Senate briefing solidifies view of Saudi prince

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senior senators on Tuesday said that a classified briefing by the CIA director had only solidified their belief that Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, ordered the killing of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

Prince Mohammed “is a wrecking ball,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters after an hour-long briefing by Gina Haspel, the CIA director. “I think he’s complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi to the highest level possible.”

Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the Appropriations Committee chairman, echoed that “all evidence points to that, that all this leads back to the crown prince.”

“This is conduct that none of us in America would approve of in any way,” Shelby said.

The clear and biting assessment put Republican senators at odds with the White House, which has steadfastly refused to cast blame on Saudi Arabia’s leadership for the death of Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist. His killing sparked international outrage over the kingdom’s heavy-handed tactics and renewed attention to the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Senators, however, were divided as to what steps to take next, following a stinging vote last week to consider a measure cutting off U.S. military aid to Saudi Arabia’s campaign.

“Somebody should be punished, but the question is: How do you separate the Saudi crown prince from the nation itself ?” Shelby said.

Graham said he would not vote for the Yemen resolution. Instead, he said, he would rally support for a different, broader effort against the kingdom — to cut off arms sales and military aid for the war in Yemen, and impose new sanctions on those responsible for the killing, including the crown prince.

“There is not a smoking gun, there’s a smoking saw,” Graham said. “You have to be willfully blind” not to see it. He was referring to a bone saw that Turkish officials have said was used to dismember Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

President Trump has maintained his support for Saudi Arabia and, specifically, Prince Mohammed. In an extraordinary statement last month that appeared calculated to end debate on the killing, Trump said it was possible that the crown prince “had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”

“We may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,” Trump added in the Nov. 20 statement. “In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Last week, the White House dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to persuade senators to stay the course with Saudi Arabia, a key Middle East ally, in the interest of national security.

But U.S. officials have said that the CIA has concluded that Prince Mohammed ordered the Oct. 2 killing.