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Turkey Investigates Possible Dump of Saudi Dissident Jamal Khashoggi's Remains

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WASHINGTON – Turkish investigators are looking into the possibility that missing Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi's remains may have been removed from the Saudi consulate and taken to a forest outside Istanbul.

A Turkish official told The Associated Press that police have established that two consulate vehicles left the building on Oct. 2, the day Khashoggi walked into the consulate and vanished.

Despite earlier reports that Turkish officials played an audio tape of Kashoggi's murder for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, both Turkey's foreign minister and Pompeo say that didn't happen.

However, in an important shift, President Donald Trump now all but confirms that Khashoggi is dead. "It certainly looks that way to me. It's very sad," he told reporters.

Trump promises "very severe" consequences if the Saudis are found to have murdered Khashoggi. 

Treasury Secretary Seven Mnuchin has already pulled out of a major Saudi investment conference.

Meanwhile, Turkey has released video of a so-called Saudi hit squad entering the country shortly before Khashoggi's disappearance 17 days ago. 

They also claim to have an audio recording confirming Khashoggi was tortured, murdered and dismembered.

This week, Secretary Pompeo met with both Saudi and Turkish leaders. Both countries are conducting investigations.

"We do believe that between these two efforts, a complete picture will emerge of what actually transpired here," Pompeo told reporters.

Some of the Saudis who traveled to Turkey are linked to the kingdom's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been credited with making positive changes in the kingdom, but also of increasing authoritarian rule and cracking down on dissent.

"With such an unprecedented transfer of power in the works in Saudi Arabia, my understanding is that Saudi authorities are hard-pressed to find a way of saving face in this situation," Varsha Koduvayur with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies tells CBN News.

For Washington, it's a balancing act.  Appearing on CBN's "Faith Nation," CBN News Chief Political Analyst David Brody says the president will approach his response with leverage in mind.

"They have this arms deal – we know about that so that's a major relationship right there," Brody notes. "Beyond that, there's one word called oil. They control the oil production as it relates to OPEC." 

"They're basically the de-facto leading member of OPEC," Brody explained. "So you put all that together and in Trump's mind he's thinking, 'Wait a minute – I gotta go careful on this because I have relationships to deal with.'" 

Meanwhile, the president is warning against rushing to judgment but says he wants to know what happened and where the fault lies.

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About The Author

Jennifer
Wishon

As Senior Washington Correspondent for CBN News, Jennifer covers the intersection of faith and politics - often producing longer format stories that dive deep into the most pressing issues facing Americans today. A 20-year veteran journalist, Jennifer has spent most of her career covering politics, most recently at the White House as CBN's chief White House Correspondent covering the Obama and Trump administrations. She's also covered Capitol Hill along with a slew of major national stories from the 2008 financial crisis to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and every election in between. Jennifer