© AFP 2018/OZAN KOSE
Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel will brief US Senate leaders on Tuesday morning regarding CIA's findings about the death of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Following last week's briefing by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis, many US senators requested to hear directly from the CIA chief about the killing. Both secretaries said Washington has no direct evidence proving that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved in Khashoggi's murder.
Last month, a CIA leak to several news outlets revealed
the agency concluded with "high confidence" that Khashoggi's murder was ordered by the Saudi crown prince. However, US President Donald Trump has said that the
CIA did not have any definitive answer on whether bin Salman had been aware of the
Washington Post columnist's murder.
Khashoggi, who had been a journalist and a prominent critic of Saudi Arabia's government, went missing after he entered a Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. After weeks of denying any knowledge about his whereabouts, Riyadh admitted that the journalist had been killed inside the consulate.
On October 26, the Saudi prosecutor general acknowledged that the journalist's murder was premeditated. However, Riyadh maintains that the killing had nothing to do with the Saudi royal family, describing it as a rogue operation.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir said Khashoggi had been killed by people who criminally overstepped their authority.US lawmakers have called for harsh measures including a suspension of arms sales to Riyadh in response to both the killing of Khashoggi and mounting civilian casualties in Yemen.
Comment: If Haspel has evidence, will she make a culpability case for MbS or let it slide for future leverage over the Saudi prince?
From
USA Today:
Senators from both parties were upset that Haspel was not part of a recent closed-door session with top administration officials about Khashoggi's killing and the U.S. response. The briefing included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Questioned about Haspel's absence from last week's briefing, a CIA spokesman said that the director had already briefed congressional leaders on Khashoggi and that no one was keeping her away. In another explanation, a White House official said Haspel decided not to participate in part because of frustration with lawmakers leaking classified intelligence from such settings. The White House official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Senators, in a rare rebuke of Trump's handling of the situation, moved immediately after the briefing to punish Saudi Arabia by advancing legislation to curtail U.S. backing for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. They overwhelmingly approved the resolution, 63-37, on an unexpectedly wide bipartisan vote. The resolution is pending further action as key senators push for an end to U.S. support for the Saudi war against Houthi rebels. Human rights groups say it is indiscriminately leading to civilian deaths.
Jamal Khashoggi's fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, had messages for President Donald Trump and America in a video shown at his memorial service in Washington.
From
Zero Hedge:
[Rand] Paul, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, argued that if lawmakers aren't allowed to have access to the intelligence community's conclusions, then they can't provide oversight.
"To my mind this is the very definition of the deep state... The deep state is that the intelligence agencies do things, conclude things, make conclusions but then the elected officials are prevented from knowing about this. If we aren't told about this and I'm not allowed to know about these conclusions, then I can't have oversight. And so then state grows, the intelligence, the deep state grows and has more and more power."
"I've read in the media that the CIA has said with high confidence that the crown prince was involved with killing Khashoggi. I have not seen that intelligence nor have I even seen the conclusions. And today there's yet another briefing and I'm being excluded. So really, this is the deep state at work ... that your representatives don't know what is going on in the intelligence agencies."
Comment: If Haspel has evidence, will she make a culpability case for MbS or let it slide for future leverage over the Saudi prince?
From USA Today: From Zero Hedge: