[throwaway210222]

Does America's ex-military personnel really teach people to dismember bodies?

Is that an actual course, or did foreign psychopaths (albeit with state department approval) get training in actual military stuff (shooting, ironing beds, polishing boots, logistics, etc.) and then go on all by themselves to butcher journalists with a carving knife?

I don't see the link here, other than a bit or outrage and a wee dopamine hit.

[fvdessen]

Maybe not a training in ‘dismembering’ but America has a long experience in using torture and teaching it to allied military/paramilitary groups

[74d-fe6-2c6]

Is that even something you need to learn? How difficult can it be for several men to kill a single journalist in a controlled and protected environment like a room in an embassy, then cut the body up and transport it away. That's not exactly rocket science.

I think the relevance of this news is generally that Murica trains agents of oppressive states.

[amelius]

Yeah the difficult part would be to keep it a secret, including all the gory details. But they failed at that which makes me question their expertise.

[throwaway210222]

> Yeah the difficult part would be to keep it a secret

Not really.

Even third-year chemistry students know that the only way to dispose of a body is to oxidise it carbon and water vapour in a plastic lined bathtub and a few litres of perchromic acid.

Science, people.

[saiya-jin]

Torture is/was definitely part of even standard military training ie prior to Vietnam deployment for common soldiers. Electric wires on genitalia for example. I would expect that if one dictator sends their spec-ops personnel for US training, the goal is not to improve their techniques of ironing beds or polishing boots, rather more practical topics useful to that dictator.

I can easily see how an additional training in torture, logistics etc. could have helped perpetrators organize and perform the act. Although they would probably managed to kill him even without it in some way or the other.

One of the things I would hate if living in US - not such a great feeling knowing some part of your taxes goes into directly supporting things like this, whether you like it or not...

[throwaway210222]

Sure, but I just cannot for the life of figure me out, how adults (the Saudi operatives) needed to go on the American course to work out that they can kill someone an chop him up with a really sharp knife.

You only need to have one barbeque at your home to work that out.

If training → crimes, then surely we should be more worried about training Saudi butchers and chefs?

The real and IMO only reason the crime occurred as it did is that the Saudi's guessed correctly that the US (and others) would let them get away with it.

[beerandt]

I just assumed they never intended to kill him, at least not there or right away, but that their "handling" or torture triggered some health condition, and cutting him and bailing were just plan B.

Which if true, isn't a ringing endorsement for the quality of torture training they received.

[pvaldes]

> how the Saudi operatives needed to go on the American course to work out that they can kill someone an chop him up with a knife.

Is the post-killing truth part what matters. Everybody can kill, but killing in broad daylight in front of the entire planet and without consequences needs some planning and complicity. They didn't a great job hiding it the last time, so it seems that the little rascals need reinforcement private classes.

[baybal2]

At least in school of Americas, they did

[pvaldes]

> Does America's ex-military personnel really teach people to dismember bodies?

Would be that more evil than throwing tied men and women alive to the sea from helicopters so they drown, while kidnapping their babies at the same time? I don't think so.

[swarnie_]

Its a testament to the US military that i can't tell who you're referring to here.

[the_only_law]

They’re likely referring to Pinochet, the dictator the US had installed in Chile. He was known to throw people out of helicopters for things like wrongthink, which of course is a funny meme now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_flights#Chile_under_Augu...

[selimthegrim]

Argentina, not Chile IIRC

[watwut]

The training stuff show concrete practical support these units got. Khashoggi is not first or only person every killed by Saudi states. When you are training Saudi units, you know exactly that they will be used against political opponents, against activists and so on.

[ReptileMan]

Khashoggi was no mere journalist. There is a simple rule in dictatorship governments that the head of the opposition media is even more trusted and loyal person than the people heading the official party media.

He was a bit like Litvinenko - not nice, but not worth shedding too much tears for him.