It Was Self-Defense
The Saudi government acknowledged early Saturday that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, saying he died during a fist fight.
The announcement, which came in a tweet from the Saudi foreign ministry, said that an initial investigation by the government’s general prosecutor found that Khashoggi been in discussions with people inside the consulate when a quarrel broke out, escalating to a fatal fist fight.
I mean, we’ve all been there, right? A misunderstanding in a bar, someone gets jostled, and all of a sudden more than a dozen goons are dismembering you alive. Just another Friday night in Bismarck. And if you don’t buy that one, I have an array of Zillow maps showing that Squi did it.
That this is the best they could come up with after nearly a week suggests that the feebleness of the story is the point:
"the flimsiness of the excuse is itself a declaration of power" is a tweet i can't bring myself to go find from the Kavanaugh hearings but hoo boy does it continue to apply
— Dorothy Fortenberry (@Dorothy410berry) October 19, 2018
Some stories/excuses/explanations/covers are of the smirking "fuck you, we don't have to offer a plausible excuse" variety. The Saudis have offered one; the administration will offer another to accept it.
— SuperDuperHat (@Popehat) October 19, 2018
But don’t worry! The international elite has made it clear that while they will still take their money, they might stop attending their conferences until things quiet down a little.