Google owned advertising software Adsense seems to have effectively acted in a sensorship role on the www.inlnews.com website, 

    by refusing to approve  a Google Adsense Advertising Account  for the www.inlnews.com website, which has been well established over the last 15 years,

    as a well known and well used International News and Information Wesite, where all forms of interesting and sometimes contraversal news and information is provided and discussed,

    to anyone wanting to access such news and information of the www.inlnews.com website.

     www.inlnews.com has a worldwide internet user ranking of around 900,000 in China, out of in excess of 8 billion websites on the World Wide Web.
     www.inlnews.com has a worldwide internet user ranking of around 300,000 in the World Wide Web News and Media Category, out of in excess of 8 billion websites on the World Wide Web.

     www.inlnews.com has taken 15 years to establish these World Wide Web Ranking. 

     All the web searches made on the www.inlnews.com website are purely organic, and are not as a result of any paid advertising to Google or anyone else to obtain its worldwide global ranking. 

     The world wide global Internet Ranking of www.inlnews is purely organic web searches, because people around the world want to look at and read the news and information on the www.inlnews.com website.

     It is also noted that around seven years ago there were hundreds of www.inlnews.com web links on Google covering hundreds on different news and information subjects,

     that the www.inlnews.com website covers if one just typed in "INLNews" into a Google Web Search..

     ... at the time www.inlnews.com  was heading to be under  the 10,000th top website on the world wide web.

      Then overnight Google decided to cancel all these hundreds of www.inlnews.com Google Web Links for hundreds on different subject matter we searches.

    There was obviously some very powerful people in Google that was extremely concerned about the fast improving world wide global rank of the www.innews.com web site, 

     so these powerful people inside Goolge decided that immediate action had to be taken ... to stop the fast improving World Wide Global rank of the www.inlnews.com website...

     It is believed that  the reason why all the 

hundreds of www.inlnews.com web links on Google were removed overnight from the Google Search Engine was to to stop the fast improving World Wide Global rank of the www.inlnews.com website

    It has taken the last 7 years for www.inlnews.com from Google cancelling all these hundreds of www.inlnews.com Google Web Links 

for hundreds of web Google Web Search Links on different subject matters, to try and recover its World Wide Global Rank..

Khashoggi was strangled or suffocated and body dismembered, Turkish prosecutor says

 

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/10/31/khashoggi-was-strangled-or-suffocated-and-body-dismembered-turkish-prosecutor-says/23577016/

U.S.-based writer Jamal Khashoggi was strangled or suffocated as soon as he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and his body was subsequently dismembered and disposed of, Turkey's chief prosecutor said Wednesday.

After weeks of leaks, Irfan Fidan's comments mark the first detailed account by Turkish officials of what they believe happened to Khashoggi after he vanished on Oct. 2.

Fidan did not offer any evidence for his version of events.

The death of Khashoggi — a Washington Post columnist and a critic of Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — sparked global outrage and left the kingdom facing a crisis.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly shifted its account of what happened to Khashoggi after he entered its consulate almost a month ago.

President Donald Trump has called the effort to conceal Khashoggi's killing the "worst cover-up ever."

After vehement denials that Riyadh was involved in Khashoggi's disappearance, Saudi officials admitted Oct.19 that the dissident was killed inside the building.

But for days, they maintained that Khashoggi's death was a mistake when an attempt by rogue operatives to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia escalated into a fatal fistfight.

Saudi Arabia's attorney general admitted Thursday that evidence shared by Turkish officials suggests that Khashoggi’s killing was "premeditated."

More from NBC News: 

Amb. Haley attacks Russia for undermining sanctions on North Korea 

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US investigators suspect Russia in mystery 'attacks' on diplomats

Khashoggi was strangled or suffocated and body dismembered, Turkish prosecutor says

The comments mark the first detailed account by Turkish officials of what they believe happened to the Washington Post writer after he vanished on Oct. 2.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/khashoggi-was-strangled-or-suffocated-body-dismembered-turkish-prosecutor-says-n926741

Saudi Arabia to prosecute Jamal Khashoggi killers

Oct. 31, 2018

By Saphora Smith, Aziz Akyavas and F. Brinley Bruton

U.S.-based writer Jamal Khashoggi was strangled or suffocated as soon as he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and his body was subsequently dismembered and disposed of, Turkey's chief prosecutor said Wednesday.

After weeks of leaks, Irfan Fidan's comments mark the first detailed account by Turkish officials of what they believe happened to Khashoggi after he vanished on Oct. 2.

"In accordance with plans made in advance, the victim, Jamal Khashoggi, was strangled to death immediately after entering the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia," the prosecutor said in a statement.

"The victim's body was dismembered and destroyed following his death by suffocation — again, in line with the advance plans," the two-page statement read.

Fidan did not offer any evidence for his version of events.

The Turkish prosecutor also said that discussions with Saudi chief prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb yielded no "concrete results" despite Turkey's "well-intentioned efforts to reveal the truth."

Turkey is seeking the extradition of 18 suspects in the journalist's killing who were detained in Saudi Arabia. It is also pressing the kingdom for information on the location of Khashoggi's remains.

The death of Khashoggi — a Washington Post columnist and a critic of Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — sparked global outrage and left the kingdom facing a crisis.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly shifted its account of what happened to Khashoggi after he entered its consulate almost a month ago.

President Donald Trump has called the effort to conceal Khashoggi's killing the "worst cover-up ever."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that Khashoggi's killing "violates the norms of international law" but re-emphasized the importance of what he described as a "long" and "strategic" U.S.-Saudi relationship.

"It's very important for us to keep that in mind as we continue to ensure the accountability of all those who were involved in committing this murder," he told Fox News.

After vehement denials that Riyadh was involved in Khashoggi's disappearance, Saudi officials admitted Oct.19 that the dissident was killed inside the building.

But for days, they maintained that Khashoggi's death was a mistake when an attempt by rogue operatives to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia escalated into a fatal fistfight.

Saudi Arabia's attorney general admitted Thursday that evidence shared by Turkish officials suggests that Khashoggi’s killing was "premeditated."

Jamal Khashoggi was strangled, body dismembered, Turkish prosecutor says

John Bacon  USA TODAY - Oct 31, 2018

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/10/31/jamal-khashoggi-prosecutor-says-reporter-strangled-body-dismembered/1831358002/

Jamal Khashoggi in a photo taken Dec. 15, 2014. The veteran Saudi journalist had gone missing after visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018.

Mohammed Al-Shaikh, AFP/Getty Images

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled to death and his body dismembered soon after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, the Turkish prosecutor's office said Wednesday.

Khashoggi's body parts were disposed of after being dismembered, the office said in a report obtained by Turkey's Anadolu news agency. The report appears to confirm media reports that have been coming out of Turkey since Khashoggi's death.

"The body of Khashoggi has been dismembered after being killed in the Saudi Consulate," the office said in a statement.

Saudi officials provided no information on any "local collaborator" involved in the killing of Khashoggi, the statement added. Media outlets have quoted a Saudi official as saying the body had been given to someone for disposal.

Saudi prosecutor Saud Al Mojeb arrived in Istanbul on Sunday for talks Monday and Tuesday with Istanbul’s chief prosecutor, İrfan Fidan, Turkish media reported. Mojeb toured the consulate Tuesday.

Khashoggi disappeared in early October after entering the consulate to obtain documents in preparation for his marriage. Video footage showed Khashoggi entering, but no video ever showed him leaving. 

For weeks Saudi Arabia denied any knowledge of Khashoggi's fate, saying he had left the consulate shortly after entering.

More: Slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi's son leaves Saudi Arabia

More: Saudi crown prince calls Khashoggi killing ‘heinous’ crime, vows justice

 The disappearance and subsequent reports that Khashoggi had been tortured and killed drew international outrage. The Saudis ultimately gave some ground, saying Khashoggi died after a fight that broke out during his interrogation. The regime said 18 people had been arrested in the incident. The Istanbul Prosecutor's Office said it had requested the extradition of the suspects held by Saudi Arabia. 

Khashoggi, a Saudi and contributor for the Washington Post, had drawn the ire of his government for repeated criticisms of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's defacto leader, of King Salman and of Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen.

The prince last week called the killing a “heinous” crime and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.

President Donald Trump has taken the Saudis to task for the "total fiasco" and their lack of transparency. But he also expressed support for the kingdom's ruling family. And he has rejected calls to cancel a $110 billion arms deal, saying such a move would only hurt the United States while aiding Russia and China.

Khashoggi's son, Salah, left Saudi Arabia last week after the Saudis revoked his travel ban. Saudi Arabia had banned him from leaving the country several months ago amid his father's criticism of the Crown Prince. 

The Saudi decision to let the younger Khashoggi leave came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent visit to Riyadh where he "made it clear" that Washington wanted him free to leave the kingdom, U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said.

CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed President Trump on Thursday about her trip this week to Turkey, where she listened to audio purportedly capturing the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, as Saudi Arabia appeared to acknowledge that its agents had murdered the dissident Saudi journalist in a “premeditated” operation.

A statement issued by the public prosecutor in Riyadh, citing shared Turkish evidence of premeditation, marked the latest reversal in the Saudi version of events and put the focus directly on the question of who ordered Khashoggi’s death.

U.S. intelligence officials and lawmakers have said that the killing, in a foreign country, of a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was unlikely to have taken place without the knowledge of the kingdom’s most senior leaders.

Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Saudi authorities, who insisted for weeks that he had left the building after a meeting and that they had no information on his whereabouts, said Saturday that their investigators had determined he was accidentally killed there during a brawl with Saudi agents. The authorities said the agents were there to discuss his desire to return to the kingdom, but offered no indication of who had sent them.

The Saturday statement said that 18 unnamed Saudis had been arrested and that five senior officials had been fired. It also said that a high-level committee to restructure Saudi intelligence agencies — headed by Mohammed — had been formed and that a joint Turkish-Saudi investigation into Khashoggi’s death was underway.

Mohammed and his father, King Salman, have both repeatedly assured Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who traveled to Saudi Arabia last week, that they had no knowledge of a plot to kill Khashoggi.

Trump initially described the Saudi explanation Saturday as credible. But in recent days he has expressed doubt, calling it “the worst coverup ever,” although he has not directly pointed the finger at the Saudi leadership. Instead, Pompeo announced that visas held by the arrested Saudis were being revoked, and the White House on Monday dispatched Haspel to Turkey.

On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said publicly for the first time that there was evidence the killing had been “planned” — presumably including the audio reportedly recorded inside the consulate by Turkish intelligence.

The recording is the central piece of evidence Turkey has used to assert that the killing was planned. After listening to it and talking with Turkish officials, Haspel returned to Washington. The White House declined to provide details of her Thursday briefing, saying only that she had informed the president on her “findings and discussions.”

[CIA director listens to audio of journalist’s alleged murder]

The briefing, which the State Department said Pompeo attended, coincided with the new statement by the Saudi prosecutor, which appeared designed at least in part to jump ahead of any conclusions the administration might draw from the new information.

The Saudi statement said that the preliminary results of the joint investigation with Turkey had yielded “information from the Turkish side . . . suggesting that suspects in the incident had committed their act with a premeditated intention.” A translation of the statement, published in Arabic, was provided by the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

“The public prosecution continues its investigations with the accused in light of the information it has received and the results of its investigations to clarify the facts and complete the course of justice,” the translated statement said.

It was not immediately clear how Haspel’s report and the announcement from Riyadh would affect the administration’s thinking amid bipartisan demands from Congress for severe punishment of Saudi Arabia — the nation at the center of Trump’s Middle East policy. Trump has publicly resisted calls to end weapons sales to the Saudis, the world’s largest purchaser of U.S. defense equipment, saying that it would cost American jobs.

But the succession of events this week has underscored the rapidly mounting pressures on Saudi Arabia to fully illuminate Khashoggi’s killing, amid increasing global skepticism.

U.S. and foreign officials and experts with knowledge of the kingdom have said that such an operation was virtually unthinkable without the knowledge and approval of the highest levels of the Saudi government, particularly the powerful and ambitious crown prince. But Salman’s appointment of Mohammed to head the committee revamping the intelligence apparatus, and the prince’s appearance this week to host global government and industry leaders at a Riyadh investment conference, has all but ended speculation that his position was threatened.

Appearing at the conference Wednesday, Mohammed called the journalist’s killing “a heinous crime.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaks during a session of the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh on Wednesday

In another sign that the kingdom is seeking to contain the widespread fallout, Salah Khashoggi, the eldest son of Jamal Khashoggi, has left Saudi Arabia, two people close to the family said Thursday. The son, a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen who was photographed receiving condolences from Salman and Mohammed on Tuesday, had previously been restricted from leaving.

Salah Khashoggi was headed to the United States to join his three siblings, who are already here, according to one of the people. 

The photos and video footage of him meeting with the king and crown prince were released by the Saudi government in an apparent effort to showcase their sympathy. Instead, the images elicited scorn on social media, with critics accusing the leaders of exploiting a grieving son.

State Department deputy spokesman Robert J. Palladino told reporters that “we made it clear that we wanted him to be able to return [to the United States], and are pleased that he’s been able to do what he so desires.” Asked if the son had faced obstacles in leaving Saudi Arabia, Palladino said he was “not aware” of any.

Jamal Khashoggi, 59, was a contributing columnist for The Washington Post who was living in Virginia after leaving Saudi Arabia because of fear about his safety. He had been planning to settle in Istanbul and marry his Turkish fiancee when he was detained and killed in the Saudi Consulate.

Also Thursday, the European Union issued a fresh condemnation of Khashoggi’s killing and reiterated its skepticism that it could have been carried out without Mohammed’s knowledge.

The European Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution urging a European Union-wide arms embargo on Saudi Arabia in response. The resolution came several days after Germany became the first Western government to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest arms importer.

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May both spoke via telephone with Salman, according to a statement issued by the Saudi Foreign Ministry late Thursday, hours after the European Parliament’s resolution passed. 

According to an Elysee Palace readout of the conversation, Macron pressed the Saudi king for more clarity on what happened to Khashoggi and told him France considers freedom of expression and freedom of the press an “essential priority.”

But Britain and France have both stopped short of suspending arms sales to the desert kingdom.

European Parliament members vote on a motion on the killing of Khashoggi in Strasbourg, France, on Thursday. (Jean-Francois Badias/AP)

Through a steady stream of leaks to Turkish and foreign media outlets, Turkish officials have mounted a compelling case that the Saudi agents planned all along to kill Khashoggi, dismember him and dispose of his remains. The Turks have identified a Saudi forensics specialist who is an expert in mobile autopsies and traveled to Istanbul the day Khashoggi was planning to visit the consulate. They also photographed Saudi diplomatic vehicles scouting wooded areas in the days before Khashoggi disappeared.

In addition, the leaks have featured surveillance pictures of a Saudi agent wearing Khashoggi’s clothes and a fake beard and leaving the consulate, in what appears to be an orchestrated bid to fool investigators into thinking the journalist had safely left the diplomatic mission, as the Saudis initially claimed.

Although the Turks have mounted an extensive search of the consulate and other areas in Istanbul, they have released no information indicating his remains have been found.

Saudi crown prince calls Khashoggi killing a ‘heinous’ crime

https://www.apnews.com/1d9bc91a72764b8c86a60c78b3e008f3

By AYA BATRAWYOctober 24, 2018

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — In a fiery and unwavering appearance Wednesday at an investment forum, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince called the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi “heinous” and “painful to all Saudis,” before warning anyone against trying to “manipulate” the crisis and drive a wedge between the kingdom and Turkey.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was joined onstage by two Arab allies as he made his first extensive public remarks about the killing that has sparked widespread condemnation and marred his international standing after Turkish reports said a member of his entourage was involved in the crime.

Many international business leaders pulled out of the Future Investment Initiative, the kingdom’s main economic forum, after the Oct. 2 killing of The Washington Post columnist inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

But in the forum’s vast and ornate auditorium, thousands of people who did attend rose to their feet to applaud the 33-year-old heir whose strong showing underscored his reputation for being bold and assertive.

Prince Mohammed, who spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by phone before the forum, addressed the case immediately after taking the stage for a panel discussion, saying the Saudis were cooperating with Turkey on the Khashoggi investigation.

Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince has called the killing of Jamal Khashoggi a "heinous crime that cannot be justified." (Oct. 24)

“The situation that took place is very painful to all Saudis, especially because it was a Saudi citizen. And I suspect it is painful to anyone in the whole world,” Prince Mohammed said.

“It is a heinous act that is unjustifiable,” he added, before cautioning anyone who might try “to manipulate the situation” and sow division between Riyadh and Ankara.

“I have a message for them: They will not be able to do that as long as there is a king called Salman bin Abdul-Aziz and a crown prince called Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi, and a president in Turkey called Erdogan,” he said to applause.

Erdogan on Tuesday delivered a sharp rebuttal of Saudi Arabia’s widely criticized account that the dissident writer died accidentally in a brawl, saying Saudi officials had planned the killing for days.

He kept up the pressure Wednesday, saying in Ankara: “We are determined not to allow the murder to be covered up and for those responsible — from the person who gave the order to those who executed it — not to escape justice.”

Erdogan has said that 15 Saudi officials arrived in Istanbul shortly before Khashoggi’s death and that a man, apparently dressed in the writer’s clothes, acted as a possible decoy by walking out of the consulate on the day of the disappearance.

Turkish officials say the 15 men comprised a Saudi hit squad that included a member of Prince Mohammed’s entourage on overseas trips. Saudi Arabia has suggested, without offering evidence, that the team went rogue. It has arrested 18 Saudis and fired five top officials, some of whom worked directly under the crown prince.

Turkish media have published a security camera image showing a vehicle belonging to the Saudi Consulate purportedly scouting a forest in the outskirts of Istanbul before the killing.

The killing of the 59-year-old Khashoggi has created an international firestorm as suspicion mounts that the crown prince had a hand in the killing.

“Well, the prince is running things over there more so at this stage. He’s running things and so if anybody were going to be, it would be him,” President Donald Trump was quoted telling the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

Khashoggi, who lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. for nearly a year before his death, had written critically of the young prince’s crackdown on dissent. Dozens of Saudi activists, writers, clerics and even women who were behind calls for the right to drive have been detained.

King Salman and Prince Mohammed met Tuesday with Khashoggi’s son, Salah, and his brother, Sahel, at the Yamama Palace, where the royals expressed their condolences, according to state-run Saudi news, which distributed photos of the event. A friend of the Khashoggi family told The Associated Press that Salah has been under a travel ban since last year. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal.

The crisis overshadowed the crown prince’s high-profile economic forum, aimed at raising much needed investments to underwrite his plans to overhaul the Saudi economy.

After the killing, many international business leaders and Western officials pulled out of the forum, including the CEOs of JPMorgan Chase, Uber, Siemens and Blackrock. Western media outlets withdrew as partners for the event.

Instead, the forum spotlighted how the kingdom’s regional allies have rushed to rally behind the crown prince.

On stage with him was Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who abruptly resigned his post last year during a strange visit to Saudi Arabia in which many people suspected that he was held against his will. Hariri returned to Lebanon and to his post later that year after French mediation and has visited Saudi Arabia and met with the crown prince since then.

The crown prince even joked about the incident at the forum, saying Hariri would be in Saudi Arabia this time for two days.

“So please, no one say that he is kidnapped,” Prince Mohammed said, before turning to Hariri and pumping his hand as the crowd erupted in laughter.

The summit also drew Dubai’s ruler, Jordan’s king and Pakistan’s prime minister. Pakistan, which is grappling with a soaring deficit, struck a deal on the sidelines of the forum with Saudi Arabia for $6 billion in aid from the oil-rich kingdom.

Some $55 billion in agreements were signed at the forum, much of that focused on the lucrative Saudi energy industry. Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s largest exporters of oil, has the Arab world’s largest economy and is a key emerging market.

Rather than cancel their participation altogether, some companies sent mid-level executives. Outside the hall, hushed conversations over coffee and dates took place, with a flurry of business cards exchanged.

Several participants from the U.S., including a California hedge fund manager and staff from a U.S. desalination company, declined to speak to the AP, reflecting a general nervousness among the Americans.

“This experience has given everyone pause ... to stop, get our breath, take stock and then figure out the most appropriate way forward,” David Hamod, president and CEO of the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, told the AP.

“At the end of the day, many American companies have stakeholders and shareholders to which they need to be very sensitive. So they will listen to those stakeholders and shareholders,” Hamod said.

“But timing is everything. A fair number of U.S. companies didn’t make the trip, as you know, and that’s an issue of timing,” he said, adding that he believes the relationship will be “very positive” in the long term.

___

Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Zarar Khan in Islamabad; Malak Harb in Riyadh; and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed.

Khashoggi murder: Saudi Arabia now says killing was ‘premeditated’

AN extraordinary statement about the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi proves the cover-up was a deliberate lie right from the start.

https://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/khashoggi-murder-saudi-arabia-now-says-killing-was-premeditated/news-story/e3ffd92f2b54dfff9c8cdb69a4fddf53

Khashoggi murder: Saudi Arabia now says killing was ‘premeditated’

AN extraordinary statement about the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi proves the cover-up was a deliberate lie right from the start.

SLAIN journalist Jamal Khashoggi was butchered in a “premeditated” attack, prosecutors say, in an extraordinary reversal from Saudi authorities about the fate of the writer.

Khashoggi, 59, hasn’t been seen since he went into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to arrange paperwork for his upcoming wedding.

Turkey believes he was cut to pieces after being tortured and his remains hidden in the garden of the Saudi Consul General.

Saudi Arabia had called the murder a “huge and grave mistake”, in which the Washington Post columnist was accidentally strangled after he was placed in a chokehold during an interrogation.

Now, a statement from Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor sent from the Saudi Foreign Ministry said a joint Saudi-Turkish investigation in Istanbul “indicates that the suspects in the incident had committed their act with a premeditated intention,” reported the Post.

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed on October 2 at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has called Khashoggi’s killing a ‘heinous crime’, but the administration has repeatedly changed its story about what happened. Picture: Saudi Press Agency via AP

In their earlier claim, the Saudi government — after denying any knowledge of what had happened to Khashoggi — said 18 people had been arrested after Khashoggi got into a fist fight.

US President Donald Trump initially said the claims were believable — but then distanced himself and labelled it “the worst cover-up ever”.

The foreign ministry statement didn’t say why prosecutors now believed the killing was planned, but obtained the information with the co-operation of Turkish officials. They would continue their investigation using the new details, the statement said.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince yesterday broke his silence on the sickening killing, saying the murder was a “heinous crime that cannot be justified”.

Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference, nicknamed “Davos in the desert”, the prince said all culprits would be punished, and vowed Saudi Arabia and Turkey would work together to find the killers.

Prince Mohammed said his country’s national security agencies would be overhauled and “justice would prevail”.

He told the audience: “The incident that happened is very painful, for all Saudis … The incident is not justifiable.

“They will not be able to divide us as long as there is a king called King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and a crown prince named Mohammed bin Salman, and a president in Turkey named Erdoğan.”

Saudi Arabia Attorney-General Saud al-Mojeb says Khashoggi’s death was premeditated

A walking track winds through the forest in the Belgrad Forest where Turkish officials tracked two Saudi Arabian consulate vehicles to locations outside of the city centre.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pronounced the death a “savage murder”, with Khashoggi killed and dismembered inside the consulate by Saudi agents on October 2. But Saudi authorities refused to allow Turkish police to search a well in the garden of the consulate in Istanbul, according to Turkey’s state-run Andalou agency.

Turkish sources alleged that body parts and a disfigured face had been found in the garden, Sky News reported, but the discovery has not been confirmed.

Turkish authorities, including the president, said this week that Saudi agents had scouted Istanbul’s Belgrad Forest before Khashoggi’s death inside Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate on October 2.

Security personnel guarding Saudi Arabia's consulate where Khashoggi was murdered.Source:AP

Mr Erdogan says that when diplomats in the consulate learnt Khashoggi would be coming in for a document, one flew back to Riyadh, where “a road map started to be established.”

A team of 15 Saudi agents then flew to Istanbul on October 2 with suitcases and a “bone saw”, checking into hotels, but flying out the same day.

Mr Erdogan also confirmed that a body double of Khashoggi was used as a decoy after he was killed, after CCTV footage emerged on Monday of a man wearing the Washington Post columnist’s dress shirt, suit jacket and pants.

Saudi officials admitted they brought in a body double to pose as Khashoggi, but claimed it was part of a plan to kidnap rather than to kill him.

Turkish officials also reportedly have a recording of the alleged “ferocious” torture and killing, but Mr Erdogan has held back any further evidence so far. He has also refrained from naming the crown prince directly, although he referred to King Salman’s “sincerity”.

A man previously seen with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage during an April trip to the US at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. Picture: Sabah via AP

Initially it was reported Khashoggi’s Apple watch may have recorded his brutal murder — but now it seems likely Turkish spies were covertly recording what was happening in the consulate, either using a listening device hidden inside or by aiming a powerful microphone at the building from outside.

The crown prince and King Salman earlier invited Khashoggi’s son Salah and brother Sahel to the Yamama Palace in Riyadh to offer condolences. The journalist’s son was pictured staring coldly at the crown prince as they shook hands.

Salah and his family left the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Thursday after a travel ban on him was lifted, Human Rights Watch reported.

The crown prince, who has portrayed himself as a reformer, has attended the first meeting of a committee aiming to restructure the kingdom’s intelligence services after the killing, the state-run Saudi Press Agency announced on Thursday. Four senior intelligence officials and an adviser to the crown prince have been fired as Saudi Arabia tries to distance Prince Mohammed from Khashoggi’s slaying. On Wednesday, the prince called the killing a “heinous crime” that was “painful to all Saudis”.

Turkish reports said a member of his entourage was involved in the crime.

European Union politicians are calling for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia as well as a halt to exports “of surveillance systems and other dual-use items that may be used in Saudi Arabia for the purposes of repression.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country was prepared to take “appropriate measures together with international partners” following the killing.

In a call with King Salman, the German leader condemned Khashoggi’s killing “in the sharpest possible manner” and asked Saudi Arabia to “ensure a swift, transparent and credible investigation” and hold those responsible to account.

andrew.koubaridis@news.com.au

— with Emma Reynolds, Associated Press

Jamal Khashoggi: Saudi journalist in his own words

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45900684

22 October 2018 


Jamal Khashoggi has not been seen since he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October  

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared on 2 October after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. More than two weeks later, Saudi Arabia admitted he had been killed, reportedly as a result of a fight inside the premises, an act that drew global condemnation.

For decades, Mr Khashoggi had been close to the Saudi royal family but last year he went into self-imposed exile in the US after an apparent crackdown on dissent in the country.

Since then, he had been writing a column for the Washington Post's Global Opinions section.

Fifteen days after he went missing, the newspaper published Khashoggi's his last article - a call for press freedom across the Arab world.

Read excerpts from some of his previous columns below.

'We Saudis deserve better' - 18 September 2017

"When I speak of the fear, intimidation, arrests and public shaming of intellectuals and religious leaders who dare to speak their minds, and then I tell you that I'm from Saudi Arabia, are you surprised?

"Under pressure from my government, the publisher of one of the most widely read Arabic dailies, Al-Hayat, cancelled my column. The government banned me from Twitter when I cautioned against an overly enthusiastic embrace of then-President-elect Donald Trump.

"I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice. To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot. I want you to know that Saudi Arabia has not always been as it is now. We Saudis deserve better."

'Acting like Putin' - 5 November 2017

"Mohammed bin Salman is acting like Putin. He is imposing very selective justice. The crackdown on even the most constructive criticism — the demand for complete loyalty with a significant 'or else' — remains a serious challenge to the crown prince's desire to be seen as a modern, enlightened leader.

"We Saudis deserve more than the spectacle of royals and officials interred at the Ritz Carlton. We also should have the right to speak about these important and impactful changes — and the many more needed to achieve the crown prince's vision for our country.

"We are a kingdom of silence no longer."

'Terrible choice' - 21 May 2018

"We are being asked to abandon any hope of political freedom, and to keep quiet about arrests and travel bans that impact not only the critics but also their families. We are expected to vigorously applaud social reforms and heap praise on the crown prince while avoiding any reference to the pioneering Saudis who dared to address these issues decades ago.

"Is there no other way for us? Must we choose between movie theatres and our rights as citizens to speak out, whether in support of or critical of our government's actions? Do we only voice glowing references to our leader's decisions, his vision of our future, in exchange for the right to live and travel freely — for ourselves and our wives, husbands and children too?

"This is the choice I've woken up to each morning ever since last June, when I left Saudi Arabia for the last time after being silenced by the government for six months."

'Free expression' - 17 October 2018

"A state-run narrative dominates the public psyche, and while many do not believe it, a large majority of the population falls victim to this false narrative. Sadly, this situation is unlikely to change.

"Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate... These governments, whose very existence relies on the control of information, have aggressively blocked the Internet. They have also arrested local reporters and pressured advertisers to harm the revenue of specific publications.

"The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power.

"Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face."

Only an international court can bring Khashoggi’s killers to justice

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/23/international-court-jamal-khashoggi-killers-un

Only an international court can bring Khashoggi’s killers to justice 

Geoffrey Robertson 

A trial in Turkey would run into serious problems. Instead, the UN security council must step in to find out the truth

‘Even if Saudi Arabia were prepared to extradite a few of the killers to Turkey, they would be schooled and rehearsed and forbidden from identifying the men who gave the orders.’ Photograph: AFP/Getty Images  

The slaying of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was a barbaric act, ordered and carried out by barbarians. It cried out for justice – which means, inevitably, a trial. Yet all the British government is demanding is an “investigation” – by the same Saudi state that spent 17 days lying about its responsibility and is still offering unbelievable excuses for the murder. Any Saudi investigation would, at most, offer up a few scapegoats who would be subjected to a secretive procedure and in reality punished for their incompetence rather than their guilt.

But this was an international crime that took place in breach of United Nations conventions in the precincts of a consulate enjoying inviolability under international law. It involved the silencing of a US-based journalist for exercising the right of freedom of speech – a right also belonging to all his potential readers, and guaranteed under every international human rights convention. It was an action by a UN member state that threatens peace and security and it should be taken up by the UN security council, which has acted before to set up tribunals to deal with similar atrocities – the assassination of the Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, for example, and the Lockerbie bombing.

President Erdoğan has called for a trial of the suspects – most obviously, the 15-strong hit squad – to take place in Turkey. That would be reasonable were it not for the fact that Erdoğan himself has emasculated Turkey’s legal system by sacking so many judges, imprisoning lawyers and using the courts to persecute his own journalist critics. Moreover, any trial in Turkey would run into evidential problems resulting from the inviolability of the consulate, an issue that need not trouble an international court set up by the security council. And even if Saudi Arabia were prepared to extradite a few of the killers to Turkey, they would be schooled and rehearsed and forbidden (even if they knew) from identifying the men who gave the orders.

There are enough precedents for the security council, under its chapter VII power, to act so as to avoid international conflict, to set up a court to research and punish the carefully planned assassination of a journalist in a member state by agents of another member state. There are plenty of experienced judges available who have dealt with atrocities in the Balkans, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, and prosecutors well qualified for mounting cases of international crimes. The Turkish authorities have ample evidence against the immediate perpetrators and western and Israeli intelligence agencies can undoubtedly supplement what is already known about the Saudi chain of command.

Continuing pressure from the security council and orders by the court, backed by sanctions against powerful Saudis (preventing them from travelling to Europe or using schools and health services), trade boycotts and sanctions, and threats of diplomatic isolation, could force the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, to send suspects to The Hague, as it forced Gaddafi to cooperate over Lockerbie, and to disclose evidence that, when analysed together with other evidence, might lead a chief prosecutor to include him in the charge sheet – at least as an “unindicted co-conspirator”. Only an international legal process can establish with any credibility whether Bin Salman actually gave the lethal order, or perhaps said in the manner of King Henry II: “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?”

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Realpolitik – as Jeremy Hunt has hinted and Donald Trump has megaphoned – dictates that Saudi Arabia is too important to be pushed too far because of its oil wealth, its arms purchases and its intelligence about terrorists. The most disgraceful moment for British justice came when our highest court yielded to demands from the Blair government to drop the bribery case against BAE and its high ranking Saudi recipients. The crown prince himself may be too big to jail, but the only prospect of getting at the truth about this hideous event will come from the establishment of an international court.

• Geoffrey Robertson QC is author of Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice

Reuters Agency 

 

Amnesty International said on Saturday that Saudi Arabia's explanation of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul appeared to be a whitewash of "an appalling assassination".

"The investigation findings by the Saudi authorities claiming that Khashoggi died as a result of a 'fist-fight' inside the consulate are not trustworthy and marks an abysmal new low to Saudi Arabia's human rights record," Samah Hadid, the human rights group's Middle East director, said in a statement.

Protests Demand Justice For Jamal Khashoggi

Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist from Saudi Arabia, who went into a self-imposed exile to the U.S. after Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's crackdown on dissent, disappeared after he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on Oct. 2. Since then, scores of activists, journalists, and civil society protested against the kingdom, demanding justice for Khashoggi.

It was revealed last week that the Washington Post columnist was killed inside the consulate which the Saudi government finally accepted Friday after denying the accusations for weeks. 

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/multimedia/Protests-Demand-Justice-For-Jamal-Khashoggi-20181021-0010.html

An activist dressed as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman holds a prop bonesaw during a demonstration calling for sanctions against Saudi Arabia outside the White House in Washington, U.S., October 19, 2018. Khashoggi was a Washington Post Columnist and a strong critic of the Crown Prince.Photo:Reuters

An Indonesian journalist holds a placard during a protest over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in front of the Saudi Arabia embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Oct. 19, 2018. He Went to get papers for marriage in the Saudi Consulate where, according to Turkish officials he was interrogated and murdered.Photo:Reuters

Saudi Arabia denied all allegations against the country, regarding the disappearance and murder of Khashoggi for weeks.Photo:Reuters

The Turkish media Yeni Safak published a gruesome interrogation audio of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate which revealed his fingers being severed during the interrogation and then he was dismembered.Photo:Reuters

A group of 15 Saudis with close link to the Crown Prince had arrived in Turkey the same day as Khashoggi, and Turkish investigative sources maintained that they were instrumental in killing the journalist.Photo:Reuters

After weeks of denial, the Saudi government finally accepted Khashoggi’s death but gave conflicting reports to media where on one occasion they said that he died due to a fistfight, and on other occassion,

the death of his cause was attributed to chokehold.Photo:Reuters

Activists, including Aimee Artigliere, center, chant as they begin to march during a demonstration calling for sanctions against Saudi Arabia

outside the White House in Washington, U.S., Oct. 19, 2018.Photo:Reuters

The murder of Khashoggi resulted in strong reactions from various countries and human right organizations which

resulted in withdrawing from a big event in Riyadh on Oct. 23, Saudi stock market plummeting, and various businesses cutting ties with the kingdom.Photo:Reuters

Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman of Yemen holds a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a protest outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey Oct. 8, 2018. 
 

Turkey urged to seek UN inquiry on Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

https://www.ifex.org/saudi_arabia/2018/10/20/un-inquiry-khashoggi/

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) , Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) , Human Rights Watch (HRW) 20 October 2018 

Jamal Khashogi (L) at a Project on Middle East Democracy forum entitled, "Mohammed bin Salman's Saudi Arabia: A Deeper Look", Washington, DC, 21 March 2018

This statement was originally published on rsf.org on 18 October 2018. 

Read the statement in Turkish. 

Turkey should urgently ask UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish a United Nations investigation into the possible extrajudicial execution of the prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said today. 

The investigation should determine the circumstances surrounding Saudi Arabia's role in the enforced disappearance and possible killing of Khashoggi. It should aim to identify everyone responsible for ordering, planning, and executing any operations connected with the case. 

"Turkey should enlist the UN to initiate a timely, credible, and transparent investigation," said Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "UN involvement is the best guarantee against a Saudi whitewash or attempts by other governments to sweep the issue under the carpet to preserve lucrative business ties with Riyadh." 

Evidence collected by the UN investigation team should be preserved for use in future prosecutions. The investigation team should have complete access to travel where it needs to and to interview potential witnesses or suspects without interference. The team should also recommend avenues for bringing to justice anyone against whom credible and admissible evidence of involvement is found. 

Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 and has not been seen or heard from since. Saudi Arabia has denied involvement in Khashoggi's disappearance, claiming he left the consulate on his own shortly after his arrival, but it has failed to produce any evidence supporting this claim. 

Saudi authorities have escalated their crackdown on dissenting voices in the country since Mohammad bin Salman became crown prince in June 2017, marked by systematic repression of dissent, including peaceful expression directed to the promotion and protection of human rights. Virtually all human rights defenders and critical voices, including religious clerics, journalists, and academics, have been targeted in the recent arrests. 

Khashoggi's disappearance comes after more than a year of arrests targeting journalists who reported on corruption, women's rights, and other sensitive issues. Several are being held in unknown locations, without charges, according to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists. 

Many individuals, including the prominent women human rights defenders Loujain al-Hathloul, Iman al-Nafjan, and Aziza al-Yousef, have been arbitrarily detained without charge for months. These women activists and many others may face lengthy prison terms or the death penalty following grossly unfair trials before the counterterrorism court for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, or assembly. 

The Turkish authorities announced that they had initiated a criminal investigation on the day of Khashoggi's disappearance on October 2. As part of this investigation, they conducted a forensic examination of the Saudi Arabian consulate on October 15. Information from the investigation has been shared with the media through a series of leaks, including claims regarding the existence of audio and visual records proving that Khashoggi was murdered in the consulate. 

On October 15, Saudi Arabia's king ordered the Public Prosecution to open an investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance. Given the possible involvement of Saudi authorities in Khashoggi's enforced disappearance and possible murder, and the lack of independence of Saudi Arabia's criminal justice system, the impartiality of any investigation by the Saudi authorities would be in question. 

Khashoggi's fiancé, Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish national, told media outlets that when Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate on October 2 to obtain their marriage documents, he left her his phones and instructions to alert the Turkish authorities if he did not return after two hours. That was the last time Cengiz saw him. Turkish authorities believe Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents inside the consulate. 

"This demonstrates all the more clearly how imperative an impartial and independent investigation is in order to establish the truth and ensure justice for Jamal Khashoggi," said Christophe Deloire, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders. "If the UN is truly mobilized to fight impunity for crimes against journalists, then at the very least they must be fully engaged in one of the most shocking and extreme cases in recent years by undertaking this investigation." 

There is a precedent for such a UN investigation. In 2008, Pakistan asked then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to establish an investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. That investigation uncovered what investigators said was an attempt by Pakistani authorities to whitewash the events surrounding Bhutto's murder. 

An investigation into Khashoggi's enforced disappearance and possible murder should start promptly and be thorough, impartial, and independent. UN Secretary-General Guterres should appoint a senior criminal investigator with extensive experience in international investigations to head the team. Once the investigation is concluded, the secretary-general should issue a public report on the overall findings along with his recommendations for following up. 

"Jamal Khashoggi's family and the rest of the world deserve the full truth about what happened to him," said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch. "Partial explanations and one-sided investigations by Saudi Arabia, which is suspected of involvement, aren't good enough. Only the UN has the credibility and independence required to expose the masterminds behind Khashoggi's enforced disappearance and to hold them to account." 

Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and all other UN member countries should fully cooperate with the UN investigation to ensure that it has all the access and support necessary to determine what happened to Khashoggi. To facilitate the investigation, Saudi Arabia should immediately waive diplomatic protections such as the inviolability or immunity of all relevant premises and officials bestowed by treaties such as the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, has called for waving these diplomatic protections in the case. 

Turkey should turn over all evidence, including audio and visual records that Turkish officials have repeatedly claimed to the media reveal Khashoggi's murder in the Saudi consulate. A newly formed Turkish-Saudi working group investigating the murder will be unable to make progress in the face of Saudi Arabia's blanket denials and rejection of any involvement in Khashoggi's enforced disappearance. 

"If the government of Saudi Arabia is not involved in Jamal Khashoggi's fate, it has the most to gain in seeing an impartial UN investigation determine what happened," said Sherine Tadros, head the New York office of Amnesty International. "Without a credible UN inquiry, there will always be a cloud of suspicion hanging over Saudi Arabia, no matter what its leadership says to explain away how Khashoggi vanished." 

**************** 

Jamal Khashoggi is a prominent Saudi journalist with several Saudi Arabia-based Arabic and English-language newspapers including Okaz and the Saudi Gazette, and he served two stints as the editor-in-chief of the Saudi daily al-Watan. In December 2016, Saudi authorities publicly denounced Khashoggi after he criticized then US President-Elect Donald Trump at an event in Washington, and he fled Saudi Arabia to the United States in June 2017, becoming a regular columnist for the Washington Post.

18 Saudi citizens detained in connection with murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi: Report 

By JULIA JACOBO,

KIRIT RADIA

BEN GITTLESON

Oct 19, 2018

https://abcnews.go.com/International/18-saudi-citizens-detained-connection-murder-journalist-jamal/story?id=58624279

18 Saudi citizens detained in connection with murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi: Report

 

Eighteen Saudi citizens have been detained in connection with the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi,

according to Saudi Arabia's state-run news agency. 

Khashoggi disappeared after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

An initial investigation has revealed that discussions between Khashoggi and the individuals who met with him at the consulate led to an argument and a fist fight -- which resulted in the journalist's death -- Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor said in a statement, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

(MORE: Turkish source says Pompeo heard recording of Khashoggi murder, State Department denies)

Investigators are working to hold those involved with Khashoggi's death responsible, according to the statement.

Turkish officials have claimed that a group of 15 Saudi men flew to Istanbul at the time of Khashoggi's disappearance.

At least one of the suspects traveled to Istanbul for the purpose of meeting with Khashoggi, according to the statement from the Saudi Press Agency. The suspects then attempted to "conceal and cover" what happened, the statement read.

Khashoggi, an opinion columnist for The Washington Post, has written critically of Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi government.

(MORE: Missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi calls for 'free Arab society' in final column)

The White House acknowledged the Saudis' announcement, stating that it would "continue to closely follow the international investigations into this tragic incident and advocate for justice that is timely, transparent, and in accordance with all due process.

      

Lindsey Graham✔@LindseyGrahamSC

 · Oct 19, 2018

To say that I am skeptical of the new Saudi narrative about Mr. Khashoggi is an understatement.

Lindsey Graham✔@LindseyGrahamSC

First we were told Mr. Khashoggi supposedly left the consulate and there was blanket denial of any Saudi involvement.  Now, a fight breaks out and he’s killed in the consulate, all without knowledge of Crown Prince.

12:08 AM - Oct 20, 2018

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"We are saddened to hear confirmation of Mr. Khashoggi’s death, and we offer our deepest condolences to his family, fiancée, and friends," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in the statement.

President Donald Trump talks to the media about Jamal Khashoggi before boarding Air Force One on Oct. 18, 2018, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md.more +

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump cautioned against blaming Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi's disappearance but told reporters Thursday that "it certainly looks like" he was dead.

Saudi Arabia had denied news reports that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate, but pressure has been building on the Saudi government more than two weeks to explain what happened to him after he entered the consulate earlier this month.

(MORE: President Trump on whether Jamal Khashoggi is dead: 'Certainly looks that way')

On Friday evening, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham – a key ally of President Donald Trump – posted a tweet registering his skepticism of the Saudi government’s latest account of what happened to Khashoggi.

“To say that I am skeptical of the new Saudi narrative about Mr. Khashoggi is an understatement. First we were told Mr. Khashoggi supposedly left the consulate and there was blanket denial of any Saudi involvement. Now, a fight breaks out and he’s killed in the consulate, all without knowledge of Crown Prince.”

Khashoggi had warned of renewed efforts to silence free press in the Middle East, and his final column, titled, "What the Arab world needs most is free expression," was published on Wednesday.

ABC News' Rym Momtaz and Ian Pannell contributed to this report. 

Turkish source says Pompeo heard recording of Khashoggi murder, State Department denies

https://abcnews.go.com/International/pompeo-listened-alleged-recording-murder-jamal-khashoggi-source/story?id=58595725

Turkish source says Pompeo heard recording of Khashoggi murder, State Department denies  

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has heard an alleged audio recording of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi's murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, according to a senior Turkish official. 

Speaking exclusively and on condition of anonymity to ABC News, the official claimed the recording was played in meetings in Turkey on Wednesday, and that Pompeo was given a transcript of the recordings.

Separately, ABC News has also learned that Turkish officials believe that Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate following a struggle that lasted eight minutes and that they believe he died of strangulation.

The White House referred questions to the State Department which denied Pompeo had heard the recording or seen a transcript.

(MORE: Timeline on the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi)

"Secretary Pompeo has neither heard a tape nor has he seen a transcript related to Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance," said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

Pompeo was asked later in the evening about the matter in a brief interview with reporters on a flight to Mexico City, part of a tour to Mexico and Panama.

"I’ve heard no tape, I’ve seen no transcript," Pompeo told reporters in the only question he would take on the topic. After initially declining to take questions on the matter in favor of questions regarding his trip, Pompeo denied ABC News' report, calling it "factually false."

On his way back from Istanbul on Wednesday, Pompeo was asked if he had heard the audio.

"I don’t have anything to say about that," he said.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, rejected any assertions that Turkish officials had shared a recording with Pompeo.

"Turkey has not given a voice recording to Pompeo or any other American official,” he told reporters. “Chief prosecutor of Istanbul has launched an investigation and we are waiting for the results of this investigation."

President Trump has been publicly asking to hear the recording. Pompeo met with the president at the White House on Thursday morning to brief him on his visit to Turkey and Saudi Arabia, where he met with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.

AP, FILE

In this Dec. 15, 2014 file photo, Jamal Khashoggi, then general manager of a new Arabic news channel speaks during a press conference, in Manama, Bahrain.

It is unknown whether Pompeo shared the transcript with the president, but soon after the meeting the president changed his tune.

While earlier in the week the president questioned whether the audio recording existed and cautioned against blaming Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi’s disappearance, on Thursday afternoon his administration abruptly canceled a visit to Saudi Arabia by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to attend a large investment conference hosted by the Crown Prince, whom Turkish officials have reportedly claimed was behind Khashoggi's killing.

Later in the day, Trump told reporters that "it certainly looks like" Khashoggi was dead.

(MORE: President Trump on whether Jamal Khashoggi is dead: 'certainly looks that way')

"It certainly looks that way to me, it's very sad," Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One to attend a political rally in Montana.

The president said the consequences for Saudi Arabia, if they are ultimately deemed culpable, "will have to be very severe. It's bad, bad stuff."

(MORE: Friend of Jamal Khashoggi: Journalist 'killed in a very barbaric way,' according to Turkish officials)

For now, the president said the United States is waiting for the results of several investigations but will then make a "very strong statement."

Ernst/Reuters

President Donald Trump waves off further questions as he heads to board Air Force One

after talking to reporters about journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance while departing for travel to Montana from Joint Base Andrews, Md., Oct. 18, 2018

(MORE: Trump: Saudi crown prince 'totally denied any knowledge' of what happened to Jamal Khashoggi)

On Thursday, after his meeting at the White House, Pompeo said that he told the president that the Saudis should have "a few more days" to finish their investigation into Khashoggi’s disappearance.

But Pompeo also stressed the "long strategic relationship" that the U.S. has with Saudi Arabia, and described the country as an "important counter-terrorism supporter."

(MORE: Missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi calls for 'free Arab society' in final column)

Reports have been circulating for days that the Turkish government has audio recordings of Khashoggi being interrogated and murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Turkish officials have openly claimed that Khashoggi was killed in the consulate, and that a group of 15 Saudi men flew to Istanbul around the time of Khashoggi’s disappearance.

(MORE: Mysterious disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi leads companies to boycott Saudi summit)

The Saudi government has strongly denied having anything to do with the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.

A close friend of Khashoggi, Turan Kislakci, told ABC News in an interview on Wednesdaythat Turkish government and security officials had told him that Khashoggi was dead.

A Turkish forensic officer arrives at the Saudi consulate to conduct a new search

over the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, early Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018

(MORE: President Trump calls for 'severe punishment' if Saudi Arabia killed Jamal Khashoggi)

"They said, 'We have audio on this. We know all the details about what transpired,'" said Kislakci. "They said, 'We were able to access this the first day, and we have various other evidence on this.'"

Kislakci claimed that the tapes reveal that after Khashoggi went into the Saudi embassy, he was given documents to sign. Khashoggi refused, and was killed.

(MORE: Trump: 'Not at all' giving cover to the Saudis in Jamal Khashoggi disappearance)

"I still want to wish and hope that he is alive and so on," Kislakci said. "Unfortunately, this kind of news which related with his killing in a barbaric way is coming out."

Khashoggi, who had been living in the U.S., went missing more than two weeks ago after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. He was visiting the consulate to file paperwork for his upcoming wedding, and his fiancee waited for him in a car outside the consulate.

(MORE: Trump calls for presumption of innocence for Saudis in Khashoggi case, and for Kavanaugh, but not for others)

Khashoggi worked as an opinion columnist at The Washington Post newspaper, and has written critically of the Saudi government and its crown prince, Mohammad Bin Salman. Khashoggi warned of renewed efforts to silence the free press in the Middle East, and his final column, published on Wednesday, was titled “"What the Arab world needs most is free expression."

ABC News' Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.

Arab world applauds moves by Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi

Big News Network.com 

21st October 2018

https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/258154923/arab-world-applauds-moves-by-saudi-arabia-over-khashoggi

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – While the international community was expressing scepticism about steps taken by Saudi Arabia in the case of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khasoggi, the Arab world rallied around the monarchy.

Allied Gulf states on Saturday lavishly praised decrees ordered by Saudi Arabia's King Salman, as reported by Arab News.

Statements of support were made by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Palestine, along with the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars, the Muslim World League (MWL) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by its leadership, was and still is a state of institutions based on justice and equity,” UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed said Saturday.

“The royal decisions and actions taken after the investigation in this case reaffirm these values ​​and established principles to ensure the application of law and justice,” he said.

The UAE’s official news agency WAM said, ‘The United Arab Emirates hailed the directives and decisions of King Salman, following the unfortunate incident that killed Khashoggi.’

Egypt described the king’s actions as "decisive" and "brave."

"Egypt sees that the brave and decisive decisions and actions taken by the Saudi king over this matter align with his majesty's approach that respects the principles of law and applications of effective justice," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Egypt also offered its condolences to Khashoggi's family and said it was confident the investigation would reveal the truth. 

Bahrain praised the king’s interest to establish justice and fairness and his endeavours to disclose the facts, both impartially and objectively.

"Saudi Arabia was and will remain the state of justice, values ​​and principles that guarantee the application of law to all without exception," a statement issued by Saudi Press Agency said.

The Bahrain monarchy reaffirmed its "strong solidarity with the Kingdom in all its positions and actions to all that harms its security, sovereignty and stability."

Palestine commended the Saudi king’s decisions to affirm justice and fairness.

The statement also stressed that Saudi Arabia, “under the wise leadership of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will remain the state of justice, values and principles.”

Yemen praised the results of preliminary investigations conducted by Saudi Arabia’s Public Prosecution into Khashoggi's death, and praised the decisions taken by the king.

In a statement published by Yemen’s state news agency Saba New, the Yemeni government said that the findings of Saudi Arabia’s investigation in the Khashoggi case and the arrests that were made, reflect the keenness of judicial institutions to ensure the safety of the Kingdom's citizens inside the country and abroad.

Jordan said that it stands with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the steps it has taken regarding the case of Khashoggi. The Jordanian government added that the measures taken by Saudi Arabia are essential for achieving justice.

Djibouti said the king’s decisions were proof that Saudi Arabia is a nation of values, principles, and justice.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) affirmed that, ‘since the beginning of its establishment that was based on justice, Saudi Arabia does not hesitate in implementing its provisions. King Salman Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to bring all those who violate it to justice.’

Secretary-general, Dr. Yousuf Al-Othaimeen, praised ‘the transparency with which the Saudi Arabian government dealt with the disappearance of the Saudi journalist, which issued decisive decisions on Friday, including the arrest of 18 persons involved in the case following the initial investigations of the Attorney General.’

‘The kingdom confirmed the protection of its citizens and said it will not give up their rights. 
Moreover from the beginning of Khashoggi’s disappearance, the kingdom stressed that it will reveal the truth and will apply justice to all those involved, which is already underway.’

Al-Othaimeen warned however that ‘it is not possible to jump to conclusions in these investigations until it is officially concluded.’

‘All 18 detainees are still accused and have not been found guilty by the judiciary.’

 “The Saudi judiciary, which has integrity and independence, will issue fair judgments, and it is not appropriate to prejudge decisions made by the judiciary,” he said.

Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Dr. Abdullatif Al-Zayani lauded the latest measurements taken by the kingdom.

In a statement, Al-Zayani called the measurements ‘as asserting the firmness as well as the wisdom of the kingdom's leadership, by clearly prioritizing facts before world public opinion and by pursuing investigations in such a sorrowful and grave case and holding those involved accountable.’

Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, the Council of Senior Scholars, on Saturday said the king’s decisions on the death of Khashoggi “achieve justice and equality in accordance with Islamic law”, according to a statement on Saudi state news agency SPA

18 arrested as Saudi Arabia admits critic Jamal Khashoggi killed in Istanbul consulate

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/world/middle-east/2018-10-20-18-arrested-as-saudi-arabia-admits-critic-jamal-khashoggi-killed-in-istanbul-consulate/

Khashoggi was last seen on October 2 entering his country's consulate in Istanbul

20 OCTOBER 2018 - 08:22 AGENCY STAFF

A demonstrator holds a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a protest in front of Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul Turkey October 5 2018. REUTERS/ OSMAN ORSAL

Saudi Arabia on Saturday admitted that critic Jamal Khashoggi was killed during a "brawl" inside its Istanbul consulate, an explanation that President Donald Trump said he found credible but failed to convince top US lawmakers.

The kingdom announced the arrest of 18 Saudis in connection with their probe and the sacking of two top officials linked to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who has faced mounting pressure over the journalist's disappearance.

Khashoggi, a critic of the Islamic petro-state's powerful crown prince and a Washington Post contributor, was last seen on October 2 entering his country's consulate in Istanbul.

His disappearance had been shrouded in mystery and triggered an international crisis, with Turkish officials accusing Saudi Arabia of a state-sponsored killing and dismembering his body.

The admission of his death after vehement denials by the Gulf kingdom came amid threats of US sanctions and leaves lingering questions about whether Prince Mohammed had any role in the affair.

In the latest version of events from Riyadh, Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said Khashoggi died after talks at the consulate devolved into an altercation, without disclosing any details on the whereabouts of his body.

"Discussions that took place between him and the persons who met him... at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul led to a brawl and a fist fight with the citizen, Jamal Khashoggi, which led to his death, may his soul rest in peace," the attorney general said in a statement.

The Saudi king also ordered the setting up of ministerial body under the chairmanship of the crown prince, widely known as MBS, to restructure the kingdom's intelligence agency and "define its powers accurately", state media said.

Deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri and royal court media advisor Saud al-Qahtani, both top aides to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, were sacked.

'Intense outcry'

The controversy has put the kingdom -- for decades a key Western ally and bulwark against Iran in the Middle East -- under unprecedented pressure to offer an explanation to take the heat off its rulers.

It evolved into a major crisis for Prince Mohammed, a US administration favourite whose image as a modernising Arab reformer has been gravely undermined.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that he found credible Saudi Arabia's assertion that Khashoggi died as a result of a fight.

"I do, I do," Trump said when asked if the Saudis' explanation was credible, while adding: "It's early, we haven't finished our review or investigation."

Trump had earlier said Washington could impose sanctions, but his administration had been notably slow to criticise the Gulf ally despite mounting evidence of what happened to Khashoggi.

The case has presented Trump with one of the most acute foreign policy crises of his nearly two-year-old presidency.

"It took an intense international outcry sustained for two weeks to acknowledge the obvious -- that Khashoggi is dead, that he was killed in the Saudi consulate," said Kristin Diwan, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

"That gives you an idea of the immense financial and strategic interests that are invested in maintaining the US partnership with Saudi Arabia and its leadership."

'Deeply troubled'

Saudi officials have roundly denied that Prince Mohammed had any involvement.

But a suspect identified by Turkey was said to be a frequent companion of Prince Mohammed, three others were linked to his security detail and a fifth is a high-level forensic doctor, according to The New York Times.

The decision to overhaul the intelligence apparatus and sack members of MBS's inner circle is designed to "distance the crown prince from the murder", said analysis firm Eurasia Group.

Complicating the official narrative, Ali Shihabi, head of pro-Saudi think tank Arabia Foundation which is said to be close to the government, tweeted that "Khashoggi died from a chokehold during a physical altercation, not a fist fight", citing a senior Saudi source.

But pro-government Turkish media have repeatedly claimed that Khashoggi was tortured and decapitated by a Saudi hit squad inside the diplomatic mission, although Turkey has yet to divulge details about the investigation.

"Each successive narrative put out by the Saudis to explain what happened to Khashoggi has strained credulity," Kristian Ulrichsen, a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute in the United States, told AFP.

"Especially because the Saudis are still unable or unwilling to produce the one piece of evidence -- a body -- that could provide a definitive answer one way or the other."

UN chief Antonio Gutterres said he was "deeply troubled" by the kingdom's disclosure on Saturday, adding there needed to be "full accountability for those responsible."

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, an influential Trump ally, said he doubted the latest admission from Saudi authorities.

"To say that I am skeptical of the new Saudi narrative about Mr Khashoggi is an understatement," he tweeted.

Bob Menendez, the top US Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for sanctions, saying "we need to keep up international pressure" on the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia's admission comes after Turkish authorities widened their probe on Friday, searching a forest in Istanbul city for further clues.

AFP

Jamal Khashoggi death: Trump says Saudi explanation is 'credible' – as it happened

Jamal Khashoggi is dead, Saudis say
Obituary: high-profile campaigner who paid highest price 

Saudi foreign minister says Khashoggi killing a 'grave mistake'

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2018/1021/1005668-jamal-khashoggi/

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul

The Turkish leader has so far refrained from making strong statements about the death of Mr Khashoggi

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has said the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the country's Istanbul consulate was "an aberration" and "a mistake".

He said Saudi Arabia does not know how Mr Khashoggi was killed or where his body is, adding the country is still working on finding out where Mr Khashoggi’s body is and determining what happened.

He said Saudi Arabia wants to hold to account those responsible for the killing of Mr Khashoggi.

Mr Jubeir said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was not aware of the incident.

Speaking in an interview with Fox News, the Saudi Foreign Minister said the incident was "a huge and grave mistake".

"This is a terrible mistake. This is a terrible tragedy. Our condolences go out to them. We feel their pain," he said.

"Unfortunately, a huge and grave mistake was made and I assure them that those responsible will be held accountable for this."

It comes as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to reveal the "naked truth" over the killing, saying that he would make a new statement on the case next week. 

"We are looking for justice here and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth," Mr Erdogan told a rally in Istanbul.

He added: "Why did those 15 men come here? Why were 18 people arrested?"

The Turkish president said he would make a full statement on the case when he would address his ruling party MPs in parliament on Tuesday.

The Turkish leader has so far refrained from making strong statements about the death of Mr Khashoggi, often referring to a prosecutors' investigation into the killing. 

Britain, France and Germany have said there was an "urgent need for clarification" on the circumstances surrounding Mr Khashoggi’s death. 

In a joint statement released today the three countries said that Saudi Arabia needed to provide facts for its explanation of what happened to Mr Khashoggi to be considered credible.

"There remains an urgent need for clarification of exactly what happened on October 2nd - beyond the hypotheses that have been raised so far in the Saudi investigation, which need to be backed by facts to be considered credible," the three countries said in a joint statement.

"We thus stress that more efforts are needed and expected towards establishing the truth in a comprehensive, transparent and credible manner," they added.

"We will ultimately make our judgement based on the credibility of the further explanation we receive about what happened and our confidence that such a shameful event cannot and will not ever be repeated."

After two weeks of denials, Saudi authorities admitted that Mr Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and prominent critic of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed after entering the consulate in Turkey on 2 October.

But the country has faced a growing chorus of incredulity over its belated explanation that he died in a "brawl", as world powers demand answers and the whereabouts of his body.

"The threatening, attacking or killing of journalists, under any circumstances, is unacceptable and of utmost concern to our three nations," added the European allies' statement.

"The quality and significance of the relationship we have with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also rests with the respect we have for the norms and values to which the Saudi authorities and us are jointly committed under international law," they warned.

Turkish government sources have claimed that Mr Khashoggi was tortured and murdered by a hit squad flown in from Riyadh.

The Saudis initially dismissed the allegations as baseless.

A number of Saudi nationals have since been arrested while deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri and Saud al-Qahtani, a senior aide to the Crown Prince, have been dismissed, state TV reported.

Khashoggi critical of Saudi prince in final interview

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2018/1020/1005495-jamal-khashoggi-interview/

Jamal Khashoggi said Mohammed bin Salman (pictured) is out of touch with Saudi's poor

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi criticised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's "authoritarian rule" shortly before his death, in an interview published following confirmation he died at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate.

Speaking off the record to a Newsweek journalist working on a story about the Saudi leadership, he insisted he did not view himself as "an opposition" - he just wanted "a better Saudi Arabia".

"I'm not calling for the overthrow of the regime, because I know it's not possible and is too risky, and there is no one to overthrow the regime," Mr Khashoggi said.

"I'm just calling for reform of the regime."

He described Prince Mohammed as "an old-fashioned tribal leader" out of touch with Saudi's poor.

"Sometimes I feel that ... he wants to enjoy the fruits of First World modernity and Silicon Valley and cinemas and everything, but at the same time he wants also to rule like how his grandfather ruled Saudi Arabia," Mr Khashoggi told Newsweek.

"He still doesn't see the people. When he sees the people, that's when the actual reform will start."

Mr Khashoggi also criticised Prince Mohammed's lack of "proper advisers".

"He is moving toward a Saudi Arabia according to him, a Saudi Arabia according to Mohammed bin Salman only," said Mr Khashoggi.

He also described two of the prince's aides - sports chief Turki al-Sheikh and the since-dismissed media adviser Saud al-Qahtani - as "very thuggish".

"People fear them. You challenge them, you might end up in prison, and that has happened," he said.

Saudi Arabia has admitted that Mr Khashoggi had died inside the consulate, despite previous persistent claims by the Saudi authorities that the journalist had left the consulate alive.

The Saudi authorities have not yet said where his body is.

In the Newsweek interview, Mr Khashoggi said pushback from the international community was vital to keeping the Saudi regime in check.

"That is our only hope," he said.

Turkish President Erdogan promises to reveal the 'naked truth' about Jamal Khashoggi's death-UK Business Insider

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech during a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the attempted coup at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, July 15, 2018.

 REUTERS/Umit Bektas

http://uk.businessinsider.com/turkey-president-erdogan-promises-to-reveal-the-truth-about-jamal-khashoggis-death-2018-10?r=US&IR=T

• Rosie Perper

Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan promised to reveal the "naked truth" regarding journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death on Tuesday. 

"We are looking for justice here and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth," Erdogan added.

Several members of Erdogan's ruling AK Party also vowed not to "allow a cover-up" of what really happened to Khashoggi inside the Istanbul consulate during his final moments.

Erdogan's statement comes after Saudi Arabia officially admitted that Khashoggi died inside their consulate, claiming that he got into a "fistfight" which turned deadly. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to reveal the "naked truth" about the events leading up to journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death on Tuesday. 

"I will make my statement about this issue on Tuesday at the party group meeting," Erdogan said during a speech in Istanbul.

"We are looking for justice here and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth".

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia confirmed that the 59-year-old Saudi dissident died inside their consulate. They claimed Khashoggi died after a "fistfight" escalated, and fired 5 top officials and arrested 18 Saudis.

On Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir reiterated the claims, and denied Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had any prior knowledge of what happened inside the Istanbul consulate on October 2. 

Turkish officials are conducting their own investigation, and believe Khashoggi was brutally murdered and dismembered, possibly by a 15-person hit squad sent in to confront him at the consulate. Video and audio evidence purported to be from the day of Khashoggi's disappearance reportedly back up these claims. 

Erdogan has largely remained silent on the matter, though he noted several inconsistencies in Saudi Arabia's version of the incident.

"Why 15 people came ... why 18 people were detained ... These things have to be told in detail," Erdogan said.

According to Al Jazeera, Erdogan's comments mark the first time a senior official has given an official end date to the ongoing investigations, which has seen conflicting narratives emerge from all sides. 

Several members of Erdogan's ruling AK Party vowed on Saturday to reveal the truth about what happened to Khashoggi in his final moments. 

Omer Celik, a spokesperson for AK Party, said Turkey was not "accusing anyone in advance, but we don't accept anything to remain covered."

AK Party deputy head Numan Kurtulmus, said Turkey  "would not abstain from sharing with the world" its own evidence. He called the case  "ugly, frightening, and inhumane" and promised not to "allow a cover-up" of what really happened. 

The US, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are continuing their investigations into Khashoggi's death before Trump or the US Senate decide on whether to retaliate against Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, President Trump spoke to Erdogan on the phone and agreed that "all aspects" of the explanation into Jamal Khashoggi's death needed to be "cleared up."

Erdogan: Turkey will reveal 'naked truth' over Khashoggi killing

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/erdogan-turkey-reveal-naked-truth-khashoggi-killing-181021152727536.html

21st October, 2018

Turkish president says he will make all necessary statements about killing of Saudi journalist on Tuesday. 

Erdogan: 'We are looking for justice here' [Cem Oksuz/Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters] 

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to reveal the "naked truth" over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying that he will make a new statement on the case on Tuesday.

His comments on Sunday are likely to increase speculation that Ankara may be about to reveal some of the results of its investigations into the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, who disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul on October 2

On Saturday, after weeks of denying any involvement in Khashoggi's disappearance, Saudi Arabia said the 59-year-old, a prominent critic of the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman(MBS), died in a fistfight at the consulate. 

"I will make my statement about this issue on Tuesday at the party group meeting," Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul.

"We are looking for justice here and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth," Erdogan added.

Erdogan has remained largely silent on the case, although Turkey's pro-government newspapers have released information detailing a 15-member team that purportedly arrived in Istanbul to confront Khashoggi at the consulate.

"Why 15 people came ... why 18 people were detained ... These things have to be told in detail," Erdogan said.

Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor on Saturday said 18 people were arrested in connection with the incident.

Tuesday deadline

"This is the first time that such a senior official - the president - has put essentially a deadline as to this ongoing to and fro of different narrations and leaks," said Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Istanbul.

Hours after the Saudi admission on Saturday, Omer Celik, spokesperson for Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), said Turkey was not "accusing anyone in advance, but we don't accept anything to remain covered [up]".

Meanwhile, Numan Kurtulmus, AK Party's deputy head, promised Turkey "would not abstain from sharing with the world" evidence of Khashoggi's death and will never "allow a cover-up" of what he called an "ugly, frightening, inhumane case".

Turkish officials say the authorities have an audio recording purportedly documenting Khashoggi's killing inside the consulate.

Pro-government Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak, citing the audio, said his torturers cut off his fingers during an interrogation and later beheaded him.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Turkey's president Erdogan promises to reveal the 'naked truth' about Jamal Khashoggi's death

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/10/22/turkeys-president-erdogan-promises-to-reveal-the-naked-truth-about-jamal-khashoggis-death/23567894/

ROSIE PERPER

Business Insider

Oct 22nd 2018  

• Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan promised to reveal the 'naked truth' regarding journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death on Tuesday. 
• 'We are looking for justice here and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth,' Erdogan added.
• Several members of Erdogan's ruling AK Party also vowed not to 'allow a cover-up' of what really happened to Khashoggi inside the Istanbul consulate during his final moments.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to reveal the "naked truth" about the events leading up to journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death on Tuesday. 

"I will make my statement about this issue on Tuesday at the party group meeting," Erdogan said during a speech in Istanbul.

"We are looking for justice here and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth".

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia confirmed that the 59-year-old Saudi dissident died inside their consulate. They claimed Khashoggi died after a "fistfight" escalated, and fired 5 top officials and arrested 18 Saudis.

On Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir reiterated the claims, and denied Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had any prior knowledge of what happened inside the Istanbul consulate on October 2. #

Turkish officials are conducting their own investigation, and believe Khashoggi was brutally murdered and dismembered, possibly by a 15-person hit squad sent in to confront him at the consulate. Video and audio evidence purported to be from the day of Khashoggi's disappearance reportedly back up these claims. 

Erdogan has largely remained silent on the matter, though he noted several inconsistencies in Saudi Arabia's version of the incident.

"Why 15 people came ... why 18 people were detained ... These things have to be told in detail," Erdogan said.#

According to Al Jazeera, Erdogan's comments mark the first time a senior official has given an official end date to the ongoing investigations, which has seen conflicting narratives emerge from all sides. 

Several members of Erdogan's ruling AK Party vowed on Saturday to reveal the truth about what happened to Khashoggi in his final moments. 

Omer Celik, a spokesperson for AK Party, said Turkey was not "accusing anyone in advance, but we don't accept anything to remain covered".

AK Party deputy head Numan Kurtulmus, said Turkey "would not abstain from sharing with the world" its own evidence. He called the case "ugly, frightening, and inhumane" and promised not to "allow a cover-up" of what really happened. 

The US, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are continuing their investigations into Khashoggi's death before Trump or the US Senate decide on whether to retaliate against Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, President Trump spoke to Erdogan on the phone and agreed that "all aspects" of the explanation into Jamal Khashoggi's death needed to be "cleared up".

Photos relating to the missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the Saudi Consulate, who went missing after visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018,

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/10/22/turkeys-president-erdogan-promises-to-reveal-the-naked-truth-about-jamal-khashoggis-death/23567894/#slide=7441659#fullscreen

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 05: People hold posters of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a protest organized by members of the Turkish-Arabic Media Association at the entrance to the Saudi Arabia Consulate on October 5, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Saudi Consulate officials have said that missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the consulate, however the statement directly contradicts other sources including Turkish officials who believe that the writer is still inside and being held by Saudi officials. Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi writer critical of the Kingdom and a contributor to the Washington Post was living in self -imposed exile in the U.S. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)  

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 07: Members of the press report from in front of the entrance of the Saudi Arabia Consulate on October 7, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Fears are growing over the fate of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi after Turkish officials said they believe he was murdered inside the Saudi consulate. Saudi consulate officials have said that missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the consulate, however the statement directly contradicts other sources including Turkish officials. Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi writer critical of the Kingdom and a contributor to the Washington Post was living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)  

Missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi's Turkish fiancee Hatice (L) and her friend wait in front of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, on October 3, 2018. - Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist who has been critical towards the Saudi government has gone missing after visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, the Washington Post reported. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP) (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)  

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 07: Security cameras are seen at the entrance to the Saudi Arabia Consulate on October 7, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Fears are growing over the fate of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi after Turkish officials said they believe he was murdered inside the Saudi consulate. Saudi consulate officials have said that missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the consulate, however the statement directly contradicts other sources including Turkish officials. Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi writer critical of the Kingdom and a contributor to the Washington Post was living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) 

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 05: People hold posters of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a protest organized by members of the Turkish-Arabic Media Association at the entrance to the Saudi Arabia Consulate on October 5, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Saudi Consulate officials have said that missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the consulate, however the statement directly contradicts other sources including Turkish officials who believe that the writer is still inside and being held by Saudi officials. Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi writer critical of the Kingdom and a contributor to the Washington Post was living in self -imposed exile in the U.S. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) 

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 07: A man passes through police barricades to enter the Saudi Arabia Consulate on October 7, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Fears are growing over the fate of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi after Turkish officials said they believe he was murdered inside the Saudi consulate. Saudi consulate officials have said that missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the consulate, however the statement directly contradicts other sources including Turkish officials. Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi writer critical of the Kingdom and a contributor to the Washington Post was living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)  #

Saudi officials gather outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 7, 2018. - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he is following the developments on the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who has gone missing after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, to complete routine paperwork. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP) (Photo credit should read YASIN AKGUL/AFP/Getty Images)  

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 07: Official cars are seen parked in front of the entrance of the Saudi Arabia Consulate on October 7, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Fears are growing over the fate of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi after Turkish officials said they believe he was murdered inside the Saudi consulate. Saudi consulate officials have said that missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the consulate, however the statement directly contradicts other sources including Turkish officials. Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi writer critical of the Kingdom and a contributor to the Washington Post was living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)  

Turkish journalist Turan Kislakci head of the Turkish-Arab Media Association talks to the media outside of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 7, 2018. - Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist who has been critical towards the Saudi government has gone missing after visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, the Washington Post reported. According to a Turkish unnamed government official the prominent Saudi journalist was murdered inside the Saudi mission in Istanbul after he went missing. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP) (Photo credit should read YASIN AKGUL/AFP/Getty Images) 

 ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 05: An entrance sign is seen at the front of the Saudi Arabia Consulate on October 5, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Saudi Consulate officials have said that missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the consulate, however the statement directly contradicts other sources including Turkish officials who believe that the writer is still inside and being held by Saudi officials. Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi writer critical of the Kingdom and a contributor to the Washington Post was living in self -imposed exile in the U.S. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 05: The Saudi Arabia national flag is seen above the Saudi Arabia Consulate on October 5, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Saudi Consulate officials have said that missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the consulate, however the statement directly contradicts other sources including Turkish officials who believe that the writer is still inside and being held by Saudi officials. Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi writer critical of the Kingdom and a contributor to the Washington Post was living in self -imposed exile in the U.S. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) 

 ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 05: Members of the media film and report outside the entrance to the Saudi Arabia Consulate on October 5, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Saudi Consulate officials have said that missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the consulate, however the statement directly contradicts other sources including Turkish officials who believe that the writer is still inside and being held by Saudi officials. Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi writer critical of the Kingdom and a contributor to the Washington Post was living in self -imposed exile in the U.S. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 05: People hold posters of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a protest organized by members of the Turkish-Arabic Media Association at the entrance to the Saudi Arabia Consulate on October 5, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Saudi Consulate officials have said that missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the consulate, however the statement directly contradicts other sources including Turkish officials who believe that the writer is still inside and being held by Saudi officials. Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi writer critical of the Kingdom and a contributor to the Washington Post was living in self -imposed exile in the U.S. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) 

A general manager of Alarab TV, Jamal Khashoggi, looks on during a press conference in the Bahraini capital Manama, on December 15, 2014. The pan-Arab satellite news broadcaster owned by billionaire Saudi businessman Alwaleed bin Talal will go on air February 1, promising to 'break the mould' in a crowded field.AFP PHOTO/ MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH/AFP/Getty Images)  

 A Saudi diplomatic vehicle leaves the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 3, 2018. - Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist who has been critical towards the Saudi government has gone missing after visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, the Washington Post reported. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP) (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)

Missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi's Turkish fiancee Hatice (L) and her friends wait in front of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, on October 3, 2018. - Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist who has been critical towards the Saudi government has gone missing after visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, the Washington Post reported. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP) (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images) 

 An employee waists beside an entrance to Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on October 4, 2018. - Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist who has been critical towards the Saudi government has gone missing after visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, the Washington Post reported. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP) (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)

An employee of the consulate checks a diplomatic vehicle in front of Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on October 4, 2018. - Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist who has been critical towards the Saudi government has gone missing after visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, the Washington Post reported. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP) (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images)  

Trump's job approval rating reaches an all-time high in new poll
 

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/10/21/trumps-job-approval-rating-reaches-all-time-high-in-new-poll/23567436/

President Trump’s job approval rating has reached an all-time high in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. 

Of the 900 registered voters who were asked about his job performance from Oct. 14-17, 47 percent said they approved while 49 percent said they disapproved. 

Despite the negative edge, the figures represent a 3-point increase in approval and 3-point decrease in disapproval compared to a month ago.

The Journal attributes Trump’s boost, in part, to a surge of voter interest in the midterm elections—the outcome of which is still considered to be largely unpredictable. 

Despite the upward trend for Trump in the NBC/Journal poll, the statistics site FiveThirtyEight paints a slightly bleaker picture, placing his aggregate numbers at 42.7 percent approval and 52.2 percent disapproval. 

Nevertheless, a recent CNN poll found that there is a near split—46 percent versus 47 percent—between those who think Trump will win re-election in 2020 and those who think he will lose, respectively. 

Trump says he is not satisfied with Saudi account of Khashoggi death

Saturday, 20 Oct 2018  

https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/1020/1005470-us-reacts-to-khashoggi-death/  

Donald Trump earlier said he found the explanation for Jamal Khashoggi's death 'credible'

US President Donald Trump has said that he is not satisfied with Saudi Arabia's explanation for the circumstances around the killing of journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

Speaking to reporters in Nevada, Mr Trump added that it was possible that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been unaware of the death.

Mr Trump had earlier said that he found Saudi Arabia's assertion that Mr Khashoggi died as a result of a fight credible.

"I do, I do," Mr Trump said when asked if the Saudis' explanation was credible, while adding: "It's early, we haven't finished our review or investigation."

The White House had earlier said it would press for justice after Saudi Arabia announced that Mr Khashoggi had died in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul and that 18 Saudis had been arrested in connection with his death.

"We will continue to closely follow the international investigations into this tragic incident and advocate for justice that is timely, transparent, and in accordance with all due process," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

"We are saddened to hear confirmation of Mr Khashoggi's death, and we offer our deepest condolences to his family, fiancée, and friends," she added.        

Jamal Khashoggi death: give us the facts, western countries tell Saudis

Jamal Khashoggi death: give us the facts, western countries tell Saudis

UK, France and Germany urge Riyadh to urgently clarify what happened to journalist

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/21/jamal-khashoggi-germany-and-eu-condemn-saudi-explanation-of-death

Jamal Khashoggi died at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October.  

Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Washington earlier this year. 

 The UK, France and Germany have pressed Saudi Arabia to provide facts for its widely derided account of the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as Turkey vowed to reveal the “naked truth” about what happened in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.

In an attempt to ease growing western doubts about the credibility of the Saudi position, the foreign minister Adel Al-Jubeir told Fox News on Sunday that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman knew nothing of any plan to kill Khashoggi and that the whereabouts of his body remained a mystery to Riyadh.

Western governments have become increasingly dismissive of the often conflicting accounts of the journalist’s death provided so far. In a joint statement released on Sunday, the UK, France and Germany said: “There remains an urgent need for clarification of exactly what happened on 2 October – beyond the hypotheses that have been raised so far in the Saudi investigation, which need to be backed by facts to be considered credible.”

The UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, spoke to Al-Jubeir on Sunday to convey the British view that “nothing can justify this killing” and assert that the explanation provided was not entirely credible.

A Foreign Office source said: “Ultimately the strength of our response will depend on the extent to which the truth has been found, and our confidence that it cannot happen ever again.”

In his strongest comments to date on the case, the US president, Donald Trump, accused Saudi Arabia of lying about Khashoggi’s death as pressure built on his administration to toughen its stance.

Perhaps more ominously for the Saudis,Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, promised to provide on Tuesday full disclosure of the Turkish investigation into Khashoggi’s killing.

Up to now, the Turkish president and other senior government figures have remained cautious in their public statements, stopping short of pinning the blame on Saudi Arabia and referring instead to the prosecutors’ investigation. Pro-government Turkish newspapers have released information detailing how a 15-member team was sent to Istanbul to confront Khashoggi at the consulate.

It is alleged that Turkey has audio of his murder that would dispel Saudi suggestions he was killed inadvertently by throttling after after resisting a plan by 15 Saudi officers to compel him to return to Riyadh.

Erdoğan told a rally in Istanbul: “We are looking for justice here and this will be revealed … not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth.”

After two weeks of contradictory statements, the Saudi government claimed late on Friday that Khashoggi was strangled after a fistfight broke out between him and officials on 2 October at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Five officials, including a senior intelligence officer, were said to have been fired and 18 others arrested.

In a later explanation offered on Sunday, the Saudis claimed the initial plan was to capture and persuade Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia, but to release him if he refused to comply.

The Saudis have given no details on the whereabouts of his body, and there are reports that the crown prince is both surprised and angry at the strength of the reaction in the west.

Jubeir insisted on Sunday that the killing was “a terrible mistake”. “This is a terrible tragedy. Our condolences go out to them. We feel their pain,” he said. “Unfortunately, a huge and grave mistake was made and I assure them that those responsible will be held accountable for this.”

Western governments are waiting for the full report from Turkish authorities before deciding on what punishment, if any, to impose on Riyadh.

Prior to the joint statement, ministers from France, Germany, the UK and Canada all criticised the Saudi version of events, which have changed over time, starting with the assertion that Khashoggi had left the consulate unharmed.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said her country would not export arms to Saudi Arabia while the uncertainty persists. “There is an urgent need to clarify what happened,” she said. “We are far from having this cleared up and those responsible held to account ... As far as arms exports are concerned, those can’t take place in the current circumstances.

The UK’s Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, was asked in an interview on BBC television if he believed the Saudi explanation. “No, I don’t think it is credible,” he said. “We support the Turkish investigation into it and the British government will want to see people held to account for that death.”

The French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, said: “I note that the Saudi authorities have changed tack, admitted the facts and accepted some responsibility, so we’re making progress.”

Opinion against Saudi Arabia was also hardening in the US, but differences remained over the form of sanctions that should be imposed. Other options include diplomatic expulsions and curbs on arms sales.

A senior Republican senator said he believed the Saudi crown prince was responsible for Khashoggi’s death, and that the US had intelligence suggesting “very high-level” involvement. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said Bin Salman had “crossed a line” by apparently overseeing the death of Khashoggi.

Corker spoke soon after Trump acknowledged for the first time that Saudi officials had made false statements about Khashoggi’s killing. “Obviously there’s been deception and there’s been lies,” the president told the Washington Post on Saturday. Trump, though, stopped short of blaming Bin Salman, saying he would “would love if he wasn’t responsible”.

The treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, said the Saudi explanation of the dissident’s death was a “good first step” but “obviously not enough”. Mnuchin is scheduled to visit Riyadh on Tuesday for talks with Saudi officials on Iran and on countering the financing of terrorism. Mnuchin has, however, withdrawn from the so-called “Davos in the desert” conference that is being shunned by many US executives and media companies following Khashoggi’s death.

The controversy has put the kingdom, for decades a key ally in western efforts to contain Iran, under unprecedented pressure. It has also evolved into a major crisis for the crown prince, a Trump administration favourite widely known as MBS, whose image as a modernising Arab reformer has been gravely undermined.

Jamal Khashoggi

Jamal Khashoggi obituary

Saudi Arabian journalist who fell foul of his country’s ruling dynasty after moving abroad so he could criticise it more freely

Ian Black

@ian_black

Fri 19 Oct 2018 23.30 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/19/jamal-khashoggi-obituary

Jamal Khashoggi speaking at a press conference in Bahrain in 2015. Photograph: Hasan Jamali/AP

The Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi was well known for much of his adult life – certainly to anyone following the notoriously opaque politics of his native country. But the terrible circumstances of his death brought him instant fame that focused global attention on the conservative kingdom.

Khashoggi was 59 when he was killed after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. Official denials, leaks and feverish speculation about his fate fuelled tensions between the Turkish and Saudi governments, long at odds. Revelation of the chilling details exposed the brutality of a supposedly modernising monarchy in Riyadh in crushing dissent.

The final chapter of Khashoggi’s life began just over a year before his death, when he left his home in Jeddah for self-imposed exile in the US. He attracted attention by writing columns for the Washington Post, focusing on the changes that had taken place since the ageing King Salman had appointed his youngest son, Mohammed, as crown prince in June 2017.

Khashoggi watched as Mohammed bin Salman sought to wean Saudi Arabia off its long dependence on oil and drove through unprecedented social changes that included lifting the ban on women driving. But his high-profile campaign against corruption meant locking up princes and businessmen in a luxury hotel and arbitrarily jailing or silencing critics, whether liberals or Islamists seeking political reform or conservatives alarmed by his approach.

Khashoggi’s views on the young prince added to Bin Salman’s reputation for recklessness as he pursued an ill-conceived war in support of the government of Yemen as well as launching a bitterly divisive boycott of neighbouring Qatar. Hostility to Iran and its regional allies was central to his strategy.

The columnist described himself as frustrated that he no longer had a Saudi outlet – though his Post articles were also published in Arabic and his 1.6m Twitter followers ensured a vast audience. He called Bin Salman a “brash and abrasive young innovator” and compared him to Vladimir Putin. However, he always insisted that he did not see himself as a dissident, but as a Saudi patriot.

Indeed, he had once been close to the Al Saud dynasty, whose patronage was necessary for even an independent-minded journalist. He always said that the kingdom should not be treated as a special case. He told friends that moving abroad had been the hardest decision of his life. “With each new critical article, the gap between him and the decision-makers in Riyadh widened,” commented a Gulf colleague who agreed with some of Khashoggi’s views but feared he had gone too far in criticising the royal family.

Born in Medina, Jamal came from a well-known family of Turkish origin that had migrated to the western Hijaz region of the Arabian peninsula in Ottoman times. He was the son of Ahmad Khashoggi, the owner of a fabric shop, and his wife Esaaf (nee Daftar). The arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi was a relative. “Jamal used to talk about missing Eid in Medina,” an American friend recalled. “He had vivid memories of growing up there. He longed to be home, like any exile.”

Jamal went to school in Saudi Arabia before leaving for the US where, in 1982, he gained a BA in business administration at Indiana State University – providing the basis for the fluent English that enhanced his professional profile. His journalistic life proper began in 1986 on the English-language Arab News and the Arabic newspaper Okaz. He also wrote for the influential London-based Arabic dailies Al-Sharq al-Awsat and Al-Hayat.

He covered the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the rise of Osama bin Laden, whom he had known earlier, interviewing him both there and in Sudan. Like many of his countrymen, Khashoggi sympathised with the Saudi and CIA-backed mujahideen fighting the Red Army forces. Otherwise his own views were moderately Islamist – of the Muslim Brotherhood school. That was part of his ambivalent status within Saudi society and vis-a-vis the regime: he was too Islamist for secular-minded liberals but too liberal for traditional conservative Wahhabis.

In 1999-2000, he was the managing editor of Arab News and then editor of the Riyadh-based Al-Watan daily, but he was sacked after criticising the religious establishment. Still, his royal connections allowed him to serve as media adviser (2003-07) to Prince Turki al Faisal, the veteran head of the Saudi general intelligence service and, at that time, the kingdom’s ambassador to London and then to Washington. In 2007, Khashoggi was reinstated as editor of Al-Watan, but he resigned in 2010 after a row over running another controversial opinion piece.

Under King Abdullah, he believed it might be possible to combine social and economic modernisation with the gradual relaxation of freedom of expression. In 2015, when Bin Salman ascended the throne, Khashoggi was appointed to run the Bahrain-based Al-Arab TV station, owned by the billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, to compete with the influential Qatari-run Al-Jazeera. But the new channel was shut down after its inaugural broadcast.

Khashoggi came to the conclusion that Bin Salman was more rogue than reformer and could not succeed in delivering both modernity and freedom. Supporters of the crown prince accused Khashoggi of trying to revive an Islamist current that had been initially empowered during the Arab spring but defeated by the counter-revolutions in Egypt and the Gulf. Loyalist media called him traitor or an apostate, or implied that he was working for the Qataris.

Writing from afar, he helped US and western journalists, policy-makers and politicians understand what was happening in the kingdom. In March 2018, he wrote in the Guardian that Bin Salman “appears to be moving the country from old-time religious extremism to his own ‘You-must-accept-my-reform’ extremism, without any consultation – accompanied by arrests and the disappearance of his critics.” His last Washington Post column lambasted the “cruel” Saudi role in the war in Yemen. Days before his murder, he was a guest speaker at an international conference on Palestine in London. Khashoggi’s admirers described him as a shahid (martyr).

He is survived by his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and the two sons and two daughters from his first marriage, to Rawia al-Tunisi. It ended in divorce, as did two other marriages.

• Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, journalist, born 13 October 1958; died 2 October 2018

• This article was amended on 21 October 2018. The original stated that Jamal Khashoggi began his journalistic life at Saudi Gazette.

It was in fact at Arab News.

Jamal Khashoggi

Saudi Arabia admits Khashoggi killed but claims he died in 'fistfight'

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/19/jamal-khashoggi-dead-saudi-arabian-state-television-confirms

Turkish official says investigators will know fate of journalist’s body ‘before long’

Khashoggi mourners demand ‘true justice’ after Saudi disclosures

Julian Borger in Washington and Patrick Wintour in London and agency

Sat     20 Oct 2018 

first        Good first step': Trump welcomes Saudi arrests in Khashoggi case – video  

              Turkish investigators are likely to find out what happened to the body of Jamal Khashoggi before long, a senior official has said, after Saudi

          Arabia admitted for the first time that the journalist was killed in its Istanbul consulate.
          The official, who declined to be identified, also told Reuters that samples of Khashoggi’s DNA were being procured from inside Turkey,

          meaning investigators would not need to ask Saudi Arabia for samples at the moment.

    Saudi Arabia said on Friday that Khashoggi died in a “fistfight” inside its Istanbul consulate - Riyadh’s first acknowledgement of his death after        two weeks of denials that it was involved in his disappearance.

The Saudi regime also announced a purge of senior officials including Saud al-Qahtani, an influential adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and General Ahmed al-Asiri, a senior intelligence official. Both men have been fired. Eighteen Saudi nationals were said to have been arrested.

The announcement, which cited preliminary findings from an official investigation, was made on state television.

    The purge appeared to be aimed at insulating the crown prince and protecting his position.

    It was reported that he would remain overall head of intelligence.

Khashoggi, a critic of the crown prince, went missing after entering the consulate to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage. Days later, Turkish officials said they believed he had been killed in the building, an allegation that Saudi Arabia initially strenuously denied.

A follow-up statement released by the Saudi ministry of foreign affairs claimed that discussions between Khashoggi and Saudi officials at the consulate “did not go as required and escalated negatively which led to a fight between them … and led to his death”. It claimed that officials, referred to as “suspects”, were involved in a “cover-up”.

Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia’s announcement on the circumstances of Khashoggi’s death was credible and a “good first step” but that what happened was “unacceptable”. He also said he preferred that any sanctions against Riyadh not include cancelling large defence orders.

The Trump administration has stressed it cannot afford to lose Saudi Arabia as a strategic partner. But it faces a sceptical Congress which may demand more convincing explanations of what happened to Khashoggi on 2 October.

     The claim that Khashoggi, 59, died in a fight with Saudi officials who greeted him at the Istanbul consulate, prompted derision elsewhere.#

     

           Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman

            To  say that I am skeptical of the new Saudi narrative about Mr Khashoggi is an understatement,” the Republican senator Lindsey Graham

           said in a series of tweets. “First we were told Mr Khashoggi supposedly left the consulate and there was blanket denial of any Saudi involvement.

            Now, a fight breaks out and he’s killed in the consulate, all without knowledge of Crown Prince.”

     The California congressman Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Saudi Arabia’s claim was not         

       credible.   He said if Khashoggi was fighting inside the consulate, he was “fighting for his life with people sent to capture or kill him”.

        If Trump’s Republican administration did not hold Saudi Arabia accountable for Khashoggi’s death, Congress would,

      Schiff added, according to Reuters.

       Leaks from the Turkish authorities and independent reporting have shown that the kingdom’s most senior forensics expert was among

        a 15-man team sent from Riyadh on 2 October before Khashoggi’s scheduled visit to the consulate.

     They are reported to have brought a bone saw with them and the forensics expert, Salah Muhammed al-Tubaigy,

        is said to have been recorded telling others to listen to music on headphones while he dismembered the body.

       It will be hard to convince global opinion that the crown prince, widely known by his initials, MBS, did not give the order.

      Several of the 15-strong squad sent to Istanbul were from his personal security staff.

     

P        Protesters outside the White House in the wake of Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance. 

             The credibility of the Saudi court is already stretched to breaking point. From the day of Khashoggi’s disappearance until the early hours of

              Saturday morning, the official line from Riyadh was that the exiled writer, a US resident who wrote for the Washington Post, left the

               consulate before disappearing.

                The question for western powers is whether this explanation is seen as a necessary and sufficient grubby deal to bring a disastrous episode

                 to a close, or whether punitive sanctions will be required

                 The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said in a statement that the US “acknowledges the announcement from

                  the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that its investigation into the fate of Jamal Khashoggi is progressing and that it has taken action against

                 the suspects it has identified thus far”.

S             he added: “We will continue to closely follow the international investigations into this tragic incident and advocate for justice that is timely,

               transparent, and in accordance with all due process. We are saddened to hear confirmation of Mr Khashoggi’s death, and we offer

                our deepest condolences to his family, fiancee and friends.”

           Samantha Power, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, said in a tweet:

         “They don’t get it. Shifting from bald-face lies (‘Khashoggi left consulate’) to faux condemnation (of a ‘rogue operation’)

           to claiming the wolf       will credibly investigate what he did to the hen … will convince nobody.”

           A spokesperson for the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said he was “deeply troubled” by the confirmation of Khoshoggi’s death,

           and stressed the “need for prompt, thorough, transparent investigation” into the circumstances, and full accountability for those responsible.

Jamal Khashoggi

Saudi Arabia admits Khashoggi killed but claims he died in 'fistfight'

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/19/jamal-khashoggi-dead-saudi-arabian-state-television-confirms

Turkish official says investigators will know fate of journalist’s body ‘before long’

Khashoggi mourners demand ‘true justice’ after Saudi disclosures

Julian Borger in Washington and Patrick Wintour in London and agency

Sat 20 Oct 2018 

 'Good first step': Trump welcomes Saudi arrests in Khashoggi case – video

Turkish investigators are likely to find out what happened to the body of Jamal Khashoggi before long, a senior official has said, after Saudi Arabia admitted for the first time that the journalist was killed in its Istanbul consulate.

The official, who declined to be identified, also told Reuters that samples of Khashoggi’s DNA were being procured from inside Turkey, meaning investigators would not need to ask Saudi Arabia for samples at the moment.

Saudi Arabia said on Friday that Khashoggi died in a “fistfight” inside its Istanbul consulate - Riyadh’s first acknowledgement of his death after two weeks of denials that it was involved in his disappearance.

The Saudi regime also announced a purge of senior officials including Saud al-Qahtani, an influential adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and General Ahmed al-Asiri, a senior intelligence official. Both men have been fired. Eighteen Saudi nationals were said to have been arrested.

The announcement, which cited preliminary findings from an official investigation, was made on state television. The purge appeared to be aimed at insulating the crown prince and protecting his position. It was reported that he would remain overall head of intelligence.

Khashoggi, a critic of the crown prince, went missing after entering the consulate to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage. Days later, Turkish officials said they believed he had been killed in the building, an allegation that Saudi Arabia initially strenuously denied.

A follow-up statement released by the Saudi ministry of foreign affairs claimed that discussions between Khashoggi and Saudi officials at the consulate “did not go as required and escalated negatively which led to a fight between them … and led to his death”. It claimed that officials, referred to as “suspects”, were involved in a “cover-up”.

Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia’s announcement on the circumstances of Khashoggi’s death was credible and a “good first step” but that what happened was “unacceptable”. He also said he preferred that any sanctions against Riyadh not include cancelling large defence orders.

The Trump administration has stressed it cannot afford to lose Saudi Arabia as a strategic partner. But it faces a sceptical Congress which may demand more convincing explanations of what happened to Khashoggi on 2 October.

The claim that Khashoggi, 59, died in a fight with Saudi officials who greeted him at the Istanbul consulate, prompted derision elsewhere.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. Photograph: Amir Levy/Reuters

“To say that I am skeptical of the new Saudi narrative about Mr Khashoggi is an understatement,” the Republican senator Lindsey Graham said in a series of tweets. “First we were told Mr Khashoggi supposedly left the consulate and there was blanket denial of any Saudi involvement. Now, a fight breaks out and he’s killed in the consulate, all without knowledge of Crown Prince.”

The California congressman Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Saudi Arabia’s claim was not credible. He said if Khashoggi was fighting inside the consulate, he was “fighting for his life with people sent to capture or kill him”.

If Trump’s Republican administration did not hold Saudi Arabia accountable for Khashoggi’s death, Congress would, Schiff added, according to Reuters.

Leaks from the Turkish authorities and independent reporting have shown that the kingdom’s most senior forensics expert was among a 15-man team sent from Riyadh on 2 October before Khashoggi’s scheduled visit to the consulate.

They are reported to have brought a bone saw with them and the forensics expert, Salah Muhammed al-Tubaigy, is said to have been recorded telling others to listen to music on headphones while he dismembered the body.

It will be hard to convince global opinion that the crown prince, widely known by his initials, MBS, did not give the order. Several of the 15-strong squad sent to Istanbul were from his personal security staff.

Protesters outside the White House in the wake of Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance. Photograph: UPI/Barcroft Images

The credibility of the Saudi court is already stretched to breaking point. From the day of Khashoggi’s disappearance until the early hours of Saturday morning, the official line from Riyadh was that the exiled writer, a US resident who wrote for the Washington Post, left the consulate before disappearing.The question for western powers is whether this explanation is seen as a necessary and sufficient grubby deal to bring a disastrous episode to a close, or whether punitive sanctions will be required.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said in a statement that the US “acknowledges the announcement from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that its investigation into the fate of Jamal Khashoggi is progressing and that it has taken action against the suspects it has identified thus far”.

She added: “We will continue to closely follow the international investigations into this tragic incident and advocate for justice that is timely, transparent, and in accordance with all due process. We are saddened to hear confirmation of Mr Khashoggi’s death, and we offer our deepest condolences to his family, fiancee and friends.”

Samantha Power, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, said in a tweet: “They don’t get it. Shifting from bald-face lies (‘Khashoggi left consulate’) to faux condemnation (of a ‘rogue operation’) to claiming the wolf will credibly investigate what he did to the hen … will convince nobody.”

A spokesperson for the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said he was “deeply troubled” by the confirmation of Khoshoggi’s death, and stressed the “need for prompt, thorough, transparent investigation” into the circumstances, and full accountability for those responsible.

Turkish Official: Police Found Evidence of Khashoggi Slaying

Voice of America 
17th October 2018

https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/258134017/turkish-official-police-found-evidence-of-khashoggi-slaying

ISTANBUL - Police searching the Saudi Consulate found evidence that Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed there, a high-level Turkish official said Tuesday, and authorities appeared ready to also search the nearby residence of the consul general after the diplomat left the country.

The comment by the Turkish official to The Associated Press further intensified the pressure on Saudi Arabia to explain what happened to Khashoggi, who vanished Oct. 2 while visiting the consulate to pick up paperwork he need to get married.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Saudi Arabia to talk to King Salman and his son, the 33-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, about the fate of the journalist who wrote critically about the Saudis for The Washington Post.

While it was all smiles and handshakes in Riyadh, one prominent Republican senator said he believed that the crown prince, widely known as MBS, had Khashoggi 'murdered.''

'This guy has got to go,'' Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said of MBS while speaking on Fox News. 'Saudi Arabia, if you're listening, there are a lot of good people you can choose, but MBS has tainted your country and tainted himself.''

Saudi officials have called Turkish allegations that a team of 15 Saudi agents killed Khashoggi 'baseless,'' but U.S. media reports suggested that the kingdom may acknowledge the writer was killed at the consulate, perhaps as part of a botched interrogation.

The close U.S. ally is ruled entirely by the Al Saud monarchy, and all major decisions in the ultraconservative kingdom are made by the royal family.

Post Publisher and CEO Fred Ryan said the Saudi government 'owes the Khashoggi family and the world a full and honest explanation of everything that happened to him,'' noting that Tuesday marked two weeks since the disappearance of the 59-year-old journalist.

'The Saudi government can no longer remain silent, and it is essential that our own government and others push harder for the truth,'' Ryan added.

A man walks past the Saudi Arabia consul's residence, in Istanbul, Oct. 16, 2018. A high-level Turkish official says police who searched the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul found evidence that Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed there.

'Certain evidence'

The high-level Turkish official told the AP that police found 'certain evidence'' of Khashoggi's slaying at the consulate, without elaborating. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

Police planned a second search at the Saudi consul general's home, as well as some of the country's diplomatic vehicles, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. Leaked surveillance video showed diplomatic cars traveled to the consul general's home shortly after Khashoggi went into the consulate.

Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi left Turkey on Tuesday afternoon, state media reported, just as police began putting up barricades around his official residence. Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge he had left or offer a reason for his departure.

Earlier in the day, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the 'inviolability or immunity'' of people or premises granted under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 'should be waived immediately.'' That convention covers diplomatic immunity, as well as the idea that embassies and consulates sit on foreign soil in their host countries.

'Given there seems to be clear evidence that Mr. Khashoggi entered the consulate and has never been seen since, the onus is on the Saudi authorities to reveal what happened to him,'' Bachelet said.

Turkey had wanted to search the consulate for days. Permission apparently came after a late Sunday night call between King Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Certain areas of the consulate were to remain off-limits, although officials would be able to inspect surveillance cameras, Turkish media reported.

Erdogan told journalists Tuesday that police sought traces of 'toxic'' materials and suggested parts of the consulate had been recently painted, without elaborating.

In Riyadh, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir greeted Pompeo at the airport. The former CIA chief didn't make any remarks to the media.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 16, 2018.

'Strong and old allies'

Soon afterward, Pompeo arrived at a royal palace, where he thanked King Salman 'for accepting my visit on behalf of President [Donald] Trump'' before the two went into a closed-door meeting. Pompeo then met a smiling Prince Mohammed, the heir apparent to the throne of the world's largest oil exporter.

'We are strong and old allies,'' the prince told Pompeo. 'We face our challenges together.''

Pompeo was to have dinner Tuesday night with Prince Mohammed and was expected to fly to Turkey on Wednesday.

Trump previously warned of 'severe punishment'' for the kingdom if it was found to be involved in Khashoggi's disappearance, which has spooked investors.

Trump's warning drew an angry response Sunday from Saudi Arabia and its state-linked media, including a suggestion that Riyadh could wield its oil production as a weapon. The U.S. president has been after King Salman and OPEC to boost production to drive down high oil prices, caused in part by the coming reimposition of oil sanctions on Iran.

On Monday, however, Trump offered a different theory after speaking by telephone with King Salman.

'It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers,'' Trump said. 'I mean, who knows? We're going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial.''

The New York Times and the Post have reported, citing anonymous sources, that Saudi officials may soon acknowledge Khashoggi's slaying at the consulate but blame it on a botched intelligence operation.

That could, like Trump's comments, seek to give the kingdom a way out of the global firestorm of criticism over Khashoggi's fate.

'The effort behind the scenes is focused on avoiding a diplomatic crisis between the two countries and has succeeded in finding a pathway to de-escalate tensions,'' said Ayham Kamel, the head of the Eurasia Group's Mideast and North Africa division.

'Riyadh will have to provide some explanation of the journalist's disappearance, but in a manner that distances the leadership from any claim that a decision was made at senior levels to assassinate the prominent journalist.''

Turkish official: New evidence journalist Jamal Khashoggi was slain in consulate

Published 9:54 AM ET Tue, 16 Oct 2018   

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/16/turkish-official-says-police-found-evidence-in-saudi-consulate-that-jamal-khashoggi-was-killed-there-ap.html

Turkish official: Police found evidence of Khashoggi slaying  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/trump-suggests-rogue-killers-murdered-saudi-journalist/2018/10/15/c04506dc-d0d9-11e8-a4db-184311d27129_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3f746c925be1

Turkish official: Police found evidence of Khashoggi slaying

https://www.sunherald.com/news/business/article220083715.html

A Turkish forensic police officer searches for evidence as he works on the rooftop of the Saudi Arabia’s Consulate in Istanbul, late Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Turkish crime scene investigators dressed in coveralls and gloves entered the consulate Monday, nearly two weeks after the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi there. Emrah Gurel AP Photo 

BY FAY ABUELGASIM, SUZAN FRASER AND JON GAMBRELL

by Associated Press

October 16, 2018

Turkish police officers gather as they prepare to enter the Saudi Arabia’s Consulate in Istanbul, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Turkish crime scene investigators dressed in coveralls and gloves entered the consulate Monday, nearly two weeks after the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi there. Petros Giannakouris AP Photo  

Police searching the Saudi Consulate found evidence that Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed there, a high-level Turkish official said Tuesday, and authorities appeared ready to also search the nearby residence of the consul general after the diplomat left the country.

The comment by the Turkish official to The Associated Press intensified pressure on Saudi Arabia to explain what happened to Khashoggi, who vanished Oct. 2 while visiting the consulate to pick up paperwork he needed to get married.

The crown prince "told me that he has already started, and will rapidly expand, a full and complete investigation into this matter. Answers will be forthcoming shortly," Trump said in a tweet.

The president later appeared to take a stronger stance in defense of Saudi Arabia, criticizing the global condemnation against the kingdom and comparing it to the allegations of sexual assault leveled against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.

"Here we go again with you're guilty until proven innocent," Trump told AP in an interview.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Saudi Arabia to talk to King Salman and the 33-year-old crown prince about the fate of the journalist who wrote critically about the Saudis for The Washington Post.

While it was all smiles and handshakes in Riyadh, one prominent Republican senator said he believed that the crown prince, widely known as MBS, had Khashoggi "murdered."

"This guy has got to go," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, speaking on Fox television. "Saudi Arabia, if you're listening, there are a lot of good people you can choose, but MBS has tainted your country and tainted himself."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said "serious evaluation" was being given to whether U.S. law enforcement officials would aid in the investigation of Khashoggi's disappearance. He declined to comment further, or to say whether he had any concerns with the current investigation.

Saudi officials have called Turkish allegations that a team of 15 Saudi agents killed Khashoggi "baseless," but U.S. media reports suggested that the kingdom may acknowledge the writer was killed at the consulate, perhaps as part of a botched interrogation.

The close U.S. ally is ruled entirely by the Al Saud monarchy, and all major decisions in the ultraconservative kingdom are made by the royal family.

Washington Post Publisher and CEO Fred Ryan said the Saudi government "owes the Khashoggi family and the world a full and honest explanation of everything that happened to him," noting that Tuesday marked two weeks since the disappearance of the 59-year-old journalist.

"The Saudi government can no longer remain silent, and it is essential that our own government and others push harder for the truth," Ryan added.

The high-level Turkish official told the AP that police found "certain evidence" of Khashoggi's slaying at the consulate, without elaborating. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

Police planned a second search at the Saudi consul general's home, as well as some of the country's diplomatic vehicles, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. Leaked surveillance video shows diplomatic cars traveled to the consul general's home shortly after Khashoggi went into the consulate.

The Latest: US senator lashes out at Saudi crown prince

Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi left Turkey on Tuesday afternoon, state media reported, just as police began putting up barricades around his official residence. Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge he had left or offer a reason for his departure.

Earlier in the day, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the "inviolability or immunity" of people or premises granted under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations "should be waived immediately." That convention covers diplomatic immunity, as well as the idea that embassies and consulates sit on foreign soil in their host countries.

"Given there seems to be clear evidence that Mr. Khashoggi entered the consulate and has never been seen since, the onus is on the Saudi authorities to reveal what happened to him," Bachelet said.

Turkey had wanted to search the consulate for days. Permission apparently came after a late Sunday night call between King Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Certain areas of the consulate were to remain off-limits, although officials would be able to inspect surveillance cameras, Turkish media reported.

Erdogan told journalists Tuesday that police sought traces of "toxic" materials and suggested parts of the consulate had been recently painted, without elaborating.

In Riyadh, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir greeted Pompeo at the airport. The former CIA chief didn't make any remarks to the media.

Soon after, Pompeo arrived at a royal palace, where he thanked King Salman "for accepting my visit on behalf of President Trump" before the two went into a closed-door meeting. Pompeo then met a smiling Prince Mohammed, the heir apparent to the throne of the world's largest oil exporter.

"We are strong and old allies," the prince told Pompeo. "We face our challenges together — the past, the day of, tomorrow."

Pompeo later said that Saudi Arabia had made a "serious commitment" to hold senior leaders and officials accountable in the case, and said the crown prince again denied any knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi.

Pompeo was to have a dinner Tuesday night with Prince Mohammed and was expected to fly to Turkey on Wednesday.

Trump had previously warned of "severe punishment" for the kingdom if it was found to be involved in Khashoggi's disappearance, which has spooked investors.

Trump's warning drew an angry response Sunday from Saudi Arabia and its state-linked media, including a suggestion that Riyadh could wield its oil production as a weapon. The U.S. president has been after King Salman and OPEC to boost production to drive down high oil prices, caused in part by the coming re-imposition of oil sanctions on Iran.

On Monday, however, Trump offered a different theory after speaking by telephone with King Salman.

"It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers," Trump said. "I mean, who knows? We're going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial."

The New York Times and The Washington Post have reported, citing anonymous sources, that Saudi officials may soon acknowledge Khashoggi's slaying at the consulate but blame it on a botched intelligence operation.

That could, like Trump's comments, seek to give the kingdom a way out of the global firestorm of criticism over Khashoggi's fate.

"The effort behind the scenes is focused on avoiding a diplomatic crisis between the two countries and has succeeded in finding a pathway to deescalate tensions," said Ayham Kamel, the head of the Eurasia Group's Mideast and North Africa division.

"Riyadh will have to provide some explanation of the journalist's disappearance, but in a manner that distances the leadership from any claim that a decision was made at senior levels to assassinate the prominent journalist."

Nils Melzer, the U.N. special investigator on torture, said that if Turkey and Saudi Arabia can't conduct "a credible and objective investigation," then international involvement may be needed.