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Missing Saudi Journalist Puts Kingdom on Collision Course With Turkey

Saudis should release CCTV footage of consulate to clear themselves, the easiest way .. if they are not willing to do it then it just means sth happened to him ..
 
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Saudis should release CCTV footage of consulate to clear themselves, the easiest way .. if they are not willing to do it then it just means sth happened to him ..
Saudis just turned off all CCTVs during the incident . But Turkey has its own cameras.recording all the events from all sides . There is footages that Khashoggi entered the building but he didn't go out . Saudis claims that there cameras is not recording , they are only monitoring . Saudis claim is baseless , all ready disclosed that 15 member hit squad entered the consulate before Khashoggi's arrival and shortly after the leave . Sources related to Turkey confirmed.that Journalist is murdered inside the consulate . Saudis will not be able to probe Khashoggi's departure .
 
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Saudi's will likely be safe from external repercussions. It will take time for this story to get out the news, however. Al Jazeera is going to stay on it. What I see developing out of this is members within the Royal Family will not want this crown prince to be the next King. Put Yemen aside, as in the beginning most parties in the region saw a legitimate national security concern for Saudi Arabia and supported their anti-Houthi efforts. But, the recent events that begin with the collective measures against Qatar, then situation with Lebanese PM and now this. I'm sure they can only imagine what future will look like if he is King for the rest of his life, as he's still young.

I no longer can look at MBS in a neutral light. And I'm disappointed in ordinary Saudi's who are overlooking this or deflecting blame unto others. I'm sure Saudi family behind the scenes is worried with this guy's behavior and if he surprises them more will need to draw up a different plan for succession.

As for all the decent Saudi's(silent majority), wish them the best with their future and their country overall.

Also Rest in Peace Jamal, you were a decent man and came off as no more than a mild critic and well informed analyst on Arab affairs.
 
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US outcry grows over Khashoggi with lawmakers demanding action
Analysts say Saudi journalist's suspected assassination likely to mark a turning point in US-Saudi relations.

by William Roberts
4 hours ago
Washington, DC - A bipartisan and influential group of US senators called on President Donald Trump to investigate and potentially sanction Saudi Arabia under US human rights law for the disappearance and alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In a letter released by Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the senators invoked terms of the 2012 Magnitsky Act requiring the president "to determine whether a foreign person is responsible for an extrajudicial killing" and demanding a report to Congress within 120 days.

"Our expectation is that in making your determination you will consider any relevant information, including with respect to the highest-ranking officials in the government of Saudi Arabia," the letter signed by 22 senators said on Wednesday.

The Magnitsky Act provides for an automatic trigger if members of Congress request an investigation. The law sought to punish Russian officials for the death of Russian accountant Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009 and led to the sanctioning of a number of high-ranking Russians by the Obama administration.


What happened to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi?
Khashoggi, 59, a Saudi national who had been living in the United States for the past year, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 2 to obtain papers for his planned marriage. His fiancee reported him missing when he did not come out. Turkish investigating authorities have told state-owned media Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate.

The Saudi government has denied that and said he left the building unharmed.

Saudi-US turning point?
The incident has received widespread attention in the US where it prompted outcries from friends and colleagues of Khashoggi, free press advocates and critics of the Saudi war in Yemen.

Details of the Turkish allegations - that Khashoggi was ensnared at the consulate by a 15-man Saudi hit squad, killed and dismembered - have shocked American political elites.

Analysts say Khashoggi's suspected death is likely to mark a turning point in US-Saudi relations and will pose a challenge to the Trump administration, which has relied on the Saudi monarchy to assert its policy goals in the Middle East.

"The administration has decided that, of all the Arab actors in the region, they are banking on the Saudis as the critical linchpin for at least three elements of their regional policy: Containing and confronting Iran, securing Saudi help in the seemingly hopeless Israeli-Palestinian peace process and counting on the Saudis to help moderate oil prices," said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East analyst at the Wilson Center in Washington.

"Into this context comes this incredibly brazen, horrible act. So how does the administration then reconcile that with 600-plus days of policy? I don't know where they go. They will work to find the balance. I don't know if they will succeed or not," Miller told Al Jazeera.

Transparency
President Trump didn't speak about Khashoggi until October 8 when he told reporters at the White House he didn't "like" what he was hearing and that he expected the situation to "sort itself out" - words that brought the president criticism. Trump amplified his concern in comments on Wednesday at the White House, calling it a "bad situation" and promising to demand answers from Saudi officials.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders issued a statement saying National Security Adviser John Bolton and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner had spoken with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about Khashoggi, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo followed up with an additional call to the crown prince.

"In both calls, they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process," Sanders told White House reporters.

The biggest potential impact of Khashoggi's disappearance is going to be on perceptions in the US of Saudi Arabia and bin Salman, who has cultivated an image of being a progressive reformer and a leader working to bring the kingdom into a more democratic future. In a widely publicised visit to the US last year, bin Salman reached out to segments of society with visits to Washington, New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

"If there is more evidence and, as one would expect, it turns out he was actually killed deliberately, I think it is going to be a turning point in how American political elites view Saudi Arabia. It is going to be a game-changer in perception," Shibley Telhami, a pollster at the University of Maryland, told Al Jazeera.

Friends and former colleagues of Khashoggi announced a #JusticeforJamal campaign at a press conference in front The Washington Post newspaper, where he had been a well-regarded opinion columnist, and organised a vigil by about 35 people in front of the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

"It's obvious this has reached beyond anything else," said Medea Benjamin, a leader and cofounder of the CodePink anti-war group, which has been challenging US officials on American military support for the Saudi campaign in Yemen.

WATCH: Saudi government planned Jamal Khashoggi hit: NY Times (2:21)
"It's ironic that you can kill all of these poor schoolchildren and so many thousands of innocent people in Yemen and yet the US continues to sell them weapons," Benjamin told Al Jazeera. "There is a now a person who has disappeared who is more important to the people in power because he was a journalist and works for a US paper and was a US resident."

'Stop sending arms'
Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who led an effort to block US arms sales to Saudi Arabia that fell four votes short in the Senate last year, said he would seek another vote.

"If they're responsible, or even if there's any indication that they're implicated in killing this journalist that was critical of them, we've got to stop sending them arms," Paul told a Louisville a radio station, News Radio 840 WHAS.

Trump recently embarrassed the Saudis saying in US political rallies the monarchy is propped up by US military power and "wouldn't last two weeks" without US support.

Mongi Dhaouadi, a regional director of United Voices of America, a non-profit group that promotes Muslim civic engagement in the US, said Khashoggi was preparing to launch a new pro-democracy group called DAWN, an acronym for Democracy in the Arab World Now.

Khashoggi's friends fear that's why he may have been killed by the Saudi government.

"He was actually going to head the group. He was going to be the CEO," Dhaouadi told Al Jazeera.

"In terms of the Trump administration, we don't think that they will change. We have hopes that within Congress, especially the Senate at this point, there are some voices on both sides of the aisle."

'Hell to pay'
Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican close to Trump and among the 22 senators demanding action, told reporters on Capitol Hill "there would be hell to pay" if the Turkish government's allegations are true.


Is Saudi Arabia's crown prince really a reformer?
"If this man was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, that would cross every line of normality in the international community," Graham said.

Other signatories to the Magnitsky letter include Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, as well as Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Marco Rubio of Florida, Ben Cardin of Maryland, and Tim Kaine of Virginia.

Kaine, a Democrat and former vice-presidential running-mate to Hillary Clinton, said in a tweet: "Jamal Khashoggi is a Virginia resident, so his disappearance is personal to me."

Representative Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, said at the #JusticeforJamal press conference that he viewed Khashoggi as a constituent.

"The fact that Jamal was not a US citizen does not mean that he was not my constituent," Connolly said. "My district has citizens and non-citizens alike and they are entitled to the protection of the United States laws and diplomatic activity on their behalf. And I take Jamal's personal security as seriously as I would any constituent of mine."

Defenders of press freedom decried Khashoggi's disappearance and called for a sharp response by the US government. National Press Club President Andrea Edney said in a statement: "If harm has come to him, those responsible must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

The group PEN America, which advocates for free expression of journalists and artists worldwide, joined the #JusticeforJamal campaign.

"It's a bit difficult to say with certainty exactly what has happened and we want to remain hopeful that Jamal is alive and there will be a resolution to this that returns him to his family," Summer Lopez, a senior director at PEN America, told Al Jazeera.

But, "if the Saudi government carried out a murder inside a diplomatic facility in Turkey, that is a pretty drastic situation and will likely have some real repercussions for the US-Saudi relationship," Lopez said.

"The reaction we've seen from Congress already is quite significant."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018...wmakers-demanding-action-181011044018573.html
 
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EXCLUSIVE: Jamal Khashoggi dragged from consulate office, killed and dismembered

Jamal Khashoggi was dragged from the consul general's office inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday before he was brutally murdered by two men who cut up his body, sources close to the investigation have told Middle East Eye.

Turkish officials say they know when and where in the building the veteran Saudi journalist was killed and are considering whether to dig up the consul-general's garden to see whether his remains are buried there.

Khashoggi, 59, has been missing since last Tuesday when he entered the consulate to obtain paperwork so he could remarry, and has not been seen since.

Saudi officials have strongly denied any involvement in his disappearance and say that he left the consulate soon after arriving. However they have not presented any evidence to corroborate their claim and say that video cameras at the consolate were not recording at the time.

We know when Jamal was killed, in which room he was killed and where the body was taken to be dismembered. If the forensic team are allowed in, they know exactly where to go

- Turkish source

“I would like to confirm that... Jamal is not at the consulate nor in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the consulate and the embassy are working to search for him,” the Saudi consul-general, Mohammad al-Otaibi, said on Saturday after the consulate was opened to Reuters journalists. “We are worried about this case.”

But a Turkish source with direct knowledge of the investigation has given MEE a detailed account of what investigators say happened in the consulate last Tuesday.

"We know when Jamal was killed, in which room he was killed and where the body was taken to be dismembered. If the forensic team are allowed in, they know exactly where to go," he said.

Khashoggi first went to the consulate on 28 September and met with a Saudi diplomat in an attempt to get the papers he needed.

The Saudi diplomat passed him on to a member of Saudi intelligence who said the consulate would be unable to provide what he needed that day, but he could return the following week, the source said.

Khashoggi left the building on Friday with the telephone number of the intelligence official.

On Tuesday morning, Khashoggi called and asked if he should still come to the consulate and was told that the papers were ready for him, the source said. His appointment was for 1pm.

Half an hour before then, during the lunch break held at the consulate, all local staff members left for their usual lunch break which lasts an hour. As they left, they were told to take the afternoon off because a high-level diplomatic meeting was planned for the afternoon in the consulate, the source said.

As a time-stamped photo first published by the Washington Post has shown, Khashoggi walked into the consulate less than an hour later at 1.14pm.

He was greeted by an official, and led into the consul-general's room. Shortly afterwards, two men entered the room and dragged Khashoggi out of the office and into another room where they killed him, the source said, without elaborating how he was killed.

Khashoggi's body was then dragged into a third room and dismembered, he said.

A Saudi source told Reuters that British intelligence believed there had been an attempt to drug Khashoggi inside the consulate that culminated in an overdose.

He said the information came from a British intelligence source. Contacted by Reuters, British intelligence did not comment. Asked about this account, a Saudi official said: “This death is not true.”

Digging up the garden

There are around 22 cars which are registered to the consulate of which between three and four are of interest to the murder inquiry.

One of them left the consulate building at 3:15pm and went several hundred metres to the nearby consul general's home, the source said.

MEE understands that the prosecutor general is now considering whether to dig up the consul general's garden to see whether Khashoggi's remains are buried there.

A separate Turkish source told MEE that the consul general has not left his house for the past three days and has cancelled all of his appointments.

This source also said that the Turkish police want to search the residence and also take all the cars which are registered to the consulate to a secure location to examine them, but the Saudis have not allowed this.

A source also told MEE the Saudis took all the hard drives from the security camera room at the consulate with them when they left the building.

The Saudis on Tuesday rescinded an offer they made originally to allow Turkish forensic experts onto the premises. Their offer was withdrawn after Turkish media outlets published a list of 15 Saudis who arrived in Istanbul on the same day Khashoggi disappeared.

The source who outlined the account of how Khashoggi was killed said that police investigators were confident they already had enough forensic evidence from searches of the sewage network connected to the building.

A second Turkish source with knowledge of the investigation told MEE that the Turks had video and audio evidence of the killing. However, they have not revealed how they obtained this evidence.
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https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-1433170798

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I'm aware MEE is Qatari funded

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اللهم اهلك الأشرار ومن لا يخافون حسابك ومكن للصالحين ياربي
 
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One of the 15 that arrived from Saudi was a pathologist and in his baggage was a bone saw for dismembering bodies according to the Turks
:eek: wow I'm glad we don't have Saudi embassy in Iran! zombieland...
 
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:eek: wow I'm glad we don't have Saudi embassy in Iran! zombieland...

For the safety of Arabs, thank god there is no longer an embassy there. eran has a history of attacking them. Hopefully India moves her embassy too.

saudi-embassy-teheran.jpg
 
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For the safety of Arabs, thank god there is no longer an embassy there. eran has a history of attacking them. Hopefully India moves her embassy too.

saudi-embassy-teheran.jpg
DON'T worry caterpillar trump will save them.is he your new god?
 
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Turkish spy agency has structure x ray and body heat signature detector/thermal imaging equipment in all type concrete structure. Seems they were watching.
 
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Turkish spy agency has structure x ray and body heat signature detector/thermal imaging equipment in all type concrete structure. Seems they were watching.

Good job Turkey! Now it's time to squeeze the life out of the KSA's image internationally. It must be made a pariah state like the state of sh!treal and it's enemy Iran. These three states and their godfathers are an abomination to human race.
 
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what about radicalism and state terrorism ? what about new image of S.Arabia ?

MBS ordered to kill journalist inside Saudi consulate ,, and He was killed in a barbaric way by radical criminal regime , similar to ISIS

S.Arabia is not democratic and constitutional state ,, S.Arabia is a radical islamist state which rules by dictatorial regime .. and S.Arabia is founder of radical terrorist organizations ..... Nobody wants to go to S.Arabia for holiday
KSA is a murderous regime under MBS; well if Faisal was alive... Salman would have had undergone same treatment as he ordered against this journalists.
Just thugs and murders and self titular thiefs with custodian of religious sites. amazing.
 
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Good job Turkey! Now it's time to squeeze the life out of the KSA's image internationally. It must be made a pariah state like the state of sh!treal and it's enemy Iran. These three states and their godfathers are an abomination to human race.
You are an abomination to the human race.
 
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Turkey's government must be held accountable for our respected journalist safety. I believe he is still detained in Turkey by Erdogan's intelligence and his mafia-like party who have a great experience in kidnapping people.
We all know that Turkey have kidnapped tens of Turkish citizens under fake accusations from Bosnia and other countries. I hope they are safe.
 
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Turkey's government most be held accountable for our respected journalist safety. I believe he is still detained in Turkey by Erdogan's intelligence and his mafia-like party who have a great experience in kidnapping people.
We all know that Turkey have kidnapped tens of Turkish citizens under fake accusations from Bosnia and other countries. I hope they are safe.

Saudi consulate is Saudi territory. Turkey doesn’t have authority there. Saudis are responsible. If they don’t answer measures will be taken.
 
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