The United States received a payment of $100 million from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the same day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Riyadh to discuss the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia publicly pledged the payment to support U.S. stabilization efforts in northeastern Syria in August, but questions persisted about when and if Saudi officials would come through with the money. Sigh … cleaning up a crisis sometimes calls for digging deep in the coffers.
Also Tuesday, President Donald Trump floated the idea of rogue killers when he stopped to talk to reporters at the White House as he left to inspect hurricane damage in Florida and Georgia. He said he had talked to King Salman and “the king firmly denied any knowledge of it. I don’t want to get into the king’s mind, but it sounded to me like these could have been rogue killers. I mean, who knows? We’re going to try to get to the bottom of it.”
Do you believe those firm denials? Both the king and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have denied knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi, who went missing Oct. 2 while attempting to acquire a marriage license.
The Turkish government has told U.S. officials that there are video and audio recordings that prove Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate in Istanbul. Turkish news organizations say Khashoggi was wearing an Apple Watch, which was connected to other devices and authorities recovered the audio from his iPhone and his iCloud account. The journalist reportedly had given his phones to his fiancée before entering the consulate.
The killing was ordered by the crown prince who was not pleased with Khashoggi’s coverage of the royal family, according to multiple news reports. The Saudis are said to be preparing a cover story that will attribute Khashoggi’s murder to the excesses of a team that was dispatched to interrogate him. That would, of course, deflect blame from the crown prince, who is believed to have ordered and overseen the operation.
Free speech and human rights aren’t big priorities in Saudi Arabia, but they are flush with cash and oil so U.S. presidents and others have a history of looking over things like the majority of the 9/11 terrorists being from the kingdom.
But some are apparently getting fed up. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been one of the kingdom’s most loyal friends, has had a change of heart. “This guy is a wrecking ball,” he said of Salman. “He had this guy murdered in a consulate in Turkey, and to expect me to ignore it — I feel used and abused,” said Graham, who is typically a close ally of Trump’s. He told Fox News Tuesday night that “There’s a difference between a country and an individual, but Mr. bin Salman is toxic and he can never be a leader on the world stage.”
Interesting. Graham calls the crown prince a toxic, wrecking ball. Trump suggests the denials of Saudi royals should be trusted.
Given Graham’s past relations with the country and the fact that Trump has raked in millions selling luxury apartments and renting hotel rooms to the Saudis, I think I’ll trust Graham’s instincts on this one.
Shea Wilson is the former managing editor of the El Dorado News-Times. E-mail her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @SheaWilson7.