Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 190
Trump Is Everywhere
“The White House is preventing the CIA director, Gina Haspel, or any other intelligence official from briefing the Senate on the murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi,” The Guardian reports.
“Officials made it clear that the decision for Haspel not to appear in front of the committee came from the White House.”
President Trump said that the CIA did not come to a conclusion that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman directed the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Axios reports.
Washington Post: “Trump brushed aside the intelligence community’s assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing and reiterated that Saudi Arabia was too valuable an ally to lose over the incident.”
Said Trump: “I hate the crime… I hate the coverup. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do.”
Of course, the CIA did come to a conclusion, saying they believe with “high confidence” that MBS was behind the killing.
“Once again, our President proves that you can’t buy a moral compass. And Saudi Arabia proves that you can, on the other hand, buy a President.”
— Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar (D-MN), responding on Twitter to President Trump’s statement that the U.S. will stand by Saudi Arabia even if Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
President Trump said in a statement today that whether or not Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the U.S. will stand by Saudi Arabia.
“A top White House official responsible for American policy toward Saudi Arabia resigned on Friday evening, a move that may suggest fractures inside the Trump administration over the response to the brutal killing of the dissident Jamal Khashoggi,” the New York Times reports.
“The official, Kirsten Fontenrose, had pushed for tough measures against the Saudi government, and had been in Riyadh to discuss a raft of sanctions that the American government imposed in recent days against those identified as responsible for the killing.”
“The White House is looking for ways to remove an enemy of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. in order to placate Turkey over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” NBC News reports.
“Trump administration officials last month asked federal law enforcement agencies to examine legal ways of removing exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen in an attempt to persuade Erdogan to ease pressure on the Saudi government.”
“Shortly after the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed last month at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, a member of the kill team instructed a superior over the phone to ‘tell your boss,’ believed to be Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that the operatives had carried out their mission,” the New York Times reports.
“The recording, shared last month with the C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel, is seen by intelligence officials as some of the strongest evidence linking Prince Mohammed to the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, a Virginia resident and Washington Post columnist whose death prompted an international outcry.”
“Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman described slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a dangerous Islamist days after his disappearance in a phone call with President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and national security adviser John Bolton,” the Washington Post reports.
“In the call, which occurred before the kingdom publicly acknowledged killing Khashoggi, the crown prince urged Kushner and Bolton to preserve the U.S.-Saudi alliance and said the journalist was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group long opposed by Bolton and other senior Trump officials.”
“Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), one of the most outspoken critics of President Trump in the Senate Republican Conference, is due to relinquish the Foreign Relations Committee gavel to Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), a Trump loyalist who will be much more likely to defend the president next year,” The Hill reports.
“The looming leadership change on the committee could make it more difficult for Corker to press the administration on its Saudi Arabia policy, which is under increased scrutiny following the death of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said that Jamal Khashoggi was killed in a planned operation, based on information it received from Turkish investigators in Istanbul, reversing earlier statement that the journalist had died in fistfight, the Washington Post reports.
President Trump was asked by reporters about Saudi officials killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi:
REPORTER: Mr. President, why do you think something like this could have happened? Do you think that there was a failure at the leadership on the world stage, that Saudi Arabia wasn’t concerned about the ramifications?
TRUMP: They had a very bad original concept. It was carried out poorly. And the cover-up was one of the worst in the history of cover-ups. Very simple. Bad deal. Should have never been thought of. Somebody really messed up. And they had the worst cover-up ever. And where it should have stopped is at the deal standpoint, where they thought about it. Because whoever thought of that idea I think is in big trouble, and they should be in big trouble. Okay?
“Body parts belonging to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi have been found,” according to Sky News.
Sources said the writer had been “cut up” and his face “disfigured.”
“One source also suggested Mr Khashoggi’s remains were discovered in the garden of the Saudi consul general’s home — situated around 500 meters away from the consulate.”
“President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, having promised to reveal the ‘naked truth’ of a Saudi plot to kill the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said on Tuesday that a team including Saudi generals had flown in to carry out the mission,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Erdogan’s much-anticipated address came after more than two weeks of carefully orchestrated leaks to the media by Turkey that implicated the highest levels of the government of Saudi Arabia in the death of Mr. Khashoggi.”
Said Erdogan: “Covering up this kind of savagery will hurt the conscience of all humanity. Saudi Arabia took an important step by accepting the murder. After this, we expect them to reveal those responsible for this matter.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, illustrating how the White House is retaining close ties with the embattled Middle Eastern leader despite a growing international outcry, the Washington Post reports.
Mnuchin opted not to attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia this week amid uproar about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
“I’ve been the leading supporter along with John McCain of the U.S.-Saudi relationship. I feel completely betrayed.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by CNN.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he’ll “go into details” about the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at meeting of his AKP party’s parliamentary group on Tuesday, Bloomberg reports.
Said Erdogan: “Why did 15 people come here, why did 18 people get arrested? All of this must be explained with all details.”
A member of the Saudi “hit squad” which apparently carried out the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was seen on surveillance video dressed up in the writer’s clothes on the day he was killed, CNN reports.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister denied that the kingdom’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, had any prior knowledge of an operation that resulted in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and said that the agents involved “weren’t people closely tied” to the crown prince, the Washington Post reports.
Said Adel al-Jubeir: “This was an operation that was a rogue operation. This was an operation where individuals ended up exceeding the authorities and responsibilities they had. They made a mistake when they killed Jamal Khashoggi.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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