Senators move to act against Saudis
The Senate delivered a historic rebuke of Saudi Arabia and President Donald Trump’s handling of the fallout over journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing last month, as a decisive majority voted to advance a measure to end US military support for the Saudiled war in Yemen.
The 63-to-37 vote is only an initial procedural step, but it nonetheless represents an unprecedented challenge to the security relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia.
The vote was prompted by lawmakers’ growing frustration with Trump for defending Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s denials of culpability in Khashoggi’s death, despite the CIA’s finding that he had almost certainly ordered the killing.
Their frustration peaked shortly before the vote, when senators met behind closed doors to discuss Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi and Yemen with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis — but not CIA Director Gina Haspel, who did not attend the briefing.
Her absence so incensed lawmakers that one of the President’s closest congressional allies threatened not only to vote for the Yemen resolution, but also to withhold his support from “any key vote” — including a government funding bill — until Haspel was sent to Capitol Hill for a briefing. “I am not going to blow past this,” Senator Lindsey Graham, R, said.
In a statement, CIA spokesman Timothy Barrett said “the notion that anyone told Director Haspel not to attend today’s briefing is false.”
He added that Haspel, who travelled to Turkey to listen to a recording of Khashoggi’s killing and review evidence in the case, had fully briefed congressional leaders and members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. But only one of the 14 Republicans who voted to move ahead with the Yemen resolution has been briefed. Trump, Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton all have pointedly said they have not listened to the tape.
The pressure is now squarely on Trump not just to dispatch Haspel to the Hill, but also to take concerted steps to hold Mohammed accountable before the Senate makes its next move, which is likely to come next week.
“There’s ways that the Administration, even rhetorically, can help change the dynamic,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R, said shortly before the vote. He added that while “Saudi Arabia is an ally, of sorts, and a semi-important country, we’ve watched innocent people be killed . . . We also have a crown prince who is out of control.”