So an important journalist for the Washington Post is dead; he goes into a Saudi consulate and is never seen again alive.
So how was he killed?
Rogue Killers.
So we are expected to believe that a bunch of “rogue killers” happened to be wandering around a Saudi consulate? And decided to kill Khashoggi?
I don’t think so.
It is possible that the “rogue killers” were Saudi intelligence operatives who killed Khashoggi. But that doesn’t qualify as “rogue killers” in the conventional sense of the term – if Saudi intelligence operatives killed Khashoggi then the Saudi government is responsible for his killing even if they specifically prohibited the killing.
Interrogation Accident
Really?
That’s one rough interrogation; or did they mean torture? My instinctive first thought is “lie”; it smacks of an after the fact excuse.
Of course you could have an accidental death during an interrogation, but it is a very low probability and ultimately it is still the same Saudi Arabia killed Khashoggi.
Fight during a rendition
The latest “excuse” is that Khashoggi was killed during a fight; possibly during a botched attempt at rendition (what a government calls kidnapping). Which would seem to be balderdash.
If there was a room full of Saudi intelligence operatives waiting for Khashdoggi when he arrived at the embassy, then his death is what they intended. There may well have been a fight – who wouldn’t fight if they suspected they were about to be killed? But with overwhelming force available, if death occurred, that is what was originally intended.
So, we know that Saudi Arabia murdered a prominent journalist presumably because he was an embarrassment. After all not only was Khashdoggi an important journalist but also a member of the Saudi establishment. And it is one thing for an outsider to criticise Saudi policy, but an insider to do so is far more embarrassing,
Of course Trump is going to believe anything the Saudis say because to believe that Khashdoggi was murdered by the Saudis would require the sort of action that would put some very big business contracts at risk. To be fair to the funky-haired orange goblin, this doesn’t make him any different to most of the world’s leaders.
