I feel stupid asking this

[oldtime dfl_er]

but what exactly did Khashoggi know that required his murder?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. It wasn't that he knew things; it was that he was a journalist

who was critical of the Saudi regime.

[oldtime dfl_er]

2. Yes, but

the extreme brutality of the torture and subsequent murder implies, at least to me, that they wanted to get information out of him... otherwise why not just shoot him or something? I can't see that this was a warning to other critics, because they tried to cover it up and hide it.

It's so gruesome and horrid to talk about but it feels bigger than "just" that he was a critic.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Maybe they really didn't cover it up.

They had to have known that somebody would have figured out before long what was done to him - 15 guys flew from Saudi Arabia in a private plane and went to the embassy in Istanbul at about the time Kashoggi arrived, then left together, then a cleaning crew came in. Isn't that going to be noticed? If they didn't want to be noticed they could have been a lot sneakier. I think they wanted people to know, or at least suspect, what was done, as a warning to other dissident journalists.

[oldtime dfl_er]

6. yea

It seems if they just wanted to shut him up they could have just hired someone to shoot him. This was a huge planned production that must have been very expensive and, as you say, could not have gone unnoticed.

[RockRaven]

7. You don't "just shoot him" if you just want him to suffer. That's totally sufficient an explanation,

as sickening as it may be.

Authoritarians don't live and let live. They don't leave well enough alone. They care not about efficiency, or merely achieving the end with a middling indifference to the means. They stomp and stomp and stomp on your neck. In order to be stomping on your neck, if they decide you deserve it. Just because.

[Hugin]

9. He was an example to stifle other journalists.

Y'know, like the threat of taking refugee's kids away to keep them from coming to your country.

[Cha]

14. & trump

Link to tweet

[RockRaven]

3. I don't know the exhaustive list, but he wrote about a number of hot-button/red-line things

including free expression/civil society in Saudi Arabia, the MBS-brainchild war in Yemen, and Trump/Kushner-Saudi connections/corruption. Probably one of those.

[Cha]

15. Or everything.

Jamaal Khashoggi

[Cicada]

4. He recently called for the end of the war in Yemen

That got him killed

[ecstatic]

8. Nothing required his murder. trump&co are just flaunting their power now

They are convinced they can do whatever they want and get away with it. So far, that seems to be the case, but I think they overplayed their hand this time. The MSM knows that if this could happen to Khashoggi, it could happen to any of them as well. They're not going to let this go.

IMO, trump exchanged Khashoggi for the evangelical preacher's release. Someone promised Khashoggi that he would be safe. We need to hear more about who promised that and why.

I don't think it ever occurred to any of the conspirators that Khashoggi's disappearance would get so much attention. "He's not even a citizen!!11" That's how stupid they are. SMFH.

[oldtime dfl_er]

10. there's a lot of truth in this

as mindboggling as it is.

[grantcart]

11. They wanted to send a signal but too high profile, sloppy

It was an amateur job

[uponit7771]

12. K&R, he knew something .... seems like a huge over reaction cause of a couple of slighting posts

[Raine]

13. I've heard speculation that he was

digging around regarding Saudi involvement in 911