Posted on 11/23/2018 3:28:53 PM PST by Kaslin
Just when you thought the story of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Turkey couldn’t get any stranger, Turkish media adds a new wrinkle. It’s being claimed by a columnist for the newspaper Hurriyet that the CIA has a recording of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordering Khashoggi to be “silenced” prior to the killing. No sources are named in the story and nobody else is confirming it, but it’s stirring up all the actors involved in this tale. (Reuters)
A Turkish newspaper reported on Thursday CIA director Gina Haspel signaled to Turkish officials last month that the agency had a recording of a call in which Saudi Arabia’s crown prince gave instructions to “silence” Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Asked about the report, a Turkish official told Reuters he had no information about such a recording. Saudi Arabia has said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had no prior knowledge of Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul six weeks ago.
The CIA declined to comment when asked about the report.
“There is talk of another recording,” Hurriyet newspaper journalist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote in a column, saying the purported call took place between Prince Mohammed and his brother, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington.
There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about this report, though such a thing is certainly possible. Nobody from the White House, the CIA, the Saudi government or even the Turkish government is offering a comment on it. (Of course, the fact that nobody is denying it either might fuel some suspicions.) The columnist who published the article, Abdulkadir Selvi, offers generalities, repeatedly writing “it is being said…” without mentioning who was doing the talking. And if we were actually listening to the Crown Prince’s phone calls, do you think the head of the CIA would confirm that to Turkey?
Also worth noting is the fact that the newspaper is hardly independent. It’s only in operation because it’s a mouthpiece for Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He’s not only antagonistic toward Saudi Arabia but is rather peeved at Washington these days over our refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen. It’s not unreasonable to suspect that Turkey might plant a story like this just to cause more mischief between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
But as I said, it could be legitimate. That possibility raises some thorny issues. For one thing, it would offer confirmation that we’re tapping the phones of the Saudi ambassador in Washington. (I wouldn’t exactly faint from shock if that turned out to be true, but it would be embarrassing.) It would also put more pressure on President Trump to do something more forceful in terms of condemning and/or punishing Salman for ordering the hit. He’s unlikely to agree, as we’ve already seen, but it would stir up more trouble between our countries. (Something that wouldn’t upset Turkey one bit.)
This entire story is already so strange that we can’t rule out anything at this point. But for the time being, I’ll wait until we at least get some sort of confirmation from one of the key players before we take this as fact.
Muslim killing Muslim.
Fresh out of give a damn.
I say it is BS. No different than CNN’s lies daily here in the US.
Except Hurriyet is state owned media. 100% Propaganda. PERIOD.
It was claimed before that the CIA and State Department were given the original audio tapes of the murder. All that Turkey said were given the audio recording, denied they ever did.
Turkey is NOT to be Believed about anything.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan practices Taqiyya (muslim deception, aka lie).
Who cares?
It didn’t happen in America. Case closed.
Obama’s infiltrated politicized CIA is as much an enemy of the Republic as the CIA and DOJ and IRS and BLM.
The more bad stuff the CIA says about MBS, the more I like him and the more I hate the CIA.
Valarie Jarrett is somehow involved. Pro Iran faction of the Obama leftovers.
FAKE NEWS... the CIA NEVER leaks!!!
Did you hear the amazing news?
On the other side of the planet, some muzzie guys killed ANOTHER muzzie guy..!
You ever hear of something whacky like that..?
Wait! Let me tell and re-tell that to you for TWO MONTHS, okay..?
Hey, where ya goin’...?!
Two statements:
Silence Khashoggi
Kill Khashoggi
Are there any distinctions between these two statements? You are now the prosecuting attorney. Can you bring murder charges against the person who issued both statements, only one of the statements, or the none of the statements?
Fake News. Deep State Crap.
The prince is an ally against the deep state and other bad actors.
Barf alert, the reason the press has their proverbial panties in a wad is because another so called “journalist” got waxed because he was a subversive agent trying to bring down the Saudi government while working with the Deep State forces here to do the same.
There is the why, here we call it treason and sedition
Not losing a moment of sleep especially because it is the press that are all in lather about it, speaks volumns to be
How about you share what you mean by “leads to someone else” is inferring, sounds interesting...
You mean he was a terrorist. He’s dead so he can’t be a terrorist anymore.
I don’t trust the Saudis. I don’t trust the Turks. And I really, really, don’t trust the CIA.
Give the Sauds a gold star.
Muslim kills a Muslim - this is a good thing.
Send them more acid!
Only one
I do not care that they killed Khashoggi.
They just should have done it neater... : )
Saudis are not afraid to bump off a troublesome prince or anyone else. But normally they do it in a way that is deniable. So its odd that this was done in such a public manner.
And its odd, in a normal world, that CIA would race to leak this to the press. Its their job to inform the president and a very few select members of congress what they know. It then falls to the president to decide if that should be declassified and released to the public.
But just as MBS is dealing with a civil war within his ranks, with people trying to force him from power, Trump is dealing with the same thing. And it looks like the people trying to force MBS out, and the ones trying to push Trump out, are in league with one another.
Khashoggi was pushing “political” Islam to radicalize and gather a larger part of the Middle East against the West.
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