Khashoggi Disappearance

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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Nov 05, 2018 9:02 am


Saudis Sent Experts to Remove Evidence of Khashoggi’s Killing, Turkey Says


A makeshift memorial for Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month. He was last seen there Oct. 2.CreditCreditYasin Akgul/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Carlotta Gall
Nov. 5, 2018

ISTANBUL — More than a week after Saudi agents killed the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Saudi Arabia sent an expert team to clean up evidence of the crime, under the guise of helping with the investigation, a senior Turkish official said on Monday — the latest twist in a case that has caused an international uproar.

A pro-government newspaper, Sabah, published news of the Saudi cleanup team and photographs of two of its members, whom it identified as a chemist and a toxicologist, who visited the Saudi consulate where Mr. Khashoggi was killed.

The senior Turkish official confirmed the main details of the report and said the Saudi team was sent with the knowledge of top Saudi officials. The two men traveled to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of the killing before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises, the official said in comments relayed by electronic message.

The two men were identified as Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Jonabi, a chemist, and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani, a toxicologist, part of a team of Saudi investigators who spent several days in Turkey visiting the consulate and the consul’s residence, ostensibly to help with the investigation into Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance, the newspaper reported.

The Turkish official confirmed the names of the two individuals and said that they were part of a cleanup team. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, according to the rules of his office.

The cleanup team arrived in Istanbul on Oct. 11, nine days after Mr. Khashoggi’s death, and visited the consulate every day from Oct. 12 to Oct. 17, according to Sabah. Turkish investigators were not allowed into the consulate, which is considered Saudi sovereign territory, until Oct. 15. Sabah published photographs of Mr. Jonabi and Mr. Zahrani emerging from the entrance of the consulate and also published photographs that the newspaper’s investigative editor, Abdurrahman Simsek, said were head shots from cameras at airport passport control.

The men arrived on the same day as a Saudi delegation that met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Oct. 11, as Turkish officials demanded to know what had happened to Mr. Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government who lived in the United States and wrote opinion articles for The Washington Post. He had entered the consulate on Oct. 2 for a prearranged meeting to collect papers that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancé, and was never seen again.

When the group identified as a cleanup team was in Turkey, Saudi officials were still insisting that Mr. Khashoggi, 59, had left the consulate safely, and that they did not know where he was. They later acknowledged that he had been killed in the consulate, at first describing his death as the accidental result of a fight, and later calling it premeditated.

Turkey has identified a team of 15 Saudi officials that it has accused of being the perpetrators of the murder, who arrived in Turkey in the hours before Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance and left the same day. Some of the 15 turned out to be security officers close to the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and included a top forensic specialist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/worl ... rabia.html
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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby JackRiddler » Thu Nov 08, 2018 8:15 am

.

Saudi journalist tortured to death in prison
November 5, 2018 at 11:28 am

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181 ... in-prison/


November 5, 2018 at 11:28 am
Saudi journalist and writer Turki Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Jasser has died after being tortured while in detention, the New Khaleej reported yesterday.

Reporting human rights sources, the news site said that Al-Jasser was arrested and tortured to death after Saudi authorities claimed he administered the Twitter account Kashkool, which disclosed rights violations committed by the Saudi authorities and royal family.

The sources said that the authorities identified Al-Jasser as the admin using moles in Twitter’s regional office located in Dubai. He was arrested in March.

https://twitter.com/m3takl_en/status/97 ... -prison%2F

According to the sources, these spies are considered part of the Saudi Cyber Army which was established by Saud Al-Qahtani, the former aide of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.

In a tweet, Al-Qahtani has said that the fake names on Twitter would not protect those behind the accounts from the Saudi authorities.

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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:54 pm

Traces of acid, chemicals found at Saudi consul general's home

Sources at Turkish attorney general's office told Al Jazeera samples of acid were found at Saudi envoy's Istanbul home.

2 hours ago
Turkish investigators were able to take samples from the well when first given access to the residence in mid-October. [Scott Applewhite/AP]

Saudi authorities used acid and other chemicals to dispose of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi's body, a source at the Turkish attorney general's office has told Al Jazeera.

The source said traces of hydrofluoric acid and other chemicals were found in a well at Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi's home in Istanbul.

Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from Istanbul, said on Thursday that Turkish investigators were able to take samples from the well when they were first granted access last month.

"We know that on the night of October 16 to 17, when the Turkish investigators were working inside the residence and wanted to gain full access to the garden and the well shaft, they were not given permission […] but were able to briefly take some samples from it with rods from the top of it," he said.

"Those samples have been processed and they include proof that there had been hydrofluoric and other chemicals."

Simmons said the other samples taken from the sewerage and drainage system around the diplomatic district also showed the use of acid.

Saudi Arabia had consistently maintained that Khashoggi left the consulate building after obtaining the necessary paperwork that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancee before admitting to the journalist's killing on October 20.

It has since provided conflicting accounts about the way in which Khashoggi was killed.

In a meeting with US evangelicals on November 1, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly reiterated promises to get to the bottom of Khashoggi's killing and punish those responsible.

According to the delegation's organiser, quoted in an article published on Axios news site on Thursday, 18 people had been arrested and five sacked in connection with the killing.

'Cover-up team'

On November 2, Yasin Aktay, a close aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said he believed Khashoggi's body was dissolved in acid.

"The reason they dismembered Khashoggi's body was to dissolve his remains more easily," Aktay said.

"Now we see that they did not only dismember his body but also vaporised it."

A few days later, the pro-government Sabah newspaper reported that Saudi Arabia sent a chemist and toxicology expert to Istanbul in an attempt to cover up evidence of the killing.

According to the Turkish daily, Riyadh sent an 11-member "cover-up team" on October 11, nine days after the Washington Post columnist vanished.

The paper said chemist Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were among "the so-called investigative team", which visited the consulate every day until October 17, before leaving Turkey on October 20.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/ ... 32933.html
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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby seemslikeadream » Sat Nov 10, 2018 2:04 pm

Turkey gives recordings on Khashoggi's death to Saudis, US, Britain -- Erdogan


Istanbul, Turkey (CNN)Recordings related to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death have been passed on to Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.

Khashoggi was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain paperwork for his marriage.

Speaking before his departure to Paris for World War I commemorations, Erdogan said: "We passed on the recordings. We gave them to Saudi Arabia, to America, to the Germans, French and the English -- we gave them all."

He did not elaborate on what was on the recordings.

Exclusive: Khashoggi sons issue emotional appeal for the return of their father's body
Erdogan said the killer, or killers, would be known to the 18 suspects identified by Turkish authorities -- including 15 men who arrived from Saudi Arabia shortly before Khashoggi's death.

He again called on Saudi Arabia to provide answers as to what happened to Khashoggi and his body, which has not yet been found.

Erdogan has previously demanded that Saudi Arabia hand over the 18 suspects for prosecution in Turkey but the kingdom has insisted that those responsible for Khashoggi's death will be tried in Saudi Arabia.
The Turkish chief prosecutor said 10 days ago that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the Saudi consulate, as part of a premeditated plan, and his body dismembered.

Erdogan's confirmation that recordings relating to Khashoggi's death have been handed to key international players is the latest in a drip-feed of details released by Turkey in the weeks since the journalist disappeared.

Revelations from the Turkish side have helped to keep up diplomatic pressure on Saudi Arabia to explain what happened.

US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron both want to get "greater detail" about the events surrounding Khashoggi's killing, a French presidential spokesman said following a meeting between the pair Saturday in Paris.

Both leaders agreed "something very serious happened -- that this assassination was serious and unacceptable," the spokesman said at a briefing on the bilateral talks.

However, neither leader wants to do anything that could destabilize Saudi Arabia, the spokesman said, adding that the United States considered Saudi Arabia to be the "cornerstone of everything in the Middle East."

In order to crush Iran, Trump has to stick by bin Salman
The leaders did not discuss what should happen to the culprits, the spokesman noted, describing it as an "internal Saudi matter."

The Saudis have presented shifting stories about the journalist's fate, initially denying any knowledge before arguing that a group of rogue operators, many of whom belong to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's inner circle, were responsible for Khashoggi's death.

The Saudi attorney general then said the Turkish side had provided information indicating that the killing was premeditated. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister and Energy Minister have both described Khashoggi's death as "murder."
Riyadh has maintained that neither bin Salman nor his father, King Salman, knew of the operation to target Khashoggi. US officials have said such a mission -- including the 15 men sent from Riyadh -- could not have been carried out without the authorization of bin Salman, the country's de facto ruler.

After Saudi Arabia admitted that Khashoggi was killed in its Istanbul consulate, five high-ranking officials were dismissed, including bin Salman's media chief and the deputy head of the Saudi intelligence service. Eighteen people were arrested.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/10/middleea ... index.html


'I'm suffocating': Khashoggi's last words, says Turkish reporter

Senior Turkish journalist tells Al Jazeera what Khashoggi's last words were, according to unpublished audio recording.

an hour ago

Erdogan said Saudi Arabia knows Khashoggi's killer is among a group of 15 people who flew into Istanbul hours before the incident [File: Ali Haider/EPA]

The head of investigations at the Turkish Daily Sabah newspaper has told Al Jazeera that Jamal Khashoggi's last words were "I'm suffocating ... Take this bag off my head, I'm claustrophobic", according to an audio recording from inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, suffocated to death while a plastic bag covered his head, Nazif Karaman told Al Jazeera.

Karaman said the murder lasted for about seven minutes, according to the recordings.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that audio related to Khashoggi's murder was shared with Saudi Arabia, the United States, Germany, France and Britain.

He said Saudi Arabia knows Khashoggi's killer is among a group of 15 people who flew into Istanbul hours before the October 2 incident.

According to Karaman, the Saudi entourage covered the floor with plastic bags before dismembering Khashoggi's body - a 15-minute process that was led by Salah al-Tubaigy, head of the Saudi Scientific Council of Forensics.

Karaman's remarks come as Turkish police are ending the search for the body, but the criminal investigation into Khashoggi's murder will continue, sources told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

Traces of acid were found at the Saudi consul general's residence in Istanbul, where the body was believed to be disposed of with the use of chemicals.

Karaman said that Daily Sabah would soon publish images of the tools that were brought into the country and used by the Saudi group.

He added the Turkish newspaper would also publish some of the recordings that document the last moments of Khashoggi's life.

Last month, Istanbul's chief prosecutor said that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and that his body was dismembered, in the first official comments on the case.

Saudi Arabia has said it arrested 18 people and dismissed five senior government officials as part of an investigation into Khashoggi's killing. Ankara, meanwhile, seeks extradition of the suspects.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/ ... 34099.html
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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:33 am

Saudis Close to Crown Prince Discussed Killing Other Enemies a Year Before Khashoggi’s Death

Nov. 11, 2018

Top Saudi officials considered using private companies to assassinate political enemies at a time when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was consolidating power.Giuseppe Cacace/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Top Saudi intelligence officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked a small group of businessmen last year about using private companies to assassinate Iranian enemies of the kingdom, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

The Saudis inquired at a time when Prince Mohammed, then the deputy crown prince and defense minister, was consolidating power and directing his advisers to escalate military and intelligence operations outside the kingdom. Their discussions, more than a year before the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, indicate that top Saudi officials have considered assassinations since the beginning of Prince Mohammed’s ascent.

Saudi officials have portrayed Mr. Khashoggi’s death as a rogue killing ordered by an official who has since been fired. But that official, Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, was present for a meeting in March 2017 in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, where the businessmen pitched a $2 billion plan to use private intelligence operatives to try to sabotage the Iranian economy.

During the discussion, part of a series of meetings where the men tried to win Saudi funding for their plan, General Assiri’s top aides inquired about killing Qassim Suleimani, the leader of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and a man considered a determined enemy of Saudi Arabia.


Saudi officials inquired about killing Qassim Suleimani, the leader of the Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and one of the country’s most powerful officials.Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The interest in assassinations, covert operations and military campaigns like the war in Yemen — overseen by Prince Mohammed — is a change for the kingdom, which historically has avoided an adventurous foreign policy that could create instability and imperil Saudi Arabia’s comfortable position as one of the world’s largest oil suppliers.

As for the businessmen, who had intelligence backgrounds, they saw their Iran plan both as a lucrative source of income and as a way to cripple a country that they and the Saudis considered a profound threat. George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, arranged the meeting. He had met previously with Prince Mohammed, and had pitched the Iran plan to Trump White House officials. Another participant in the meetings was Joel Zamel, an Israeli with deep ties to his country’s intelligence and security agencies.

Both Mr. Nader and Mr. Zamel are witnesses in the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, and prosecutors have asked them about their discussions with American and Saudi officials about the Iran proposal. It is unclear how this line of inquiry fits into Mr. Mueller’s broader inquiry. In 2016, a company owned by Mr. Zamel, Psy-Group, had pitched the Trump campaign on a social media manipulation plan.

A spokesman for the Saudi government declined to comment, as did lawyers for both Mr. Nader and Mr. Zamel.

During the March 2017 meeting about the plan to sabotage Iran’s economy, according to the three people familiar with the discussions, the Saudis asked the businessmen whether they also “conducted kinetics” — lethal operations — saying they were interested in killing senior Iranian officials. The businessmen hesitated, saying they would need to consult their lawyer.

A Saudi official has said Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a high-ranking adviser to the crown prince, organized the operation that killed the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.Oct. 18, 2018Hasan Jamali/Associated Press
The lawyer flatly rejected the plan, and the businessmen told the Saudis they would not take part in any assassinations. Mr. Nader told the Saudis about a London-based company run by former British special operations troops that might take on the contract. It is unclear which company he suggested.

Before he was ousted last month, General Assiri was considered one of Prince Mohammed’s closest advisers, a man whose sharp ascent tracked the rise of the young crown prince. In 2016, he became the public face of Saudi Arabia’s campaign in Yemen, giving briefings about the state of the war. He traveled frequently to Washington, where Saudi-paid lobbyists brought him to think tanks to give optimistic assessments about the campaign’s progress and he extolled the Saudi concern for the welfare of civilians.

By 2017, however, the Saudi campaign that General Assiri oversaw in Yemen had ground into a military stalemate and, despite his assurances, a humanitarian catastrophe. But his patron, Prince Mohammed, also consolidated his power over all of the kingdom’s security apparatuses, and he promoted General Assiri to the deputy head of the kingdom’s spy agency, the General Intelligence Directorate.

Western analysts believe that Prince Mohammed moved General Assiri there in part to keep an eye on the spy chief, Khalid bin Ali bin Abdullah al-Humaidan, known as Abu Ali, who was close to Western intelligence agencies and suspected of harboring loyalties to one of the crown prince’s royal rivals.

General Assiri was dismissed last month when the Saudi government acknowledged Mr. Khashoggi’s killing and said he had organized the operation. On Saturday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said his government had handed over a recording of Mr. Khashoggi’s killing to the United States, Saudi Arabia, Britain and France, pressuring President Trump to more harshly punish the Saudis over the murder.

George Nader and Prince Mohammed. Mr. Nader arranged meetings between private companies and Saudi officials.
Mr. Nader’s and Mr. Zamel’s plan dates to the beginning of 2016, when they started discussing an ambitious campaign of economic warfare against Iran similar to one waged by Israel and the United States during the past decade aimed at coercing Iran to end its nuclear program. They sketched out operations like revealing hidden global assets of the Quds Force; creating fake social media accounts in Farsi to foment unrest in Iran; financing Iranian opposition groups; and publicizing accusations, real or fictitious, against senior Iranian officials to turn them against one another.

Mr. Nader is an adviser to the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, a country that, along with Saudi Arabia and Israel, has identified Iran as the primary threat to stability in the Middle East.

Both he and Mr. Zamel believed that Hillary Clinton’s anticipated victory in the 2016 election meant a continuation of the Iran nuclear deal signed by President Barack Obama — and little appetite in Washington for a concerted campaign to cripple the Iranian economy. So, they decided to pitch the plan to Saudi and Emirati officials, even submitting a proposal to General Assiri during a meeting in Belgium.

The election of Donald J. Trump changed their calculus, and shortly after, Mr. Nader and Mr. Zamel traveled to New York to sell both Trump transition officials and Saudi generals on their Iran plan.

Mr. Nader’s initiative to try to topple the Iranian economy was first reported in May by The New York Times. His discussions in New York with General Assiri and other Saudi officials were reported last month by The Daily Beast.

A memorial for the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month.Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images
Mr. Nader and Mr. Zamel enlisted Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater and an adviser to the Trump transition team. They had already discussed elements of their plan with Mr. Prince, in a meeting when they learned of his own paramilitary proposals that he planned to try to sell to the Saudis. A spokesman for Mr. Prince declined to comment.

In a suite on one of the top floors of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York, Mr. Zamel and Mr. Nader spoke to General Assiri and his aides about their Iran plan. The Saudis were interested in the idea but said it was so provocative and potentially destabilizing that they wanted to get the approval of the incoming Trump administration before Saudi Arabia paid for the campaign.

After Mr. Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, Mr. Nader met frequently with White House officials to discuss the economic sabotage plan.

General Assiri’s interest in assassinations was unsurprising but unrepresentative of official policy, said one Saudi familiar with the inquiry into the Khashoggi killing. The investigation has shown the general to be a grandiose and ambitious novice to intelligence who sought to impress the crown prince with unauthorized schemes for black operations, the person said.

But General Assiri’s well-known closeness to the crown prince — the general often joined Prince Mohammed for meetings in Riyadh with visiting American officials — might make it difficult for the prince’s supporters to distance him from the proposals, just as the same connections have helped convince Western intelligence agencies that the prince must have known about the plot against Mr. Khashoggi.

Moreover, General Assiri and his lieutenants were meeting with Mr. Nader around the same time that Mr. Nader was meeting with Prince Mohammed himself, as Saudi officials have acknowledged. In emails to a business associate obtained by The Times, Mr. Nader sometimes referred to conversations he held with Prince Mohammed — also known by his initials, M.B.S. — about other projects he had discussed with General Assiri.

“Had a truly magnificent meeting with M.B.S.,” Mr. Nader wrote in early 2017, discussing possible Saudi contracts. The crown prince, he said, had advised him to “review it and discuss it with General Ahmed.”

Mark Mazzetti reported from Washington, Ronen Bergman from Tel Aviv and David D. Kirkpatrick from London.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/11/worl ... alman.html



Wendy Siegelman

"businessmen pitched a $2 billion plan to use private intelligence operatives to try to sabotage the Iranian economy."

George Nader arranged the meeting which included Joel Zamel and other businessmen - the plan was pitched to Saudi officials close to MBS & also to the WH
Image
Image


Elise Jordan

This story is really something: “The Saudis were interested in the idea but said it was so provocative and potentially destabilizing that they wanted to get the approval of the incoming Trump administration” before they paid for itElise Jordan added,




Polly Sigh

=> Dec 2016: Zamel's Psy-Group [met with Don Jr in Aug 2016] signed a memo of understanding with Cambridge Analytica [whose co-owner, Steve Bannon, was involved with Zamel's Jan 2017 meeting with Flynn, other Trump aides, & Saudi Spy Chief Al-Assiri.
Image
Image





Wendy Siegelman

"businessmen pitched a $2 billion plan to use private intelligence operatives to try to sabotage the Iranian economy."

George Nader arranged the meeting which included Joel Zamel and other businessmen - the plan was pitched to Saudi officials close to MBS & also to the WH
Image
Image
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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Nov 14, 2018 8:53 am

A former CIA officer says the White House is helping cover up Jamal Khashoggi's murder
Rosie Perper 1m
Jamal Khashoggi crown prince protest
A demonstrator dressed as Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (C) with blood on his hands protests with others outside the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC, on October 8, 2018, Jim WATSON / AFP
A former CIA case officer and intelligence analyst said the Trump administration is helping the Saudi Crown Prince cover up journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder.
Bob Baer, who worked as a CIA case officer primarily in the Middle East, told CNN's Jake Tapper that the US has purposely muted its response to Khashoggi's murder, despite mounting evidence — including audio recordings— that some suggest implicates the Saudi Crown Prince.
Turkish and US officials, including US National Security Adviser John Bolton, have said that the audio does not conclusively link the killing to Prince Mohammed. But Baer suggested it is unlikely that anyone else in the Kingdom would have the authority to order such an operation.
"The chances that Mohammed bin Salman ordered this, we're hitting 100%," Baer said.
The Trump administration, by all appearances, is unsure of how to proceed in its response to Khashoggi's murder; while officials have been promising to clamp down hard with possible sanctions, little meaningful action has been taken.
A former CIA case officer and intelligence analyst for CNN claimed the Trump administration is helping the Saudis cover up Jamal Khashoggi's murder.

Speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday, Bob Baer, who worked at a CIA case officer primarily in the Middle East, said the US has purposely muted its response to journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder.

"We've always turned a blind eye to what's going on in Saudi Arabia," he told CNN Tuesday.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor and US resident, was murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly shifted its version of the events that transpired that day, and it has fired five top officials and arrested 18 Saudis it says are connected to the killing.


Still, Khashoggi's body has not been returned, and audio recordings circulating around government agencies appear to indicate that that someone senior, possibly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had ordered the killing.

According to The New York Times, the tape allegedly records Khashoggi's last moments, and catches one of his killers call his superior on the phone and tell the person to "tell your boss" that "the deed was done."

"The way Saudi Arabia is run today, Mohammed bin Salman is an autocrat," Baer said. "Security services, the rest of the country, he's in control."

While Turkish and US officials, including US National Security Adviser John Bolton, have said that the audio does not conclusively implicate Prince Mohammed, Baer suggested it is unlikely that anyone else in the Kingdom would have the authority to order such an operation. Bolton has said he has not heard the tape himself.

"The Saudis do not have rogue operations ever," Baer said. "It's never occured. The chances that Mohammed bin Salman ordered this, we're hitting 100%."

Deep ties between Washington and Riyadh
Donald Trump Mohammed bin Salman
President Donald Trump (R) holds up a chart of military hardware sales as he meets with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office at the White House on March 20, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images
The Trump administration, by all appearances, is unsure of how to proceed in its response to Khashoggi's murder; while officials have been promising to clamp down hard with possible sanctions against senior Saudi leaders, little action has been taken, likely due to the deep economic ties between Washington and Riyadh.


"At this point, the White House doesn't see a way out. Saudi Arabia is a volcano and to try and push the Crown Prince out, we don't have any players [in Saudi Arabia] on our side, so we don't know what to do," Baer said. "So we have a psychopath sitting in Riyadh controlling the country."

Prince Mohammed has tightened his grip in the last year since being appointed Crown Prince last June at the age of 31. His massive purge of more than 200 influential Saudi figures, many of whom were members of the Saudi royal family, silenced dissenting voices and cemented his status as Saudi Arabia's most powerful figure.

"No Saudi prince has ever done this ever in its history," Baer said. "I think what worries the White House is this country could pop, and what would we do then?"
https://www.businessinsider.com/white-h ... er-2018-11
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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Nov 16, 2018 9:18 am

this is the guy General Yellowkerk Flynn was planning to kidnap

trump is trying to expel an enemy of Erdogan’s from the US in the hopes that it will ease Turkish pressure on the Saudis for the Khashoggi murder......if trump expels him, he will likely be murdered. Mike Flynn was offered $15M to kidnap same guy.

INDICTED Turkish Minister Former General Manager...GIULIANNI

As reported earlier this month, Zarrab's release was allegedly one of the requests floated to former national security advisor Michael Flynn in a December 2016 meeting with Turkish representatives. Mueller is reportedly investigating their $15 million offer to Flynn in exchange for freeing Zarrab and kidnapping exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40682&p=657765&hilit=Fethullah+Gulen#p657765


SITUATION: Trump wants to expel someone who is seeking reforms in their home country BACK to that home country knowing he will be put to death, in order to ease pressure off of another nation that just executed/dismembered someone who also sought reforms in their home country



NEW: Exclusive: Trump admin. officials asked federal law enforcement agencies to examine legal ways of removing exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen from US in attempt to persuade Turkish Pres. Erdogan to ease pressure on Saudi gov't, four sources say.


To ease Turkish pressure on Saudis over killing, White House weighs expelling Erdogan foe

Nov. 15, 2018 / 10:44 AM CST
Image: U.S. based cleric Fethullah Gulen at his home in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania
By Carol E. Lee, Julia Ainsley and Courtney Kube

WASHINGTON — The White House is looking for ways to remove an enemy of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. in order to placate Turkey over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to two senior U.S. officials and two other people briefed on the requests.

Trump administration officials last month asked federal law enforcement agencies to examine legal ways of removing exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen in an attempt to persuade Erdogan to ease pressure on the Saudi government, the four sources said.

The effort includes directives to the Justice Department and FBI that officials reopen Turkey's case for his extradition, as well as a request to the Homeland Security Department for information about his legal status, the four people said.

They said the White House specifically wanted details about Gulen's residency status in the U.S. Gulen has a Green Card, according to two people familiar with the matter. He has been living in Pennsylvania since the late 1990s.

Career officials at the agencies pushed back on the White House requests, the U.S. officials and people briefed on the requests said.

"At first there were eye rolls, but once they realized it was a serious request, the career guys were furious," said a senior U.S. official involved in the process.


A spokesperson for the National Security Council initially declined to comment on this story but after it published, said in a statement: "The NSC has not been involved in nor aware of any discussions relating the extradition of Fethullah Gulen to the death of Jamal Khashoggi."

The State Department, Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

A lawyer representing Gulen declined to comment. The FBI also declined to comment.

A Turkish official said the government does not link its concerns about the Khashoggi murder with Gulen's extradition case.

"We definitely see no connection between the two," the official said. "We want to see action on the end of the United States in terms of the extradition of Gulen. And we're going to continue our investigation on behalf of the Khashoggi case."

The secret effort to resolve one of the leading tensions in U.S.-Turkey relations — Gulen's residency in the U.S. — provides a window into how President Donald Trump is trying to navigate hostility between two key allies after Saudi officials murdered Khashoggi on Oct. 2 at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul.

It suggests the White House could be looking for ways to contain Erdogan's ire over the murder while preserving Trump's close alliance with Saudi Arabia's controversial de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.


The kingdom, after initially denying any role in Khashoggi's disappearance, reversed course and admitted that Saudi officials were responsible for the killing. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia's top prosecutor recommended the death penalty for five out of the 11 suspects charged with killing Khashoggi. A total of 21 suspects have been arrested in connection with the case, according to Saud al-Mojeb.

Erdogan, meanwhile, has kept the pressure up by leaking pieces of evidence and repeatedly speaking out to accuse Prince Mohammed of orchestrating the murder of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and outspoken critic of the Saudi leadership.

Saudi Arabia is critical to Trump's Middle East policy. The White House's relationship with Prince Mohammed is key to Trump's goals of countering Iran and helping to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Turkey is a NATO ally in possession of evidence about Khashoggi's murder that positions Erdogan to stoke international outrage over Riyadh's culpability in and cover-up of Khashoggi's murder.

Erdogan has for years demanded the U.S. send Gulen back to Turkey. The Turkish leader accuses the elderly cleric of being a terrorist who was behind a failed coup against Erdogan's government in 2016. After the coup attempt, Ankara made a formal request to the U.S. for Gulen's extradition.

One option that Turkish and Trump administration officials recently discussed is forcing Gulen to relocate to South Africa rather than sending him directly to Turkey if extradition is not possible, said the U.S. officials and people briefed on the discussions. But the U.S. does not have any legal justification to send Gulen to South Africa, they said, so that wouldn't be a viable option unless he went willingly.

Trump and Erdogan also recently discussed another option to relieve tensions — the release of Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who was sentenced in May to 32 months in prison by a U.S. federal judge for his role in a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran, two people familiar with the discussion said. Erdogan has criticized the case against Atilla as a political attack aimed at undermining his government.

The U.S. and Turkey have been engaged in negotiations over a series of sensitive diplomatic issues over the past few months, including a deal for last month’s release of an American pastor, Andrew Brunson, who was imprisoned in Turkey and an agreement for joint U.S. and Turkish military patrols in Manbij, Syria.

The Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center in rural Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania on July 9, 2013. The private compound is where Fethullah Gulen, an influential Islamist cleric, has lived for more than a decade.Reuters file
Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. for almost two decades, denies any involvement in the failed coup in Turkey in 2016. A one-time ally of Erdogan, he's become an influential cleric with a wide network of followers known as "Gulenistas." His movement includes a host of nonprofit organizations, businesses and schools, in the U.S., as well as South Africa.

After Khashoggi's murder, Erdogan appeared to see an opportunity to ratchet up pressure on the Trump administration over Gulen, the U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said.

Turkish officials made clear to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his Oct. 17 meeting with Erdogan in Ankara that they wanted the Trump administration to turn over Gulen, the U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said.

"That was their number one ask," said a person briefed on the meeting.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shaking hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their meeting in Ankara, Turkey on Oct. 17, 2018.Turkish presidential office / EPA file
Pompeo asked if Erdogan had new evidence of Gulen's involvement in the failed coup, prompting the Turkish leader to try to make the case that Gulen has terrorist ties, a senior U.S. official briefed on the meeting said.

In remarks to reporters traveling with him, Pompeo acknowledged having discussed Gulen with the Turks. "We did talk about Fethullah Gulen and we talked about the set of issues surrounding that organization as well," Pompeo said. "It's something that the Turks remind us of often, and we're mindful of places that we can work with them to make sure that we all have a shared set of facts as well. But it's mostly not a State Department issue; it's mostly a Justice Department issue."

The Turkish official wouldn't discuss details of Erdogan's conversation with Pompeo but said, "The Gulen issue is a part of any diplomatic conversation that we're having with our American counterparts."

Pompeo, who also met with Saudi leaders in Riyadh on that same trip, briefed Trump on his discussions after returning to Washington.

The Trump administration later sent word to Erdogan that officials would re-examine the Gulen issue, the U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said.

Justice Department officials responded to the White House's request saying the review of Turkey's case against Gulen two years ago showed no basis for his extradition and that no new evidence to justify it has emerged, the U.S. officials and others familiar with the requests said.

Trump administration officials then asked for other options to legally remove him, the U.S. officials and others said.

They said the White House specifically wanted details about the terms under which Gulen resides in the U.S. Officials from the law enforcement agencies informed the White House there is no evidence that Gulen has broken any U.S. laws, the U.S. officials and others familiar with the requests said.

The requests on Gulen in mid-October mark at least the second time the Trump administration has re-examined Turkey's extradition request since taking office. In the weeks after Trump's inauguration, the White House asked the Justice Department to review Gulen's case, NBC has reported.

Some officials have described the first request as a routine part of a new administration reviewing its relationship with a key ally. The request, however, took place under Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, whose ties to Turkey came under scrutiny in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling. Flynn, who resigned in February 2017, entered into a plea agreement with Mueller last December and has been cooperating with the investigation.

Turkey provided boxes of materials to the U.S. in 2016 that Erdogan says shows Gulen was behind the failed coup. But officials at the Justice Department and FBI didn't find evidence that met the standard for extradition, which requires U.S. prosecutors to determine that someone committed crimes abroad that would also be illegal in the U.S.

Relations between U.S. and Turkey have been strained under Trump.

Khashoggi's disappearance after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul introduced new friction. Turkey publicly accused Saudi Arabia of flying in an assassination team to murder Khashoggi. The two countries have long been rivals.

Amid Saudi denials over Khashoggi's disappearance, Turkey ramped up international pressure on Riyadh by leaking its possession of evidence, including recordings from inside the consulate that Turkey officials say show the Saudi government murdered Khashoggi.

After nearly a month, Saudi Arabia admitted its government officials carried out a premeditated murder of Khashoggi. The government, though, has insisted Prince Mohammed knew nothing of it in advance. Some officials from the U.S. and other countries have said they believe otherwise.

Erdogan said this past weekend that he's given Turkey's audio recording of Khashoggi's murder inside the consulate to U.S., U.K., Saudi, French and German government officials. His comments were a public reminder of the evidence Erdogan could expose at a time of his choosing, if he wanted to put pressure on the U.S. or Saudi Arabia. .

John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser, said Tuesday that U.S. officials who listened to Turkey's recording assessed it does not implicate Prince Mohammed.

Saudi Arabia has yet to disclose the location of Khashoggi's remains, and Turkey continues to put public pressure on Riyadh.

Trump has expressed reluctance to respond too strongly given Saudi Arabia's economic and strategic value to the U.S. At a news conference last week, Trump said he is working with Turkey, Congress and Saudi Arabia to determine next steps and will have a "much stronger opinion" on Khashoggi's killing over the next week.

Following the Saudi prosecutor's announcement Thursday, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against 17 people for their suspected role in Khashoggi's murder.

The group includes Consul General Mohammed Alotaibi, who was in charge of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, as well as senior Saudi officials and members of the suspected assassination team who arrived in Istanbul in the hours before Khashoggi disappeared.

The 17 were sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act, which bars foreign officials from entering the U.S. and freezes any assets they have in American banks.

Carol E. Lee is a national political reporter for NBC News.

Julia Ainsley is a national security reporter for NBC News.

Courtney Kube

Courtney Kube is a national security and military reporter for NBC News, covering the Pentagon, U.S. military operations all over the world, and intelligence and national security issues.

Josh Lederman and Abigail Williams contributed.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nation ... d_nn_tw_ma
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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby BenDhyan » Fri Nov 16, 2018 8:42 pm

CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Khashoggi murder: report

By Jesse Byrnes - 11/16/18

he CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the country's consulate in Istanbul last month, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The agency has high confidence in its assessment, the newspaper reported. The CIA reportedly examined multiple sources of intelligence in reaching its conclusion, including a call between the crown prince's brother Khalid bin Salman and Khashoggi.

Khalid, who is the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., reportedly told Khashoggi, who was a columnist for The Post, that he should go to the country's consulate in Istanbul to get documents for his marriage to a Turkish woman, offering assurances that he would be safe.

People familiar with the call, reportedly intercepted by U.S. intelligence, told The Post that it wasn't clear if Khalid knew Khashoggi would be killed when he returned to the consulate, but said that he made the call at the direction of his brother.

The Saudi government has claimed that the crown prince was not involved in Khashoggi's death, and a spokesperson for the Saudi Embassy in Washington issued a statement Friday denying that Khalid had any phone conversations with Khashoggi.

"The claims in this purported assessment is false. We have and continue to hear various theories without seeing the primary basis for these speculations," the spokesperson said.

The statement added that the ambassador met with Khashoggi once in late September 2017 for a "cordial discussion" and they texted into the following month.

A spokesperson for the CIA didn't immediately return a request for comment from The Hill on Friday evening.


https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/417220-cia-concludes-saudi-crown-prince-ordered-khashoggi-murder-report

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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby JackRiddler » Fri Nov 16, 2018 8:50 pm

.

Oh shit!

CIA wants MBS cutlets!

.
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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby seemslikeadream » Sat Nov 17, 2018 6:33 pm

Turkey: Khashoggi’s dismembered body possibly carried through Istanbul’s airport

If true, it would show the Saudi operation was far bolder than known to date.

Alex WardNov 17, 2018, 2:16pm EST

Images of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi are seen on a big screen during a commemorative ceremony held on November 11, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
HALIFAX — Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Saturday that the team sent to kill Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi may have carried his dismembered body parts through Istanbul’s international airport.

At the Halifax International Security Forum, an annual gathering of leading defense officials from around the world, Akar said it was “possible” that 18 men — not 15, as originally assumed — carried out the operation. They could get away with smuggling parts of the Washington Post columnist’s body through the airport because as diplomats they wouldn’t be searched by security, the minister noted.

If you thought the Khashoggi story was already crazy, it somehow just got crazier.

The weirdly coy revelation comes just one day after multiple news outlets reported the CIA has determined Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto leader known as MBS, ordered Khashoggi’s death — a charge he and the kingdom deny.

It’s not so surprising that Akar would make such a bold statement. Since Khashoggi’s murder on October 2 at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey has leaked intelligence of the incident to international media and shared recordings with allied governments, including the United States.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are locked in a years-long battle for the future of the region, particularly over the importance of religion and Western influence in its politics. Bashing Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi affair — specifically MBS — therefore works well for Turkey. It gives Ankara a momentary, but no less critical, advantage in the struggle.

But the US apparently will stay by Saudi Arabia’s ruling family. On Thursday, the Trump administration sanctioned 17 Saudis allegedly connected to Khashoggi’s murder — but none of them were MBS.

Akar didn’t fully confirm the claim he made. But if it’s true, it would show the Saudi operation was far bolder than known to date. It’s therefore possible that further information — perhaps even more stunning — will soon come out.
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/11/17/18 ... er-airport


Trump Calls Saudi Arabia A 'Spectacular Ally' Despite CIA's Khashoggi Findings

Andy McDonald
President Donald Trump is still praising Saudi Arabia as a “truly spectacular ally,” despite the CIA reportedly pinning blame for journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder on the Saudi royal family.

On Saturday, before leaving to review the wildfire damage in California, Trump addressed a Washington Post report that, according to CIA officials, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally ordered the killing of Khashoggi, who was an outspoken critic of the royal family. The Washington Post contributor and U.S. resident entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and was never seen alive again.

“We haven’t been briefed yet,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn. “The CIA is going to be speaking to me today. We have not been briefed yet. As of this moment, we were told that he did not play a role.”

The president said he has to take many things into account when it comes to America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, in particular emphasizing economic relations.

“They give us a lot of jobs and a lot of business and economic development,” Trump said. “They have been a truly spectacular ally in terms of jobs and economic development.”

The prince’s brother Khalid bin Salman, who is the Saudi ambassador to the United States, reportedly called Khashoggi and told him he could safely travel to Istanbul to obtain needed documents. The ambassador denied any involvement in the journalist’s disappearance or murder on his official Twitter account Friday.


Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor has charged 11 suspects in connection with the murder of Khashoggi and is seeking the death penalty for five of them. Khashoggi died from a lethal injection and was then dismembered, according to a Saudi deputy public prosecutor.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tr ... 2bd58a02ed
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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Nov 20, 2018 9:49 am


Pompeo handed Riyadh a plan to shield MBS from Khashoggi fallout, says source

Saudi Arabia's king and crown prince are shielding themselves from the Jamal Khashoggi murder scandal by using a roadmap drawn up by the US secretary of state, a senior Saudi source has told Middle East Eye.

Mike Pompeo delivered the plan in person during a meeting with Saudi King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, last month in Riyadh, said the source, who is familiar with Pompeo's talks with the Saudi leaders.

The plan includes an option to pin the Saudi journalist’s murder on an innocent member of the ruling al-Saud family in order to insulate those at the very top, the source told MEE.

That person has not yet been chosen, the source said, and Saudi leaders are reserving the use of that plan in case the pressure on bin Salman, also known as MBS, becomes too much.

“We would not be surprised if that happens,” the source told MEE.

The US State Department denied the Saudi source's allegations, and called them "a complete misrepresentation of the secretary’s diplomatic mission to Saudi Arabia".

"We’ve spoken publicly about our goals: to impress upon Saudi leadership the seriousness to which the United States government attaches to a prompt and complete accounting of the murder of Jamal Kashoggi,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told MEE.

READ MORE ►
Mohammed bin Salman and Khashoggi: The crown prince's dilemma
According to the source, Pompeo outlined his plan on 16 October, when he jetted over to Riyadh to meet with King Salman and MBS as international scrutiny on the Khashoggi case intensified.

Pompeo’s trip to the Gulf kingdom came exactly two weeks after Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and critic of the crown prince, was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October.

Just days before Pompeo touched down in Riyadh, MEE reported that Turkish officials had discovered that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered minutes after he entered the consulate to get papers he needed to remarry.

Pompeo sent to Riyadh to advise Saudi leaders

At the time of Pompeo's trip to Riyadh, top US officials - including US President Donald Trump - had said very little about what happened to Khashoggi, who had been living in self-imposed exile in the US at the time of his disappearance.

Pompeo's meeting with MBS in Riyadh raised eyebrows, as human rights groups worldwide were urging Washington to demand answers from its allies in Saudi Arabia.

The day after the high-profile meeting, Pompeo told journalists that the Saudis didn't want to talk about the facts in Khashoggi’s case and neither did he.

"I don’t want to talk about any of the facts,” Pompeo said as he travelled to Turkey. “They didn’t want to either."

The Saudi source told MEE that Pompeo went to Riyadh to advise the Saudis on how to handle the fallout in the Khashoggi case.

Saudi King Salman meets with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Riyadh last month (Reuters)
After his meetings, however, Pompeo said he advised the Saudis to conduct a transparent investigation.

"We had direct and candid conversations. I emphasised the importance of conducting a thorough, transparent and timely investigation, and the Saudi leadership pledged to deliver precisely on that," he said.

"My assessment from these meetings is that there is serious commitment to determine all the facts and ensure accountability, including accountability for Saudi Arabia's senior leaders or senior officials."

The Trump administration is expected to make a formal statement on Tuesday about the US's findings so far in relation to Khashoggi's murder.

Late last week, the CIA said it had concluded that MBS ordered the journalist's killing, several US media outlets reported, but Trump has since moved to cast doubt on the US intelligence agency's findings.

Shielding MBS from blame

Pompeo’s plan for the Saudi leadership included several steps, the Saudi source said.

When Pompeo declared on 18 October that Saudi Arabia should be given “a few more days” to complete its investigation into the case, he was giving them time to begin implementing his plan, the source said.

“They [the Saudi leadership] have done everything he wanted to execute,” the source said.

Since Pompeo's visit to Riyadh, the Saudis have allowed Turkish investigators into their Istanbul consulate, offered to coordinate a joint Saudi-Turkish investigation, sent a team to Istanbul to pursue the probe and arrested at least 21 suspects.

The remaining step - pinning the crime on a member of the royal family - may be taken if the arrests of those Saudi suspects don't work to ease the pressure on Riyadh, the source said.

Meanwhile, MBS and King Salman have toured Saudi Arabia, made public appearances at a major investor conference in Riyadh, and met with the journalist’s sons.

READ MORE ►
EXCLUSIVE: Turkey to use intercepted Saudi comms to demolish Khashoggi cover-up
So far, Riyadh’s official investigation into Khashoggi's murder has implicated two of bin Salman’s closest allies, deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Assiri and top aide Saoud al-Qahtani.

Both men have been relieved of their jobs. However, according to the Saudi source, they are expected to eventually retake positions of influence in Saudi Arabia.

MEE understands that neither Assiri nor Qahtani are among five Saudi suspects the country's public prosecutor said would be facing the death penalty if convicted of "ordering and committing" the murder.

Last Thursday, the Saudi prosecutor said the leader of the Saudi team sent to kill Khashoggi in Turkey - widely believed to be MBS's bodyguard, Maher Abdulaziz Mutrib - made the decision on his own to have Khashoggi killed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the order to kill Khashoggi came from the “highest levels” of the Saudi leadership. However, Erdogan said in a Washington Post column that he does not believe Saudi King Salman was involved in the murder.

The kingdom maintains that MBS had no knowledge of the assassination plot and the subsequent attempt to cover it up, however.

Seven members of the death squad sent to kill Khashoggi were members of bin Salman’s personal security detail, MEE has previously reported.

This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saud ... 1684431379
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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Nov 20, 2018 4:27 pm


David Greene

There are 1000 things wrong with POTUS's America First! statement about Khashoggi's murder. But chief among them is his inclusion of the Saudi statement that Khashoggi was "an enemy of the state" -- language POTUS commonly uses against the press. He's clearly aligned Image


emptywheel


Things the President won't keep US persons safe from:

> The effects of climate change
> Waste, fraud, and abuse
> Gun violence
> Being lured to a third country, chopped up with a bone saw, and dissolved in acid


Saudi lobbying firm working against 9/11 bill showers Trump Hotel with cash

9D9DE62A-9767-483E-BC71-EE29C4694F1B.jpeg

75674CB9-3F40-4F85-8148-6E217903C3C6.jpeg


https://thinkprogress.org/trump-hotel-r ... ssion=true


'Blindingly obvious' that Saudi crown prince ordered Khashoggi murder: Source
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/bli ... ssion=true


'Traitor, you will be brought to account!': Parts of Khashoggi tape revealed

JOHN BACON | USA TODAY | 2 hours ago


President Donald Trump says the crown prince of U.S. ally Saudi Arabia has told him directly that he had nothing to do with the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but Trump says he wonders "will anybody really know." (Nov. 18)
AP
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is heard yelling at his attackers and is called a traitor in recordings from the brutal, final hours of the Washington Post columnist's life, a Turkish newspaper reported Tuesday.


The revelations came hours before President Donald Trump issued a statement of firm support for the kingdom and its leadership – while conceding "it could very well be" that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had advance knowledge of Khashoggi's murder.

Habertürk columnist Çetiner Çeti, citing Turkish security sources, says the recordings indicate Khashoggi, a longtime critic of the Saudi government, was seized moments after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

“Release my arm! What do you think you are doing?” Khashoggi says early in a recording from a unit of the consulate that deals with visas and other routine paperwork. Habertürk reports that Khashoggi and his captors argued for about seven minutes before he was brought to another section of the consulate.


The recording from the second location included several minutes of arguing followed by the sounds of a physical fight, beating and torture, the newspaper reports.

“Traitor! You will be brought to account!’” a man says. The recording finally goes quiet. More than an hour later, another man's voice is heard saying: “It is spooky to wear the clothes of a man whom we killed 20 minutes ago."

In this photo taken Dec. 15, 2014, Jamal Khashoggi looks on during a press conference in the Bahraini capital of Manama.

MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH, AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The recordings have been given to intelligence officials in the U.S. and Canada as well as several European nations. Trump said U.S. intelligence officers have listened to them, but he has not.

Khashoggi, 59, had gone to the consulate to obtain paperwork for his upcoming marriage. His subsequent disappearance directed severe scrutiny on the kingdom. Video footage showed Khashoggi entering the consulate but not leaving it.


The Saudis initially claimed Khashoggi had left the consulate that day, and security footage shows someone wearing his clothes walking away. For weeks Saudi Arabia denied any knowledge of Khashoggi's fate.

The Saudis ultimately revised the story, saying Khashoggi died after a fight broke out during his interrogation. The regime said 18 people had been arrested in the incident. A Saudi prosecutor said last week the death penalty would be sought for five suspects.

More: President Donald Trump has many ways to penalize Saudi Arabia

More: Trump trying to resolve foreign policy crisis over Khashoggi murder

Turkish authorities say Khashoggi was strangled to death and his body dismembered – and that the hit squad was sent by the "highest levels" of the Saudi government. That has cast the spotlight on the crown prince, who manages the Saudi government and was expected to one day succeed his father as king.

The Washington Post and other news outlets reported last week the CIA has concluded that the crown prince ordered Khashoggi’s murder. Trump said Tuesday that the CIA was still assessing the case and that "we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder."


Trump stressed the close political relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia – as well as Saudi investment in the U.S. that will create "hundreds of thousands" of jobs.

"As president of the United States I intend to ensure that, in a very dangerous world, America is pursuing its national interests and vigorously contesting countries that wish to do us harm," Trump said. " Very simply it is called America First!"

The Trump administration, under international pressure to severely sanction the kingdom, previously barred 21 Saudi nationals linked to Khashoggi's death from traveling to the U.S. And the Treasury Department has frozen U.S.-held assets of 17 Saudis and prohibited Americans from doing business with them.

The Saudis adamantly deny that Mohammed either ordered the attack or knew of it in advance. On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told the Saudi-owned Al Sharq Al Awsat that Turkey has assured Saudi intelligence that Turkeys claims were not directed at Mohammed.

“The Saudi leadership, represented by King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed are a red line and we will stand against attempts to undermine or harm them," he said.
https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/2065255002
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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Nov 21, 2018 10:36 am

Thomas Brewster
@iblametom
·
2h
So what you have here is an American-funded, Israeli-made surveillance company's tools aimed at Saudi dissidents, at least two of whom were in regular contact with Khashoggi.

This in the week that Trump says he stands with Saudi Arabia despite everything
Thomas Brewster
@iblametom
·
2h
Replying to
@iblametom
This news comes after the attempted infection of another London-based Saudi activist, Yahya Assiri.

Assiri told me about his regular contact with Khashoggi in the months leading up to his death...

Was he targeted because of the Khashoggi connection?


Thomas Brewster
Thomas Brewster
@iblametom
·
2h
Omar Abdulaziz, another contact of Khashoggi's, was infected with the Pegasus iPhone spy tool earlier this year. He believes his communications with the murdered journalist were snooped on...

The working theory is that the Saudi Arabian government has bought into NSO tools, which have been hacking into iPhones across the world.

Some traces have been found in the US, UK, and 45 other countries.


Exclusive: Saudi Dissidents Hit With Stealth iPhone Spyware Before Khashoggi's Murder

Thomas Brewster7:00 am

Ghanem Al-Masarir, a Saudi satirist targeted with Israeli spyware that’s hit a number of activists from the Kingdom.Ghanem Al-Masarir
President Trump committed to standing with Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, amidst a global furor over the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But the Saudi regime’s campaign against dissidents living aboard was apparently more widespread than previously known, and included a spate of insidious digital attacks in the months leading up to Khashoggi’s death.

One of those dissidents is the well-known YouTube comic and satirist Ghanem Almasarir, based in London. When we met two weeks ago, hunched over a latte in a central London cafe, Almasarir is muttering curses about the Saudi regime that he’s spent his adult life mocking. For good reason: after I spend an hour with his iPhone X, it seems clear that he was targeted with a super-stealth spyware called Pegasus. The tool is able to silently hoover up private information on a target iPhone, from WhatsApp chats to emails, and can spy on people via their smartphone’s camera and microphone. It’s the creation of a highly-secretive, $1 billion-valued Israeli surveillance dealer called NSO Group.

Almasarir would be the second confirmed Saudi target of Pegasus in the U.K., alongside political activist Yahya Assiri. Both are telling Forbes their stories of assaults on their digital lives for the first time. As previously reported, Pegasus has spread its wings further to attack opponents of the Saudi regime. Other attacks hit an employee working on Saudi-related issues for Amnesty International, a human rights NGO founded in London, and activist Omar Abdulaziz from Quebec, Canada. And Assiri reveals to Forbes that like Abdulaziz he was in frequent contact with the late writer Khashoggi, who was infamously killed at the Saudi Arabian embassy in Istanbul in October.

Human rights defenders are now raising the alarm over cross-border hacking of activists’ devices via NSO’s software. “We have example, after example, after example of this software being used to harass and threaten activists around the world,” says Danna Ingleton, deputy program director for the technology division of Amnesty International. And of the companies supplying the surveillance tools, she warns: “They’re using national security as an excuse for acting outside the law.”

The Saudi Arabian embassy in London has not responded to calls and emails requesting comment. NSO Group acknowledged Forbes’ request for comment but hadn’t supplied any at the time of publication. Francisco Partners, the American private equity firm that classes NSO as one of its portfolio companies, had not commented at the time of publication.

The Israeli spyware dealer has become a frequent target of criticism from human rights activists. In Mexico, it’s come under heavy fire. Most notably, its surveillance tools were seen targeting lawyers representing the parents for the students who went missing in 2014 as part of an alleged mass kidnapping and murder perpetrated by corrupt police and a local gang. At the time, NSO neither confirmed nor denied whether it had clients in Mexico. But the company said it had an ethics committee that reviewed alleged abuse of its tools, which are supposed to only be used by law enforcement for criminal investigations.

Earlier this summer, researchers said NSO’s malware had found its way into 45 countries, including the United States.

A malicious text arrives

The evidence Almasarir phone was a target came in the form of a June 23 message that appeared to have been sent by DHL. It looked like the kind of delivery message people across the world receive every day, telling him he had a package arriving on the 28th. It also contained a shortened link where he could manage his delivery. But clicking on that link would’ve led to the installation of the Pegasus tool, capable of hoovering up data within. That’s according to two separate researchers who reviewed the message for Forbes; one was Bill Marczak, from Citizen Lab, a University of Toronto-based organization that’s built a name for itself tracking surveillance companies; the other was Claudio Guarnieri, a surveillance researcher at Amnesty International.

The Pegasus tool could’ve gobbled up the WhatsApp conversations we’d used to organize our meeting, not to mention other communications between Almasarir and his contacts. The realization dawned: his phone could’ve been eavesdropping on our conversation right then and there, or watching us through the iPhone’s crystal clear camera. Hence Almasarir’s furtive invectives, his visible distress. He’s already blaming the Saudi regime. “They want to torture you emotionally, mentally,” he says, shaking his head. “They are experts in doing that.”

The text message on Almasarir’s phone aroused suspicion as it looked almost identical to another Saudi activist, Canada-based Omar Abdulaziz. In August, Abdulaziz learned via Citizen Lab that his phone had been infected by the Pegasus tool. In recent weeks, he’s raised an alarm that his conversations with Khashoggi were almost certainly snooped on in the lead up to his companion’s death.

Looking at Almasarir’s phone, it appears his communications could have suffered the same fate. But Almasarir is wary of such messages and says he never clicks on links from unknown senders. The initial panic subsides, as he talks about how he deals with an constant assault on his online life. He claims his YouTube account has repeatedly the subject of removal requests; his Instagram hacked and deleted; alerts on his phone often warn him that someone, somewhere is trying to access his Google and Twitter accounts. All persistent efforts, he says, of Saudi agents trying to scare him off lampooning his home nation’s royalty.

The calm doesn’t last. Asked what version of Apple’s mobile software, iOS, he’s running, Almasarir confidently responds that it’s the latest. A quick check shows he’s mistaken. He’s running iOS 11.2.6, released back in February. Apple has since put out multiple updates with security improvements, the latest version being 12.1. When he attempts to check for a software update, Almasarir is greeted with a perpetual “loading” message. It’s not a good sign. It’s an indication that Pegasus could be hiding on the device, according to Marczak, who’s been tracking NSO’s malware over recent years as part of the Citizen Lab nonprofit.

The researcher confirms that not only is the text message an attempted lure to ensnare Almasarir’s phone with Pegasus, but the surreptitious software also prevents iOS updates once it has found a home on an iPhone.

In the coming days, further attempts to validate Pegasus had successfully infiltrated his device are inconclusive. No additional evidence is found.

But the attempt to infect his iPhone adds more weight to the belief that Saudi Arabia has built a small but powerful global surveillance machine that’s going after critics of the regime. And whilst there’s no clear evidence Saudi Arabian regime hackers are behind the spate of Pegasus attacks, researchers are connecting the dots. “Since Yahya, Omar and Ghanem are all high-profile Saudi dissidents, it seems quite likely that the targeting is conducted for the benefit of Saudi Arabia,” says Marczak.

He notes that of the 12 countries the so-called Kingdom hacker crew has targeted, there’s “a clear Middle-Eastern focus.” Targeted countries include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Lebanon, Turkey, Morrocco, Canada, the U.K. and France.

“So we can’t say for certain that it’s somebody sitting in Riyadh pulling the trigger on these messages, but ultimately, we have high confidence that the operations are being conducted for the benefit of Saudi Arabia,” Marczak added.

Appetite for data destruction

A very different kind of activist to Almasarir, the solemn, serious Yahya Assiri, founder of Saudi Arabian human rights organization ALQST, was targeted back in May.

Unlike Almasarir, Assiri had been in frequent contact with Khashoggi up to the slaying in Istanbul – and Saudi royalty was paying attention. Back in December 2017, Assiri organized ALQST’s first conference in London. Taking part alongside attendees from the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and myriad other activist organizations, was Khashoggi himself, dialing in over Skype and appearing on a big screen. Just days after the conference, Arabic daily newspaper Al-Hayat, published a statement from its owner, Saudi Prince Khalid bin Sultan. The message said the newspaper had officially ended its relationship with Khashoggi, having already suspended him in September. As part of his reasoning, the Prince pointed to “participation in suspicious meetings seeking to undermine the Kingdom.” Assiri thinks that “suspicious” event was his own.

Jamal Khashoggi, talking at a London event over Skype, around 10 months before his death at the Saudi Arabian embassy in Istanbul, Turkey.Yahya Assiri
It was half a year later, at the end of May, that the Pegasus spyware tried to find a new home on his iPhone. A strange message from a German number told Assiri he was due to appear in court. Fearing the link within was malicious, he opened it on an Apple Mac that he didn’t mind being infected. It led to what appeared to be the official website of the Saudi Arabian Minister for Justice, leading Assiri to believe it legitimate. He later opened the link on his iPhone.

Shortly after, strange things began happening to his Apple devices, he tells Forbes from his West London, office where protest posters carrying Khashoggi’s face are sprawled across a table. First, his iPhone started heating up as it burned through the battery. When he tried to restart the phone, it wouldn’t come back on. Later, he attempted to retrieve a backup from his Mac, but the computer simply froze after that request.

“I don’t think they hacked my mobile,” he says. “But I think they tried and destroyed things [in the process].” He chose to wipe both the iPhone and the Mac, even though he never got confirmation his phone was infected.

Assiri continues to receive dubious messages every day. Some claim to contain links to slanderous or offensive comments about Assiri, sometimes allegedly made by his close friends and contacts, including Abdulaziz. They’re obviously designed to trick him, but he isn’t falling for such attempts anymore, he adds.

Just a year ago, Assiri didn’t think there was much of a threat from Saudi surveillance at all. He’s now changed his mind. And, he warns, there’s been a chilling effect from the revelations around the Kingdom’s use of surveillance tools. Up until recently he would use Russian-founded messaging app Telegram to gather information from activists still living in the homeland. They would supply details, such as the health and wellbeing of prisoners, within minutes. Now it takes days or weeks to get the same information, if it arrives at all.

But there’s room for some optimism. Because of Khashoggi’s death, the Saudi operation is now the focus of global scrutiny. At least one government is taking action. Investigators in Canada are looking into the hack of Abdulaziz’s iPhone. Though the Royal Canadian Mounted Police declined to comment on any possible probe, Abdulaziz said RCMB are particularly interested in what happened to Khashoggi. “They believe it has something to do with me,” Abdulaziz tells Forbes. “For sure they were listening to us through my phone.”

Rather than be cowed by the Big Brother watching over them, Abdulaziz and fellow activists aren’t going to cease voicing their dissent. “Their threats are going to make me stronger,” adds Abdulaziz. “It shows me how weak they are.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrew ... ssion=true
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby JackRiddler » Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:31 pm

.

Someone make a meme with Trump as a hobo holding a sign that makes this comment. (It is not mine, but I wish it was.)

WILL OK MURDER OF JOURNALISTS FOR OIL

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account

@realDonaldTrump

Oil prices getting lower. Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy! $54, was just $82. Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let’s go lower!

4:49 AM - 21 Nov 2018
16,038 Retweets 56,473 Likes

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/sta ... 9825598465



Enjoy!

.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

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Re: Khashoggi Disappearance

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Nov 22, 2018 8:35 pm


Turkish Paper Reports CIA Has Recording of Saudi Crown Prince Calling for Jamal Khashoggi to be Silenced

TAMAR AUBER NOV 22, 2018 3:43 PM



The CIA reportedly has a recording of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman calling for Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi to be silenced before he was brutally murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey.

The report comes via the Turkish English-language paper Hurriyet which quotes columnist Abdulkadir Selvi.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is in possession of a phone call recording of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in which he is heard giving an instruction to “silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible,” Hürriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote on Nov. 22.According to Selvi, CIA Director Gina Haspel “signaled” during her trip to Ankara last month the existence of the wiretapped phone call between Crown Prince Mohammed and his brother Khaled bin Salman, who is Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States.
A Turkish official, however, told Reuters that he had no knowledge of such a recording.
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/cia-r ... ssion=true
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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