Saudi officials: Team planned to hold Khashoggi in Turkish safe house for up to 2 days

[fleur-de-lisa]

Source: NBC News

WASHINGTON — The 15-man team sent by Saudi intelligence to Istanbul planned to hold Jamal Khashoggi against his will for up to two days in a safe house in Turkey while persuading him to return to his home country, Saudi officials said, adding another element to the kingdom's evolving explanation about the journalist's killing.

Although Saudi Arabia has acknowledged that its operatives killed Khashoggi, it has maintained that the goal was not to kill him but to bring him back to Saudi Arabia, and that the exfiltration turned violent when Khashoggi resisted, leading to a fatal fistfight or strangulation. Turkish authorities have steadfastly disputed that account, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan using a major speech Tuesday to say Turkey believes Khashoggi's murder was "premeditated."

"We have strong signs that this murder did not stem from a momentary incident, but it is rather a planned operation," Erdogan said in Turkish.

But multiple Saudi officials tell NBC News that the structure of the botched operation demonstrates that the objective wasn't to kill Khashoggi. They said an internal Saudi investigation has revealed that the 15-man crew was divided into three teams, with some assigned to overall logistics and security and a special team dedicated to interrogating Khashoggi in the consulate. Of the 15 Saudis, only nine were inside the consulate at the time of the killing, they said.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/saudi-officials-team-planned-hold-khashoggi-turkish-safe-house-2-n923341

[fleur-de-lisa]

1. more:

The Saudi officials said that the investigation had unearthed an internal tasking order to the team that said they were to negotiate with him inside the consulate. If he didn't immediately agree to return to Saudi Arabia, the team was to bring him to a safehouse elsewhere in the Istanbul area and continue to negotiate. If he still refused after two days, he would be released, the officials said.

The officials did not provide any evidence to corroborate that account. Nor was it clear how the Saudis could have expected that after kidnapping Khashoggi for two days, they could release him without fear that he would immediately report what had happened to Turkish authorities or the media. The possibility that the team might hold Khashoggi in a safehouse was first reported by Reuters, which cited one Saudi official.

"The idea that the Saudis would take him outside of their own diplomatic compound, into sovereign Turkish territory and apply pressure to him is just completely implausible," said Amy Hawthorne of the Washington-based Project on Middle East Democracy. "It's incredibly difficult to take at face value anything the Saudi government is saying about this episode."

[catbyte]

2. Give me a goddamned break.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. If detention was their only motive, why bring the team they did and

why the elaborate cover-up and 3 weeks of lies?

[raccoon]

4. Yeah, right. Nt

[YessirAtsaFact]

5. So why bring a bone saw to a kidnapping?

nm

[bronxiteforever]

6. Apparently Khashoggi was Jason Bourne. Requiring 15

Member hit team to interrogate him, a body double and a Bone Saw.
So much bs.

[unblock]

7. "we didn't plan to kill him! we planned to torture him! no, i mean kidnap, then torture him!"

"see? all in good fun! what, why are you all looking at me like that? do i have something in my teeth?"

[George II]

12. No....."negotiate" with him.

[leftynyc]

8. WHERE IS HIS BODY?

At this point, that's the only question that should be asked.

[Ohioboy]

9. Is Trump still willing to believe all this crap?

I haven't heard any Trump statements recently. Last I heard he was buying multiple lies from these criminals because of his precious arms deal.

[erronis]

21. Why bother listening to its spews? It is totally out of its mind and an just chatters nonsense.

[Solly Mack]

10. Bullshit

[George II]

11. What's the Saudi translation of "negotiate"? Oh yeah, "torture".

[cstanleytech]

13. If anyone believes the Saudis then I have a lovely bridge to sale you that

has a truly memorable view of San Francisco and the bay on one side and the Pacific on the other..............cheap.

[keithbvadu2]

14. Bone saw betrays their lies.

[libdem4life]

15. Heard the dismembered body was found in a nearby forest.

Murderous lying cretins.

[marble falls]

16. The Turks claim parts of his corpse have been found in the Saudi Consul's garden.

[libdem4life]

17. Yes, that was it. "Parts"...Holy bejesus...one does not want to even imagine it.

[marble falls]

18. What will it take to bring Saudi Arabia up into the 19th century culturally?

[libdem4life]

19. The US getting out of their employ, perhaps a start.

We don't need them...they need us. Then we can quit murdering Yemenis, for a start. Not that we're any role models for ending murderous "regime change". IMO, the us is still militarily in the 19-20th century. Time we move into the 21st...probably not until IQ45 is gone, however.

[marble falls]

20. From your keyboard to G*d's Smartphone.

[erronis]

22. Get rid of that monarchy. What gives a particular tribe/family the right to rule a country?

Nothing except for murder and terror.

The US pResident* would love to have that type of power.

[WhiteTara]

23. They brought a bone saw. Liars.