Khashoggi update

I guess it would be okay to murder him and hide the evidence, as long as they didn't cut him up to dispose of him?

Or are they saying that's what he was supposed to do, but he got carried away and whipped out his bone saw?

Or, are they saying that's what he was supposed to do, and the body dismemberment was to be done by others without his help?

I don't know how to interpret this latest claim.

The Saudis have said that the mission initially sought only to persuade Mr. Khashoggi to return to the kingdom.

[...]

Although the Saudis say that the mission in Turkey was carried out without the specific authorization or awareness of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 33, the emerging account failed to explain the apparent connections of at least four suspects to the prince’s security detail. The Saudis also offered no explanation for why a doctor specializing in autopsies was sent on the mission, rather than one who treats live patients or manages forensic evidence.

But the most decisive blow to the credibility of the Saudi account could come from Turkey. Turkish officials say they have audio recordings and other evidence that could severely discredit the Saudi narrative and the crown prince by showing that the team executed a plan to assassinate and dismember Mr. Khashoggi inside the consulate.

[...]

Citing audio recordings from inside the consulate, a Turkish official familiar with the investigation has said that Dr. Tubaigy dismembered the body with a bone saw — a standard instrument used in autopsies — that he had brought for that purpose.

[...]

The doctor “was added to the team as a forensic expert,” the Saudi official said. “In case the team’s presence was revealed and the operation was compromised,” the official said, Dr. Tubaigy was expected to remove incriminating details like fingerprints.

The Saudi official, however, offered no explanation for why the doctor was a specialist in autopsies rather than, say, in fingerprints or other evidence.

  NYT

If the team was supposed to be there to try to persuade Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia, 1) why did it take a whole team of 15 agents; and 2) why was it necessary to keep the team's presence a secret?

Again, I think we're just seeing what Sarah Kendzior has told us about autocratic, repressive regimes: they murder people and give ridiculous justifications intentionally so that you'll know the disdain they have for critics and the faith they have that they can get away with it.

The team arrived in Istanbul on two private charter jets from a company close to the crown prince and the Interior Ministry, and the Saudi official offered no immediate explanation of how the planners of the mission obtained the use of planes.

But the official acknowledged that 15 Saudis arrived in Istanbul on Oct. 2 — the day Mr. Khashoggi disappeared inside the consulate — as the Turks have said. The official said that the team had initially sought to persuade Mr. Khashoggi to return home.

“He didn’t want to have the discussion, so more or less he tried to leave the room,” the official said.

And they, more or less, stopped him.

The agents tried to stop him. An altercation ensued. Mr. Khashoggi started screaming, and one of the agents put him in a chokehold.

“That is how he died,” the official said. “It didn’t last that long.”

So much for the fist fight story we last heard (just yesterday).

The official also said that the Saudi authorities do not yet know what the agents did with the body.

“They say they gave it to one of their local collaborators to dispose of,” the official said, though he declined to disclose whether that “collaborator” was Saudi, Turkish or of another nationality.

Turkish officials have said that Dr. Tubaigy, the autopsy specialist, moved quickly and matter-of-factly to cut up the body. He even put on headphones and suggested to the agents working with him that they listen to music as he did while they carried out the gruesome work, the officials say.

[...]

The Saudi official said the 15 agents had been divided into three teams: one for logistical support and transportation; one for counter-surveillance and operational security; and another for the execution of the operation.

All to convince Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.