Reader’s Links for October 20, 2018

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Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

162 Replies to “Reader’s Links for October 20, 2018”

  1. Russia says kills 88,000 Syria rebels (gulfnews, Oct 20, 2018)
    https://gulfnews.com/news/mena/syria/russia-says-kills-88-000-syria-rebels-1.2291790

    “Moscow: Russia’s defence minister said on Saturday that almost 88,000 rebels had been killed in Syria in the three years since Moscow’s intervention to back government forces.

    “Over the course of the operation, a total of more than 87,500 rebels have been eliminated, 1,411 settlements have been liberated and more than 95 per cent of Syria’s territory,” Shoigu was quoted as saying at a forum in Singapore in a ministry statement.

    “Most of the rebels have been liquidated,” Shoigu said.

    Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says close to 365,000 people have been killed during the seven-year civil war.

    Russia launched strikes in support of President Bashar Al Assad’s regime in September 2015.

    Russian air forces have carried out more than 40,000 bombing missions, hitting about 120,000 targets of “terrorist” infrastructure, Shoigu said.

    The defence minister said that “Syrian armed forces currently control territory where more than 90 per cent of the population lives.””

  2. 2018 Midterms
    George Soros Tries To Give Voting Rights To Florida Felons

    https://bigleaguepolitics.com/george-soros-tries-to-give-voting-rights-to-florida-felons/

    Florida is a major battleground for President Donald Trump considering the Sunshine State’s importance to Trump’s re-election quest in 2020.

    Democrats are making a full-court press to elect Andrew Gillum over Trump supporter Ron DeSantis, which would give Democrats the governorship when Trump comes up for re-election, and would give Democrats as many as four picks on the Florida Supreme Court, according to close observers.

    But the dirtiest play they’re pulling in Florida is known as Amendment 4.

    Amendment 4 is a ballot initiative to restore voting rights to felons in the state of Florida, similar to Terry McAuliffe’s ploy to give felons voting rights in Virginia. This would have a big impact on the 2020 election.

  3. POLICE DOCUMENTS: Robert Mueller Is Being Investigated For Allegedly Framing Right-Wing Man On Gun Charge

    Special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller is accused of framing a man on gun charges — a case that is officially under investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).

    The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation confirms on official letterhead that a criminal complaint regarding Mueller’s conduct as FBI director is stored in an investigative case file at the Bureau. The Department’s policy is not to release this information in the course of an investigation.

    Big League Politics has reviewed police audio of a conversation between Walter Fitzpatrick, witness in the case against Mueller, and TBI special agents Jerry Spoon and Mark Irwin, plus another TBI officer.

    Fitzpatrick describes his claim that Darren Huff was fraudulently prosecuted by Mueller’s FBI for the crime of “carrying a firearm in interstate commerce with the intent to use it in a civil disorder” in a supposed right-wing plot in 2010 to take over a courthouse in Monroe County. Huff served time in solitary confinement, and did not wish to be quoted in this report.

    https://bigleaguepolitics.com/police-documents-robert-mueller-is-being-investigated-for-allegedly-framing-right-wing-man-on-gun-charge/

    • I can do better than sensationalistic “Big League Politics”.

      Mueller framed four innocent men for a mob hit decades ago, covering for his pet informant-killers. With his help the two biggest Mafia families, the Patriarcas and Anguilos, remained in business.

      Mueller’s victims were exonerated after lengthy incarceration, two having died in prison. The Massachussets taxpayer shelled out $100 million in compensation.

      For Mueller’s excellent performance as Boston’s dirtiest, he was rewarded by becoming director of the nation’s top cop shop. Where he blew intelligence that might’ve prevented the Marathon Bombing.

      • I know about that one, this one is suppose to be an ongoing investigation, not that it will get anywhere or that anything will happen to Mueller.

        I take the stories where I find them.

        • I know.
          I just hate Mueller with a purple passion.
          It’s personal. He personifies the Kennedy-mob hold on power that never seems to die. Has done so much harm, continues to poison the body public.

  4. Man killed, woman escapes ‘honour’ killing in Kohistan (tribune, Oct 20, 2018)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1830322/1-man-killed-woman-escapes-honour-killing-kohistan/

    “The Directorate of Human Rights Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has taken notice of an ‘honour killing’ incident where a man was killed and a woman escaped in Lower Kohistan district on Saturday.

    The officials directed the district police to provide security to the woman.

    The accused in the case, Muhammad Uzair, killed Fazal Jameel, who he claimed was having an illicit affair with his wife, Shaheela.

    The accused was arrested on October 14 by the local police. A report of the incident has been submitted to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Hazara division.

    Uzair allegedly killed the man on the direction of local elders. His wife took shelter in her father’s house and escaped being killed. Uzair’s family had reportedly been pressurising Shaheels’s family to turn her over…”

  5. Nearly 170 casualties as violence rocks chaotic Afghan elections (tribune, Oct 20, 2018)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1830132/3-multiple-explosions-rock-kabul-voting-gets-underway-afghanistan/

    “Nearly 170 Afghans were killed or wounded in poll-related violence on Saturday, official figures showed, as the legislative election turned chaotic with many polling centres opening hours late — or not at all — due to technical glitches and lack of staff.

    In the latest attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Kabul polling centre, killing at least 15 people and wounding 20, police said, taking the number of casualties across the Afghan capital to 19 dead and nearly 100 wounded.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but the Taliban said earlier it had carried out more than 300 attacks on the “fake election” across the war-torn country.
    Violence also disrupted voting in the northern city of Kunduz where a senior health official told AFP three people died and 39 were wounded after more than 20 rockets rained down on the provincial capital…”

  6. Man nabbed for killing pizzaiolo near Ravenna (ansa, Oct 19, 2018)
    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2018/10/19/man-nabbed-for-killing-pizzaiolo-near-ravenna_f6d8f18c-eb7c-4277-836b-9fba7144d7a0.html

    “Italian police on Friday said they had arrested a young man “of foreign origin” for the murder of a 43-year-old pizzaiolo near Ravenna on the night of October 6-7.

    Rocco Desiante from Gravina di Puglia near Bari was found with his skull smashed in in his apartment at Castiglione di Cervia.

    The young man is now in jail awaiting questioning, police said.”

  7. @thebestcloser Street artist Sabo strikes the Left again, this time targeting everyone’s favorite auntie: Maxine Waters, whom he’s graciously given a starring role in one of the longest running franchises, “Halloween.”

    https://twitter.com/bstaps05/status/1053358607495036930?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1053358607495036930&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Filovemyfreedom.org%2Fla-street-artist-places-maxine-waters-head-on-halloween-billboard-photos%2F

  8. Racism rampant in Swedish pharmacies: report (sweden Oct 20, 2018)
    https://www.thelocal.se/20181020/racism-rampant-in-swedish-pharmacies-report

    “Employees of several pharmacy chains across Sweden increasingly have to contend with the racist attitudes of customers, according to a report from broadcaster SVT.

    Pharmacy customers use “the n-word”, make disparaging remarks about Muslims and demand to be serviced by “a Swede”, according to the report.

    “Unfortunately we are seeing an increase [of incidents] at our pharmacies. Several of our employees have reported it. Occasionally we have had to deny service to some customers who have behaved in a hateful manner,” Camilla Ås, a spokeswoman for state-owned pharmaceuticals retailer Apoteket AB, told SVT.

    A pharmacy worker who wished to remain anonymous told SVT that she has seen customers refuse to be assisted by black colleagues and has heard her co-workers be called the “n-word”. Another employee said she often faces comments like “you need to fit in to Swedish society” from customers, apparently referencing her headscarf.

    “I have an education and a job, how much more should I do? Even if I take off my headscarf, I’m still black. I cannot take off my skin color,” she said.

    The pharmacy chain Kronans Apotek has also reported that customers are increasingly demanding to be serviced by ethnic Swedes or telling Muslim employees to remove their religious garb. Apotek Hjärtat, another national pharmacy chain, has reported around 15 customers to the police for racist behaviour.

    Spokespeople for the pharmacies say that employees are put in a very difficult situation in which customers who have a medical need for their prescriptions also display racist and hateful behaviour. The pharmacy chains said they do not have specific guidelines for such situations.

    “Many of our customers are ill and suffer from mental health problems. That is something you have to take into consideration,” Sara Mohammar, the head of HR at Apoteksgruppen told SVT. “We have anti-discrimination policies that deal with threat and harassment between coworkers, but we haven’t had a focus on how to deal with customers.””

  9. Iran : cache-cache avec les Mollahs (ARTE Reportage)

    Au-delà de l’étroit contrôle religieux imposé par le régime des mollahs, la jeunesse de Téhéran contourne régulièrement les interdits et les lois islamiques pour bâtir son propre espace de liberté.

    La journaliste Mylène Massé, qui s’est rendue à Téhéran l’été dernier en se faisant passer pour une touriste, a pu filmer ces moments de rébellion éphémère derrière les murs des appartements, sur les hauteurs de la ville ou encore à l’intérieur des voitures.

    Avec elle, nous découvrons de jeunes Iraniens prêts à prendre beaucoup de risques pour respirer un peu.

    Parmi eux, une jeune femme et un couple homosexuel, qui nous embarquent dans leurs virées nocturnes sans jamais se départir d’une certaine prudence.

    Les Basidjis, impitoyables miliciens religieux, ne sont jamais très loin…

    En Iran, les révoltes sont secrètes, individuelles, elles se jouent à l’abri des regards, derrière des portes closes.

    Avec la peur que la police islamique ne fasse irruption.

    Alcool, fêtes, drague, Mylène Massé et Reza Madi ont pu filmer tous ces moments intimes de rébellion éphémère notamment avec une jeune femme et ses amis, ainsi qu’un couple homosexuel, révélateurs d’une société iranienne oppressée.

    • Representing the People or the Regime? Iranian Clerics and the Ongoing Erosion of their Status

      Recently published testimonies by Iranian clerics reflect their concern over the ongoing erosion of their public status, and offer a glimpse into the population’s growing alienation from them. Although this is not a new phenomenon, coverage of the issue in the Iranian media attests to its dimensions and the increased awareness within the religious establishment of its possible implications.

      As the Islamic Revolution approaches its fortieth anniversary, religion’s influence on Iranian society is waning and public confidence in the country’s clerical institutions continues to decline. In light of the intensifying economic crisis and the Islamic Republic’s failure to address adequately the hardships faced by Iran’s citizens, the clerics associated with the regime are perceived as largely responsible for its failings.

      The ongoing erosion of their status threatens to undermine the very legitimacy of the regime and to make it difficult for the Islamic Republic to ensure the continuation of “the rule of jurisprudence,” especially when Ali Khamenei will no longer be the Supreme Leader.
      http://www.inss.org.il/publication/representing-people-regime-iranian-clerics-ongoing-erosion-status/

    • Here is one about a month ago predicting the problem China is now having.

      China is on the brink of collapse: Art Laffer

    • The things you need to remember while the trade war is hurting us:

      1) If we don’t win this trade war China will end up up pushing us into the position of being a importing economy not and exporting one.

      2) Always take the economic figures that China puts out with a large grain of salt, they always lie about how strong their economy is.

      3) The Chinese economy is very weak, always has been and until they change from a command driven economy to a free market economy they will remain weak.

      4) Xi Jingping is moving the Chinese government back to the type that they had under Mao, which probably means that most of the gains in social and economic freedom will be removed from the Chinese people. He may even start a new “Cultural Revolution.”

      5: As I keep saying (ad nauseam) China needs us much more then we need them. Translation, we can keep the war going longer and still have a strong economy much longer then China can.

      6) Xi is afraid of doing anything that will give his internal enemies something to attack him with, admitting that he lost a trade war with the US would come close to being a death warrant for Xi.

  10. Exclusive: George Papadopoulos on ‘Watters’ World’

    Former Trump campaign manager and his wife speak out on having their lives turned upside down by the Russia probe.

  11. zero hedge – FBI Admits It Used Multiple Spies To Infiltrate Trump Campaign

    The Department of Justice admitted in a Friday court filing that the FBI used more than one “Confidential Human Source,” (also known as informants, or spies) to infiltrate the Trump campaign through former adviser Carter Page, reports the Daily Caller.

    “The FBI has protected information that would identify the identities of other confidential sources who provided information or intelligence to the FBI” as well as “information provided by those sources,” wrote David M. Hardy, the head of the FBI’s Record/Information Dissemination Section (RIDS), in court papers submitted Friday.

    Hardy and Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys submitted the filings in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for the FBI’s four applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Page. The DOJ released heavily redacted copies of the four FISA warrant applications on June 20, but USA Today reporter Brad Heath has sued for full copies of the documents. -Daily Caller

    Included in Hardy’s declaration is an acknowledgement that the FBI’s spies were in addition to the UK’s Christopher Steele – a former MI6 operative who assembled the controversial and largely unproven “Steel Dossier” which the DOJ/FBI used to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on Page.

    The DOJ says it redacted information in order to protect the identity of their confidential sources, which “includes nonpublic information about and provided by Christopher Steele,” reads the filing, “as well as information about and provided by other confidential sources, all of whom were provided express assurances of confidentiality.”

    Government lawyers said the payment information is being withheld because disclosing specific payment amounts and dates could “suggest the relative volume of information provided by a particular CHS.” That disclosure could potentially tip the source’s targets off and allow them to “take countermeasures, destroy or fabricate evidence, or otherwise act in a way to thwart the FBI’s activities.” -Daily Caller

    Steele, referred to as Source #1, met with several DOJ / FBI officials during the 2016 campaign, including husband and wife team Bruce and Nellie Ohr. Bruce was the #4 official at the DOJ, while his CIA-linked wife Nellie was hired by Fusion GPS – who also employed Steele, in the anti-Trump opposition research / counterintelligence effort funded by Trump’s opponents, Hillary Clinton and the DNC.

    In addition to Steele, the FBI also employed 73-year-old University of Cambridge professor Stefan Halper, a US citizen, political veteran and longtime US Intelligence asset enlisted by the FBI to befriend and spy on three members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 US election. Halper received over $1 million in contracts from the Pentagon during the Obama years, however nearly half of that coincided with the 2016 US election.

    Halper’s involvement first came to light after the Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross reported on his involvement with Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, another Trump campaign aide. Ross’s reporting was confirmed by the NYT and WaPo.

    In June, Trump campaign aides Roger Stone and Michael Caputo claimed that a meeting Stone took in late May, 2016 with a Russian appears to have been an “FBI sting operation” in hindsight, following bombshell reports in May that the DOJ/FBI used a longtime FBI/CIA asset, Cambridge professor Stefan Halper, to perform espionage on the Trump campaign.

    When Stone arrived at the restaurant in Sunny Isles, he said, Greenberg was wearing a Make America Great Again T-shirt and hat. On his phone, Greenberg pulled up a photo of himself with Trump at a rally, Stone said. -WaPo

    The meeting went nowhere – ending after Stone told Greenberg “You don’t understand Donald Trump… He doesn’t pay for anything.” The Post independently confirmed this account with Greenberg.

    Aftter the meeting, Stone received a text message from Caputo – a Trump campaign communications official who arranged the meeting after Greenberg approached Caputo’s Russian-immigrant business partner.

    “How crazy is the Russian?” Caputo wrote according to a text message reviewed by The Post. Noting that Greenberg wanted “big” money, Stone replied: “waste of time.” -WaPo

    In short, the FBI’s acknowledgement that they used multiple spies reinforces Stone’s assertion that he was targeted by one.

    Further down the rabbit hole

    Stefan Halper’s infiltration of the Trump campaign corresponds with the two of the four targets of the FBI’s Operation Crossfire Hurricane – in which the agency sent former counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and others to a London meeting in the Summer of 2016 with former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer – who says Papadopoulos drunkenly admitted to knowing that the Russians had Hillary Clinton’s emails.

    Interestingly Downer – the source of the Papadopoulos intel, and Halper – who conned Papadopoulos months later, are linked through UK-based Haklyut & Co. an opposition research and intelligence firm similar to Fusion GPS – founded by three former British intelligence operatives in 1995 to provide the kind of otherwise inaccessible research for which select governments and Fortune 500 corporations pay huge sums.

    Downer – a good friend of the Clintons, has been on their advisory board for a decade, while Halper is connected to Hakluyt through Director of U.S. operations Jonathan Clarke, with whom he has co-authored two books. (h/t themarketswork.com)

    Alexander Downer, the Australian High Commissioner to the U.K. Downer said that in May 2016, Papadopoulos told him during a conversation in London about Russians having Clinton emails.

    That information was passed to other Australian government officials before making its way to U.S. officials. FBI agents flew to London a day after “Crossfire Hurricane” started in order to interview Downer.

    It is still not known what Downer says about his interaction with Papadopoulos, which TheDCNF is told occurred around May 10, 2016.

    Also interesting via Lifezette – “Downer is not the only Clinton fan in Hakluyt. Federal contribution records show several of the firm’s U.S. representatives made large contributions to two of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign organizations.”

    Halper contacted Papadopoulos on September 2, 2016 according to The Caller – flying him out to London to work on a policy paper on energy issues in Turkey, Cyprus and Israel – for which he was ultimately paid $3,000. Papadopoulos met Halper several times during his stay, “having dinner one night at the Travellers Club, and Old London gentleman’s club frequented by international diplomats.”

    They were accompanied by Halper’s assistant, a Turkish woman named Azra Turk. Sources familiar with Papadopoulos’s claims about his trip say Turk flirted with him during their encounters and later on in email exchanges.

    Emails were also brought up during Papadopoulos’s meetings with Halper, though not by the Trump associate, according to sources familiar with his version of events. The sources say that during conversation, Halper randomly brought up Russians and emails. Papadopoulos has told people close to him that he grew suspicious of Halper because of the remark. -Daily Caller

    Meanwhile, Halper targeted Carter Page two days after Page returned from a trip to Moscow.

    Page’s visit to Moscow, where he spoke at the New Economic School on July 8, 2016, is said to have piqued the FBI’s interest even further. Page and Halper spoke on the sidelines of an election-themed symposium held at Cambridge days later. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6 and a close colleague of Halper’s, spoke at the event.

    Page would enter the media spotlight in September 2016 after Yahoo! News reported that the FBI was investigating whether he met with two Kremlin insiders during that Moscow trip.

    It would later be revealed that the Yahoo! article was based on unverified information from Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the dossier regarding the Trump campaign. Steele’s report, which was funded by Democrats, also claimed Page worked with Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on the collusion conspiracy. -Daily Caller

    A third target of Halper’s was Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis, whose name was revealed by the Washington Post on Friday.

    In late August 2016, the professor reached out to Clovis, asking if they could meet somewhere in the Washington area, according to Clovis’s attorney, Victoria Toensing.

    “He said he wanted to be helpful to the campaign” and lend the Trump team his foreign-policy experience, Toensing said.

    Clovis, an Iowa political figure and former Air Force officer, met the source and chatted briefly with him over coffee, on either Aug. 31 or Sept. 1, at a hotel cafe in Crystal City, she said. Most of the discussion involved him asking Clovis his views on China.

    “It was two academics discussing China,” Toensing said. “Russia never came up.” -WaPo

    Meanwhile, Bruce Ohr is still employed by the Department of Justice, and Fusion GPS continues its hunt for Trump dirt after having partnered with former Feinstein aide and ex-FBI counterintelligence agent, Dan Jones.

    It’s been nearly three years since an army of professional spies was unleashed on Trump – and he’s still the President, Steele and Downer notwithstanding.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-20/fbi-admits-using-multiple-spies-infiltrate-trump-campaign

  12. the gateway pundit – BREAKING: Man Steps Forward with Sexual Assault Allegations against Sen. Cory Booker — With Lawyer Response to Gateway Pundit

    Anonymous Male steps forward — Accuses Senator Corey Booker of Sexual Assault!

    An anonymous gay male stepped forward today and released a shocking description on how he was sexually assaulted by Senator Cory Booker back in 2014.

    The man claims Booker came to his workplace to speak, met him as he was coming out of the men’s room, and then pulled him back into the restroom and sexually assaulted him.

    The young man is a gay man and Democrat. The man tells a very detailed analysis on what took place at his work.

    The man says he reached out to Ronan Farrow but the #MeToo reporter did not show much interest in his story.

    The Gateway Pundit reached out to his attorney and we have have her response below.

    more :

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/10/breaking-man-steps-forward-with-sexual-assault-allegations-against-sen-cory-booker-with-lawyer-response-to-gateway-pundit/

  13. Saudi Khashoggi saw Turkey as base for a new Middle East (abcnews, Oct 20, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/saudi-khashoggi-turkey-base-middle-east-58637082

    “Friends say Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was a proud Arab who wanted to set up a base in his ancestral homeland of Turkey, contributing to the growing community of exiled Arabs who have taken refuge there.

    For Khashoggi, a history lover, the growing Arabic community and Turkey’s power in the region echoed aspects of the Ottoman empire, when Istanbul was at the center of a rich and multicultural Middle East. With millions of Arab exiles who fled their homes because of wars or oppression, Turkey has become a fertile ground for talent and ideas, a place where Khashoggi might be able to pursue his own projects, including a pro-democracy group, a media watch group, a forum to translate economic studies and launching online magazines.

    Khashoggi was planning to marry his Turkish fiancée on Oct. 3, a day after he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get his divorce from a previous marriage confirmed. He had bought a home in Istanbul and friends said he planned to split his time between there and Virginia, where he had owned a condo since 2008.

    He never emerged from the consulate. Saudi authorities said Saturday that he died in a brawl involving visiting officials, an account that has drawn widespread skepticism. Turkish pro-government media say a Saudi hit squad traveled to Turkey to kill the columnist for The Washington Post which has called for an investigation led by a U.N.-appointed panel to determine what happened.

    Khashoggi’s killing sent a chilling message to the many exiled Arabs who have taken refuge in Turkey. Several anti-government Arab TV stations broadcast from Turkey and Istanbul’s Arab Media Association has about 800 members. Turkey has also welcomed thousands of members of Egypt’s now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, after its then-President member was ousted from power by the military in 2013. Many Syrian groups opposed to President Bashar Assad have also unsurprisingly converged in neighboring Turkey, where nearly 3 million Syrians have fled to escape the war back home.

    Eiad Alhaji, a Syrian filmmaker who was working with Khashoggi on a video about an Ottoman military figure central to Arab-Turkish relations, described their time together after work and interviews.

    “We used to go together to sit and talk, two strangers outside our country and society, about what is happening with the Arabs in Turkey and in America. Me as a Syrian, and him as a Saudi Arabian,” said Alhaji.

    “He was pained to be living in exile but at the same time, he was glad to be free in his opinion and new life.”

    Another companion, Fatih Oke, of Istanbul’s Arab Media Association, said Khashoggi was an important adviser to the group and “we had plans to establish some projects.”

    In his last interviews, Khashoggi declared his support for Turkey’s policy toward Syria, while criticizing his own government’s stance.

    Saudi Arabia has grown closer to the U.S. policy in Syria, openly supporting Kurdish-led forces in eastern Syria that Turkey sees as a threat. Khashoggi had criticized his country’s rift with Turkey, arguing that an alliance between the two regional powerhouses should come more naturally than a U.S.-Saudi partnership.

    Khashoggi, once a Saudi royal family insider, grew critical of the kingdom’s rulers following their crackdown on opposition, their war on neighboring Yemen and the severing of ties with the small Gulf state of Qatar.

    Khashoggi found a “welcoming place” in Istanbul, said Azzam Tamimi, a British-Palestinian.

    “In Istanbul you don’t feel like a stranger, the people, the food, the habits,” Tamimi said. “Also, Turkey’s current political authority has been the closest to Arabs since the fall of the Ottoman Empire a hundred years ago. Erdogan and his party opened up to the Arabs.”

    Turkey has itself faced criticism for jailing more journalists during a crackdown after an attempted coup in 2016.

    Khashoggi’s ancestors lived in what is today central Turkey. The family’s name means spoon maker and its Turkish spelling is “Kasikci.”

    Alhaji, the filmmaker, said Khashoggi was an “encyclopedia” of the region’s history.

    Alhaji worked with Khashoggi on a documentary on the life of Fakhreddine Pasha, the last Ottoman governor and military commander in al-Medina who defended the city in modern day Saudi Arabia against an Arab revolt during World War I.

    The siege signaled the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of new Arab states. Khashoggi’s family was displaced during the fighting — some fled to Izmir, in modern Turkey, including his father, while others went to Damascus.

    The legacy of Fakhreddine, who fought against the birth of new nation states to preserve Ottoman influence, is a deeply divisive issue between Gulf leaders and Turkey.

    Last year, Gulf rulers, critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, compared the two, accusing Fakhreddine of robbing them of their heritage by taking manuscripts out of al-Madina to Istanbul as he left. Ankara, which sided with Qatar, responded by naming the street in Ankara of the Emirati embassy after Fakhreddine.

    “This period is a turning point for the future of all Arab countries and Middle East,” said Alhajji on what he believed Khashoggi hoped to convey with their project. “We (should) not be focused on Fakhreddine as a biography but we should deal with the history of this period.””