State sponsored murder- it goes on all the time

On the 1st October the eminent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi embassy in Istanbul to collect papers for his upcoming marriage. That much is sure, because by now the whole world has watched CCTV pictures of him entering the building. But there appears to be no footage of him ever coming out again. On the same day, 14 members of Saudi state security were seen entering Turkey, and leaving the following day. Why were they there? Were they there to kill Khashoggi, and then, if we are to believe stories swirling in Istanbul, using an angle grinder to cut his body into tiny, easily disposable bits?

Obviously the Saudis have been quick to deny any wrongdoing but I say, if so, why don’t they do the Habeus Corpus thing, and “produce the body”, as that ancient Latin phrase has it? If they’ve done nothing wrong, where is he?

As my headline suggests, there’s nothing new or uncommon about state sponsored murder. We’ve seen, for instance, the pathetically inept attempts of the Russians to kill one of their opponents in Salisbury only this year. But what of Palestine? A few months ago film emerged of a teenager in Gaza get within 100 metres of the fence that confines the population of the Gaza Strip, rendering it the largest concentration camp in history. He was shouting insults at the border guards, but he was unarmed, even with so much as a caterpault. The soldiers shot him dead. Certain bleeding-heart liberals such as myself registered protests, but at governmental level, from the ‘world leaders’ such as the EU states and the US, there was little if any response. In Israel itself the soldier himself was not even so much as reprimanded for his actions. If that isn’t state sponsored murder I don’t know what is.