USA TODAY International Edition
Lawmakers assail new CIA chief’s absence
Ex-agency head Pompeo at Khashoggi hearing
WASHINGTON – Lawmakers were furious Wednesday about CIA Director Gina Haspel’s absence from a contentious, closed-door briefing on the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi – and the session seemed to increase support in Congress for legislation rebuking Saudi Arabia for its role in his death.
That was the opposite of the intended effect, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis warning lawmakers against congressional action during the hourlong classified briefing. But their pitch fell flat, and it even seemed to alienate some lawmakers who were hoping to be persuaded that the Trump administration would forcefully punish Saudi Arabia for its role in Khashoggi’s death so that Congress would not have to act.
“It was unpersuasive,” said Sen. Jeff Flake, RAriz., who added that “nobody was happy that (Haspel) wasn’t there.”
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., accused the Trump administration of engaging in a “cover-up” by refusing to allow Haspel to participate in the session.
“Not having Gina Haspel, the CIA director, at this briefing is a cover-up to a critical question that the members of the Senate have as to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi,” he said. “It’s outrageous that the Senate can be stonewalled from hearing from the CIA director.”
Flake and Menendez were among those who said they would now vote in favor of a proposal to force the Trump administration to withdraw U.S. military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen – a horrific conflict that has become increasingly controversial in the wake of Khashoggi’s murder inside a Saudi consulate in Turkey last month.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he, too, was now “very likely” to vote in favor of at least taking up the Yemen measure so that lawmakers could debate and amend it.
“I think 80 percent of the people left the (briefing) this morning not feeling like an appropriate response has been forthcoming,” Corker said. He predicted that the Senate debate “will be the Wild West,” with free-flowing amendments on a foreign policy flashpoint.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the Senate had “never tried this before” and would be heading into uncharted waters. Durbin also said Pompeo and Mattis told senators the White House made the decision not to allow Haspel to attend the briefing. CIA spokesman Timothy Barrett said that “the notion that anyone told Director Haspel not to attend today’s briefing is false.”