The full Khashoggi murder story is coming out bit by bit

It's all coming out bit by bit, the great Saudi assassination plot. How the Riyadh government thought it could get away with its original response - total denial - now seems laughable because as each day goes by the Saudis are slowly slowly confessing, but it's like extracting teeth from a grizzly bear. The latest version is that it was a "rogue" operation by people who had not been authorised by anyone to do what they did to poor Jamal Khashoggi. Hello!! I've heard that one before. Oh yes it was Donald Trump who first came up with that one, what seems like a long time ago. He must have got the idea from his chat with King Salman last week. Anyway up it pops again. No one in the government knew that more than a dozen Saudi "agents" and a forensic cutting-up specialist had flown out to Istanbul and then flown back two days later. But presumably having checked the manifests, the Riyadh explainers realised they needed to be somewhat more truthful. So a rogue flight and a rogue operation, says the Saudi Foreign Ministry. Plus a bloke who looked like Jamal Khashoggi and a large carpet. The former played a brilliant role, dressing up in Khashoggi's clothes and casually walking out of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in order to be able to make the claim that the journalist had departed the consulate. Now that's clever stuff indicating very astute planning in Riyadh by the "rogues". But they missed one thing, they had no idea that Khashoggi's fiancee was waiting for him outside the consulate and she was certainly not fooled by the bloke disguised as her boyfriend. The carpet was needed to wrap around Khashoggi's body - very Mafia! Crown Prince Mohamed bin Sultan, the godfather of the Saudi royal family, whose consigliere was one of the members of the team of "rogues", knew nothing, according to the Saudi foreign minister, Abdul al-Jubeir. For the next stage in the search for the whole truth and nothing but the truth we will have to rely on the Turks. President Erdogan who has thrown thousands of coup suspects into jail after the failed plot against him in 2016 is currently riding high in the morality stakes and plans to make public the video and audio tapes of the murder of Khashoggi, proving that the Turks had bugged the Saudi consulate - Riyadh take note for future reference that their embassies and consulates are not safe from prying eyes and ears. Erdogan is due to make a statement to parliament tomorrow (Tuesday) and could then release the tapes for the world to see and hear. Riyadh I suspect will try to stick to its story that rogue agents murdered Khashoggi, wrapped him in a blanket and buried him somewhere unknown. Looking at it strictly from the Saudi government's viewpoint, they must be hoping/praying that the "rogues" did such a good job burying the body that it will never be found. Discovery of the body, especially if it is found to be dismmembered as the Turks have claimed, will put the ball back in Riyadh's court. But without the body, the Saudi government will hope the current nightmare publicity will die down.