 When a Wikistrat employee asked about Khashoggi's recruitment shortly after his death, Kesler denied Khashoggi's employment with the firm.Wikistrat later admitted in an email to "Forensic News" that Khashoggi did in fact work for the firm.Articles published by "The Daily Beast" and "The New York Times" reported that the founder of Wikistrat, Joel Zamel, met with General Ahmed al Assiri, the Saudi general who ordered Khashoggi's assassination, in early 2017 to discuss covert operations to destabilize Iran.