Another day, another story.<\/b>
\nSo Jamal Khashoggi didn\u2019t just happen to start a fistfight with 15 Saudi operatives sent to hold a Socratic debate with him over proper governance? Go figure. The Saudi Arabian government changed its story yet again over Khashoggi\u2019s murder, admitting that it was a \u201cpremeditated\u2026crime,\u201d reversing two weeks of denials and laughable cover stories:
Prosecutors in Saudi Arabia conceded Thursday that the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom\u2019s Istanbul consulate was premeditated, once again altering the Saudi government\u2019s official account of the killing.
\u201cGeneral Prosecution: Information from the Turkish side affirms that the suspects in Khashoggi\u2019s case premeditated their crime,\u201d the Saudi Press Agency, which is controlled by the government, wrote on its English-language Twitter account Friday morning.
Even more interesting is the credit they give for changing their story:
Saudi Arabia\u2019s public prosecutor said on Thursday that Jamal Khashoggi was killed in a planned operation, citing information it received from Turkish investigators in Istanbul, according to a statement from the kingdom\u2019s Foreign Ministry. \u2026
The Foreign Ministry did not say what led the prosecutor to draw that conclusion, only that it was based on information shared by Turkish investigators working with Saudi officials in Turkey. According to the statement, the Saudi prosecutor will continue its investigation based on the new information.
So now the Turks have it right? That\u2019s another change of position worth noting. Of course, after having set up several cover stories only to have the evidence demolish them, they don\u2019t have many other options, I suppose. When even your friends call it the \u201c worst cover-up in history,\u201d it\u2019s time to take a different tack.
The admission comes as the EU overwhelmingly voted to support a non-binding resolution for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, including any equipment that might get used for oppression. Germany expressed concern over open \u201cquestion marks\u201d in the murder:
European Union lawmakers are calling for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia as well as a ban on equipment that could be used in any government crackdown.
The lawmakers voted Thursday by 325 for, 1 against and 19 abstentions on a resolution calling on member countries \u201cto impose an EU-wide arms embargo on Saudi Arabia\u201d in response to the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
The non-binding resolution also demands a halt to exports \u201cof surveillance systems and other dual-use items that may be used in Saudi Arabia for the purposes of repression.\u201d
Pressure is still growing for Trump to take similar action, but that\u2019s a tough and complicated issue. The US needs to act firmly to make it plain that such crimes have serious consequences, but Saudi Arabia is also the linchpin in our strategy to contain Iran as well. That is a critical issue in the region for both the US and Israel, as well as our other Sunni Arab allies, Jordan in particular. We can\u2019t cut them loose any more than they can cut us loose. Our shared national interests won\u2019t just disappear.
On the admission of premeditation, this opens up another can of worms. If this team went to Turkey with the purpose of killing Khashoggi, who ordered them to go? The members of this team have ties at the highest levels \u2014 meaning Mohammed bin Salman himself. It makes it very hard to sustain the \u201crogue killers\u201d thesis with the involvement of Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a close adviser to MbS himself. That doesn\u2019t mean the Saudis won\u2019t try to pass this off as a Henry II\/Thomas Becket situation \u2014 a \u201cwho will rid me of this turbulent priest\u201d remark taken too literally \u2014 as Hugh Hewitt theorized last week. However, in a royal family this regimented and especially with MbS setting himself up as the only power around the throne with his purges and crackdowns, it makes it much harder to believe that one of his own closest advisers would suddenly go rogue.
One has to wonder whether King Salman might be considering a change in succession, passing off control to one of his other sons. That might be what it takes to quell the outrage and keep allies in place for a royal family that can ill afford to go it alone.<\/p>\n

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