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.)

Turkey's Sabah newspaper first reported the story saying the audio was recorded on the watch but then discovered on Khashoggi's iphone -- that his finance was holding outside the walls of the embassy.

It has been noted that the LTE feature in Apple Watch 4 is not supported by any carriers in Turkey.

AppleInsider has the most uptodate coverage I could find in print:

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/10/12/saudi-journalist-used-apple-watch-to-record-own-interrogation-and-execution-report-says

[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.

[thanatos_dem]

If he has signed into hotel WiFi and his fiancée was within range of that, the phone and watch would remained connected over the WiFi network.

WRT claims that they used his fingerprint to unlock the watch, that isn’t supported, but if it were within range of a paired phone and put on a wrist, it would unlock when the phone is unlocked, potentially via Touch ID.

Edit: If I were to speculate (which is all any of us can do) I would guess that the latter is how they got access to the watch, and he and his fiancé had a family iCloud account, which the files automatically uploaded to via his phone.

[spoondan]

I agree it’s likely the office is bugged. But a pocket WiFi device the watch has previously connected to is a perfectly plausible way for him to have had Internet access.

[browsercoin]

i thought it was an open secret these embassies and other state sanctioned properties on foreign lands are pretty much fronts for HUMINT and SIGINT.

[_vn5r]

Wouldn’t the Apple Watch just fallback to whatever connectivity it can get? 3G, Edge, etc.

[Markoff]

it could be synced when they were taking issue his body passing around fiancee waiting for him, that would he distance within Bluetooth reach

also do they even need cloud, can't be content of watch synced over Bluetooth? if she had access to his phone (which would make sense to not keep phone locked from her) it would make this theory plausible

though of course bugging embassy it's much more realistic and simpler

[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

[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...

[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.

[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.

[cup]

>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

You mean Funny that all these Middle Eastern rulers are propped up by the West and only replaced when its politically expedient.

[everdev]

Name one ruler/dictator of any background that didn't do this. It has more to do with the power structure and our innate inclinations than any geography, nationality or era in history.

[forapurpose]

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