CIA reportedly concludes Saudi crown prince ordered assassination of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi

https://www.businessinsider.com/cia-...t-says-2018-11

The CIA has determined that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, 59, according to reports from multiple news agencies. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied that the crown prince had a role in Khashoggi's death.

Khashoggi, who was killed last month in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, contributed to The Washington Post and had written editorials critical of the crown prince. He had gone to the consulate to pick up documents needed to marry his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, 36.

The CIA's conclusion was based on several pieces of intelligence. The Washington Post, which broke the story, said that information includes a call from Saudi ambassador Khalid bin Salman, Mohammed's brother, to Khashoggi. During the phone call, Khalid bin Salman encouraged Khashoggi to go to the consulate in Istanbul. Other pieces of information supporting the CIA's conclusion are audio recordings from Turkish officials and the fact that several people in the 15-person team that flew to Turkey had served on Mohammed's security team, according to the report.

The official also told The Journal "this would not and could not have happened" without the crown prince being involved.

The call from Khalid bin Salman to Khashoggi was made "at his brother's direction," according to The Post, though it is unclear if Khalid bin Salman knew that the journalist would be killed. A spokeswoman for the Saudi Embassy told The Post that Khalid bin Salman and Khashoggi did not discuss Turkey and asserted that the CIA's "purported assessment are false. We have and continue to hear various theories without seeing the primary basis for these speculations."

The audio recordings from the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul have been given to multiple international governments and were heard by CIA director Gina Haspel. They reveal that Khashoggi was killed within "moments" of arriving at the consulate.

The Saudi government has repeatedly changed its story on Khashoggi's death. On Thursday, the Saudi public prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb released his findings. A spokesman for the prosecutor, Shaalan al-Shaalan, said 11 people had been indicted and five face the death penalty; their names were not released.

The prosecutor's office said an official at the head of a mission to persuade Khashoggi to come to Saudi Arabia ordered the killing. Instead of bringing the journalist back, he was given a lethal injection, his body was dismembered, and the body (which has still not been recovered) was handed over to a "local collaborator."

On Thursday, US officials also announced sanctions against 17 Saudi officials.

"The Saudi officials we are sanctioning were involved in the abhorrent killing of Jamal Khashoggi," according to a statement from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "These individuals who targeted and brutally killed a journalist who resided and worked in the United States must face consequences for their actions."

President Donald Trump has been slow to connect the crown prince with the killing.


So I guess that arms deal wasn't a good idea?

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Trump’s only true skill is the con...~Serwer|The Atlantic

Let's not get carried away here,
So one guy gets killed. pffst. people die everyday .. am i right? but we're talking billions of dollar here Saltwn
capiice?

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Hope is the dream of the waking man.
Aristotle

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Job 14:6-8

i'm kidding,
Trump wasn't

__________________
Hope is the dream of the waking man.
Aristotle

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Job 14:6-8

Thank God I thought you had truly lost it.

__________________
Trump’s only true skill is the con...~Serwer|The Atlantic

Link:

october:Trump’s $110 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia: still fake

The Facts
When Trump completed his visit May, 2017 trip to Saudi Arabia, claiming $270 billion in sales, we gave him Three Pinocchios after a review of the data. The $110 billion in military sales aroused great skepticism among experts, with Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution calling the claim “fake news.”

Most of the publicly announced items had been previously announced by the Obama administration and there appeared to be few, if any, signed contracts. Rather, many of the announcements were MOIs — memorandums of intent. There were six specific items, adding up to $28 billion, but all had been previously notified to Congress by the Obama administration.

After Trump’s remarks on Khashoggi, Reidel said the $110 billion figure was “still fake.”

He said the Saudis have not bought locked in the arms deals touted by Trump, even a $15 billion deal for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-ballistic missile system that has received preliminary approval from Congress. He noted that the Saudis let a September deadline for the deal lapse with Lockheed Martin, despite a 20 percent price cut.

A review of the announcements on the Defense Security Cooperation Agency website since Trump’s 2017 trip reveals that, besides THAAD, there have been six State Department announcements of approval of Saudi sales, totaling just $4 billion.

According to the confidential 2017 document of all of the military-sales agreements reviewed by The Fact Checker, most of the items did not have delivery dates or were scheduled for 2022 or beyond. The THAAD, for instance, was scheduled for 2023-2026. An order for four ships would not be completed until 2028. Billions of dollars in bombs are scheduled for delivery in 2022.

In essence, this is a wish list. It’s worth recalling that Obama offered Saudi Arabia $115 billion in deals, about half of which resulted in actual sales.

Trump raised the possibility that the Saudis might turn to Russia or China for its hardware. The Saudis are still considering purchasing a Russian S-400 air-defense system, but Reidel said the kingdom is too invested in U.S. equipment – which means the U.S. has significant leverage if it wanted to punish the Saudis over the Khashoggi matter.

“It would take decades to transition from U.S. and U.K. aircraft, for example, to Russian or Chinese aircraft,” Reidel said. “Same is true for tanks, communications equipment and other hi-tech equipment. And the Saudis don’t have time given they are bogged down in Yemen.”

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Trump’s only true skill is the con...~Serwer|The Atlantic

Seems like tRump has weak spot fer the despots of this old rock we call home, even little Saddam.

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"Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. By putting our own interests first, with no regard for others, we erase the very thing that a nation holds dearest, and the thing that keeps it alive: its moral values."
French President Emmanuel Macron

If only Trump were more like Obama, who gave pallets full of millions of dollars to Iranians, who executes gays, then the Left would love him...Maybe if that journalist were gay, Liberals would forgive them...

(I'm not advocating what was done...I'm just showing the hypocrisy...When Obama deals with murderous thugs, its "Glory and praise be Obama!!!!")...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Yer advocating fer journalist to be gay?...................

__________________
"Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. By putting our own interests first, with no regard for others, we erase the very thing that a nation holds dearest, and the thing that keeps it alive: its moral values."
French President Emmanuel Macron

With the way they put on the kneepads and gobble the Democrat Party, I'd say most of them are already...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

when has trump dealt with them? with any thugs?

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Trump’s only true skill is the con...~Serwer|The Atlantic