Missing Saudi journalist's fiancee asks for Trump's help

Salaam

Trump responds

Blurb

President Donald Trump revealed that First Lady Melania Trump has joined the effort to 'get to the bottom' of what happened to missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump commented Wednesday on the disappearance of Khashoggi, calling it a 'very sad situation' and a 'very bad situation.' National Security Advisor John Bolton and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner spoke to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Tuesday.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b0b27cf47a62ba

WORLD NEWS 10/10/2018 09:11 pm ET Updated 1 day ago
Saudi Crown Prince Ordered Effort To Bring Jamal Khashoggi Back To Saudi Arabia: Report
U.S. officials told The Washington Post that Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the Saudi throne, was directly implicated in the journalist’s disappearance.
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By Nick Visser
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally ordered an effort to lure Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi back to his home country, according to U.S. intelligence documents described to The Washington Post on Wednesday.

The report adds new detail to Khashoggi’s disappearance, directly implicating the crown prince, who is notably close to President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Turkish authorities said they believed that Khashoggi, a former insider who grew increasingly critical of the Saudi royal family, was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week and his body removed from the premises.

There was a detailed plan to entice Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia, according to the Post, which cites intelligence documents outlined by U.S. officials. Crown Prince Mohammed reportedly offered Khashoggi government protection and a high-level job if he returned to the country, an offer the journalist was deeply skeptical of.

“He said: ‘Are you kidding? I don’t trust them one bit,’” Khaled Saffuri, who spoke with Khashoggi in May, recounted to the Post.

This image from CCTV video obtained by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reportedly shows Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi enter
CCTV VIA HURRIYET / ASSOCIATED PRESS
This image from CCTV video obtained by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reportedly shows Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018.
Officials in multiple countries said that if Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate last week, it may have been because a plan to capture the man went awry, the Post reported.

Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance and said he left the consulate shortly after he entered last Tuesday. The only available CCTV footage appears to show him entering the building but not leaving.

On Tuesday, The New York Times first reported that Turkish officials believed Khashoggi was assassinated under orders from senior members of the Saudi royal court. Those unnamed officials said they believed the operation was carried out by a squad of 15 people flown into Turkey on two charter flights ― something that could only have been ordered by the country’s leadership due to its complexity and risk.

Turkish officials said the event reminded them of the film “Pulp Fiction,” and said one of the men wielded a bone saw they suspect was used to dismember the journalist’s body.

The Post later said the team reportedly laid in wait for Khashoggi to enter the building.

Salaam

Another update, seems MBS friends are not happy with the uncertainty.

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More speculation.

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Salaam

Yes we all known Western governments record, there's as always a lot of smoke and mirrors, doesn't detract from the wrongness of whats happened to Jamal Khashoggi. We need to know what happened.

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Can Saudi Arabia's ‘great reformer’ survive the death in the consulate?

The disappearance in Turkey of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has shaken confidence in Riyadh even among close allies

In early 2016, when Mohammed bin Salman was still deputy crown prince and Donald Trump still a contender for US president, the then 30-year-old Saudi summoned senior British officials to Riyadh to see him. He had one thing on his mind, said two of the officials present that day – how to deal with Vladimir Putin.

The Russian president’s role in the Middle East had suddenly expanded and his footprint throughout Europe and the US was growing just as rapidly. The young prince seemed curious about what the mercurial Putin had been up to: annexation, intimidation, deflection, the denial of objective facts. But he kept coming back to one question, the officials recalled: how does he get away with it? “He was fascinated by him,” one of the Britons told the Observer. “He seemed to admire him. He liked what he did.” Two years later Prince Mohammed is embroiled in a crisis unlike any other in his short, combustible time as the world’s most powerful thirtysomething. The crown prince stands accused of ordering the brutal death of a prominent critic on foreign soil – a state-sanctioned hit that is without precedent in the kingdom’s modern history, but is not quite so unknown in Russia.

The events, as described by Turkish officials, are staggering and have shaken confidence in Prince Mohammed even among his closest allies, who until the past week had been steadfast in their support for his ambitious reform programme. Turkish intelligence and senior officials insist that the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by a 15-man hit squad that had arrived from Riyadh on the same day and then dismembered his body.

Ever since, authorities have sanctioned a drip-feed of leaks: of video footage showing Khashoggi entering the building on the afternoon of 2 October, the names of the 15 Saudis who arrived – all of whom were linked to the state security apparatus – and the flight logs of the private jets they flew in and out on. The jets were rented from a Riyadh company that routinely leases planes to the Saudi government.

Turkish intelligence officers have told their counterparts in the CIA that they have an audio recording and partial videotape of the moment Khashoggi was killed. They have suggested that the end of Khashoggi’s life was captured on an Apple watch he was wearing that was synced to an iPhone held by his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, waiting outside. Suspicion in western intelligence circles, however, is that the Turks had the consulate bugged. Khashoggi has not been seen since he entered the building, and Riyadh has been unable to produce evidence supporting its claim that he walked away a free man after finalising his divorce papers. Faced with evidence, Saudi officials have offered strenuous denials and deflection; this, they say, was a conspiracy led by regional foe Qatar, supported by its allies in Ankara.

The state television network Al Arabiya has even raised the Salisbury spire defence, claiming the 15 Saudis, who came and went within hours, were “tourists” – just like the Russian assassins widely accused of poisoning the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a state-made nerve agent in the Wiltshire cathedral city.

Now nearing a third year in office, Trump, who has embraced the man known throughout Washington as MbS, has been forced into uncharacteristically cautious language when addressing the allegations, even if he warned there would be “severe punishment” for Riyadh, if it turned out that Khashoggi had indeed been killed in the consulate.

Having a robust regional voice as a bulwark against Iran has been the central plank of Trump’s foreign policy. And so far the US leader seems to view the allegations as an inconvenience, not a game changer.

Last week the US national security adviser, John Bolton, appeared to add weight to Riyadh’s conspiracy claims, suggesting that Ankara and Riyadh had long been rivals, and that some kind of “operation” might have taken place.

The Trump family’s ties to MbS extend beyond a shared view on Iran. The president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has established warm personal and professional ties, as have key members of an influential US business network and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who has spent dozens of hours with the crown prince in his royal diwan, or a tent in the desert, where he often retreats for weekends.

European officials in Riyadh and elsewhere in the region say MbS has drawn inspiration from the fact that Trump, unlike most other modern US leaders, has disavowed making humanitarian concerns a pillar of his foreign policy – and has openly embraced authoritarianism.

Trump repeatedly claims that the US no longer sets the world order – except on Iran – and has pointedly eased pressure on states that previous administrations claimed had long fallen short on human rights and governance. The result has been a vacuum in global leadership, emboldening leaders who might otherwise have checked their behaviour, a Riyadh-based western ambassador said.

“Relationships are being redefined. People know there are no limits,” the ambassador said. “If ever there was a case study of the post-fact Middle East, this is it. There is impunity all around.”

Inside the kingdom, where a crackdown on dissent has left much of society unwilling to speak publicly, there is widespread belief that Khashoggi’s disappearance was indeed a conspiracy orchestrated by its enemies. Some former security officials, however, sense that it may instead mark a crack in the new regime.

“The realignment of the [national intelligence service reporting directly to MbS] has been a disaster,” said an adviser to one such official. “It has become a hyper-political tool for the diwan … that has removed any semblance of accountability and encouraged abuse of power on a scale I have not witnessed before in modern times. There has been a broad descent into authoritarianism. The scale and pace of repression have destroyed any embryonic seeds of civil society and discourse. There really is no limit to the consequences of even polite disagreement, let alone dissent.”

With much of Turkey’s evidence against Saudi Arabia now publicly laid bare, Ankara – and Riyadh – are both turning to Washington to find a way out of a crisis with seemingly endless dimensions. Turkey on Friday agreed to a joint probe with Riyadh into what took place – an arrangement that was brokered by senior officials, suggesting power politics may end up taking precedence over the truth behind Khashoggi’s disappearance.

Turkey does not need investigative help to establish Khashoggi’s fate. Listening devices and camera footage, which it has not yet revealed, offer incriminating evidence. It does, however, need political cover to navigate a problem that could have significant trade and investment considerations.

Riyadh faces a more imminent blow to its trade agenda, with an investment conference set for 23 October at risk of a boycott from media partners and high-profile global companies, in protest at the lack of answers from Saudi officials.

“They have belatedly realised the stakes in this,” said one of the British officials at the 2016 meeting with the crown prince. “And he has been shocked to learn that the absolute power he has at home he doesn’t have abroad. Even in Turkey there are rules. Putin learned the same in the UK. And if this guy is going to survive this, he is going to be indebted to Ankara and Turkey for sparing everyone from the shocking truth.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/13/saudi-arabia-khashoggi-chulov

And come on mods, ease up.

Salaam

format_quote Originally Posted by *charisma*

The fact of the matter is, no we don't really need to know anything especially when it's concerning the legislation of another country. What's going to really change in your life?? Absolutely nothing.

It isn't coincidence that this story has been popularized after Canada's little tweet condemning the Kingdom's right to hold prisoners and the kingdom's response to remove themselves from canada. The hypocrisy of it all.

You may take a nonchalant attitude but Id rather take a more sober attitude, I'm a purveyor of news so what happens to journalists concerns me, this is a serious problem in Pakistan. Plus actions like has intended or unintended consequences that few can predict. I'm sure the Saudis leadership couldn't predict the reaction they would receive.

Lets wait for the investigation, see what evidence is presented. Then we can make up our own minds.

Actually we want to know regardless of whether we need or not. As long as we dont pay attention for such unlawful murders we become the slaves of the sate in place of citizents. You wont have any right one day if the same injustice is done to you or your loved ones. I feel pity for any man who is done unjust. Thats the requirement of being a human being. And with this mentality of ignoring we can never know those real actors playing background.

Thanks for the dose of sanity bro, I thought we were meant to be concerned with justice, decency, fairness? If this was a Mossad operation and it was proven that Mossad were involved (beyond reasonable doubt) we would not hesitate to condemn them.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b0a8f17ee8e950

How The Khashoggi Scandal Looks When You’ve Been Bombed And Starved By Saudi Arabia For Years
The journalist’s disappearance triggered a massive global backlash against Saudi Arabia. Its bloody war in Yemen never has.
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By Akbar Shahid Ahmed
Global media and international decision-makers, right up to the president of the United States, have spent more than a week talking about what happened to missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and what it means for human rights and Saudi Arabia’s long-standing foreign relationships. Radhya Almutawakel has stayed focused on her own work in Yemen: carefully documenting how Saudi actions there have claimed thousands of lives, often with the aid of American weapons.

“We can’t deny that there is a sourness inside all of us, that Yemenis have been dying for years, thousands of them, and millions starving, and the reaction is not as strong as in this case,” she told HuffPost.

Almutawakel runs the best-known human rights organization in Yemen, where a U.S.-backed coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been battling an Iran-linked rebel group since 2015. The war has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis today, with over 20 million people now reliant on aid, experts predicting the biggest famine in a century, and more than 10,000 civilians killed.

Her group, Mwatana, and international organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have recorded and investigated thousands of violations of international law ― including coalition bombs killing civilians; the United Arab Emirates, a coalition member, subjecting hundreds to torture; and the Houthi rebel movement, the coalition’s opponents, planting deadly land mines and taking hostages.

The advocates’ work has only sporadically made top headlines around the world ― an irony that’s now commemorated in headlines like “How One Journalist’s Death Provoked a Backlash That Thousands Dead in Yemen Did Not.”

Better late than never, from Almutawakel’s point of view. The discrepancy in attention is sad, she said, and as a fellow critic of the Saudi regime, she feels more vulnerable seeing how far Riyadh now appears willing to go to silence dissent, potentially with international acquiescence.

But the episode has also helped her see something else: that for all its wealth and international influence, its alliances with the world’s richest countries and its massive tools of repression, Saudi Arabia is not untouchable. The world can pressure the kingdom, and it cannot act with total impunity.

People who contact her about the crisis in Yemen “keep asking what can be done,” Almutawakel said. “But now they know what can be done. They just use the power they have in their hands as civil society and media, and they make a difference.” It’s just that so far, the more powerful voices in civil society and media haven’t consistently done that for Yemen.

American lawmakers from both parties have viewed U.S. intelligence about Khashoggi and then argued that the Saudis should be held responsible for his alleged death, including through unprecedented sanctions. Major companies, most recently JP Morgan Chase and the huge media conglomerate Endeavor, have pulled back from business entanglements with the kingdom as Khashoggi’s face has remained on cable news for days. And while President Donald Trump, a supporter of the Saudi rulers, is promoting Riyadh’s denials of any role in Khashoggi’s disappearance, even he says that investigating the situation is crucial.

“Saudi Arabia is finally facing consequences for one of its crimes, which is targeting Khashoggi,” Almutawakel said. She thinks that’s in part because the kingdom has increasingly frustrated world powers with behavior like that in Yemen: “The file of violations of Saudi Arabia is getting bigger and bigger.”

As American leaders start to speak of a fundamental shift in the relationship that’s let the Saudis pummel her country, Almutawakel has a list of requests ready ― some ways in which Riyadh could be forced to improve Yemen’s situation almost immediately.

She wants the kingdom and its partners to immediately ease restrictions on travel and the import of essential food and medicine, which she described as harsh political decisions designed to get the win the Saudis seek. Saudi Arabia should also focus on re-establishing the machinery of Yemen’s government, she said. The internationally recognized president of Yemen has, under Saudi pressure, lived in Riyadh for years, and the UAE has promoted alternative leadership in areas under its control, disrupting long-standing norms and making essential interactions with the government ― say, over salaries and benefits ― more complicated.

Tucked in there too is a request that’s more personal, but also critical to any sort of accountability or normalcy in the Arab world’s poorest state. Almutawakel said the Saudi-led coalition needs to stop its harassment of Yemeni citizens at all levels, from mass arrests to the kind of detention she and a fellow researcher experienced this summer, prompting them to move to the Netherlands. She expects to be based there for a few months as she prepares to visit the U.S. to receive an award from Human Rights First. But she hopes returning to Yemen will be easier in the new year.

“It’s never too late,” Almutawakel said. “The world has proved they can do a lot.”

format_quote Originally Posted by BeTheChange

Obviously this is worrying but this chap is lucky he got publicity.

This “chab” is lucky because he is killed by a squad of 15 people who came from his country? I think it doesnt matter whether you get publicity after you are dead.

format_quote Originally Posted by BeTheChange

What about the millions and millions who go missing. Kids, woman and men who have 'no names' i.e. no public awareness.

All of these stories are horrofic but inorder to enlighten all cases you must not ignore any case, even if you dont like the victim..

Salaam

Another update

A voice from Saudi Arabia.



Related.

Twitter suspends bots spreading pro-Saudi tweets after Khashoggi case

Twitter has taken down a sophisticated network of bots that were pushing out thousands of tweets in support of the Saudi regime following the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Hundreds of bots were suspended by the social media company on Thursday after it was alerted to fake accounts promoting messages such as “love for Mohammed bin Salman”, the kingdom's Crown Prince.

On Sunday, the Arabic hashtag that translates to "we all have trust in Mohammed bin Salman" was trending on Twitter. A number of Twitter users also noted a significant uptick in accounts with Arab bios following them. Some reported having more than 50 new followers with Arab links.

The list of suspected bots attempting to promote the nation was made by Josh Russell, a technology specialist based in Indiana who has uncovered previous disinformation campaigns on social media involving Russian “troll farms”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/10/19/twitter-suspends-bots-spreading-pro-saudi-tweets-khashoggi-case/

Salaam

Another perspective.

JAMAL KHASHOGGI: WHEN ECONOMICS TRUMPS JUSTICE

At some point, someone in the Saudi hierarchy made the fateful decision that Jamal Khashoggi was a liability and a threat large enough to warrant his murder. Whilst Russia’s KGB has been using poison to send a message to former KGB officers who have gone rogue, Saudi officials didn’t need to go to such elaborate lengths – it has a century old history of dealing with dissidents and undesirables.

Jamal Khashoggi is now trending higher than household popstars as his assassination has reached global proportions.

Khashoggi was a loyal member of the Saudi propaganda apparatus. There is no journalism allowed in the kingdom. There have been courageous Saudi women and men who attempted to crack the wall of rigid political conformity and were persecuted and punished for their views. Khashoggi was not from among them. Some of his own writers suffered while Khashoggi was their boss at Al-Watan newspaper. Khashoggi—contrary to what is being written—was never punished by the regime, except lightly two years ago, when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) banned him from tweeting and writing for Al-Hayat, the London-based, pan-Arab newspaper owned by Saudi Prince Khalid bin Sultan.

Early in his career, Khashoggi became close to two princes: Prince Turki Al-Faysal (who headed Saudi intelligence) and his brother, Prince Khalid Al-Faysal, who owned Al-Watan (The Motherland) where Khashoggi had his first (Arabic) editing job. Editors in the Middle East are trusted individuals who have demonstrated long-time loyalty. Khashoggi admitted to an Arab reporter, just last year in an interview from Istanbul that in Saudi Arabia he had been both editor and censor.

Editors of Saudi regime papers (mouthpieces of princes and kings) enforce government rules and eliminate objectionable material.

Khashoggi was the go-to man for Western journalists covering the kingdom, appointed to do so by the regime. He may have been pleasant in conversation with reporters, as they have reported, but he never questioned the royal legitimacy.

So, what sealed his fate?

Information continues to trickle out that Khashoggi was working with other intelligence agencies, namely Turkey and Qatar. A writer in Okaz, a daily newspaper in Jeddah, accused Khashoggi of meeting with the Emir of Qatar in New York and of having ties to “regional and international intelligence services.” This likely sealed his fate. A regime insider who knows too much was a liability if he is working for Saudi enemies. It’s unlikely the Saudi authorities expected the furore to reach global proportions. Something they didn’t even prepare for.

On the 2nd October 2018, Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to collect a document that he needed in order to marry his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz. He was never seen again.

The Saudi monarchy – who has its hands dripping with blood in Yemen – struggled to keep its story consistent. From Khashoggi leaving through a back entrance, to Saudi authorities investigating his whereabouts, to denials of murder or accusations of low level intelligence officers going too far – there have been an array of Saudi official responses. This would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.

The US has shown in reality it has no real values and commercial deals determine its response rather than Human Rights or any ethics. Since King Salman and Mohammed bin Salman rose to prominence, the Saudi monarchy has completely aligned with America’s agenda in the Middle East. The Washington Post reported on 9 October that “the U.S. intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture Khashoggi.” The intercepted communications were regarded as significant because Khashoggi is a legal resident of the United States and is therefore entitled to protection.

Despite this, President Trump told journalists: “I know [Senators] are talking about different kinds of sanctions, but [the Saudi Arabians] are spending $110 billion on military equipment and on things that create jobs for this country.” Trump, in responding specifically to the Senate’s attempt to block the Saudi Arabian arms deal, stated that the blocking of such a deal “would not be acceptable to me.”

Erdogan has a long history of arresting journalists and censuring any dissent against him. Since the coup attempt against him in 2016, Erdogan arrested professors, lecturers, journalists and academics and pretty much anybody he wanted to get rid of who may question him. Whilst Turkey has presented itself as dealing with a murder on its soil, the reality is Turkey uses the same methods and tactics to achieve the same goals to protect itself from criticism.

The European response has been to criticise the Saudi monarchy and call for investigations into the murder. Given the opportunity to undermine King Salman and his son who are fully in-line with the US agenda, this is a chance that cannot be lost. But with lucrative defence deals ongoing with the Saudi monarchy, it’s unlikely this position will go too far.

The fact that nations such as Britain and the US have factored in commerce when looking at how to respond to the slaughter of someone, shows once again, it is economics rather than any morals that determine their response.

Saudi Arabia has been slaughtering Muslims in Yemen, despite this the murder of one former dissident has got more attention than the impending famine caused by Saudi’s war machine in Yemen.

This whole episode shows how the liberal world order really deals with issues. An issue is valued through how it can be used to further each nation’s agenda, rather than actually bringing to justice those who commit acts of murder.

http://www.hizb.org.uk/viewpoint/jamal-khashoggi-when-economics-trumps-justice/

Salaam

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Blurb

Hatice Cengiz says she waited for hours for her fiance, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, outside of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.



Another update.

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Salaam

A Saudi response.

The drama will be over soon and Saudis will have the last laugh

SOON, drama of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey will come to an end. Truly this is nothing but a comedy act that turned to international media and was orchestrated by haters and ill-wishers in Qatar who were working day and night to come up with this skit.

With this drama coming to a near end, signs of fear are visible on the faces on the producers, writers, actors and directors, while at the same time, Saudis will be laughing and recording a new victory. Saudis will stress the fact that their country is a great nation in the region and a leader of the Islamic world and is not shaken by these malicious acts. As for their opponents, they are nothing more than small parasites with a very short life cycle.

There are those who will try to magnify this incident for different reasons and they are in different camps. There are the kids in the camp of the Qatari regime and their goal is clear: to damage the reputation of Saudi Arabia on the international level. This was their main mission from the mid-1990s, since they established their cheap propaganda channel Al-Jazeera and attracted mercenaries and those who were kicked out from their own countries to manage this channel. There are terrorist groups and their supporters and there are countries with weak economy who are looking to get advantage from this case by engaging in the media campaign against Saudi Arabia, to embezzle Saudi money and quick economic deals.

There are leftist groups in the West who see the stability in the region goes against their main project. They believe that Saudi Arabia is the central country that put an end to the Arab Spring project, which was supported by these groups, and Saudi Arabia buried it forever.

All these groups are exposed and they will achieve no results. There are, however, a group that is playing a dangerous role in the dark and we need to crush them. They are an inferior group that does not have the courage to announce its support to Qatar publicly. But they are playing an indirect role by spreading rumors and circulating fake news among Saudis in an effort to make them doubt their government.

Yes, Saudis will have the last laugh at the end of this comedy act and Saudi Arabia will get out from this stronger while striking fear in the hearts of its enemies. We need in-house cleaning from these parasites who were exposed by the Khashoggi incident.

With this drama coming to a near end, signs of fear are visible on the faces on the producers, writers, actors and directors, while at the same time, Saudis will be laughing and recording a new victory.

http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/545845/Opinion/Local-Viewpoint/The-drama-will-be-over-soon-and-Saudis-will-have-the-last-laugh