Khashoggi killing: Strongest evidence linking murder to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman
NB: The Saudi Arabian state is a criminal enterprise buttressed by the Western powers and oil money. They have poisoned world politics for decades with a stinking mixture of religious fanaticism and hard cash. We will all continue to pay the price until it disappears. DS
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Irfan Habib: Perversion of Islam
Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed on Saturday the existence of an audio
recording of Khashoggi’s death and said he had shared it with the
United States, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France and the UK. “We gave the
recordings, we gave them to Saudi Arabia, we gave them to Washington, to the
Germans, to the French, to the English,” Erdogan said in a televised speech.
“They listened to the conversations which took place here. They know,” he said.
Yesterday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the first leader to confirm that his country’s intelligence officials had listened to such a recording. While Trudeau said he hadn’t heard it himself, he was briefed on the contents. A candle light vigil to remember journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabia consulate on 25 October 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey [Chris McGrath/Getty Images]
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The US is paying the cost of supporting the House of Saud
It A message captured in
the audio record of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi is widely believed to be an
instruction to notify the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman that the
operation to slay the Washington Post journalist had
been carried out successfully. In the recording, which
Turkey has said was passed on to western allies, the comment “tell your boss”
that the operatives had carried out their mission, is believed to be the
strongest evidence connecting the Crown Prince, also known as MBS, to the
murder of Khashoggi.
While the prince was
not mentioned by name, American intelligence officials believe, reported by
the New
York Times, that “your boss” was a reference to Prince Mohammed.
Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, one of 15 Saudis dispatched to Istanbul to confront Khashoggi
at the Saudi Consulate there, is reported to have made the phone call and spoke
in Arabic to relay the message to “the boss” that the operation to kill Jamal
was successful. A former CIA officer
also told the newspaper the comment strongly incriminates MBS. “A phone call
like that is about as close to a smoking gun as you are going to get,” Bruce
Riedel, who now works at the Brookings Institution, told the Times.
“It is pretty incriminating evidence,” he added. People familiar with
the content of the recording revealed that Mutreb, who is a diplomat and
is known
to be very close to MBS, spoke to one of the aides of MBS. While
translations of the Arabic may differ, people briefed on the call are reported
to have said that Mutreb informed the aide that the “the deed was done”.
Yesterday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the first leader to confirm that his country’s intelligence officials had listened to such a recording. While Trudeau said he hadn’t heard it himself, he was briefed on the contents. A candle light vigil to remember journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabia consulate on 25 October 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey [Chris McGrath/Getty Images]
Days following the
news that Khashoggi had been brutally killed by a special team of 15
agents at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkish sources leaked what
they said was incriminating evidence showing communication between the
assassins and the office of MBS. The assassins are said to have made four
telephone calls from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to the crown prince’s
office in the hours after Khashoggi’s death but no details of the conversation
was provided.
While the official
line of the kingdom has been to deny that the killing of Khashoggi had been
authorised by MBS, details of the recording will be seen as further evidence
that the Saudis are not telling the truth. This view has been reinforced by the
shifting account of Riyadh from having first saying that Khashoggi had left
the embassy then admitting that
he had been killed in a fist fight then finally concluding that there was
indeed an operation
to silence the Saudi critic by killing him.
Contrary to the view
of many intelligence officials and experts, US national security adviser John
Bolton said today that the recording from inside the Istanbul consulate did not
appear to provide any link between the killers and MBS. Critics of the kingdom
however insist that the reference to “the boss” and the numerous phone calls as
well as the way in which Saudi operates under an absolute monarchy all point in
the direction of MBS.
Many have argued that
it is unthinkable for rogue operation to be carried out by Saudi agents linked
to MBS. The killing of Khashoggi simply could not have taken place without MBS’
approval just as the continuing and deliberate killing of civilians in Yemen
could not take place without his knowledge and approval. It’s also been pointed
out that while the name of MBS does not appear directly in the recording, the
circumstances and details of the killing of Khashoggi is the closest anyone
will ever get to catching an authoritarian despot “red handed”. Given the staff
hierarchy MBS had under him, added to the motive to silence dissidents, the
news that a senior agent overseeing the murder told a staffer to “tell your
boss” that the mission had been completed can only be a reference to none other
than MBS. Via Middle
East Monitor
The US is paying the cost of supporting the House of Saud
