There’s a ‘smoking saw’, says a senator after CIA briefing
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.
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS
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 taken the position that there wasn’t enough evidence to link the killing directly to the Saudi crown prince.
Angered by the administration’s decision to avoid letting the CIA director directly brief US lawmakers, 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.
Lawmakers are divided on what to do next. Some senators want to pass the Yemen resolution. But others, such as Graham, favour a broader measure that ceases arms sales to Saudi Arabia and slaps sanctions against all those responsible, including the crown prince.
The CIA had concluded the killing was ordered by the crown prince based on audio recordings, communication intercepts and a general understanding of politics in the kingdom.
WASHINGTON: