Why the Saudis Had to Cut Up Khashoggi’s Body

The cut-up remains of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s body were found in the garden of the Saudi consul general’s home in Istanbul home, about 500 meters from the consulate where the Saudis have now admitted he was murdered, according to a number of sources.

While conflicting narratives of the murder swirled around the media leading up to discovery of his body parts, a couple of important questions must answered: Why did the issue of dismemberment become so pronounced in the battle of the narrative? What is its psychological meaning?

One of the first narratives, floated by the Turks, claimed that Khashoggi was murdered within two minutes of setting foot in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Turks claimed Khashoggi was tortured, dismembered and beheaded by a hit team of 15 which included Dr. Salah Muhammed al-Tubaigy, Saudi Arabia’s leading forensic specialist, who brought along a bone saw and is said to have requested music to listen to while dismantling the body.

As Clarion Project pointed out, this gory narrative immediately put a strain on the kingdom’s diplomatic relations with the U.S.

Gruesome, brazen and barbaric were some of the terms that were thrown around in response to learning his fingers were cut off first, then his head and finally his body was chopped into small pieces in order to “disappear” it from the crime scene.

Images of such a sadistic act were the linchpin in inciting the political debacle. Yet, since the remains of Khashoggi’s body had not been found yet, it also served to precipitate a war over who controlled the narrative. With this “memory” destroyed, who owned the truth?

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The obsessive/addictive practice of dismemberment runs so deep in Saudi culture that reforms like opening cinemas and “letting” women drive serve as mere band aids for a culture devoid of empathy and critical thinking, a culture floundering to modernize. Some may argue the Saudis do have empathy, but it is a narcissistic empathy at best and only for their own, not for the other.

The gruesome, brutal and barbaric slaughter of a human being is a profound psychological attack on all of us. This is how terrorism works. The act constitutes “dis-memorying,” wiping out the memory of what it means to be human in order to terrify, paralyze and force the other into submission.

Such thinking can be found in the Saudi consulate crime scene. The sadism of the act of dismemberment seduced the terrified public.

In the end, this murder does not bode well for Saudi Arabia. It exposed the horrific mentality of one of the Western World’s primary trade, political and military powers. A first step in making amends would be for MBS to redesign his country’s national flag and remove the sword, the tool of dismemberment.