Saudi Arabia Weighs Blaming Intelligence Official for Khashoggi Killing

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Times

ISTANBUL — The rulers of Saudi Arabia are considering blaming a top intelligence official close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, three people with knowledge of the Saudi plans said Thursday.

The plan to assign blame to Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a high-ranking adviser to the crown prince, would be an extraordinary recognition of the magnitude of international backlash to hit the kingdom since the death of Mr. Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi dissident. A resident of Virginia and contributor to The Washington Post, Mr. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul 16 days ago.

Blaming General Assiri could also provide a plausible explanation for the killing and help deflect blame from the crown prince, who American intelligence agencies are increasingly convinced was behind Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance.

Turkish officials have said they possess evidence showing that 15 Saudi agents dismembered and assassinated Mr. Khashoggi in the consulate. After two weeks of blanket denials and mounting pressure from Turkey and Washington, Saudi Arabia said it would conduct its own investigation to determine who was responsible.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/world/middleeast/jamal-khashoggi-killing-saudi-arabia.html

[cstanleytech]

1. An intriguing story to bad these guys debunked it

[Solly Mack]

2. "Mistakes were made" "bad intel"

I see they're going with the "rogue" killers - an intel official gone bad.

provide a plausible explanation for the killing

Though how any of the possible narratives provides a "plausible" explanation is beyond me. Guess plausible means different things to different people.

either misunderstood his instructions or overstepped that authorization and took the dissident’s life

Deja vu.

[dalton99a]

3. "See, I know nothing"

[Achilleaze]

4. "Let's see. If we were as corrupt as the KGOP repubes, what would we do?" - Saudis

[groundloop]

5. TELL THE FUCKING TRUTH !!!!!

The fact that the damned Saudi government and Tiny have to get together to figure out which story to tell says it all...... they're guilty as hell.

This disgrace needs to be front and center until all the guilty parties are held accountable (and I strongly suspect that Kushner is deeply involved as well).

[mobeau69]

6. I thought they'd go with Martians.

Turks have been smart holding their cards. Let Salman and rump go ahead and come up with their lie first.

[Botany]

7. So Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri ordered the torture, the murder, and having Khashoggi's body cut up as ....

.... he was still alive w/out the knowledge of the Crown Prince who had just gotten information
about Mr. Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia's plans to kill him from Jared Kushner after he gave the
Prince information from a PDB (Presidential Daily Briefing)? Allegedly.

Trump and company are a crime family.

[Lucky Luciano]

8. This was all a very sad miscommunication/misunderstanding

What happened is similar to what occurred in this Samuel L Jackson movie (Formula 51):

“I said to take care of him! Not Fucking TAKE CARE OF HIM!!”