If you’re not aware, it has recently been discovered that journalist Jamal Khashoggi from Washington Post was brutally killed by a hit group after entering the Saudi Consulate earlier this month and was never heard from again. Khashoggi was of Saudi Arabian heritage, but was a resident of the U.S., despite President Donald Trump attempting to insinuate that he might not have even been American (he was shot down, fast). So unsurprisingly, Trump has been a little too lax in his investigation into the Saudi Arabian government about this. He sent his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, to talk with their leaders, but Pompeo was a total snowflake about it. He was photographed smiling and joking with the officials and quoted saying by NBC News afterward that “we ought to give [Saudi Arabia] a few more days” in order to “have a complete understanding of the facts.” He also said Saudi Arabia is an “important strategic [ally] of the United States [and] we need to be mindful of that,” and concluded his foot-in-mouth address with my favorite: “I don’t want to talk about any of the facts. They [Saudi Arabian officials] didn’t want to either,” according to Politico.com. You came to talk to them about the facts, Pompeo. What the heck did you think you were coming to do?

However, Trump has started to change his stance on this topic by saying “it certainly looks” like the journalist was killed; “very sad,” according to NBC News. Additionally, Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin said that he won’t attend an investment summit in Saudi Arabia due to the death of Khashoggi. What does this mean? It means that Trump has been pressured into actually doing something about the disappearance, especially after Pompeo’s total flop meeting, and is making Mnuchin pull out. Well, I sure hope things actually do get done in this investigation. If they do, however, they won’t be by U.S. officials since they’re too worried about damaging their relationship with Saudi Arabia. It instead will most likely be done by Turkish investigators who have been searching since day one.

Khashoggi was dismembered and his disturbing last moments were supposedly caught in a recording from his Apple Watch. While it is theoretically possible that Khashoggi could have recorded the interaction on his Apple Watch, he would’ve had to jump through several thin hurdles in order to achieve this (he would have had to connect to the consulate Wi-Fi in advance on his phone during another meeting time, the red light that would’ve come on to signify it’s recording had to have not been noticed by the hit group, his fiancée would’ve known the audio had been transferred from his Apple Watch to his phone that he had left with her and she would’ve been able to access it from his Cloud account). Additionally, Turkish officials were the ones that had stated they had this seven-minute audio recording in possession, but their explanation was flimsy; most notably, they said the Saudi Arabian hit group attempted to delete the audio recording using the fingerprint scanner to unlock Khashoggi’s Apple Watch… but his version of Apple Watch did not have a fingerprint scanner.

Also, medically speaking, this was not some random murder. In order to cut someone up, it has to be to be premeditated and you have to have special tools. Imagine you are cutting into a chicken bone: it’s pretty dang hard, right? Well, this Saudi Arabian hit group had a bone saw in order to kill Khashoggi, and no one has a bone saw just sitting around (at least I hope not).

All in all, a man who was doing his job was brutally slain, and instead of this being a motivating factor for ending trade or communication with Saudi Arabia, or at least an actual investigation, it has instead turned into a political sideshow, due to Trump and his administration’s fear of damaging this “all-too-important” alliance the U.S. has with Saudi Arabia. I will keep you posted on this story as information develops, and hopefully Khashoggi’s death will not be in vain.

Updates:

• Even though Secretary of State Munchin said he wouldn’t meet with the Crown Prince, he did it anyways.
• He graduated from Indiana University
• Saudi Arabia claimed that it was not Khashoggi who died, but someone who looked like him (a “body double”).
• Turkish officials have released a statement saying that this was definitely a “premeditated attack”.