Turkish officials are providing details of the alleged murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and none of the details makes what happened seem any less than monstrous. While Trump continues to cover for the Saudis, the news about their actions is literally sickening enough that it comes with this warning: If you’re not ready for gruesome details, stop reading now.
As reported by the New York Times, the interrogation of Khashoggi was not a lengthy affair. In fact, it wasn’t really an interrogation at all. Not unless this represents questioning.
A team of 15 Saudi agents, some with ties to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was waiting for Mr. Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate the moment he arrived, at about 1:15 p.m. on Oct. 2.
After he was shown into the office of the Saudi consul, Mohammad al-Otaibi, the agents seized Mr. Khashoggi almost immediately and began to beat and torture him, eventually cutting off his fingers, the senior Turkish official said.
They cut off his fingers. Then beheaded him and dismembered his body. And “it was all over in a few minutes.” The details of what happened to Khashoggi were released by Turkish officials as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is visiting Turkey.
Trump continues to insist that he’s unwilling to take any action against Saudi Arabia. In an interview on Tuesday with the Associated Press, Trump insisted that the Saudis were innocent until proven guilty, comparing them to Brett Kavanaugh. On Fox News, Trump repeatedly declared that America “needs” Saudi Arabia, before tumbling into a loop about the evils of Iran, and making outlandish claims about the number of jobs dependent on Saudi arms deals. Trump then tries to reframe the “rogue killers” idea to suggest that even if some Saudi guys did happen to fly to Istanbul, wander into the consulate, and slice up a journalist with a bone saw they just happened to have on hand, it’s all good if crown prince Mohammed bin Salman can claim ignorance.
Trump: I hope that the king and the crown prince didn’t know about it, that’s a big factor in my eyes, and I hope they haven’t uh Mike uh Pompeo just left, as you know went to Turkey, and he’s coming back. We’ll find out.
But as the Times also reports, even by that miserable standard, there’s a problem.
At least one of the men dispatched to dispatch Khashoggi was one of bin Salman’s personal guards.
The New York Times has confirmed independently that at least nine of 15 suspects identified by Turkish authorities worked for the Saudi security services, military or other government ministries. One of them, Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, was a diplomat assigned to the Saudi Embassy in London in 2007, according to a British diplomatic roster. He traveled extensively with the crown prince, perhaps as a bodyguard.
According to the audio recordings, at least the Saudi consul did protest—the mess that the men were making in his nice consulate.
“Do this outside. You will put me in trouble,” Mr. al-Otaibi, the consul, told them, according to the Turkish official and the report in Yeni Safak, both citing audio recordings said to have been obtained by Turkish intelligence.
“If you want to live when you come back to Arabia, shut up,” one of the agents replied, according to both the official and the newspaper.
The Saudi consul, Mohammad al-Otaibi, has now been called back to Riyadh. It might be nice to get an interview with him. If that’s still possible.
And anyone attempting to float a story about how the Saudi’s “accidentally” killed Khashoggi, will have to explain how their questioning began with cutting off his fingers.
