Saudi Arabia might be killing off suspected assassins
SUMMARY
Mashal Saad al-Bostani of the Saudi Royal Air Forces, who was named by pro-government Turkish media as one of 15 suspects in the alleged murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi, has reportedly died in a car accident on return to the kingdom.
An article titled "Riyadh Silenced Someone" on Yeni Safak, a Turkish newspaper that strongly supports Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, cited anonymous sources as saying Bostani died in a car crash, without giving a specific time or location.
Yeni Safak has proven a major voice in coverage of Khashoggi's disappearance, with daily scoops from unnamed Turkish officials giving gory details to what they allege was a murder within the Saudi consulate on Oct. 2, 2018.
Saudi Arabia flatly denies any knowledge of Khashoggi's whereabouts or disappearance, but US intelligence officials have started to echo the view that the prominent Saudi critic, who recently took residence in the US, was murdered.
In particular, Yeni Safak has reported having a audio tape of Khashoggi's murder, but Turkish intelligence has not turned over the tape to the US. The US and Turkey are NATO allies with extensive intelligence-sharing agreements.
"We have asked for it, if it exists," Trump said of the tape on Oct. 17, 2018. "I'm not sure yet that it exists, probably does, possibly does."
Turkey has also become possibly the world's biggest jailer of journalists with few independent voices left in its media scene.
Surveillance footage published by Turkish newspaper Hurriyet purports to show Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
(CCTV)
"Let's be honest," Democrat Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut told Business Insider on Oct. 17, 2018, "the Turks have leaked some pretty serious allegations through the press that they have not been willing to make public. There are not a lot of clean hands."
"We should acknowledge that most of what we know is through leaks from the Turkish government," he continued. "At some point the Turks have to give us exactly what they have instead of leaking all of this to the press."
The Daily Beast on Oct. 16, 2018, cited "sources familiar with the version of events circulating throughout diplomatic circles in Washington" as saying Saudi Arabia would try to pin the murder of Khashoggi on "a Saudi two-star general new to intelligence work."
This holds with President Donald Trump's suggestion that "rogue killers" took out Khashoggi, and not the Saudi monarchy itself.
CNN and The New York Times on Oct. 15, 2018, also reported that Saudi Arabia was preparing an alibi that would acknowledge Khashoggi was killed.
But to date, no Saudi alibi has emerged. After a trip to Saudi Arabia, US Secretary of State said that the Saudis didn't want to discuss the facts of the case, but that they would conduct an investigation and hold any guilty parties accountable.
Saudi Arabia is known for its exceptionally high rate of car accidents and fatalities.
This article originally appeared on Business Insider. Follow @BusinessInsider on Twitter.
