics, period. But still it doesn’t quite fit. If Khashoggi died as described, it was an incredibly high stakes and visible move to silence someone who just doesn’t seem to have been that much of a threat. Read More 

The Post is reporting that Turkish officials have told their U.S. counterparts that they have audio and video recordings that prove Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. It appears that the claimed video evidence is more circumstantial. The audio evidence would appear to be from listening devices either within or targeting the compound. According to the Post, the tapes the Turks claim to have essentially have the audio of Khashoggi being interrogated, tortured and then finally killed.

As the Post describes it, the Turks are extremely leery of sharing the evidence. And it’s not clear they’ve shared it with the U.S., as opposed to describe it to their U.S. counterparts. It’s a dicey situation. They clearly don’t want to out themselves or at least out the ways they bug diplomatic compounds.