CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi's assassination

[hlthe2b]

Source: Washington Post Breaking News

CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination


The CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month, contradicting the Saudi government’s claims that he was not involved in the killing, according to people familiar with the matter.

The CIA’s assessment, in which officials have said they have high confidence, is the most definitive to date linking Mohammed to the operation and complicates the Trump administration’s efforts to preserve its relationship with a close ally. A team of 15 Saudi agents flew to Istanbul on government aircraft in October and killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate, where he had come to pick up documents that he needed for his planned marriage to a Turkish woman.

In reaching its conclusions, the CIA examined multiple sources of intelligence, including a phone call that the prince’s brother Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, had with Khashoggi, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence. Khalid told Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post, that he should go to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to retrieve the documents and gave him assurances that it would be safe to do so.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-concludes-saudi-crown-prince-ordered-jamal-khashoggis-assassination/2018/11/16/98c89fe6-e9b2-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html?utm_term=.d7adde21d2e7

---

So, very fitting that WAPO gets the chance to "break" this story and the CIA gets to point right back at the Trump attempts to bury the story and protect the Saudis.... How ugly this has been for all of them.

[RockRaven]

1. But no Magnitsky sanction on him, just his peons...

strange, huh?

Almost like like the Trump administration is entirely corrupt, or something.

[Botany]

2. Let me see they flew in the Prince's private jet and said something like "Tell the boss the ...

... job is done." And Jared Kushner helped to set up Khashoggi too because the Saudis own his
ass. The Trump crime family works with and for both the Saudi & Russian mob.

BTW one of the killers came to Trump's inauguration and was linked to the Trump campaign too.

[Ms. Toad]

3. Does this sound like anyone else we know?

The CIA sees Mohammed as a “good technocrat,” the U.S. official said, but also as volatile and arrogant, someone who “goes from zero to 60, doesn’t seem to understand that there are some things you can’t do.”

[hlthe2b]

4. Isn't that the truth...

[erronis]

13. I can't imagine any orange-tinted asshole in the offal office being labeled a "good technocrat"

But some of the other labels fit.

Adding "entitled".

[hlthe2b]

5. I know it is likely futile, but if our government had any integrity, they would at least demand

the remains be recovered for the family... This is so damned horrific.

[Julian Englis]

6. tRump: Obstructs justice both here and abroad. The real question: Did the prince pay him?

I hope has evidence of Saudi financial dealings with tRump.....

[keithbvadu2]

7. So, who will Donald fire over this?

So, who will Donald fire over this?

[iluvtennis]

8. trumpty dumpty will just come out and attack the CIA as incompetent, his standard MO nowadays.

[dalton99a]

9. Kick

[BigmanPigman]

10. I have heard leading Dems say that this will be investigated

when they are the majority. GOODY!

I also read that Mueller is now investigating Saudi ties going back to Cheney's aide.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-cheney-aide-in-muellers-sights-as-probe-expands

"Mueller’s investigators have examined an array of operatives with ties to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the UAE—including John Hannah, Dick Cheney’s former national security adviser.
Dick Cheney’s former top national-security aide has come under scrutiny from special counsel Robert Mueller, two people with knowledge of the probe tell The Daily Beast. It’s the latest sign that Mueller’s probe has expanded beyond the narrow bounds of Russian interference in American politics."
Mueller’s team has been looking into the communications and political dealings of John Hannah, the former Cheney adviser who later worked on Trump’s State Department transition team.

“Mueller might be opening another front here,” said John McLaughlin, the former acting director of the CIA. “His mandate is to examine Russian collusion, but there’s the clause in his mandate that’s very open-ended—to the effect of ‘and any associated matters.’

“The Cheney group was often doing things... outside the customary boundaries of America’s internal and external politics,” she added. “If Mueller finds evidence of wrongdoing, it would make us wonder why we as a community—whoever we are—weren’t paying attention to Cheney alums’ persistent presence in American domestic politics.”

[zentrum]

14. Pray to God---or Goddess--

...that Mueller has top security guards 24/7.
These people are viscious, pre-emptive and punishing.

[BigmanPigman]

16. You mean if there is any money left after Betsy DeVos

no longer needs her $20 million federal sheriff security 24/7.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/u-s-marshals-service-spending-millions-devos-security-unusual-arrangement-n909001

[zentrum]

18. Excellent point.

Kind of like draining SS and Medicare to pay for tax cuts for the super rich.

[erronis]

17. The slime mold rhizomes don't know boundaries, and neither should the investigation

and the clean up. Russians, republicons, off-shore banking, media, saudis, even some Democrats and others should be fair game for the investigation.

Of course it wouldn't surprise me to see Cheney's dirty finger prints on this as well as Rove's, Gingriches, and other scum of the GOP.

[SunSeeker]

11. Just stating the obvious. nt

[hlthe2b]

12. It's a big deal for the CIA to come out and say it in defiance of Trump's "party line" though

CIA is not afraid of Trump, as well they should not be and I think a lot are fired up.

[SunSeeker]

15. They know they will still be there after Trump is gone. nt

[RainCaster]

19. Until it's read on Faux and Friends, DFT will not believe it

Fucking idiot

[lsewpershad]

20. Tell that

To the Don.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

21. And he'll get away with it.

Trump won't do shit about it.

[Takket]

22. what should the US, assuming we had a competant leader, do about it?

sanctions?

blockade?

military strike?

[hlthe2b]

23. Back off our alignment with Saudis, for sure, both economically and militarily (incl Yemen and

our backing Saudis against Qatar). We are already oil independent, so if they want to monkey with oil cartel prices, so be it. No more military planes until the Prince is held to account. Apply Magnitsky to lead investor allies of the Prince, if nothing else.

The problem is that Trump has burned our bridges in the name of spiting Iran (and Obama/Kerry's hard fought nuclear deal). With our ridiculous embrace of Russia over all, we can't totally break from the Saudis, but we sure as hell need to back off.

[garybeck]

24. Nostradamus' Mabus?

"Mohammed bin Salman" = "Mabus" ?

probably just a coincidence