Turkish officials keep blowing the lid off Trump and Saudi Arabia's Khashoggi story

Murat Cetinmuhururdar via Reuters

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Turkey on Wednesday after visiting Saudi Arabia in response to the disappearance of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi.
• He and President Trump have put a lot of stock in the Saudis to investigate themselves over Khashoggi's alleged murder, and appear to be on the same page.
• But Turkish officials continue to leak gruesome details about the alleged murder on a daily basis.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cracked down on the press to gain near-complete control of Turkish media.
• US Senators and UN human rights officials aren't buying Saudi Arabia's story on Khashoggi, and Turkey continues to blow apart Trump and Saudi Arabia's understanding.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Turkey on Wednesday after visiting Saudi Arabia in response to the disappearance of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi, but repeated, gruesome reports of Khashoggi's suspected murder have kept the crisis boiling.

Pompeo and President Donald Trump appear to have given Saudi Arabia the benefit of the doubt on Khashoggi so far, while every new day seems to bring forth new evidence against the Saudis, longtime allies of the US.

Pompeo met with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, and concluded that they have a "serious commitment to determine all the facts and ensure accountability."

Trump, for his part, stressed that the investigation into Khashoggi hadn't yet concluded, and floated the possibility that another group of people, not the Saudis, had murdered or abducted Khashoggi from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

"I think we have to find out what happened first. You know, here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that," Trump told the Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday.

While Pompeo and the Saudis appeared all smiles in the pictures from the meetings to discuss Khashoggi, the trip to Turkey promises a different perspective.

Turkish officials keep the wound open

Reuters

A Turkish investigator searches the Saudi consulate after Khashoggi's disappearance.

Rather than looking to conduct a quiet investigation to find facts and draw conclusions, Turkish investigators and media have regularly leaked gruesome details from what they describe as a brutal, sadistic murder in the Saudi consulate.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the consulate, which Turkish investigators finally got a look at two weeks after Khashoggi's initial disappearance, had been freshly painted - implying that evidence could have been covered up.

A pro-government Turkish newspaper on Wednesday ran a gut-wrenching account of Khashoggi's alleged murder, saying an audio tapes captured his dismemberment and torture.

The widespread reports all cite Turkish officials as the sources, and not only allege a murder, but a murder at the hands of top Saudi officials.

Salah Al Tabiqi, the head of Forensic Evidence at the Saudi General Security Department and Saudi Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi, were both implicated by Turkish officials speaking to the Wall Street Journal.

Implicating high-level Saudi officials may represent an attempt by Turkey to dent the credibility of the "rogue killers" hypothesis first publicly floated by Trump.

Pressure piles on

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Jamal Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in early October.

"Given there seems to be clear evidence that Mr. Khashoggi entered the consulate and has never been seen since, the onus is on the Saudi authorities to reveal what happened to him," UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday.

Bachelet also called for waiving diplomatic immunity for the Saudis and their right to treat their consulate as sovereign soil.

"This guy has got to go," usually hawkish Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News of Crown Prince Mohammed. "Saudi Arabia, if you're listening, there are a lot of good people you can choose, but MBS has tainted your country and tainted himself."

Graham, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has strong sway over whether or not the US can sell weapons to Saudi Arabia. He joins a raft of bipartisan Senators calling for sanctions against the kingdom.

Increasingly, individuals and businesses have cut ties with Saudi Arabia over the burgeoning public relations nightmare that refuses to dies, while Turkish officials continue to share details of the ongoing investigation.

Accountability?

REUTERS/Leah Millis/Pool

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visits in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 16, 2018.

Pompeo left Riyadh on Wednesday telling reporters that Saudi leaders, including King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed, "made no exceptions on who they would hold accountable."

"They made a commitment to hold anyone connected to any wrongdoing that may be found accountable for that, whether they are a senior officer or official," Pompeo said.

But Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. Only the kingdom's ultra-conservative royal family can make decisions.

Without a free press or independent branches of government to check the monarchy, the kingdom can draw whatever conclusion it likes from the investigation.

Basically, if the House of Saud did have Khashoggi killed, it would be on them to disclose that and punish themselves.

Trump and Pompeo have made it clear they're putting stock in Saudi's investigation, but Turkey has struck a different note.

Erdogan has steadily chipped away at the independence of his own country's investigators, judges, and press through mass imprisonment and purges of anyone deemed an enemy of the president. The media largely dances to his tune.

The steady drip of sickening details from Khashoggi's alleged murder indicate that - while Trump and Saudi Arabia may have their stories straight - Erdogan seeks to provide evidence that Khashoggi was brutally tortured and murdered, that the killers hid their tracks, and that they were acting on the orders of the royals.