Jonathan Rugman on “The Killing in the Consulate”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: What spurred you to want to write the book?

JONATHAN RUGMAN, AUTHOR, “THE KILLING IN THE CONSULATE”: Well, what happened was, I was sent to Istanbul to cover Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance. And I stayed in the hotel where many of the hit squad from Saudi Arabia stayed because it’s close to the consulate that’s why they stayed there, that’s why I was staying there. And I went to bed that night and found it hard to sleep because I had all these images going through my mind of a famous shot of him walking toward the door of the consulate at 1:14 p.m. on the 2nd of October, disappearing, never seen again, images too of the hit squad arriving at the airport and, all that CCTV footage, which the Turkish authorities produced. What I was trying to do is to expand on the CIA’s assessment, which you and I have never seen but has been leaked to —

AMANPOUR: And that specifically is that they believe?

RUGMAN: They believe with medium to high confidence that the Saudi crowned prince probably ordered the journalist’s death. Now all those caveats are very important because intelligence is never a 100% certain. But it was enough caveated for President Trump to be able to say famously “Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t.” And I think that’s where President Trump wanted things to stay. He wanted that wiggle room at leeway so that he didn’t have to take this case any further with the Saudi authorities that in trinket. And my job essentially was to look at all the evidence, to try and build the case, to try and work out what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. Was it an accident? Was the intention even fact to render him back to Saudi Arabia to put him on a private jet and take him home? Which on the surface of things seems more likely given that we haven’t seen a case like this before, when we’ve seen Saudis snatched, is to take them home, it’s not to murder them or was it a deliberate killing?

AMANPOUR: So we’re going to ask you what your conclusion was. But, first, I want to play for you the very latest from MBS, as he’s known Prince Mohammed bin Salman who’s the crowned prince of Saudi Arabia and who most believe did actually order this. Let’s just play what he said to CBS News recently.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you order the murder of Jamal Khashoggi?

MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN, SAUDI CROWN PRINCE (through translator): Absolutely not. This was a heinous crime. But I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does that mean that you take responsibility?

SALMAN: When a crime is committed against a Saudi citizen by officials working for the Saudi government, as a leader, I must take responsibility. This was a mistake. And I must take all actions to avoid such a thing in the future.