Turkish Rumor Mill: Saudi Killers Forced Khashoggi to Send Message to His Son

The latest revelation about the death of Jamal Khashoggi to emerge from the ever-churning Turkish media rumor mill Monday claims the Saudi Arabian team that executed Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul forced him to send a message to his son before they killed him.

Turkish columnist Abdulkadir Selvi published this account at Hurriyet Daily News, claiming the Saudi death squad “told Khashoggi to send a message to his son, otherwise he would be brought to Saudi Arabia.”

“Khashoggi rejected it, which led to the quarrel that ended with his killing by strangulation with a rope or plastic bag,” Selvi added.

The Turkish columnist said he was unable to learn the exact contents of the message Khashoggi allegedly sent to his eldest son Salah.

Saudi Arabia initially barred Salah Khashoggi from leaving Saudi Arabia, but was eventually permitted to leave after meeting with King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Salah and his brother Abdullah have been, at most, moderately critical of the government over the death of their father and have even defended the monarchy against “misinformation” about Jamal Khashoggi’s death. The brothers publicly pleaded with the Saudi government to return their father’s remains but were ultimately obliged to hold a funeral service in absentia on Friday.

Salah Khashoggi has not made any public statement to indicate he received a message from his father immediately before the murder, coerced or otherwise. The Washington Post, which employed Jamal Khashoggi as a contributor, has speculated the brothers have been “measured” in their criticism because they are worried about the safety of family members in Saudi Arabia, or perhaps because they have “genuine faith in the Saudi government and skepticism of the way the Turkish government is handling the investigation into the killing.”

Selvi also said Turkish officials have a second, longer audio recording of Khashoggi’s death that contradicts some of the key findings released by the Saudi prosecutor’s office last week. The Wall Street Journal elaborated that Turkish investigators have phone intercepts that contradict the prosecutor’s conclusion that Khashoggi’s death was an accident:

One recording captured the Saudi operatives rehearsing how they would proceed with the killing minutes before Mr. Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, according to a senior Turkish official.

“They discuss how they are going to kill him,” the official said. “It was fully premeditated.”

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he has not personally listened to the “terrible tape” of Khashoggi’s “very violent, very vicious” killing, but he has been “fully briefed” on its contents. The president said U.S. officials would produce a “very full report” on the Khashoggi slaying before Thanksgiving, most likely on Monday or Tuesday. He did not indicate whether the report will be made public.

Turkish commentator Ibrahim Karagül of the pro-government Yeni Safak expects nothing less than a string of atomic bombshells to tumble from the files of Turkish prosecutors in the coming days, as they release information that will implicate suspects far beyond the royal palaces of Riyadh in Khashoggi’s murder:

The conversations among the murderers, their conversations with Riyadh after committing the murder, dialogues that will prove the crown prince was the one who directly gave the order, perhaps the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egyptian intelligence’s role in the incident, and as a matter of fact, information on Israeli intelligence’s “expertise” or on the U.S. leg of the murder may be revealed.

Information of this kind will shake the world, lead to tremors in the region, turn the Saudi palace upside down, and create brand new situations in the region’s power structuring.

I have been writing from the very start of the incident that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the boss behind this, that he personally gave the order, that the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Zayed is a partner in the murder, that the whole world is now trying to save the crown prince, and that they are at the table ready to exhaust all their money and influence for this purpose.

Up until now, when everything was actually very blatant, despite everybody knowing who gave the order, who killed Khashoggi, who the murderers are connected to, that the Saudi crown prince is directly the architect of this atrocity, efforts have been made to cover up the incident. We know that Saudi Arabia and U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration are trying to cover up this incident, and that the U.S.-Israel-Saudi Arabia-UAE axis are both negotiating and tampering with evidence in efforts to “save” the Saudi crown prince.

They have reached the point of paying any price to save the crown prince; they are willing to negotiate anything, including Qatar or the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ). The forces behind the July 15, 2016 coup attempt are now working hard to save Prince Mohammed, to save the newly established “evil axis” in the region, and to maintain the “new Middle East design” they planned themselves.

The Fethullah Terrorist Organization is the Turkish government’s name for the followers of exiled imam Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the United States and has been accused of masterminding the failed 2016 coup against President Erdogan.

Karagül had one more suspect to loop into his Murder on the Orient Express scenario: President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner:

Why is Trump in panic? Because the third leg in the relationship between Mohammed bin Salman and the UAE’s Mohammed bin Zayed is his son-in-law Jared Kushner. It was this trio behind the secret negotiations for Jerusalem. It was this trio that tried to wipe out Turkey from the whole region. It is this trio that is still carrying out all the covert operations targeting Turkey, and trying to activate certain groups inside the country. It is this trio that doomed Saudi Arabia to Israel. It is this trio that made secret negotiations regarding Mecca and Medina.

It should not take long to discover if Turkish investigators have more damaging audiotapes to release; Karagul is probably correct to anticipate them doing so sooner rather than later, most likely after the Turks see what is contained in the upcoming U.S. report and what President Trump decides to do with the information. For the moment, the Turkish rumor mill keeps churning.