CNN: Saudis Will Claim Khashoggi Killed in Unsanctioned Interrogation Gone Wrong

Jamal Khashoggi

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CNN reported Monday afternoon that the Saudi government is preparing a report that will say Jamal Khashoggi is dead and that his death was as a result of an unapproved interrogation gone wrong. Saudi Arabia said Friday it was a fist-fight gone wrong and it’s investigating.

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Earlier this week, Pres. Donald Trump said he’d spoken to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who “firmly denies” any involvement, that “it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. Who knows?”

Trump’s statement was the first apparent official confirmation that Khashoggi, who vanished Oct. 2 after going into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, was in fact dead.

Authorities in Turkey have said all along that journalist Khashoggi, a U.S. resident, was reported murdered inside the consulate in Istanbul. State-run Turkish TV aired video and images it says shows a Saudi “assassination team” arriving in Istanbul the day Khashoggi vanished.


A Forensics Team Was Finally Permitted to Enter the Consulate Monday, 13 Days After His Disappearance, to Determine if There Was Evidence of His Murder Inside the Site

Khashoggi, a U.S. resident since 2017 and columnist for The Washington Post went to the consulate Oct. 2 for documents he needed to marry. He was accompanied by his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz. Cengiz said Khashoggi went in and never came out.

She asked the Turkish government to question “the Saudi authorities where is your citizen Mr Jamal…”

Khashoggi, who self-exiled from Saudi Arabia and was living in Washington D.C., traveled to Turkey in September.

Days ago it was reported friends thought he was perhaps detained and removed to Saudi Arabia. He has been critical of the Saudi kingdom’s suppression of the press.

The Middle East Eye reported Saturday that a senior Turkish police official said Khashoggi was “brutally tortured, killed and cut into pieces” inside the consulate after visiting the building on 2 October,” adding that “Everything was videotaped to prove the mission had been accomplished and the tape was taken out of the country.”

In a statement, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said Monday the State Department has seen “conflicting reports on the safety and whereabouts” of Khashoggi adding that the U.S. is concerned and has spoken with “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through diplomatic channels about this matter” and Pompeo called on the Saudis to “support a thorough investigation of Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance and to be transparent about the results of that investigation.”

A week after his disappearance, The Washington Post reported that U.S. intelligence intercepted correspondence between Saudi officials where a scheme to capture Khashoggi was planned. The Saudi’s were “laying in wait …” and reportedly planned to “arrest and interrogate Khashoggi or to kill him, or if the U.S. warned Khashoggi that he was a target,” the Post reported.


Turkish Police Have Maintained Khashoggi Was Murdered. Saudi Arabia Has Repeatedly Denied Any Involvement & Trump Echoed That

But Turkish news station TRT aired video that it reported shows CCTV video footage of a Saudi “assassination squad” arriving via private jet in Istanbul the same day Khashoggi went missing.

TRT reported the video and images show a Saudi team arrive the day Khashoggi vanished on two private flights into Istanbul, travel to the consulate and hours later, leave on the same flights.

The Irish Times reported a Turkish official identified a number of the men said to be Saudi officials and agents including one man identified as “an autopsy expert, presumably there to help dismember the body,” the official told The Irish Times.

This is a developing story.

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