So let's get this straight, or at least as straight as we can.
On October 2nd, Jamal Khashoggi, a frequent critic of the Saudi royal family took his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz to the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul. He walked inside in order to secure paper work which would allow him, a Saudi expatriate, to legally marry Ms. Cengiz, who is a Turkish national. Either through custom, or sheer luck she waited outside for her soon to be groom while he was taking care of the business at hand.
As we all know she never saw him again.
When it became apparent something was horribly wrong, Hatice Cengiz contacted the Turkish authorities and they began an investigation into the sudden disappearance.
The first Saudi response was something along the lines of, Why ask us? The guy left through the back door. Actually someone did, but it wasn't Jamal Khashoggi.
The Saudi's main problem with their initial tale was their consulate had all the privacy of a men's room at a sold out football stadium during half time. The Turks had the place so covered with cameras and listening devices they could see and hear practically everything going on there.
As the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan began releasing photographs of not just Khashoggi entering the building, but 15, sketchy looking guys coming into the country on Saudi passports, Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman repeated the, He left through the back door, story to Bloomberg News. His good pal Donald J. Trump took up for him when he told the American media the Saudis were, "vehemently," denying any involvement. Then he sternly lectured reporters about assuming guilt instead of innocence, citing a questionable example--Brett Kavanaugh.
Trump isn't a complete idiot though. He also floated the possibility of, "rogue," Saudi elements which might have acted without the knowledge of either the King, or Crown Prince. Most experts on Saudi Arabia consider this possibility about as realistic as Trump's assertion thousands of Muslims celebrated the 9-11 attacks in the streets of Jersey City.
In other words no one in their right mind was buying anything either bin-Salman, or Trump said. At the same moment, reports began bubbling up that unnamed Trump supporters in congress and the right wing media, along with the Saudis--that would be people not in their right minds--were beginning to circulate disparaging rumors about Khashoggi. The main ones being he was a confidant of Osama bin-Laden and a friend of Islamic Jihadists everywhere.
Now we have this from Saudi Arabia. The 15 men who flew into Turkey, 12 of whom have direct links to Saudi security forces and one who is a specialist in what the Washington Post describes as, "rapid and mobile autopsies," were there to just talk with Khashoggi. The reason? The journalist wanted to return to Saudi Arabia.
That would have been news to the victim. Earlier this year, when asked if he wanted to go back to his homeland he told a friend, "Are you kidding? I don't trust them one bit."
Contradictions aside, according to the current rendition the meeting didn't go well. There was an argument which turned increasingly ugly. Then Jamal Khashoggi went all Chuck Norris and physically attacked everyone. During the melee somebody put a choke hold on him, presumably to save the other 14 burly dudes from the wrath of this wild man and as a result he died accidently.
The Saudi statement didn't offer any reason for why the body was secretly disposed of, or where it might be.
Today more photos were released by the Turks. They showed two of the Saudi agents leaving the consulate via the back door. One of them was wearing a fake beard and dressed in Khashoggi's clothes. After wandering around Istanbul a bit the body double disappeared into a public restroom and re-emerged dressed in a different set of clothing. Those duds were the same outfit he was filmed wearing when he entered the consulate right before the nightmare began.
No, subtlety doesn't seem to be a strong point when it comes to Saudi Arabia's secret police. Plus it's obvious they were woefully ignorant of the Turk's ability to keep an eye on them. Someone should arrest the sons of bitches and not just for the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Let's face it, anyone as incompetent as they are shouldn't be allowed to walk the streets on general principle alone.
The Saudi government has decided to run with the whole, "rogue," thing. They've arrested, or detained 18 people in connection with the murder. It is unclear at this moment if any of them are the 15 deadly clowns who participated in the act, or some poor yokels they simply grabbed off the streets.
Whatever the case, odds are good we'll soon hear about a rash of suicides and suspects being shot while trying to escape. Yes, in a business like this it's best to get rid of the loose ends before they start to squeal. After all, throughout history hitting the hit men has been the quickest way to close the door on any further inconvenient questions. Hey, many diverse cultures have proud traditions of such things.
And we know that sort of solution will mollify Trump. He probably views the entire affair as nothing more than a poorly timed diversion anyway. Indeed, he has a mid term election to deal with and would rather be spending his energy demonizing democrats and Central Americans rather than defending his blood thirsty business partners/allies.
Besides, given his attitude toward a critical free press, he might even like the idea of journalists disappearing now and then. We know his supporters certainly would.
sic vita est
10-22-18
Messy business, this. I'm not sure how the reception committee knew he would be arriving when he did. Did he have an appointment? If so, maybe he should have known better. Maybe we don't have the whole story. Hmm, I've been saying that a lot lately about a number of things.
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