This is grotesque and makes my fucking blood boil that our leadership refuses to condemn this heinous crime.
full transcript of slain Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi's final moments reveals that he told his Saudi attackers "I can't breathe," before a team of agents dismembered him, a source who reviewed the transcript told CNN.
Khashoggi, whose October death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul set off an international diplomatic crisis, protested and gasped for air as he was abducted and killed by a group of Saudi agents, some of whom have been identified as top Saudi government officials, the source told CNN.
"You are coming back," a man identified as former Saudi diplomat and intelligence official Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb told Khashoggi, CNN reported. Mutreb intercepted Khashoggi in front of the consulate.
"You can't do that," Khashoggi replied. "People are waiting outside."
According to the source, citing the transcript, a group of people then began to attack Khashoggi and he gasped for air.
"I can't breathe," Khashoggi said.
The transcript then reads, "Scream. Scream. Gasping."
"Saw," it continues, according to CNN's source. "Cutting."
Another man who Turkish authorities have identified as Dr. Salah Muhammad al-Tubaiqi, the head of forensic medicine at Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry, advised the agents to listen to music as they dismembered Khashoggi's body, the source said.
"Put your earphones in, or listen to music like me," al-Tubaiqi said, according to the transcript.
Mutreb then made a phone call, saying at one point, "Tell yours, the thing is done, it's done." CNN reported the source believes "yours" is a reference to someone's boss.
Top intelligence officials have heard and reviewed the audio recording, which was obtained by Turkish authorities.
The involvement of Mutreb and al-Tubaiqi was previously known, but the source's account provides the most insight into Khashoggi's final moments.
A Saudi official in a statement to CNN said, "The relevant Saudi security officials have reviewed the transcript and tape materials through Turkish security channels and nowhere in them is there any reference or indication of a call being made."
The transcript directly contradicts multiple official explanations put forward by the Saudi government, including one explanation that accused Khasoggi of getting into a fist fight with a team of rogue agents, and another that implied he could have been on drugs.