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Intel: Why Turkey is leaking Khashoggi details to the media

Turkish police forensic experts arrive at the residence of Saudi Arabia's Consul General Mohammad al-Otaibi in Istanbul, Turkey October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal - RC16CC65CD00

Officially, Turkey is working with Saudi Arabia to get to the bottom of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago. Behind the scenes, however, Turkish intelligence has been leaking a steady stream of lurid allegations of his alleged demise to foreign and domestic media.

“Turkey acknowledges this is an international issue and should be dealt with on the world scene,” a senior bureaucrat acknowledged to Al-Monitor. “We want to keep the attention alive. We do not want to frame this as a bilateral issue with the Saudis alone.”

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