I don't think so.

I can say "Patrice Lumumba" and unless you're an armchair Cold Warrior you'll give me a blank stare. I can say "Michael Hastings" and you have to be both a journalist and a conspiracy theorist to not think I meant to say Christopher Hitchens or Michael Stipe or something. Jamal Khashoggi was cozied up to the Turkish wing of the CIA and MBS took him out to send the CIA a message. That message was heard. The CIA is now carrying MBS' water until they can find a better option and there aren't any. It's not like Jamal Khashoggi was a geopolitical naif, either. "Khashoggi" has been a name to conjure with for 60 years.

Frankly? Their last, best option was Osama bin Laden (another name to conjure with) which is probably why Ahmed Shah Massoud is dead. None of the players in this game fight Marquess of Queensbury rule and no amount of Daniel Pearl hagiography will change that. MBS is where he is because he successfully rode the power currents with American help and then consolidated. He wouldn't have taken out a Washington Post journalist if he didn't think he had total, absolute cover to do so.

Joe Biden was on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in like '74. He's known the game for 40-plus years. It's nice to pretend that he was shocked - Shocked! I say! - over a foreign despot knocking off an asset in protest to the CIA's kaleidoscopic influence peddling but Jamal Khashoggi was spookin' for Erdogan and MBS didn't like it. The CIA didn't do anything about it so he did. The end.