
Murdered Saudi Rumoured to Have Used Apple Watch App to Record His Own Death - cpymchn
Several news outlets -- most prominently MSNBC (as of Oct 12 at 10pmEST) -- are reporting that Jamal Khashoggi may have used his Apple Watch in conjunction with an app like Just Press Record in order to capture audio of his own interrogation then have it be uploaded to the cloud. (It has been alleged that Khashoggi was then murdered.)<p>Turkey&#x27;s Sabah newspaper first reported the story saying the audio was recorded on the watch but then discovered on Khashoggi&#x27;s iphone -- that his finance was holding outside the walls of the embassy.<p>It has been noted that the LTE feature in Apple Watch 4 is not supported by any carriers in Turkey.<p>AppleInsider has the most uptodate coverage I could find in print:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;appleinsider.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;18&#x2F;10&#x2F;12&#x2F;saudi-journalist-used-apple-watch-to-record-own-interrogation-and-execution-report-says
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jnaina
This seems to be a fake story that the Turkish secret service is making up to
obfuscate the fact that they had listening devices planted within the
consulate office. The Apple watch can't possibly sync with his iPhone being
carried by his fiancee who was probably out of the usual Bluetooth range (30
to 50 ft), there are no LTE support for Apple Watch in Turkey, and highly
doubtful that there were public wifi that he could have used.

~~~
cpymchn
Can't you roam within your region with Watch 4?

If he was using Watch 4 with LTE and if he bought it, activated it, and paired
it to a sim in a European country with LTE support.. the LTE would still work
when he left that country to go to Turkey. No?

Khashoggi lived in Virginia so this is still unlikely but I think it is more
possible than you make it sound.

~~~
scoggs
I'm not saying this is a definite thing but he's also a journalist of a
notable and large publication who is doing international news stories abroad
in the Middle East. Would he not be a person interested in tech and savvy ways
of obtaining data / recordings / photos / video? I'm not saying that this is
something we should believe inherently but something about how sensitive
things can be with sources and obtaining the types of datas he'd be interested
in while working on the types of stories that got him into the position of
fearing for his life turns on a light, for me, that would indicate he was the
type of person interested in making his devices capable of doing as much as
possible for him. I, like others, am not completely knowledgeable about the
Apple Watch nor it's ultimate capabilities so I'll defer to the experts but
I'd assume there has to be some way to broadcast it to a device within a few
100 yards?

I could also see it being obfuscation as OP mentioned since it seems those
reporting officially on the story from Turkey have been quick to cite evidence
without showing any proof. It's very interesting all around and I've got my
eyes peeled on this story.

~~~
beenBoutIT
Assuming he had WiFi, does anyone know if this SOS feature works in Turkey?
[https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206983](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT206983)

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uptown
Maybe.

Or maybe there were listening devices in the embassy that captured the
evidence and Turkey is seeking a plausible explanation for how the audio
evidence was captured.

~~~
riffic
This sounds a lot like Parallel Construction:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction)

------
VectorLock
I wonder if she was able to see his heart rate while he was being murdered.
That some grim dark dystopian future stuff right there.

~~~
stevekemp
Pulse-data from fitbits have been used in crime-detection in the (recent)
past. For example:

[https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/4/17936722/fitbit-data-
murd...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/4/17936722/fitbit-data-murder-trial-
stepdaughter)

------
newnewpdro
I find it hard to believe such iphone/icloud evidence accessible to his fiance
wouldn't already be broadcast all over the internet for all to see if it
existed.

I do however find it easy to believe the place was bugged and Turkish
authorities may be averse to distributing such recordings demonstrating it as
fact.

~~~
everdev
Another possibility is that once you have the damning evidence you question
the people involved to see how badly they will lie. Police do this all the
time.

~~~
newnewpdro
The Suadis have already gone on the record with their own version of events.

The time is now for everyone to see the incontrovertible evidence while it
still has the world's attention.

That we still haven't seen it is rather suspect.

------
devoply
MBS seems like the new Saddam. Funny that all these Middle Eastern rulers
follow the same pattern of tyrannical rule and are undone by it when they are
eventually taken down tyrannically by much bigger tyrants... supposedly for
freedom but mostly for profit.

~~~
anoncoward111
I would offer my opinion here that it has absolutey nothing to do with any
genetic or ethnic traits belonging to Arabs or people from the Middle East.

Rather I would say that when power is in the hands of select few individuals
who are supported militarily and financially (aka politically) by other rich
and powerful entities (e,g the USA), those individuals just behave like
despots.

It seems to be human nature more often than not to behave like this, under
these specific circumstances.

~~~
closeparen
The usual explanation is that resource-extraction-dependent societies have an
entirely different set of incentives from productivity-dependent societies.
Whoever sits at the top of an industrial economy needs to invest in human
capital and high-quality institutions to keep the tax revenue flowing. Whoever
sits at the top of an oil economy only needs to keep its population out of the
way of drilling operations.

~~~
anoncoward111
I can see where you are coming from, but I don't think it's limited
specifically to just resource dependent economies. I would argue it's much
more meta than that.

A lot of things in life boil down to "pleasing the person above you so you get
support". At work, many employees will spend more time scoring points with the
manager, rather than thinking of new and innovative ways to grow revenue and
profit.

I think you can see this manifest itself in the ways the humans behave
politically. "How do I say the right things so that I can get elected/get
paid" seems to be the relevant question here rather than "What is the ethical,
rational, and equitable thing to do?"

~~~
closeparen
I’d argue that selflessly doing the right thing never really happens at scale.
Instead what we have are structures that align incentives. In a capitalist
democracy, hard to get rich without providing value, and hard to get powerful
without earning votes.

But we’re venturing dangerously close to rehashing political philosophy from
the ground up.

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forapurpose
How was this posted to HN? I thought users could either submit a link with no
commentary, or submit an Ask HN.

