Hitmen are inherently brutal. But they are not usually stupid. If anything, most are cowardly. They operate under the stealth of darkness or the anonymity of a crowd.
In Russia, for example, where prominent critics of President Vladimir Putin have been gunned down in broad daylight, the hitmen usually sped away on motorcycles, relying on the vehicles’ nimbleness to get away in the crowded streets.
And so, in the annals of assassinations, the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul will occupy a uniquely macabre place. Even in the Middle East, where gruesome killings are commonplace, it has stood out.
Granted, a murder is a murder whether it is executed with finesse or crudeness. Still, the killing ofKhashoggi, a U.S.-based columnist for the Washington Post, points to the grim resolve of some governments to silence critics whatever it takes. The result, in this case, was brazenness that defies even the morbid logic of assassins.
And then, there is the mendacity and guile of the Saudi government of Crowne Prince Mohammed bin Salman, commonly referred to as MBS. Initially, they denied that Khashoggi was killed at all, claiming that he left the consulate after obtaining the document he went there for. When confronted with evidence of the murder, they claimedit was by “rogue elements.”
Then it was that Khashoggi was unintentionally killed by overzealous agents who were only trying to kidnap him and return him to Saudi Arabia as part of an operation to round up foreign-based dissidents. It must have taken sometime for the lawlessness of that explanation to sink in, and so came the hitherto final explanation: That Khashoggi was only being interrogated and somehow a fight broke out and he was unintentionally killed.
The credibility of all this was captured by a social media post in which a ferocious-looking black cat bestrode a dead rat, and there’s this caption: “He died accidentally while I was questioning him.”
To give the latest explanation the veneer of credibility, the Saudi government announced the sweeping arrest or dismissal of the people involved. Never mind that the evidence provided by Turkish officials clearly indicate that the murder was planned at the highest level of the Saudi government.
It is something for Nigerian youth to think about. With the 2019 elections around the corner, they will be heavily recruited by politicians to do their murderous bidding. The fate of the Saudi assassins and planners should be a reminder that they will be mere tools that will be dumped in the trash bin when necessary. But I digress.
Back to the point, U.S. President Donald Trump who had vacillated about apportioning blame and initially called the latest Saudi explanation credible, eventually owned up that the murder was purposeful. “It was carried out poorly and the cover-up was one of the worst cover-ups in the history of cover-ups. Very simple,” Trump said in an interview. “Bad deal, should have never been thought of. Somebody really messed up.”
And to think that the government of Crown Prince MBS has good relations with Israel, which has the most experienced hitmen in the world. A mere phone call from Riyadh to Jerusalem was all it might have taken to devise a master execution plan. Even the lowest level agent in Israel’s Mossad would have tutored the Saudis on how to get away with murder on a foreign soil.
In any case, Trump’s emphasis on the ineptitude of the operation would seem misplaced. After all, the real issue is that a journalist was murdered by the government of his country just because he wrote critically about it. However, the ineptitude of the operation is itself of interest to the extent that it sheds light on the element of impunity. Khashoggi was just one more person to be disposed of. No big deal.His writings rubbed the prince the wrong way, and so he had to die — and die quickly. Whatever it took and wherever it happened!!!
That’s the only way to explain the reality of a government murdering its own citizen in its own consulate. It is the equivalent of inviting someone to one’s home and then murdering the person. There can hardly be an alibi persuasive enough for exoneration.
The assassins’ plan was to use a body double for Khashoggi.It was on this basis that the Saudi government initially declared that he left the consulate. But his fiancée was waiting for him outside the consulate. It was improbable that she would have mistaken a body double for her fiancé.
What the execution planners also didn’t seem to be aware of is that most consulates and embassies are wiretapped by the host government. And so the whole grisly murder was apparently taped by Turkish intelligence, although the Turks have been playing coy with the actual release of the recording. But they apparently shared enough of it to cause the Saudi government to own up to the murder, albeit with dubious explanations.
This much is known from Turkish intelligence. That the government of Crown Prince MBS had tried different ploys to lure Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia. But he was no fool. He turned down enticing offers. And so the murder at the consulate became the option of desperation.
According to one report, the Saudi consul general could be heard on an audio recording on the day of the murder pleading: “Please take this elsewhere. You will get me in trouble.” A voice then sternly warned him to shut up or he would never set foot in Saudi Arabia again.
In a column in a Turkish newspaper, Ilnur Cevik, an adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, didn’t mince words in apportioning responsibility. “It is a disgrace that reaches all the way to Crown Prince Salman,” he wrote. “At least five members of the execution team are Salman’s right hands and are people that wouldn’t act without his knowledge.”
Erdogan himself has vowed that the truth of what happened “will be revealed in full nakedness.” Beyond the actual audio and video of the murder and disclosure of what happened to Khashoggi’s dismembered body, there can’t be anything much more shocking than what is already revealed.
What matters now is what the fallout will mean for the Saudi people and the world beyond. Will the Trump administration risk losing billions of dollars in arms purchase by the Saudis to express its disapproval?Will the scandal cause Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to replace his chosen crown prince, as some are predicting? Will it bring about a Saudi government that is more tolerant of criticism and dissent? Might a chastened Saudi government take less of a hardline in Yemen and reach some rapprochement with arch enemy Iran to stop what has been called the worst ongoing humanitarian disaster?
If some or all of these happen, the death of a courageous journalist would have advanced the cause for which he was murdered. Even then, journalists around the world will continue to be in danger. The case of the Saudi government is in the extreme, but the killing of journalists because they tell the truth is commonplace.
Even in the advanced democracies, journalists are often resented. Trump’s case is an example of its own extreme. He has routinely labelled the U.S. press an enemy of the people and heaped invectives on journalists. One wonders what more he would do if he were the crown prince of Saudi Arabia rather than the president of the United States.
George Seldes, the World War 1-era American journalist, titled his autobiography “Tell the Truth and Run.” Khashoggi ran first — from Saudi Arabia — so that he could tell the truth. Alas, what boxing great Joe Louis said of his opponents in the ring also describes the fate of journalists: “He can run, but he can’t hide.”
In the ring that is society, journalists constantly face that threat everywhere — in various ways.Khashoggi’s fate is the most macabre case.
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