Saudi official calls death a mistake

Foreign minister: Killers acted outside authority

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said Sunday that a “tremendous mistake” was made when Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and he pushed back against the idea that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was linked to the journalist’s death. Adel al-Jubeir told Fox News host Bret Baier that Khashoggi was killed in a “criminal” act committed by individuals operating “outside the scope of their authority.” “There obviously was a tremendous mistake made, and what compounded the mistake was the attempt to try to cover up. That is unacceptable in any government,” he said. He characterized the killing as an “aberration” that did not fit with the behavior of the Saudi regime. Al-Jubeir said investigators still don’t know the details of how Khashoggi was killed nor where his body is located. Khashoggi disappeared Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents for his marriage. Video footage showed him entering, but no video ever showed him leaving. For more than two weeks, Saudi officials denied any knowledge of the journalist’s fate. The foreign minister said Sunday that Saudi security forces originally filed a report that said Khashoggi left the consulate alive. King Salman ordered an investigation when contradictory Turkish reports emerged saying Khashoggi never left the compound. The regime said 18 people had been arrested in connection with Khashoggi’s death. Al-Jubeir said those arrests were the “first step in a long journey.” “We are determined to uncover every stone,” al-Jubeir said, adding that Saudi Arabia will enforce “checks and balances” on the nation’s intelligence services to “ensure that something like this can never happen again.” Al-Jubeir’s defense on Fox aired the day after President Donald Trump accused the Saudis of lying about Khashoggi’s death, even as he continued to defend the crown prince’s leadership. Al-Jubeir denied that individuals involved in the death were tied to the prince. He acknowledged that “there were pictures of some security officers who may have been part of his security detail from time to time.” But the foreign minister said that was normal and that security officers rotate among officials. “This was an operation that was a rogue operation,” he said. “This was an operation where individuals ended up exceeding the authorities and responsibilities they had.” The foreign minister became defensive when asked why it took Saudi Arabia more than two weeks to confirm Khashoggi was killed in the consulate, arguing that his government wanted to wait until it had the most accurate information possible. “These things take time. You may want to look back at the issue of Abu Ghraib,” he said in a reference to the explosive 2004 scandal that exposed U.S. abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

JASON SZENES/EPA-EFE Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir says the killing of the Washington Post’s Jamal Khashoggi was part of “a rogue operation.”