Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Scarey to think that is where I used to get my entry visas processed !

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Good job you didn't have an argument with the staff.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Lucky you didn't fancy a scrap then!

Absolutely astonishing what's happening and slowly being revealed. Spy novel stuff.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

I always found staff in the consulate there and in the Embassy in London polite and helpful but then I am not a dissident writing articles exposing the doings of the Saudi Royals.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

he's certainly achieving that objective...

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

It's almost like he put his head in the open jar of a crocodile he'd spent the last few hours poking with a stick.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

The way he apparently was killed is genuinely horrendous and should make you take a long and hard look about the realities of the Gulf.....

But I don't like how the western presses are turning him into a symbol of free journalism or whatever the bullshit is. The man knew what he was doing. He was no saint, he'd defended and apologised the regime before, including a lot of their brutal activities. He was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and apparently condoned a lot of their more extreme actions. He knew what the price was for criticising Saudi. It's one thing to be a western liberal journalist but it's something else entirely if you're a Saudi and especially someone who'd built a career out of kissing the arses of the House of Saud. To make it worse it sort of looks like he was becoming an informer for the US which is why he got the green card so quickly and easily, and no country likes anyone becoming an informer.

He was playing with fire....with people whose mindsets are still stuck in 1450.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

First rule of Saudi fight club ;-)

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

The dynasty goes back to the person physician to King Abdulaziz ibn Saud

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Khashoggi


And no, he was not a liberal. Hard to find in the Middle East. I am reminded of how the Ottomans used to treat the prisoners they took from the Wahabi tribes in the Nejd and the Hejaz. Knowing how the Wahabis abhor music in any form, they took delight in having loud music played by the Bustanci while the Saudi prisoners were being tortured and executed. Such was the fate of this Saudi ruler - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_bin_Saud

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Definitely been a topic to avoid in the office. I've been on holiday, but on the first day at work after the Saudis admitted killing him after all....Not one person brought it up.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Not just the gulf, the entire world.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

I discussed it discreetly with one Saudi colleague. She said no one is talking about it, social media or otherwise. Just goes to show...

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

talked about it today with a Saudi colleague as it goes, also discreetly.
I work for the Saudi military so have to be very careful generally when speaking about some things.

what was interesting was that he was prepared to accept that it was all true, however horrible that truth may be.

I often find with Saudis that what they tell you in private when they know no other Saudis can hear them can be quite enlightening.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

exactly... if the whole idea of their de facto leader ordering this was laughably implausible, they'd be vocal about denouncing it. But they're not so...

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Apparently the Turkish government are going to lay the smackdown today.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Must say Saudi picked a terrible country to do this. Turkey's been a loyal ally of Qatar over the embargo and wants to enhance its influence in the region. In the bad old days the Ottomans were the big power.

If I were MBS I'd have orchestrated a straightforward hit and run someplace else. A smart ruler could have done this discreetly and cleverly. But MBS is showy, isn't he? One could think that this was deliberate, banking on the tendency of furores to quickly die down and become forgotten after a week or two while at the same time still sending a very clear message to other dissenters. But I'm not sure if he's that smart. He's power hungry and not intelligent enough to know how to gain or use that power beyond thuggery.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

The ferocity in which videos and storylines are being released agrees with your point that they picked a bad country.

Saw one today on BBC of a 'double' wearing his clothes out the building with a fake beard etc. They tracked him and another to a mosque where they changed and even know where they dumped the clothes. CCTV is a wonderful thing!

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Some body parts now found according to Sky News.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

pretty poor imitation - look at the shoes and the hair colouring (!)

Really badly conducted excercise !

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Like a REALLY bad spy film from the 60's. The rest of the worlds security folk must be p1ssing themselves at the amateurishness of the whole debacle.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Oh mate, it's atrocious. Embarrassing really.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

which is exactly why I think every bit of the story is absolutely true.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

It is strange that there has been so much indignation about the Khashoggi murder at a time when no one seems much concerned by the slaughter and famine in Yemen.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

being indignant about a war you're actually facilitating would be hypocrisy even the UK government would have a hard time achieving...

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Indeed, but I had thought that some of the "chattering classes" might have spared a tear or two for the huge numbers of dead and injured in that conflict.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Whether it happens or not, you'd still judge.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Because the Saudis did such an obvious and crap job at the assassination, I'm tending to think that MBS may have been set up by someone or some people from within the Royal family.

He's pissed off so many people over the past year that it wouldn't surprise me at all if this was some blowback.

Almost as if they wanted to get caught, and reflect badly on him.

still got more legs though. A show trial still to come.

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

So one Saudi doing a better job than another Saudi? What are the chances :D

Re: Saudi Consulate in Istanbul
 

Other royal families are much more adept at organising things like this.