Saudi Arabia Admits Killing Khashoggi

Written By: - Date published: 2:58 pm, October 20th, 2018 - 66 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, Donald Trump, International, journalism, Media, us politics - Tags: , ,

Saudi Arabian authorities have cleared up the mystery around the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

It turns out it was suicide by bone saw.

According to spokespeople for Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Khashoggi, a 59 year old bespectacled academic, started a fight with 15 armed security people inside the consulate. During the fight, it appears his arms and legs fell off in the manner of Monty Python’s black knight.

Still, the good news is that the Saudi version of events has been assessed by the only expert that matters and found to be “credible”.

The Saudi’s have said that they have disciplined the team involved and some have lost their jobs. This is a step too far in my opinion. Surely a final warning and a letter of expectations would have sufficed?

Still none of this matters because thanks to the Saudi right wing we have learned that Khashoggi was a radical in his youth and has hung out with some really uncool dudes from time to time.

So, don’t spare another thought for Jamal Khashoggi.

Donald Trumps’ business partners are the real victims here.

 

66 comments on “Saudi Arabia Admits Killing Khashoggi ”

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  1. Chris T 1
    20 October 2018 at 3:44 pm

    Has Ross claimed he has a tape of Bridge’s ordering it yet?

    • Muttonbird 1.1
      20 October 2018 at 3:56 pm

      Grow up.

    • Dukeofurl 1.2
      20 October 2018 at 7:21 pm

      Instead we have the most sympathetic of political journalists tell us Bridges has gone ballistic with the gallery media, hostility means no more chats, and the rest are threatened with the defamation laws.
      When it’s Tracey Watkins telling the storey you know the rest fear for their jobs.

      The Saudis would approve of of Salman Bridges new approach

  2. Jenny 2
    20 October 2018 at 3:45 pm

    The US calls the shots in their neo-colonial puppet regime

    Saudi announcement says Khashoggi’s death was an accident.

    Surprise, surprise Donald Trump believes it.

    He suggested it.

    October 15: Donald Trump says that Saudi Arabia will ‘fess up’ and say that it was an accident during a struggle.

    October 20: Saudi Arabia ‘fesses up and say Jamal Khashoggi died during a “fist fight”.

    Pundits say the new killed-by-accident storyline protects Jared Kushner pal, Royal Prince MBS, and his “transforming Saudi Arabia” brand. It’s not clear who the Saudi ruling family elected to be thrown under the bus to take responsibility for the call to kill Khashoggi.

    https://deadline.com/2018/10/saudis-admit-jamal-khshoggi-killed-botched-kidnap-consulate-cnn-1202483004/

    Indeed.

    Who will the Saudis throw under the bus to satisfy the US Hegemon?

    No doubt; it will not be one of the guilty

    My guess is that the alleged principle murderer will be killed in Saudi custody by a Jack Ruby. Someone suffering a terminal illness who will also die in custody before trial.

  3. Ed 3
    20 October 2018 at 3:50 pm

    Best quip I read on Twitter was from Eli Clifton

    “Who amongst us hasn’t been involved in a fistfight that escalated into finger removal, homicide, dismemberment and a botched cover up?”

  4. Jenny 4
    20 October 2018 at 3:57 pm

    I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest
    Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
    Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
    Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
    And the executioner’s face is always well hidden
    Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten
    Where black is the color, where none is the number

    It’s a hard rain gonna fall

  5. joe90 5
    20 October 2018 at 4:02 pm

    Well, the despots do feel emboldened by the orange Julius’s admiration and tacit approval.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-new-assassins-why-countries-are-getting-away-with-murder-across/

    • marty mars 5.1
      20 October 2018 at 5:02 pm

      “Today’s assassins are comparatively incompetent, sometimes comically so, at concealing their identities and nationalities. And their governments don’t appear to care much about secrecy – perhaps deliberately.”

      Yep I think it is deliberate. They know they won’t get held to justice. For them the more dim they appear the more their western fan base can use the ‘errors’ to sow dissent, confusion and doubt. The assassin governments are happy because their western dupes do all the hard work – from t.rump on down to lowly bloggers.

  6. marty mars 6
    20 October 2018 at 4:07 pm

    Yep for some like the saudi right wing he is not worth worrying about deserved it even. They are poor examples of humanity imo. For me and many others the disgusting murder of this journalist is too much. These murderers deserve the court and a trial.

  7. Bill 7
    20 October 2018 at 4:11 pm

    Hmm.

    Let’s say it was a “good guy” who never reappeared from the Consulate – just for arguments sake. Should that make any difference to how we perceive Saudi Arabia? What difference if it was a “bad guy”? Any?

    Saudi Arabia was the same place two weeks ago as it is today as it was ten years ago.

    And it’s right up there (maybe in a league of its own) in terms of “heinous” – public beheadings and floggings, next to zero freedom for women and corpses of those executed, just like in The Handmaid’s Tale, hung out for public display.

    It’s a state that vigorously promotes vile religious teachings around the world…and then there’s Yemen, Syria, Bahrain… (most people overlook that last one).

    I wrote before that I’m indifferent to the fact of Khasshoggi’s death (though not the alleged nature of his death). And I’m more than a little pissed at liberal mainstream media attempting to kind of deify the guy – build up an image of him as a fearless advocate of human rights or whatever, when he was plainly supportive of the Saudi government, supported the the war in Yemen and was enthusiastic about the spreading of Wahhibism (he was a combatant alongside Bin Laden in Afghanistan until the Saudi’s cut Bin Laden loose).

    By pivoting everything on the death of Khoshoggi, our governments get to carry on more or less as usual when or if the pressure brought to bear on bin Salman to step aside bears fruit.

    But does anyone seriously think that if bin Salman is ousted, anything of note will change within the Kingdom?

    On that torture front, and allowing for reports of an audio tape to be true and accurate – what explains the special moral outrage for that seven minutes against the near silence of reports from US drone operators watching Pakistani herdsmen bleed out though infrared cameras on their strike drones (Brendan Bryant) until their heat signature faded to be the same as that of the surrounding ground?

    Are the western countries, and their command infrastructures that allow for often sketchy missile strikes to be executed by “boys” sitting in control centers in the US – who themselves are then screwed up with PTSD – are those leaders and rulers not as deserving of our outrage and condemnation as those behind the death of this one man?

    • Ed 7.1
      20 October 2018 at 4:19 pm

      As ever Bill, you are spot on.
      Thank you.

    • McFlock 7.2
      20 October 2018 at 6:14 pm

      Probably not.

      The Saudis get extra outrage points for being so blatant about it.

      • Dukeofurl 7.2.1
        20 October 2018 at 7:32 pm

        Remember when the Saudis were in the gun for holding hostage in their country the Lebanese PM, and concocting his resignation?

        That’s right , the rest of the world doesn’t remember either

        • McFlock 7.2.1.1
          20 October 2018 at 7:46 pm

          Didn’t know that one.

          the sooner the world transitions away from oil, the better.

        • Bill 7.2.1.2
          20 October 2018 at 8:12 pm

          I seem to recall that Robert Fisk was a bit of a lone gun slinger on that one, aye?

          I guess I could do a quick “advanced” search of The Guardian, and on the basis that liberal editorial lines are basically in synch these days, confirm or undermine my memory that liberal mainstream media bought and then sold the “he’s resigned” line – with only a modicum of puzzlement thrown in on the top.

          edit – I’d call that confirmed. No condemnation of Saudi Arabia in any headline covering the period of the search.

    • Stuart Munro 7.3
      20 October 2018 at 6:41 pm

      “does anyone seriously think that if bin Salman is ousted, anything of note will change”

      They may. One of the characteristics of monarchies is that they can move very fast compared to democracies or republics.

      M. bin Salman represents one thread of Saudi thought, unleavened by consideration of other ways of looking at the world. He seems to be under no pressure to change from Trump’s clique. Were the pressure intense we might see a better specimen take the helm. And we may yet.

      • SPC 7.3.1
        20 October 2018 at 7:01 pm

        While Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy remains in accord with Israel (the division and conquest of the Moslem world – the Sunni vs Shia civil war, allowing the PA and UN refugee agency to be starved of funds and the pressure on Qatar/Al Jazeera, a region ruled by strong men rather than democracy), the Americans will have the back of Riyadh’s rulers.

        • Stuart Munro 7.3.1.1
          20 October 2018 at 11:36 pm

          There are two other big considerations in play.

          Saudi has a very large share of oil.

          And, while they are the custodian of the two holy mosques, any overt action against them of the kind large powers often contemplate, might so to speak, “set the world on fire”.

          From their own perspective the world is the middle east, and they and Iran compete for the role of Islamic hegemon.

          It was only in Saudi that I met reasonably moderate educated adult students who might say to me casually that Hitler made a pretty good go of things – not that they knew so much about Hitler or were neo-Nazis, but that they approved in general of a Napoleonic or Suleimanic ambition of world conquest.

          It’s a very young monarchy, created by conquering competing tribes – might be a while before it settles down.

  8. SPC 8
    20 October 2018 at 4:55 pm

    Then there is the matter of refugees in New Zealand being taken back to Saudi Arabia against their will.

    http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2018/10/reminder-saudi-arabia-kidnapped-people.html

    • Bill 8.1
      20 October 2018 at 5:43 pm

      Of equal concern(?), the US kidnaps people. I guess NZ is far enough out of the way to possibly not be one of the alleged 54 countries complicit in any of that.

      edit. Unsurprisingly, New Zealand’s not on the list. Geography, eh? 😉

      • SPC 8.1.1
        20 October 2018 at 7:18 pm

        No. Rendition of refugees and journalists should be off limits. And actual murder is itself out of that orbit.

        But the scale and lack of accountability of the American rendition programme is of itself offensive. Because injustice is inevitable under that design.

        • Bill 8.1.1.1
          20 October 2018 at 7:56 pm

          I’m not understanding the distinction there SPC.

          Was Khashoggi a journalist first and a former Mujahadeen fighter second? A Wabbist or a champion for western liberal whatever?

          And does/should it make a difference?

          Is the suggestion that a rendition is fine as long as the target isn’t a reporter or refugee, but only until such times as they die in custody due to torture?

          Renditions are/should be ‘off limits’ bullshit. All of them.

          • Stuart Munro 8.1.1.1.1
            20 October 2018 at 11:47 pm

            Unfortunately it’s not just renditions in Saudi’s case.

            It’s not that uncommon for someone to be dealt with in some anonymous apartment in Qatif – the kidnappings and Khashoggi are only external instances of a practice that appears to be well established.

            • Bill 8.1.1.1.1.1
              21 October 2018 at 12:32 am

              Unfortunately it’s not just renditions in Saudi’s case.

              Are you suggesting that if it was “just” renditions, then that would be okay? Are you suggesting that “just” renditions (by whomever) are within a ball park of acceptability?

              • Stuart Munro …
                21 October 2018 at 10:34 am

                No – just that they are part of a larger pattern of behavior.

                • Michelle …
                  24 October 2018 at 3:45 pm

                  A ‘pattern of behaviour’ that is a nice way of putting a cold blooded brutal savage murder and cover up in a consulate of another country.
                  Our ten thousand prisoners have patterns of behaviour and we call them crims and lock them up.

                  • Stuart Munro …
                    24 October 2018 at 5:34 pm

                    Quite. The fact is that it’s easy to reflexively label Saudi as a pack of crazed murderers, which falls a bit short of the truth.

                    When I was there, under the determinedly moderate King Abdullah, it was a pretty relaxed place. Certainly the draconian laws one might expect of a monarchy recently established by conquest were on the books, but the executive emphasis lay on clemency, and on the social part of Wahhabi’s legacy, which is considerable, and lays numerous duties on rulers somewhat in the fashion of Confucius. Abdullah ended the practice of slavery for example.

                    MBS seems to have departed from this example, and it will likely cost his country decades of diplomatic progress. Nevertheless, encouraging him to pursue a less sanguinary approach may be more likely to bear fruit than a condemnation that may render him deaf to external criticism.

          • Kevin 8.1.1.1.2
            21 October 2018 at 4:07 pm

            I think the removal of fingers as torture points to journalist first.

            More than anything else they were sending a signal.

      • Morrissey 8.1.2
        20 October 2018 at 7:27 pm

        So does Israel. That rogue state kidnaps, and has murdered, international peace activists. One of those peace activists kidnapped in 2016 was our own Marama Davidson. She returned to this country where, shortly after, Jesse Mulligan was forced to remain silent while a notorious thug called David Cumin poured filth on her….

        https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-08102016/#comment-1241801

    • marty mars 8.2
      20 October 2018 at 6:53 pm

      Good link. I’d missed that stuff – so horrible.

      “The New Zealand government owes a duty of care to those we have granted refugee status, and we have an obligation to protect them from this sort of shit.”

      So true. This country should protect in every way possible all citizens and anyone granted refugee status. These people are our people.

  9. Dennis Frank 9
    20 October 2018 at 6:00 pm

    In respect of our foreign policy, the bare minimum to retain credibility will have to be elimination of all ties to the Saudi regime. If that creates a problem for existing business contracts, the govt may be unable to curtail those, but it could call on any business trading with the regime to cease & desist asap.

    There needs to be some consistency with our traditional stance to such behaviour from the nazis & communists. Same principle as we applied to apartheid can be invoked: moral sanctions. The coalition govt needs to be firm & set a good example.

  10. Macro 10
    20 October 2018 at 6:57 pm

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump has dispatched the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to Saudi Arabia to provide what the White House on Thursday called “essential lying advice and assistance.”

    According to the counsellor to the President Kellyanne Conway, “The President was not happy with the quality of lies coming out of the Saudi royal family, and who better to fix that than Sarah Sanders?”

    Sources close to Sanders said that the press secretary was “horrified” during her first meeting in Riyadh to discover that the crown prince’s lying skills were “rudimentary at best.”

    “The absence of a free press in Saudi Arabia means that M.B.S.”—Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman—“has had virtually zero experience lying to reporters,” Sanders reportedly told one of her aides. “The learning curve is going to be steep.”

    In perhaps her most withering comment on the state of the Saudis’ lying, Sanders said, “These clowns could never have gotten Kavanaugh confirmed.”

    https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-dispatches-sarah-huckabee-sanders-to-saudi-arabia-to-provide-lying-advice

  11. Macro 11
    20 October 2018 at 7:09 pm

    Further to the above report…

    Putin Furious at Saudis for Using His Puppet Without Permission

    MOSCOW (The Borowitz Report)—The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is “absolutely furious” at the Saudi royal family for using his puppet without first obtaining his permission, an aide to Putin confirmed on Wednesday.

    According to the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Russian President has been “seething with anger” in recent days as he has observed the Saudis using his favorite puppet as if it were their own.

    “At one point, Putin was watching the news and saw his puppet behaving in the kind of scraping, subservient manner toward the Saudis that he had previously reserved for him,” the aide said. “He pulled the TV out of the wall and hurled it across the room.”

    According to diplomatic sources, the Saudis have reached out to Russia in the hopes of striking some sort of puppet-sharing agreement, but the enraged Russian President has refused to entertain such overtures.

    “He’s my tiny puppet, and only I can make him dance,” Putin reportedly snapped.

    • joe90 11.1
      20 October 2018 at 7:15 pm

      Obligatory.

      Hold me closer tiny dancer
      Count the headlights on the highway
      Lay me down in sheets of linen
      You had a busy day today

  12. Morrissey 12
    20 October 2018 at 7:21 pm

    “The Saudi targeting of food supplies in Yemen is a worse story than the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.”—Patrick Cockburn

    http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/10/18/did-jamal-khashoggi-have-sex-with-melania-trump-the-surprising-answer-is-buried-in-this-article/

    • Bill 12.1
      20 October 2018 at 7:41 pm

      Here’s an interview with Professor Martha Mundy (writer of the report mentioned in the article).

      She’s not ‘the best’ in front of a camera, but some there’s some additional information of an alleged political decision by “the west” to withdraw their financial presence from the country.

      So, on top of no food and no distribution and bombed out infrastructure, no-one from teachers to doctors to cleaners are getting paid.

    • Gabby 12.2
      20 October 2018 at 8:59 pm

      Not for Jamal obviously Morssisey.

  13. Morrissey 13
    20 October 2018 at 7:43 pm

    Thanks for that Bill! Very good indeed.

  14. Morrissey 14
    20 October 2018 at 9:23 pm

    Roll Call of Scumbaggery

    Here are some of the moral pygmies and louts who met with the Crown Prince earlier this year:

    President Trump, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Michael Bloomberg, George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Oprah Winfrey, Rupert Murdoch, Richard Branson, Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Theresa May, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William.

    http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/10/18/may-they-all-enter-the-saudi-consulate-in-turkey/

  15. joe90 15
    20 October 2018 at 9:26 pm

    Manal al-Sharif helped overturn the ban on Saudi women driving.

    Manal one of Saudi’s most renowned activists said Saud al-Qahtani (MBS advisor now blamed for Khashoggi) tried to lure her to a Saudi embassy in Australia. So many activists and even princes have told me similar stories all linked to Saud Al-Qahtani. He did not just go rogue. https://t.co/HBUIP5jPfm— Bel Trew (@Beltrew) October 20, 2018

    https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/german/en/article/2018/05/22/saudi-migrant-australia-who-helped-overturn-driving-ban-women-too-scared-return

    • RedLogix 15.1
      20 October 2018 at 9:43 pm

      If you really want uncomfortable:

      • Ad 15.1.1
        22 October 2018 at 6:25 pm

        Lovely work there; great the way she takes them through the publications and through the historical movements that have enforced the hijab with no good reference within the Koran to its compulsion or necessity.

  16. marty mars 16
    21 October 2018 at 9:32 am

    “Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni Nobel peace prize laureate, told the Guardian: “Personally I have lost a friend and adviser. But the world has lost an important voice and the Arab Spring one of its most important defenders.

    “Saudi Arabia wanted to silence him forever but instead he has become an international icon for freedom of expression. This crime cannot go unpunished. Spilling his blood has only made the case stronger against the cruelty and repression of Saudi Arabia.””

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/20/khashoggi-mourners-demand-true-justice-after-saudi-disclosures

    “Tawakkol Karman, a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel peace prize, chairs Women Journalists Without Chains. She is a human rights activist and leader of the popular revolution movement in Yemen.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tawakkol-karman

  17. Pete 17
    21 October 2018 at 12:52 pm

    Have Health and Safety warning signs been put up outside the Saudi consulate office in New Zealand?

    • Michelle 17.1
      23 October 2018 at 1:13 pm

      We should get rid of that consulate we don’t want those people here we should be distancing ourselves from this country and those rotten evil leaders now.

  18. SPC 18
    22 October 2018 at 5:52 pm

    After Saudi Arabia admits a rogue action led to his murder, the Turks say they have evidence of a phone call to him from the Crown Prince just before he was killed – he was asked to return to Suadi Arabia and after he said no, he was then killed by the said rogue action agents.

    Seriously burnt.

    Pressure for the admission, get it, then show the connection direct to the Crown Prince.

    The Turks must be trying to end the Crown Prince /Kushner/Zionist action against Qatar.

  19. Ad 19
    22 October 2018 at 6:21 pm

    Great to see the UK, France and Germany come out so hard against this killing and cover up.

    Also awesome to see the Saudi Foreign Minister having to do some work.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/21/middleeast/jamal-khashoggi-international-pressure-builds-intl/index.html

    Looking forward to seeing Turkey release the tapes this week.

  20. Dennis Frank 20
    22 October 2018 at 6:43 pm

    “Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would reveal the “naked truth” of the matter in parliament on Tuesday.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45935823

    “In a Washington Post interview on Saturday, US President Donald Trump said there had been “deception” and “lies” in Saudi Arabia’s explanation, having previously said he found their narrative to be credible.” I suspect he’s been given advance notice.

    • Dennis Frank 20.1
      22 October 2018 at 7:48 pm

      Stuff reported this: “Saudi authorities have arrested 18 Saudi nationals and have dismissed several senior officials following an initial investigation of the Khashoggi case.”

      Looks like the Crown Prince is using plausible deniability to weave an illusion that the hit squad were rogue government agents. Who is likely to believe that the Saudi embassy staff allowed the takeover by the squad without official government authorisation? Hardly anybody. Not even Trump. The only way this has a snowball in hell’s chance of working is if they tell the world’s media who authorised the embassy takeover, and on what basis, and it stands up to scrutiny!!

      • SPC 20.1.1
        22 October 2018 at 10:48 pm

        The Turks have a phone call between the Crown Prince and the victim in the embassy – after he refuses to go to Riyadh willingly, he is then killed by the goons in the consulate.

        So burnt. The rogue agents line is buried.