Zero Hedge
October 18, 2018
By now, there’s little doubt that Jamal Khashoggi is dead – this despite reports that surfaced in the Daily Mail and a handful of other outlets last week claiming that Khashoggi was alive and had been renditioned to Saudi Arabia.
And while the Turkish government has publicly assured the Saudis that they will pursue a cautious, thorough and transparent investigation, even inviting the Saudis to join as a partner in the probe, behind the scenes, Turkish media – which is tightly controlled by the regime – have spread details about a gruesome execution that they say occurred in the office of the (now former) Saudi consul, who was urged to leave the room under threat of reprisal by a member of the hit squad.
What’s more, a leak last week already suggested that the US knew about the Saudis’ plans to ambush Khashoggi – though whether US intercepts detailed a murder plot, or merely a plan to interrogate and rendition the government insider-turned critic, remains unclear.
If anything, the one thing that now appears certain about this situation is that, in a maneuver that’s reminiscent of the de-classification of an intelligence community report blaming Russia for interfering in the 2016 election, the US intelligence community is once again rebelling against the Trump White House – after Trump suggested that he would do everything he could to preserve the US-Saudi relationship (reportedly fearful of losing Saudi cooperation in a plot to undermine Iran) – and has effectively joined with the Turks to undermine the rule of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
The latest example of this appeared in Thursday’s New York Times, where a trio of national security reporters published a piece claiming that the US intelligence agencies have been “increasingly convinced” that MbS directly ordered Khashoggi’s killing – claims that were, admittedly, not…