WaPo Editorial Board: Saudi Arabia's latest account of Khashoggi's death is shocking in its audacity

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Saudi Arabia’s latest account of Khashoggi’s death is shocking in its audacity

By Editorial Board November 15 at 4:05 PM

THE NEW account of Jamal Khashoggi’s death offered by Saudi Arabia on Thursday was shocking in its audacity. Having previously acknowledged that the journalist was the victim of premeditated murder, authorities in Riyadh reverted to an earlier, discredited tale: that Mr. Khashoggi was killed spontaneously inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by a team sent to return him to Saudi Arabia. While reporting that 11 suspects had been indicted and that the death penalty would be sought for five of them, a Riyadh public prosecutor excused not just Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the chief suspect in the murder — but also two of his top aides, who the prosecutor said ordered or advised the capture operation but did not approve Mr. Khashoggi’s killing.

By offering up this incredible account, the Saudi regime is baldly defying all those, including leading members of Congress, who called for full disclosure and accountability. Yet the Trump administration appears ready to accept its stonewalling. On Thursday, it announced sanctions against 17 people implicated by the Saudis — leaving untouched both the crown prince and top intelligence officials in Riyadh.

Accepting the Saudi story means ignoring a number of well-established facts. An audio recording of Mr. Khashoggi’s last moments, which Turkish officials shared with CIA Director Gina Haspel, indicates he was attacked and strangled immediately after entering the consulate. The Saudi version claims he died only after a quarrel and a struggle that prompted the head of the “negotiation team” to decide to murder him by injecting him with drugs.

The Saudi account says the operation was ordered by the then-deputy chief of intelligence, Ahmed al-Assiri, and advised by Saud al-Qahtani, a court propagandist. Both are close to Mohammed bin Salman. The two aides, so Riyadh’s story goes, were not complicit in the decision to kill Mr. Khashoggi and were fooled by their team’s claim that the journalist had left the consulate alive. That doesn’t explain a portion of the audio recording reported by the New York Times, in which Maher Mutreb, a close associate of the crown prince, instructs an official by phone to “tell your boss” that the mission was accomplished. As the Times reported, U.S. intelligence officials believe the “boss” is “almost certainly Prince Mohammed.”

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/saudi-arabias-latest-account-of-khashoggis-death-is-shocking-in-its-audacity/2018/11/15/4e236dc0-e8f1-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html

[RockRaven]

1. When Trump's WH is offering to trade Gulen's life to appease Turkey into rounding off the corners

of the evidence they're making public, the audacity of Saudi Arabia's lies is rather small potatoes, dontcha think?

[mr_lebowski]

2. No, I think the entire thing is one of the greatest clusterf*cks of evil and greed this world

has seen in quite some time.

Trump's refusal to publicly condemn KSA/MBS is quite probably THE MOST DESPICABLE act a POTUS has EVER engaged in (aside from maybe cheating to win an election with the help of Russia) in my lifetime.

There is NO QUESTION that he refuses to do so ... because KSA has money, and he wants some of it, either for him, or for those close to him.

Trumps (non) reaction to this murder is the most horrific, WRONG THING a POTUS has done since one attacked Iraq without justification. Another Repub, of course. Because they're IMMORAL SCUM.

[Grasswire2]

3. yes, he wants to maintain his business prospects with SA and MBS.

That's all it is.