The latest reporting on Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post contributor allegedly murdered by Saudi Arabian security officials when he visited a consulate office in Turkey, is that he recorded his own murder on his Apple Watch which was synced to his phone outside the building:
HUGE news by @Sabah on #Khashoggi :
• Khashoggi himself recorded his questioning via Apple Watch.
• Records were uploaded to ICloud
• Saudis questioned, tortured, and killed him
• Hit squad had access to watch via his fingerprints, deleted some files
• Phone had backup— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) October 12, 2018
LATEST – sources have disclosed how #Turkey police were able to confirm what happened to #JamalKjashoggi and that he was indeed murderred. They tell me his Apple Watch was synced with his phone which he left outside, it recorded voice notes that they’ve been able to access
— Jamal Elshayyal جمال (@JamalsNews) October 12, 2018
These new revelations, if true, do fit nicely with previous reporting on Turkey’s evidence:
Turkey’s government has told U.S. officials it has audio and video proof that missing Saudi Arabian writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the Washington Post reported Friday. https://t.co/RRGBmr0dPF
— Florida Times-Union (@jaxdotcom) October 12, 2018
Turkey has been pretty adamant about this:
A Turkish official tells @NBCNews that Turkey’s government is “100 percent confident” that Khashoggi is dead and was killed by 15 Saudis who were in Turkey for a short amount of time.
Sounds pretty definitive.
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 12, 2018
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But we’re not yet sure just how the Apple Watch was able to transmit the alleged recording to his phone outside:
This Apple Watch stuff re Khashoggi sounds very unlikely. The LTE model doesn't work in Turkey, and I really doubt his watch remained synced to a phone he left outside the building.
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) October 12, 2018
Maybe this?
Update on this: apparently one plausible thing is, if your iPhone has previously connected to a WiFi network, your watch will automatically connect to it in the future…
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) October 12, 2018
There’s also reporting out there that the U.S. knew in advance that Saudi Arabia was planning to capture Khashoggi, but the U.S. did nothing about it:
WaPo reported: “Before Khashoggi’s disappearance, U.S. intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture him, according to a person familiar with the information.”
I asked ODNI: Why wouldn’t the US warn him?
ODNI: No comment.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 12, 2018
President Trump said that he does plan to call Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in the near future to discuss the incident:
President Trump says he plans to call King Salman of Saudi Arabia regarding missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. pic.twitter.com/iBM5pABwNS
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 12, 2018
But reporters already jumped on Trump for this comment on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record:
Asked whether Saudi human rights record was overlooked, Trump: “I think a lot of records are overlooked. If you look at Iran, if you look at so many other countries, take a look at Syria. You take a look at a lot of countries, a lot of countries’ records have been overlooked."
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 12, 2018
To be continued…
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