Tag: Jamal Khashoggi

Trump joked about Jamal Khashoggi’s grisly murder in phone calls to Saudi prince: report

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Former president Donald Trump cracked a joke about the grisly murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives, according to a new report.

The October 2018 murder of the U.S.-based journalist set off a crisis inside the White House, and Trump personally called Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father King Salman seeking answers about the slaying in Turkey, reported Yahoo’s “Conspiracyland” podcast.

“The president had multiple calls with MBS and with King Salman, specifically asking them, did you know anything about this?” said Kirsten Fontenrose, then the director of Gulf affairs at the National Security Council. “The president would flat-out ask, I mean, up to a dozen times on any individual phone call, whether it was with King Salman or with MBS or both of them, ‘Did you have any knowledge of this operation?’ ‘Did you know this was going to happen?’ ‘Did you give this order?'” Continue reading.

U.S. releases report finding Saudi prince approved Khashoggi operation

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Driving the news: The White House also announced sanctions on entities implicated in the murder, though not on MBS directly. Officials also announced a new “Khashoggi ban” under which individuals accused of harassing journalists or dissidents outside their borders can be barred from entering the U.S. 

Why it matters: The grisly October 2018 murder of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul sparked worldwide outrage and calls for the U.S. to fundamentally reevaluate its relationship with the Gulf kingdom.

  • Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines pledged in her Senate confirmation hearing to comply with a law passed by Congress in 2019 that required ODNI to release the names of the Saudi officials believed to be responsible or complicit in Khashoggi’s killing within 30 days. Continue reading.

Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancee and pro-democracy group he founded sue Saudi crown prince in his slaying

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The fiancee of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and a human rights organization he founded shortly before his death have accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of ordering Khashoggi’s killing to “permanently silence” his advocacy for democratic reform in the Arab world.

In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Hatice Cengiz and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) alleged that Khashoggi was tortured, murdered and dismembered “pursuant to a directive of Defendant Mohammed bin Salman.”

The crown prince and two dozen named co-defendants “saw Khashoggi’s actions in the United States as an existential threat to their pecuniary and other interests and, accordingly, conspired to commit the heinous acts that are the subject of this suit,” it said. Continue reading.

Saudi sentencing in Khashoggi killing draws criticism — except from White House

The Hill logoSaudi Arabia’s death sentence Monday for five people connected to journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing after a trial shrouded in secrecy has prompted widespread criticism — except from the White House.

The White House has not issued an official statement as of Monday afternoon, but a senior administration called the sentencing an “important step.”

“This is an important step in holding those responsible for this terrible crime accountable, and we encourage Saudi Arabia to continue with a fair and transparent judicial process,” the official said.

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Jamal Khashoggi’s death made the Saudi crown prince a pariah. Trump has helped rehabilitate him on the world stage.

Washington Post logoAt the annual Group of 20 gathering of world leaders in Osaka, Japan, in June, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, beamed before cameras as he stood center stage between President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a carefully choreographed group photo. He grinned as he sat with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And he shook hands joyously with South Korean President Moon Jae-in after the two countries struck agreements and contracts worth $8.3 billion.

The world leaders’ embrace of Mohammed was a clear signal that the young prince, who the CIA, U.S. allies and a United Nations investigator say is responsible for the savage killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, was being welcomed back, if reluctantly, into the community of nations. And it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Trump and his secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.

Wednesday will mark one year since Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents in that country’s consulate in Istanbul. Mohammed, who rose to power promising transformational social and economic change in one of the world’s most strategically important countries, and who was praised by prominent writers and American executives as heralding a bright future for Saudi Arabia, quickly became a pariah.

View the complete September 28 article by Shane Harris and John Hudson on The Washington Post website here.

Trump brushes off calls to investigate Jamal Khashoggi’s death

Days after a U.N. expert called for further investigation of Saudi Arabian officials’ involvement in the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, President Trump declined to say whether he would hold the country’s leaders responsible and asserted that it was in the United States’ best interest to “take their money.”

In a Sunday interview on “Meet the Press,” Trump revealed that he recently had “a great conversation” with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in which he did not raise the issue of the U.N. report or Khashoggi’s killing in October.

“I think it’s been heavily investigated,” Trump said, when host Chuck Todd asked whether he would order the FBI to investigate, as the United Nations has recommended. “I’ve seen so many different reports.”

View the complete June 23 article by Kayla Epstein on The Washington Post website here.

U.N. investigator calls for probing Saudi officials in Khashoggi killing

Suspicions over the role of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the coldblooded murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi returned to the spotlight Wednesday, as a special U.N. investigator called for a criminal investigation of high-level Saudi officials.

Agnes Callamard, a human rights expert who is a special rapporteur for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, released a 101-page report on her months-long inquiry into Khashoggi’s death last year at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Callamard faulted the United States and other countries for not exerting more pressure on Saudi Arabia despite “credible evidence” that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was likely involved in some way. She called for sanctioning and freezing the prince’s assets until he is either cleared or implicated by a U.N. investigation.

View the complete June 19 article by Carol Morello and Kareem Fahim on The Washington Post website here.

It’s Jamal Khashoggi all over again with Trump and Otto Warmbier

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified March 27, answering questions from Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) about the death of U.S. student Otto Warmbier. (C-Span)

Pompeo has now repeatedly declined to blame Kim Jong Un personally for human rights abuses

When the president you serve speaks glowingly about strongmen, it makes your job as his chief diplomat more difficult. Yes, sometimes you have to deal with such leaders, but you also need to avoid legitimizing them. You may be on the verge of cutting a deal, but does that mean you give the autocrat a pass on humanitarian abuses — even ones directly involving the United States?

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been through this already with Jamal Khashoggi. Now he’s going through it with Otto Warmbier.

And on Wednesday, he got testy over it.

View the complete March 27 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

GOP livid with Trump over ignored Khashoggi report

“It’s not a good way to start the new Congress in its relationship with the Foreign Relations Committee,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of President Donald Trump’s decision to disregard Congress’ will on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Credit: Alex Wong, Getty Images

Senate Republicans are fuming at President Donald Trump for telling lawmakers he would disregard a law requiring a report to Congress determining who is responsible for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The uproar among Republicans is just the latest example of their deep discontent with the president’s foreign policy. It could prompt even more defections in favor of a Democrat-led resolution coming before the House and Senate this month to cut off U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen’s civil war.

“It’s not a good way to start the new Congress in its relationship with the Foreign Relations Committee,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican on that panel, in an interview. “It violates the law. And the law is clear about those timelines. I’m urging them and I expect them to comply with the law.”

View the complete February 11 article by Andrew Desiderio and Burgess Everett on the Politico website here.

As Trump prepares for his holiday respite in Florida, he is more isolated than ever

Credit: Andrew Harnik, Associated Press

President Trump, more isolated than at any point in his presidency, is scheduled to leave Washington at the end of this week for a holiday respite: two-plus weeks at his Floridaresort, Mar-a-Lago. When he returns in January, he will be girding for what is likely to be the most difficult year yet of his tumultuous presidency.

His approval ratings aren’t much different than they were when he took office. His hardcore supporters haven’t budged. GOP elected officials remain hesitant to break with him. But his party took a beating in the midterm elections, and the legal process continues to move closer to him. Newly empowered House Democrats are preparing to challenge his authority with hearings and investigations.

Republican elected officials have stuck with him, mindful of his support among the GOP rank and file. But Senate Republicans last week joined with Democrats to deliver a pair of rebukes over the administration’s policy toward Saudi Arabia and the president’s unwillingness to condemn Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom the CIA concluded sanctioned the murder of journalist and Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Was that a one-off or cracks in the wall?

View the complete December 15 article by Dan Balz on The Washington Post website here.