WASHINGTON POST REPORTER BELIEVED KILLED BY SAUDI GOVERNMENT

…This is the missing Post reporter, Jamal Khashoggi

Turkish officials believe that Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate.

Why would Turkish officials suggest that a team of Saudis had lain in wait for The Post reporter, Jamal Khashoggi, when he walked into the Saudi’s Turkish consulate?

Well, the story of what happened and who was involved does suggest serious foul play.  Once you read about what had occurred, you can see that regardless of the final outcome, this story will most likely become both a novel and a major movie.

First, we now know that before Khashoggi’s disappearance, US intelligence had intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture Khashoggi.  The Saudis apparently they initially planned to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and lay hands on him there, according to the intercept.  It was not clear from the communication whether the Saudis intended to arrest and interrogate Khashoggi, or to kill him, or if the United States had even warned Khashoggi that he was a Saudi target.

Khashoggi was born in Saudi Arabia and he had gone to the consulate to obtain a document that he needed for his up-coming marriage.

Jamal Khashoggi had contacted the consulate and informed them that he would be coming to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul after noon on Oct. 2^nd.  A large squad of men from Saudi Arabia, who the Turkish investigators suspect played a role in his disappearance, they were already there and ready for his arrival. 

Those Turkish officials are saying that they believe that Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and critic of the Saudi government, was killed inside the consulate.

The men in waiting had arrived from Riyadh, the Saudi capital, early that same morning and they had checked into two international hotels in Istanbul, before driving to the consulate in the upscale Levent neighborhood.  One of the hotels, the Mövenpick Istanbul, is just a few minutes from the consulate by car.

However, Saudi officials back in Riyadh, have denied that they sent a 15-man team to Istanbul on the day Khashoggi disappeared.  They say that the only team they sent to Turkey consisted of the investigators who arrived to help find the journalist….?

The Turkish officials, examining the 15 man squad’s movements, have now expanded their investigation to explore what happened at the residence of the Saudi consul general, Mohammed al-Otaibi, located 500 yards from the consulate. 

A photograph taken from a Turkish police closed-circuit television camera outside the residence and obtained by The Washington Post shows a Mercedes Vito van with tinted windows that security officials say transported some of those men from the consulate to the residence about two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate.

By the end of the day, the 15-member Saudi team had conducted their business and left the country, departing on planes bound for Cairo and Dubai.  This is according to flight records and the people familiar with the investigation. 

According to flight records, two privately owned planes flying from Riyadh arrived in Istanbul on Oct. 2.  A Turkish official linked the call signals of the two twin-engine Gulfstream IV planes to those that investigators believe carried the 15 Saudis. The planes are owned by Riyadh-based Sky Prime Aviation Services, according to public records.

Flight data collected by AirNavRadarBox, a firm that tracks private and commercial planes all over the world, showed that the first of the two planes left Riyadh late Oct. 1 and touched down in Istanbul the following day at 3:15 a.m.

Flight data shows that the second private jet that arrived is believed that it was transporting the rest of the team.  It then departed an hour and 15 minutes after it arrived, heading for Cairo. After its arrival in Cairo, the plane left directly or Riyadh.

The initial plane left Istanbul at 10:40PM and made a stop about 280 miles to the east in Nallihan, Turkey. (Not known why it stopped in Nallihan.)  Then, for some unknown reason, it skirted the border between Iraq and Iran, favoring the Iraqi side, then crossed over the Persian Gulf and landed in Dubai at 2:30AM. The following morning, Oct. 3, it took off for Riyadh.

Since the disappearance of Khashoggi, who was a contributor to The Post’s Global Opinions section, the Saudi government has maintained that Khashoggi left the consulate soon after he arrived. Not only do they not know what happened to him, they say, but they say they are also worried for his safety.

Turkey’s government says it has video of him arriving, but there is no evidence supporting the Saudi claim that Khashoggi ever left the consulate alive.  

Turkish police operate at least one camera at the front of the building.  Investigators have also examined footage that covers the rear of the consulate.  Closed-circuit TV camera feeds from the preschool opposite the rear entrance have been retrieved by Turkish intelligence, and images from outside the hotels are also being reviewed.  None show Khashoggi leaving.

A camera did record Khashoggi entering the consulate at 1:14 p.m., but no camera footage has been offered that shows him leaving.

“It’s clear he did not exit,” said one Turkish official with knowledge of the investigation.

Behind a gate next to the front entrance is a covered car port, out of the view of cameras.  Investigator suspect that this is where Khashoggi was removed (dead or alive) from the consulate. 

From that garage, footage shows two vehicles leaving about two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate. One of the cars was the same Mercedes van that pulled up in front of the residence of Otaibi, the Saudi consul general, at 3:09 PM.  

The cars stayed at Otaibi’s residence for four hours, according to an account published Tuesday in Sabah, a pro-government Turkish newspaper connected to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The report added that Turkish employees at the residence were “hastily” told to leave earlier that day.

Because consulates are not considered as foreign soil, as are Embassies, the Turkish officials are demanding to inspect the consulate building and the residence.  They would look for any signs of foul play, DNA, blood, etc.

But so far, the Saudi’s have refused to allow any Turkish officials into the facilities.

The point is that with all the surveillance cameras at the consulate, the Saudi’s have not offered any video evidence of Khashoggi leaving the facility.

The Post's, Karen DeYoung, has explained that the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who had applied for a US citizenship, could eventually change the US and Saudi Arabia relationship. 

Copyright G. Ater  2018