CIA head sent to review Khashoggi case

[Kailash Kumar]

CIA head sent to review Khashoggi case

US President Donald Trump has sent the head of the CIA to Turkey to review the Jamal Khashoggi case before he responds to claims the Saudis murdered the writer.

US President Donald Trump has dispatched the director of the CIA to Turkey in a quest to get more information about the death of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi and weigh a possible US response.

Trump said on Monday he's not satisfied with the explanations he's heard about the Washington Post columnist and critic of the kingdom who died on October 2 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Saudi Arabia has said he was killed in a fistfight, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Khashoggi's death was part of a planned operation.

On Monday, Trump told reporters at the White House: "We're going to get to the bottom of it. We have people over in Saudi Arabia now. We have top intelligence people in Turkey.

"We're going to know a lot over the next two days about the Saudi situation," said Trump. "It's a very sad thing."

The CIA declined to confirm that Gina Haspel, who directs the agency, is in Turkey. But a US official said she is in the country to review the case.

Trump spoke on Sunday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the son of Saudi King Salman.

"He says he is not involved nor is the king," Trump told USA Today in an interview aboard Air Force One on Monday en route to a political rally in Texas. The newspaper said Trump declined to say whether he believed the crown prince's denials. If their involvement was proven, Trump said: "I would be very upset about it. We'll have to see."

Trump characterised Khashoggi's incident as a "plot gone awry" and told the newspaper he didn't think the writer was deliberately lured into the consulate to be killed.

When he was asked late last week whether he thought Saudi Arabia's claim that Khashoggi died in a fistfight was credible, the president answered: "I do. I do."

That statement rankled members of congress and former government officials who have accused Riyadh of trying to cover up the truth behind Khashoggi's death or hide any evidence that the kingdom, particularly the crown prince, authorised it.

Senator Rand Paul, who has been trying to coax Trump into ending arms sales to Saudi Arabia, said on Monday that it's "laughable" to believe the crown prince was not involved in Khashoggi's death.

Trump said any US response should not involve scrapping billions of dollars in arms sales, which would hurt US defence industries and eliminate US jobs.

Whatever the US response, US ties with its Gulf ally have hit rough waters. The Khashoggi affair also has threatened to upend the relationship of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner with the crown prince.

The two men struck a bond last (northern) spring and consulted with one another frequently in private calls in the months that followed. The crown prince, known as "MBS", has drawn some praise in the West for his moves to modernise the kingdom and criticism for his government's arrests of rivals and critics.

Trump now plays down the relationship, saying the crown prince and Kushner are "just two young guys". But their back-channel relationship unnerved many in the Trump administration and Washington foreign policy establishment.

Kushner on Monday fended off criticism that the Trump administration was giving Saudi Arabia cover. He said administration officials have their "eyes wide open".

https://www.news.com.au/world/break...e/news-story/e5a9a30691ea649e2fe01ca672c5c525

 

[somebozo]

US to revoke visas of Saudis implicated in killing of writer

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration revoked the visas Tuesday of some Saudi officials implicated in the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi in its first punitive measure against its longtime Middle East partner, as President Donald Trump denounced the kingdom for one of the “worst coverups in the history of coverups.”

Shortly after Trump made the comment, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the administration was moving to revoke the visas of Saudi government and intelligence agents suspected of involvement in the death of Khashoggi.

Visa records are confidential and Pompeo was not more specific about who the revocations would affect, but the State Department later said 21 “Saudi suspects” would have visas revoked or would be declared ineligible to enter the U.S.

“These penalties will not be the last word on this matter,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. The administration “will continue to hold those responsible accountable. We’re making very clear that the United States does not tolerate this kind of ruthless action to silence Mr. Khashoggi, a journalist, with violence,” he said. “Neither the president or I am happy with this situation.”

Members of Congress have demanded that sanctions be imposed on Saudi Arabia over the killing of Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post contributor who disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2. Turkish authorities say Khashoggi was the victim of a pre-planned assassination operation while Saudi officials have conceded that he died but that his killing occurred accidentally while they were trying to convince him to return home.

Trump has resisted calls thus far to cut off arms sales to the kingdom and Pompeo stressed the strategic importance of the U.S.-Saudi relationship.





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“We continue to view as achievable the twin imperative of protecting America and holding accountable those responsible for the killing of Mr. Khashoggi,” Pompeo said. “We want to make sure that everyone understands that the United States doesn’t believe that this killing of Jamal Khashoggi was anything other than a horrific act and we hope that we can work together both with Congress and our allies to hold those responsible accountable.”

In his remarks to reporters at the White House, Trump derided the initial Saudi denial of any wrongdoing and efforts to conceal what happened to Khashoggi.

“They had a very bad original concept,” Trump said. “It was carried out poorly and the coverup was one of the worst coverups in the history of coverups. Somebody really messed up and they had the worst coverup ever.”

Saudi Arabia has claimed Khashoggi, who lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. and wrote critically about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, died accidentally in a brawl at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

But Turkish officials say a 15-men team tortured, killed and dismembered the writer and say Saudi officials had planned the killing for days.