Just several weeks ago, Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi was brutally tortured and dismembered alive while at a consulate in Saudi Arabia. At the moment, Saudi Arabia admits the reporter’s death, but claims that he died in a “fist fight”. Apparently, Saudi Arabia has been purging senior officials in order to protect the crown prince. The crown prince is the leader of Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, Khashoggi was a critic of said crown prince, and people have thought that the crown prince would have had Khashoggi killed because he was so well known in his critique of the prince.
Khashoggi went missing while he went into the consulate to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage. Just several days later officials from Turkey said that they believed that Khashoggi had been killed in the same building, seeing as there was no evidence that he ever left. At first, Saudi Arabia denied all allegations made about the topic.
The Saudi ministry of foreign affairs stated that the conversations between foreign affairs and Khashoggi “did not go as required and escalated negatively which lead to a fist fight between them … and lead to his death.” The officials involved are now considered suspects.
President Donald Trump said that he believed what Saudi Arabia said was entirely credible, and to the nations astonishment, he said that what they did was “a good first step,” but that what happened was unacceptable.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham stated that she is “more than skeptical” about the situation in Saudi Arabia. She states “First we were told Mr. Khashoggi supposedly left the consulate and there was a blanket denial of any Saudi involvement. Now, a fight breaks out and he’s killed in the consulate, all without knowledge of the Crown Prince.” Her statement is entirely true, showing that Saudi Arabia must have had at least some involvement in the situation, going off of the fact that at first they denied having anything to do with it, and then they claimed that he died in a fist fight in the consulate, which was what people suspected in the first place.
Turkish authorities have leaked several audio recordings from the inside of the consulate, opening up a world of horror for whoever hears them. The 15-man squad sent in with Khashoggi was reported to have brought a bone saw. In the audio recording, the forensics expert, Salah Muhammed al-Tubaigy among the squad of 15 is heard telling the others in the room to listen to music on headphones while he dismembered Khashoggi’s body, indicating that he was still alive while he did so.
There is controversy over whether or not the crown prince had anything to do with the killing, although several men in the squad of 15 sent to Istanbul to supposedly kill Khashoggi were a part of the prince’s personal security staff, indicating that he may have given the order to kill Khashoggi.
Supposedly, the audio recordings show the 15 men seizing Khashoggi, immediately beating and torturing him. In the audio recordings, the agents begin cutting off his fingers. As of right now, we are unsure if Khashoggi was alive or not while they were doing so.
Turkey, who supposedly obtained the audio recordings proving Khashoggi’s fate, have not yet provided the recordings as evidence for this case, most likely because taking such audio recordings would have been a violation of international law, or would have compromised intelligence sources within the country. President Trump eventually stated that a tape of the journalist’s killing “probably” exists somewhere.
It is believed that President Trump is taking sides with Saudi Arabia and their claims because they spend billions of dollars a year on American weapons, and as he stated, Saudi Arabia “has been a very important ally”. As of right now, it is unsure whether the crown prince of Saudi Arabia ordered Khashoggi’s murder and whether or not the supposed audio files exist. It is sure, however, that justice is needed for Jamal Khashoggi, who was brutally murdered on October 2nd of this year.
by Ryland Bonnet
Here is a picture taken by Jamal with his at the time fiancee, Hatice Cengiz.
The Claw 