Copyright: TVB Pearl News, Ms. Sonya Artero
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3JE3W6DKWQ&t=8s
{O/C} U.S. President Donald Trump is pressuring Saudi Arabia to admit if it had any part in murdering a journalist who was critical of the Saudi government.
This comes after U.S. senators triggered an investigation.
{SOT}
Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was never seen again after security footage showed him entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on October 2nd.
Khashoggi may be a Saudi citizen, but he's also a U.S. resident and that's why President Trump is demanding answers.
{Soundbite} DONALD TRUMP, United States President: We're demanding everything and we want to see what's going on here. That's a bad situation and frankly the fact that it's a reporter, you could say, in many respects, it makes it... it brings it to a level. It's a very serious situation for us and for this White House.
This comes after U.S. intelligence was accusing of knowing of the Saudi plot but failed to warn Khashoggi.
Hell bent on determining if this was an extrajudicial killing, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators ordered a probe.
{Soundbite} LINDSEY GRAHAM, U.S. Senator (R), South Carolina: I've never been more disturbed than I am right now. If this did in fact happen, if this man was murdered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, that would cross every line of normality in the international community.
{Soundbite} CHRIS MURPHY, U.S. Senator (D), Connecticut: If Saudi Arabia took a U.S. resident, lured him into a consulate and killed him, it's time for the United States to rethink our military, political and economic relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Sources say the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, ordered an operation to lure Khashoggia back to Saudi Arabia to interrogate him.
One Turkish newspaper published images of what it called a Saudi "assassination squad" arriving by private jet, along with pictures of the squad members at passport control. It states a 15-member Saudi security team lay in wait for Khashoggi inside the Istanbul consulate where they suspect he was killed.
One source inside the consulate heard a struggle and screaming.
Almost two hours later, a black van was seen leaving the consulate, then drove to the consul's home and parked in a garage.
The Saudi kingdom adamantly denies the allegations.
But given the crown prince's irrational acts, this political analyst believes making a journalist disappear is plausible.
{Soundbite} HILAL KHASHAN, Political Science Professor, American University of Beirut: He went to Yemen, he blockaded Qatar, he also apprehended more than 100 Saudi princes and business people, and of course last year he also ordered the arrest of Lebanese PM Saad al Hariri.
Sonya Artero TVB news.
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