The Turkish government is persisting in its campaign to implicate Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in the suspected murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, working through leaks to Turkish media and the New York Times. And in the latest embarrassing leak, a Turkish newspaper has published surveillance photos showing Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a close associate of MbS who has been photographed with the Crown Prince on multiple occasions, entering the Saudi consulate on Oct. 2, just hours before Khashoggi entered and disappeared.

The photos also showed Mutreb standing outside the Saudi consul general’s home, leaving a Turkish hotel with a large suitcase, and leaving Turkey on a flight from Istanbul’s international airport later in the day.

Time stamps on the photographs, which Sabah said had been taken from closed-circuit television, showed Mr. Mutreb entering the Saudi consulate at 9:55 a.m., at the consul general’s home at 4:45 p.m., leaving the Istanbul hotel at 5:15 p.m., and at the airport leaving Turkey at 5:58 p.m.

The Times first identified Mutreb as a member of the purported 15-man hit squad earlier this week, publishing a series of photos showing Mutreb, who was also identified as a Saudi diplomat, as part of MbS's entourage during visits to Spain, France and the US.

Between the UN human rights chief calling for the suspension of diplomatic immunity for those involved in the killing, to the death of another purported hit squad member, a 31-year-old lieutenant in the Saudi Royal Air Force named Mashal Saad al-Bostani in a mysterious car accident, Mutreb has good reason to be anxious.</s>
• King Salman of Saudi Arabia is reportedly tightening his grip on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s power as an uncomfortable spotlight falls on the kingdom over Jamal Khashoggi’s mysterious disappearance.
• The king was apparently in the dark about the case at first, but the crown prince eventually asked him to step in.
• The king is reportedly “asserting himself” over the crown prince, who is suspected of orchestrating Khashoggi’s disappearance.

King Salman of Saudi Arabia is reportedly tightening his grip on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s power as an uncomfortable spotlight falls on the kingdom over journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s mysterious disappearance.

Sources close to the royal court told Reuters the king was initially in the dark about the case, which was apparently due in part to efforts from the crown prince to shield him from the news.

But as the condemnation of Saudi Arabia spiraled into a foreign policy crisis, the crown prince reportedly asked his aging father to step in and take the lead. Now, the king is reportedly “asserting himself” over the crown prince as he works to put out the fire.

The 33-year old crown prince was already a controversial figure before this crisis due to his dubious means of consolidating power. At first, he painted himself as a modernizer and reformer, but that image quickly faded as he’s arrested fellow princes and prominent businessmen. He’s worked vigilantly to crackdown on dissent.

Amid the Khashoggi crisis, there have been widespread calls for King Salman to rethink his son’s immense influence in Saudi Arabia and position as heir to the throne.

“Even if he is his favorite son, the king needs to have a comprehensive view for his survival and the survival of the royal family,” a source close to the royal family told Reuters.

Relatedly, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham recently described bin Salman as “toxic” and said he’s “gotta go.”

“This guy is a wrecking ball, he had this guy murdered in a consulate in Turkey, and to expect me to ignore it, I feel used and abused,” Graham said in a Tuesday appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, went missing after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. The Saudis have denied allegations of killing Khashoggi, but after over two weeks still haven’t provided any proof he safely departed the consulate.

The crown prince, referred to colloquially as MBS, is suspected of orchestrating Khashoggi’s disappearance.

Khashoggi had left Saudi Arabia in the past year over fears for his safety, after the royal court barred him from writing. He became a US resident and wrote columns for The Washington Post.
• Here’s everything we know about the troubling disappearance of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi
• Trump is placing his trust in someone who is either lying or can’t stop his henchmen from brutally killing journalists
• Top Senate Democrat slams Trump’s response to Khashoggi killing, says president is making US look ‘weaker’ than ever by kowtowing to Saudis
• Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance is an ’embarrassing’ ‘crisis’ for Trump and ‘one of the roughest foreign-policy challenges’ he’s faced yet, experts say
• Missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi had a complicated past involving interviews with Osama bin Laden and close ties to the Saudi royal family
• Lindsey Graham says ‘toxic’ Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had Khashoggi ‘murdered’ and can ‘never be a world leader’
• Trump touts Saudi king’s ‘very strong’ denial and says ‘rogue killers’ could be responsible for Khashoggi disappearance
• Trump officials dodge questions on US support for Saudi Arabia amid Khashoggi crisis</s>What's Really Known About Saudi Arabia's De Facto Ruler?

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is under increased scrutiny as Turkey and other nations accuse the Saudis of having journalist Jamal Khashoggi killed. Salman is said to have no tolerance for critics.</s>President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was reportedly a cause for concern among national security staffers amid investigations into the disappearance of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi because Kushner was known to have messaged with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on WhatsApp.

A CNN report indicates that the White House senior adviser has been chummy with Mohammed for months, causing him to pull back from the public eye as details emerge about what happened to Khashoggi.

Khashoggi went missing on Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and has not been seen in public since. The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday that Khashoggi appears to have been drugged, beaten, killed and dismembered by Saudi operatives in the presence of a top Saudi diplomat.

CNN reports that Kushner has been “operating behind-the-scenes to mitigate the fallout” and “quietly leveraging his close relationship” with Mohammed while treading lightly to avoid stepping on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s purview. Since officials expressed concern about Kushner’s conversations and messages with Mohammed outside official channels, Kushner has begun “notifying other members of the President’s team about his conversations and providing readouts afterward.”

Kushner has been to Saudi Arabia many times to speak with the prince, developing such a close relationship that Mohammed “bragged to the Emirati crown prince and others that Kushner was ‘in his pocket,’” according to a report in The Intercept in March.

Kushner and Mohammed met most recently in June to discuss a Middle East peace plan and spoke by phone last week about Khashoggi.

Trump has repeatedly downplayed what happened to Khashoggi and made it clear that he has no intention of ceasing arms sales to Saudi Arabia. As for Kushner’s relationship with Mohammed, a White House spokesperson told The Hill in a statement that Kushner “has always meticulously followed protocols and collaborated with colleagues regarding the relationship with [Crown Prince Mohammed] and all of the other foreign officials with whom he interacts.”</s>“There were no orders for them to kill him or even specifically kidnap him," said a Saudi official familiar with the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, Reuters reported on Saturday.

“Mohammed bin Salman had no knowledge of this specific operation and certainly did not order a kidnapping or murder of anybody. He will have been aware of the general instruction to tell people to come back,” the source added.

On Friday the Saudi prosecutor general announced on state television that the preliminary conclusion about the fate of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was that a fight broke out between him and people who met him in the Saudi Consulate. Khashoggi reportedly never left the consulate after entering it on October 2 to obtain papers necessary for his upcoming marriage.

The White House has responded to the announcement by saying that it acknowledges the Saudi statement on the journalist's fate, adding that it is "saddened" to hear that Khashoggi is dead.</s>
• Mike Pompeo reportedly gave Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 72 hours to explain what happened to journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Tuesday.
• That time is now up – and the Saudis haven’t said anything further about his mysterious disappearance.
• The meeting was at around 3 p.m. local time in Riyadh on Tuesday, meaning the deadline hit at 8 a.m New York time on Friday.
• Khashoggi was a US resident and often criticized the Saudi regime in his Washington Post columns.
• He went into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month, and never came out. The Saudis are suspected of foul play.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly gave Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 72 hours to “own” the Jamal Khashoggi disaster, and as of 8 a.m. EDT on Friday his time is up.

In the meeting in Riyadh on Tuesday – which finished at around 3 p.m. Saudi time – Pompeo told the Crown Prince he must “own” the disaster and has 72 hours to sort it out, an Axios source said.

The deadline has just passed, and the Saudi regime has yet to come forward with new information or an explanation that holds water.

At the meeting, Pompeo told the Crown Prince that time was “limited” because of rising global pressure to solve the mystery, the Axios report says.

The meeting lasted between 30-45 minutes and the pair dined together that evening too, CNN reported.

A US State Department press release from Pompeo on Tuesday said President Donald Trump told him it was “essential to determine what happened to Jamal Khashoggi,” and Pompeo wrote in the press release that he “had done just that.”

Pompeo wrote: “I emphasized the importance of conducting a thorough, transparent, and timely investigation, and the Saudi leadership pledged to deliver precisely on that.”

The exact start time of the meeting was not revealed by the US State Department or Saudi authorities, but live reports from journalists in Riyadh, and press photographs from news agency Reuters, place the meeting’s end at around 3 p.m. local time.

The Daily Beast on Tuesday reported that Saudi officials plan to pin Khashoggi’s death on an unnamed Saudi two-star general, citing two anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
• Here’s everything we know about the troubling disappearance of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi
• Trump is placing his trust in someone who is either lying or can’t stop his henchmen from brutally killing journalists
• Top Senate Democrat slams Trump’s response to Khashoggi killing, says president is making US look ‘weaker’ than ever by kowtowing to Saudis
• Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance is an ’embarrassing’ ‘crisis’ for Trump and ‘one of the roughest foreign-policy challenges’ he’s faced yet, experts say
• Missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi had a complicated past involving interviews with Osama bin Laden and close ties to the Saudi royal family
• Lindsey Graham says ‘toxic’ Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had Khashoggi ‘murdered’ and can ‘never be a world leader’
• Trump touts Saudi king’s ‘very strong’ denial and says ‘rogue killers’ could be responsible for Khashoggi disappearance
• Trump officials dodge questions on US support for Saudi Arabia amid Khashoggi crisis</s>Britain’s former top spy master has said people close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s grisly murder.

And Sir John Sawers – the former head of MI6 – blamed President Donald Trump’s US administration for emboldening the hot-headed prince.

Sir John said today: “All the evidence points to it being ordered and carried out by people close to Mohammed bin Salman.

“I don’t think he would have done this if he hadn’t thought he had licence from the US administration to behave as he wished.”

Mr Khashoggi, a critic of Prince Mohammed who lived in the US, is feared to have been tortured and dismembered while alive in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Up to 15 consulate staff were tonight being quizzed by Turkish authorities as police widened a search for his body.

Under-pressure Mr Trump has said there may be “severe” consequences for his Saudi allies if allegations are proven.</s>WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Thursday it appears that Jamal Khashoggi, the missing Saudi journalist and U.S. resident, is dead.

“It certainly looks that way to me, it’s very sad,” Trump said before boarding Air Force One for a trip to Missoula, Montana, where he will host a campaign rally. He did not offer any details.

In an interview with The New York Times, Trump said his conclusion was based on "intelligence coming from every side."

"Unless the miracle of all miracles happens, I would acknowledge that he’s dead,” Trump told the Times.

Trump vowed "very severe" consequences for Saudi Arabia if its government is found responsible for the journalist's death. "I mean, it's bad, bad stuff."

The president did not elaborate on what action his administration could take. He has said he doesn't want to disrupt the long-standing U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi journalist, who wrote critically of the kingdom and royal family for The Washington Post, has been missing since entering the Saudi Consulate on Oct. 2 to obtain paperwork to marry his fiancee. Turkish officials said he was murdered inside the building, but Saudi officials denied that.

Before leaving for Montana, Trump said he wanted to wait for the results of Saudi and Turkish investigations before deciding what steps the United States should take. Lawmakers suggested a range of steps, from economic sanctions on Saudi Arabia to blocking U.S. weapons sales to the Middle East ally.

According to the Times, Trump accepted intelligence reports from multiple sources that suggest top Saudi government officials played a role in Khashoggi’s alleged murder.

The Times said Trump stopped short of naming the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in Khashoggi’s death. He said allegations of the prince's involvement raised serious questions about the U.S-Saudi alliance and presented a stark challenge for his foreign policy agenda.

“This one has caught the imagination of the world, unfortunately,” Trump said. “It’s not a positive. Not a positive.”</s>ELKO, Nev. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he is not satisfied with Saudi Arabia’s explanation for the circumstances around the killing of journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

Speaking to reporters in Nevada, Trump added that it was possible that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been unaware of the death.</s>Major General Ahmed Al-Asiri was sacked as Saudi Arabia's deputy intelligence chief on Friday, Saudi state media reported.

The announcement came as the kingdom's state media said that the missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi had been killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, citing an official Saudi investigation.

State media also reported that King Salman had ordered the restructuring of the command of the general intelligence agency, under the supervision of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS.)

Al-Asiri has served as an adviser to bin Salman, who promoted him to his intelligence position last year, and is considered to be one of MBS' closest aides.

He is "a key figure within the royal household, a very senior figure," Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons reported from Istanbul, following the announcement. "He has been fingered by the royal household as being partly to blame for this."

Al-Asiri was not part of the 15-man "hit squad" named by Turkish media, who Turkish officials suspect were involved in the killing of Khashoggi.

Al-Asiri is well known to journalists who cover the Middle East, from his previous role as spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition campaign in Yemen.

A report in the New York Times on Thursday indicated that the Saudi rulers were considering blaming al-Asiri for the killing of Khashoggi, noting that it would provide a plausible explanation for the killing and help to deflect blame from the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Former Secret Intelligence Service head John Sawers says that Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammad bin Salman was behind the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.