Google Cloud chief joins Saudi shindig exodus over journalist's worrying disappearance

Google Cloud's gros fromage, Diane Greene, has pulled out of a Saudi Arabian summit following the disappearance of a writer who criticised the Saudi regime from the country's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Turkish officials have alleged that Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside the consulate. Greene, chief exec …

[Adrian 4]

google

Wait .. you mean google doesn't know already ?

It appears their information-grabbing isn't as effective as they'd like.

Or is this a bluff ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe we can skip over a few steps here...

They initially floated the cover story trial balloon that Mr Khashoggi "accidentally died" while being "interrogated". Once they commit to this story, the press will then remind everyone that one of the 15 "interrogators" is a forensic doctor who reportedly brought along his bone saw collection.

Having figured out just in time that the "interrogation" cover story wasn't going to work, now they're trying out the "rogue killers" story. If followed through to the end, it leads to a plot line that you couldn't make up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Amateurs!

Whoever it was who did this are strictly amateurs. They should have asked the Ruskies to show them how it's done properly!

[JLV]

Re: Amateurs!

the same Russkies who got got caught with their pants down in Salisbury? With their lame sports supps cover story? Who didn’t visit “their” cathedral cause it was raining?

If only the Chinese secret services were as incompetent as the Russians and Saudis. But that’s asking a lot.

[FuzzyWuzzys]

The least funniest joke ever

This whole Saudi affair is just the most blatent and obvious example of what utter bollocks world politics really is sometimes. Too much money at stake, all we in the West can do is wag our fingers at those naughty boys in UAE for going a tad too far during their ( ahem ) "failed interrogation", 'cos anything more harsh is said and with the stroke of a diamond encrusted pen billions of much needed cash being spent by the UAE on goods from the West just disappears and goes elsewhere in the world.

If you ever needed to be reminded of how tiny and insignificant a working class drone you really are, this is it. You're a nothing and nobody compared those with their hands on the reins of power, they're like a playground clique that runs the show, so get on and dance monkeys 'cos that's all we're good for.

[Potemkine!]

MBS

aka The MoBSter

His accomplice, the corrupt Trumpy the Klown, will do whatever necessary to try to cover his traces, he and his family got a lot of money for that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope

This is the kind of (but not the sole) story that forged my resolve to never under any circumstances set foot in that country (and apparently any of it embassies) - no matter how glamorous or hospitable it may look for a tourist (or a person on a business trip) from afar, or how brief or imperative a visit may be - my answer has to be JUST. NO. Not that there's any danger of that happening anyway really - there's basically zero chance of anyone asking me; it's simply a conviction-level thing.

And it's not because of the specific details of any of these stories, or the perception of any well-defined, specific danger or threat; but because those going there apparently all fail to realize that places that aren't the good old western world can and do have radically different systems of values and beliefs concerning what is right or wrong, what is glorious or disgraceful or holy or offending, what is an appropriate response or retribution for an act, how much if any of the authority of the nominal powers-that-be applies wherever you actually are and so on - and that by entering that domain they place their very existence at the mercy of that alien world.

It's not the place of a fun weekend racing on sand dunes, or the place of fat business wallets: it's the place that can and will kill or imprison you indefinitely for something you may not even have realised you shouldn't have done. It's all fun and games until you fall right off at the edge of the fluffy cloud of your taken-for-granted human rights you have been walking on all your life, never questioning where it ends or how much actual protection it offers against anyone determined to seriously harm you.

You're skydiving without your reserve parachute and most likely not even realizing it; it will make absolutely no difference anyway, right up until it does. And then you just die.

[Anonymous Coward]

Tricky issue for the Saudi rulers...

Let's assume that the journalist indeed entered the embassy, never came out, but instead met a specialist team sent from his homeland... Last I heard Saudi Arabia is a country that will punish a thief by cutting off his hand. I wonder what their punishment for premeditated murder might look like?

If you look for a fall guy (or a dozen, based on the Turkish investigation), things get tricky if the fall guy might loose a head. Maybe that explains the very slow PR coming out of Riad... It's a very tricky issue!

In a movie plot, the guilty parties might now start to disappear to protect the higher powers (leaving, of course, the lone hero fighting for his life...). Let's see how good the writers are for this reality show.