There’s a ‘smoking saw’: Senator says after CIA briefing
WASHINGTON: US lawmakers on Tuesday heard the CIA’s assessment about Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the agency’s director, who confirmed what they have long suspected.
“There’s not a smoking gun there’s a smoking saw,” Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator and an ally of US president Donald Trump, told reporters after the briefing from Gina Haspel at the US Congress.
“You have to be wilfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organised by people under the command of MBS (as the prince is known), and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi,” Graham said.
The reference to the saw was the bone-saw the killers had allegedly used to dismember Khashoggi’s body.
“If he (Bin Salman) was in front of a jury, he would be convicted in 30 minutes,” said Bob Corker, another Republican senator but a Trump critic.
Senators had sought a briefing from Haspel about the CIA’s assessment that Bin Salman was behind the killing. Secretary of state Mike Pompeo and defence secretary James Mattis had said there wasn’t enough evidence to link the killing directly to the Saudi crown prince.
In response, Republicans and Democrats had joined hands to vote to bring in a legislative measure halting US support to the Saudi-led ruling forces in Yemen fighting Iranian-backed Houthis.