‘Hit squad’ landed on day journalist disappeared
Two Gulfstream jets carrying 15 Saudis landed at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport before dawn on the day last week that journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate and vanished. The men checked into hotels and left Turkey later that night.
Turkish media, which released surveillance camera video of the men on Wednesday, said they were members of an elite Saudi “assassination squad,” sent to kill Khashoggi, a Saudi critic.
Among the men, claimed the reports, were: a Saudi intelligence officer who served in London; the chief of forensic evidence at Saudi Arabia’s internal security agency and two members of the Saudi royal guard.
A Turkish official told The Associated Press that one member of the team was an “autopsy expert.”
Turkish officials claim that Khashoggi was killed shortly after entering the consulate. Video shows him entering the consulate, but never leaving.
Saudi Arabia has dismissed allegations it played a role in Khashoggi’s disappearance as “baseless,” but it has offered no evidence to support its contention he left the consulate unharmed last week and vanished into Istanbul while his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, waited outside.
The video, shown on the staterun broadcaster TRT and others, did not offer definitive proof about Khashoggi’s fate.
The silent video showed one of two private Gulfstream jets that Turkish media said carried the Saudi group, who flew in and out of Istanbul on Oct. 2.
The Sabah newspaper, which is close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published images of what it referred to as the “assassination squad,” apparently taken at passport control at the airport. The state-run Anadola news agency published the names and birth dates of all 15 Saudis.
Turkey’s private NTV news channel identified one of the 15 Saudis who arrived as the head of a Saudi forensic science agency. It alleged that he may have been responsible for cleaning up any incriminating evidence.
Khashoggi, 59, had written a series of columns for The Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Arabia’s assertive Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has led a widely publicized drive to reform the conservative Sunni monarchy but has also presided over the arrests of activists and businessmen.
Erdogan has not accused Saudi Arabia of being responsible for Khashoggi’s disappearance but has said that if the Saudis have video footage of him leaving the consulate, they should release it. Saudi Arabia is a major investor in Turkey, despite Ankara’s support for the Gulf nation of Qatar, which is under a blockade led by Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations.
On Wednesday, the Post published a column by Cengiz, who said her fiancé first visited the consulate on Sept. 28 “despite being somewhat concerned that he could be in danger.” He returned there Oct. 2 after being promised the necessary paperwork so the two could be married.
“At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamal’s disappearance,” Cengiz wrote.
“I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate.”
Khashoggi had sought to become a U.S. citizen after living in self-imposed exile since last year, fearing repercussions for his criticism of the prince, Cengiz wrote.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump and members of Congress demanded answers from Saudi Arabia.
Trump said he had spoken “more than once” with the Saudis in recent days.
“I’m not happy about it,” Trump said of Khashoggi’s disappearance. When asked whether he’s demanding answers from the Saudis, Trump said, “Yes we are. We are demanding everything.”
“We want to see what’s going on there,” he said. “That’s a bad situation. Frankly, because it’s a reporter, you could say in many respects, it brings it to a level. It’s a very serious situation for us.”
Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who has reviewed intelligence reports on the disappearance as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that “the likelihood is he was killed on the day he walked into the consulate” and that “there was Saudi involvement.”
“The Saudis have a lot of explaining to do because all indications are that they have been involved at minimum with his disappearance,” Corker said.
“Everything points to them.”
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said if Saudi Arabia had lured a U.S. resident into a consulate and killed him, “it’s time for the United States to rethink our military, political and economic relationship with Saudi Arabia.”