Saudis preparing to admit Jamal Khashoggi died during interrogation

Interrogation or torture? I am confused. People generally do not die in an interrogation.

Also why did a Saudi forensic expert bring a bone saw to this "interrogation"? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/world/middleeast/missing-...

"Among the Saudi agents was a doctor who specialized in autopsies, and the group had brought a bone saw into the consulate, which it used to dismember Mr. Khashoggi, according to the Turkish officials"

I suspect we will all go along with this charade because it lets us keep Saudi money and sleep at night.

So the Saudis are now claiming that 15 intelligence officers all went rogue and decided on their own to kidnap an internationally-known journalist, knowing full well that the head of the country would immediately learn of it and, if he was displeased, have them severely punished?

That story is simply impossible to believe.

Also, putting out this story puts the Saudi government in an impossible situation. If it doesn't severely punish the officers, then it is admitting that it really gave them the orders. But if it does punish them for doing something that it had previously promised it would cover them for, then the intelligence agencies will never trust MSB again, and likely refuse to follow many of his orders, if not try to overthrown him.

I wonder what gave reason to this apparent scandal, in the realpolitik sense no one gives a damn about some dead journalist. Something must be in the works when Turkey uses one of their cards. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-usa/freed...

It seems like quite a ruckus for what seems as the US trading Saudi relations for Turkish relations.

MbS is no Putin.

What I still can't figure out is why the hell the Saudis went to all the trouble of flying in an entire team, and then smuggling the body out, when they could have just as easily had some "rogue agent" (presumably there are multiple agents of Saudi intelligence already in Turkey) gun him down on the street. I mean, that's what Putin would've done...has done...numerous times. All I can figure is that MbS honestly though they'd get away with it; that they could "disappear" Khashoggi and no one would ask questions or care, much less that there would be CCTV (and possibly more) evidence showing that something was up.

It's also hard not to see all of this in the light of the recent "failure" of the Saudi Aramco IPO. By all accounts, that was an instance of King Salman letting MbS do his thing, only to reign him in at the last minute and "remind him who is king". One wonders of Salman let MbS try and pull off this crazy, made-for-Hollywood cloak-and-dagger stunt, knowing how it would all go down, in order to take MbS down a peg.

If I had to guess: the 15 "rogue" agents that carried out the Khashoggi assassination are close supporters of MbS within the government and, once this report comes out, if they don't lose their heads (literally...this is KSA after all...), at the very least the outcome will leave MbS with 15 fewer supporters within the government.

I do not care if they are ordering "billions of dollars" worth of weapons. They have already threatened us now. Do you think that the risk is absolutely 0 that these so-called "weapons" won't be turned and used on the US?

President Trump is probably a good businessman. But as a leader of a nation state, this is not good decision making nor a good reason to hedge a decision upon.

A strong America can build other sources of revenue and industry, much like Saudi Arabia plans to do with its sale of a 5% stake of the Saudi Arabian Oil company that was created by a partnership between Standard Oil, Texaco, Exxon and Mobil and, essentially, taken from these companies at a fire sale price as Saudi Arabia essentially nationalized the industry.

So, habeas corpus, literally?