“The Pentagon will deploy about 1,500 extra troops to Saudi Arabia in answer to requests by the leading US military commander in the Middle East and, in part, because the US Navy is unable to send a relief aircraft carrier to deter potential Iranian aggression,” CNN reports.
“The move to bolster troops in the Middle East comes as President Trump’s decision to pull back US military forces from northeastern Syria has prompted bipartisan criticism from lawmakers.”
“Jared Kushner is expected to visit Saudi Arabia next month for an economic conference, one year after a slew of businesses and political figures boycotted the event following the grisly killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the Washington Post reports.
“The conference is at the Ritz Carlton, where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman imprisoned hundreds of the country’s business and political leaders for months in what he called an anti-corruption campaign, as he consolidated power in the oil-rich kingdom.”
“Facebook said it had found evidence of something cyber security and national security experts have long suspected: people tied to the government of Saudi Arabia have been running covert campaigns on Facebook and Instagram in a bid to prop up support for the kingdom and attack its enemies,” CNN reports.
“Thursday’s announcement is Facebook’s first public disclosure of its having found and taken down a covert influence campaign linked to the Saudi government. The people behind the campaign — who Facebook did not name but said were linked to the Saudi government — ran an expansive operation involving hundreds of Facebook pages and accounts.”
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“The Senate passed the first in a series of resolutions aimed at blocking 22 arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, dealing another symbolic blow to the Trump administration’s close ties to the Middle East allies,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
New York Times: “While the Democratic-controlled House is also expected to block the sales, Mr. Trump has pledged to veto the legislation, and it is unlikely that either chamber could muster enough support to override the president’s veto.”
Daily Beast: “Officials and staffers in the U.S. embassy in Riyadh said they were not read in on the details of Jared Kushner’s trip to Saudi Arabia or the meetings he held with members of the country’s Royal Court last week.”
“And that’s causing concern not only in the embassy but also among members of Congress.”
New York Times: “A dual citizen of Saudi Arabia and the United States had been imprisoned in the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh for about a week when he heard a knock on his door.”
“Guards dragged Walid Fitaihi, a Harvard-trained physician, to another room, according to a friend who took down the prisoner’s detailed account of his treatment. Dr. Fitaihi told the friend he was slapped, blindfolded, stripped to his underwear and bound to a chair. He was shocked with electricity in what appears to have been a single session of torture that lasted about an hour.”
“His tormentors whipped his back so severely that he could not sleep on it for days, his friend said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals. The doctor had described the physical abuse, in general terms, to his relatives as well, a person close to them said.”
“Whistleblowers from within President Trump’s National Security Council have told a congressional committee that efforts by former national security adviser Michael Flynn to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia may have violated the law, and investigators fear Trump is still considering it,” according to a new report obtained by NBC News.
Washington Post: “The officials who objected included White House lawyers and H.R. McMaster, then the chief of the National Security Council. They called for a halt in the nuclear sales discussions in 2017, citing potential conflicts of interest, national security risks and legal hurdles.”
“Yet the effort to promote nuclear sales persisted, led by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who served briefly as President Trump’s national security adviser, and more recently by Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The possible nuclear power sale was discussed in the Oval Office as recently as last week.”
“The House voted on Wednesday to end American military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, a defiant and rare move to curtail presidential war powers that underscored anger with President Trump’s unflagging support for Saudi Arabia even after the killing of a Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi,” the New York Times reports.
“The 248-177 vote, condemning a nearly four-year conflict in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians and inflicted a devastating famine, will pressure the Republican-controlled Senate to respond.”
“Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners have transferred American-made weapons to al Qaeda-linked fighters, hardline Salafi militias, and other factions waging war in Yemen, in violation of their agreements with the United States,” CNN reports.
“The weapons have also made their way into the hands of Iranian-backed rebels battling the coalition for control of the country, exposing some of America’s sensitive military technology to Tehran and potentially endangering the lives of US troops in other conflict zones.”
The U.S. Senate rebuked Saudi Arabia and President Trump over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi with a vote to end U.S. military involvement in Yemen, the Washington Post reports.
Thursday’s action is largely symbolic, as the resolution is dead on arrival in the House, where lawmakers blocked such a measure from being voted on this year.
President Trump told Reuters that “he stood by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince despite a CIA assessment that he ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and pleas from U.S. senators for Trump to condemn the kingdom’s de facto ruler.”
“Trump refused to comment on whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was complicit in the murder, but he provided perhaps his most explicit show of support for the prince since Khashoggi’s death more than two months ago.”
Said Trump: “He’s the leader of Saudi Arabia. They’ve been a very good ally.”
“Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), who is poised to lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee, plans to conduct a thorough review of US policy towards Saudi Arabia — and that could include Jared Kushner’s ties to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman,” CNN reports.
McClatchy: “Lindsey Graham laughingly says his sudden embrace of of Rand Paul is a sign of what the Bible calls ‘end times.’ Rand Paul jokes that their mind meld first needed couples’ counseling.”
“Long at odds when it comes to foreign policy, the South Carolina and Kentucky Republicans have discovered rare common ground: Fury over the role of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and frustration with the Trump administration’s support for the kingdom.”
“Senior American officials were worried. Since the early months of the Trump administration, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, had been having private, informal conversations with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son of Saudi Arabia’s king,” the New York Times reports.
“Given Mr. Kushner’s political inexperience, the private exchanges could make him susceptible to Saudi manipulation… In an effort to tighten practices at the White House, a new chief of staff tried to reimpose longstanding procedures stipulating that National Security Council staff members should participate in all calls with foreign leaders.”
“But even with the restrictions in place, Mr. Kushner, 37, and Prince Mohammed, 33, kept chatting… In fact, they said, the two men were on a first-name basis, calling each other Jared and Mohammed in text messages and phone calls.”
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) defended President Trump’s decision to stand by Saudi Arabia despite overwhelming evidence that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the murder of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, CNN reports.
Said Stewart: “We have to have to have a relationship with some players that we don’t agree with. Journalists disappear all over the country. 20 journalists have been killed in Mexico. You don’t think it happens in Turkey and China? Of course it does. And yet we have to have a relationship with these individuals, or with these countries.”
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would be convicted of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in “30 minutes” if there were a jury trial, Politico reports.
“Corker and members of both parties expressed unbridled rage at Salman in the aftermath of the briefing from CIA Director Gina Haspel, which focused primarily on how Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey earlier this year.”
Said Corker: “I have zero question in my mind that the crown prince directed the murder … zero question. Let me just put it this way. If he was in front of a jury he would have a unanimous verdict in 30 minutes. A guilty verdict.”
Washington Post: “This is completely contrary to the narrative that has been put forward by President Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.”
“There’s not a smoking gun, there’s a smoking saw.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham(R-SC), quoted by The Hill after a CIA briefing, referencing Trump administration comments that there is no “smoking gun” linking the Saudi Crown Prince to the order to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent at least 11 messages to his closest adviser, who oversaw the team that killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in the hours before and after the journalist’s death in October, according to a highly classified CIA assessment,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The Saudi leader also in August 2017 had told associates that if his efforts to persuade Mr. Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia weren’t successful, ‘we could possibly lure him outside Saudi Arabia and make arrangements.'”
Politico: World leaders shy away from confrontation over Khashoggi killing.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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