Seems very likely that the Saudis murdered Washington Post Columnist and exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He went into the consulate last Tuesday and never emerged. Whole and alive anyway. The Turks seem to have an incredibly detailed picture of what happened: Khashoggi went into the consulate and the Turks say he was murdered within two hours, and they claim to have audio and video evidence of the murder (!!!). They say they know who murdered him, in what room he was murdered, and in what room he was dismembered with a bone saw. And they've leaked a list of 15 shady mother****ers who murdered, dismembered, cleaned up, and disposed of the body. The Turks also seem to think Khashoggi was buried in the backyard of the consul general's house, which is a separate residence. They haven't searched the consulate or the consul's residence because diplomacy. Although the Turks have leaked that they've collected some physical evidence from the consulate's sewage system. The Turks don't seem to be messing around, and it's probably relevant that Khashoggi was personally known to and friendly with lots of Turkish government officals, including Erdogan.

The brazenness of this act is truly breathtaking. The Saudis either didn't think they'd get caught, which is almost inconceivable, or they didn't think that murdering a US permanent resident and well-known columnist for one of the most influential newspapers in the world would have consequences. Or they don't care about the consequences? It's hard to imagine that any of these things are true, but I can't really think of an alternative. But I don't think there is another documented case of a country violating the diplomatic purpose of a consulate or embassy for such brazenly criminal purposes. Sure, countries do espionage out of diplomatic buildings, but this is just straight up gangster ****. Luring a well known dissident into a consulate on foreign soil and murdering him while he was trying to get some bureaucratic papers taken care of.

Trump is even cozier than most recent US presidents were to the Saudis (really saying something), so maybe they're right about lack of serious consequences. But a bunch of Senators are making encouraging noises, so who knows what will happen.

I thought it was officially confirmed when seeing your thread. He's almost certainly murdered or else renditioned off to SA to be tortured then murdered.

The Turks seem extremely sure he was murdered. Bob Corker says "I think they did it and I think, unfortunately, he's deceased." I would be very shocked if he turns up alive. Feels like it's 100-1 or worse.

Unfortunately I think they're right about the lack of consequences. Trump's not going to do anything. He probably wishes he could have journalists killed too. A few Senators will make some speeches and then we'll all forget about it.

After all, we forgot that 15 of the 19 September 11th hijackers were Saudi.

the saudis blew up a school bus full of kids like a month ago

they have a free pass with trump in office

And all they had to do was pose with some 2nd-grade level charts and agree to buy $110 billion worth of weapons.

All the cool countries are doing it!

who's gonna tell him

Lotta killers out there. You think our country's so innocent?

Doubt Trump gives a **** about the weapons, maybe some in his inner circle. Or maybe he cares a little. But personally he loves the Saudis because they bought some apartments from him.

thx Deplorables

melania is the craziest looking one in that photo

Turks claim to have footage proving Khashoggi was murdered.

She's already the most bullied person in the world, no need to pile on

Haven't looked into this much, but apparently the bipartisan letter senators sent to trump yesterday triggers an investigation under the Global Magnisky Act and a report on the investigation has to be made in like 120 days. May get interesting.

Trump giving the green light to any dictators thinking about assassinating US journalists in the most brutal fashion.

On the flip side, thug Turkish bodygaurds beating up US protestors doesn't look so bad now.

If there was a murder it took place on Saudi soil. If anyone knows why Turkey and SA are at odds I'd appreciate a summary.

Most recent New Yorker podcast, featuring Dexter Filkins (star reporter), who knew Khashoggi and has written about the Kushner/MBS relationship. (20 mins) https://www.wnyc.org/story/disappear...ed-bin-salman/

rofl

Short, incomplete answer - Turkey are mates with Qatar, who SA doesn't like. Given they sent 15 folk it seems the best idea is they only intended to torture, interrogate and render him (how nice) - probably don't need that many to just off him - but then things went bad. But who knows, MBS seems like an absolute idiot as well as a psychopath.

This is one of those situations where every possible side of it is massively depressing. Having Turkey complain about what SA has done to a journalist is a bit off considering Turkey lock up journalists for fun these days (though don't murder them yet, I think).

Plus I've already seen an opinion piece from a Western journalist saying this is even worse that what SA are doing in Yemen - freedom of the press! I usually think trying to rank things that are obviously horrible is stupid, but given the relative silence on Yemen in the Western press for years hearing that is also tough to take.

But even mentioning these things makes it seem like you're trying to excuse one of the most truly terrible regimes in the world, who just straight up murdered a guy. Yuk.

Dunno where precisely you're going with this but the consular immunity / diplomatic privileges in the Vienna Conventions were never ever intended to give immunity to straight up murders, not how that works. I would agree, for instance, that Turkey might be prohibited from prosecuting the Saudis in their courts but in cases where stuff like this has happened, they've almost always caused big diplomatic crises, not a "none ya business mind ya Ps & Qs, don't ya know this is a CONSULATE, anything goes!" mindset.

Blaming this on Trump is completely unfair and dishonest. Clinton, Bushes, Obama, all paid blood money to the Saudis to keep the oil coming. The US has been propping the world's most obscene dictatorship for decades.

Everyone in the US who drives is guilty (here come the Tesla fanboys).