President Trump continued to stand by Saudi
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this
week, even as the CIA concluded that the
prince ordered the murder and dismemberment
of dissident Saudi and Washington
Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Post
and The New York Times both reported
that CIA officials are now confident that
Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler approved
the clandestine mission to assassinate
Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s consulate
in Istanbul. The assessment is based on intercepted
Saudi communications, including
a phone call made by a member of the 15-person kill squad to one
of the crown prince’s senior aides shortly after the grisly killing.
“Tell your boss,” the assassin told the aide. In a written statement,
Trump conceded that “it could very well be that the crown prince
had knowledge of this tragic event,” but added, “Maybe he did
and maybe he didn’t!” Trump praised Saudi Arabia as a “great
ally” and said the kingdom is indispensable to U.S. interests in the
Middle East, including fighting terrorism and containing Iran.
The White House has so far imposed sanctions on 17 Saudi nationals
linked to the crime, but it has stopped short of implicating the
crown prince, despite growing domestic and international pressure.
The Saudis continue to deny that the prince had any involvement.
Last week, a Saudi prosecutor recommended the death penalty
for five of the 11 suspects charged in the killing. In his statement,
Trump said further punishing the Saudis would not be in U.S. interests.
“America First!” Trump said.
“How stupid does Saudi Arabia think people are?” said USA
Today. In the weeks since Khashoggi’s disappearance, the explanations
out of Riyadh have becoming increasingly implausible,
going from outright denials to trying to pin the murder on rogue
operatives. If Trump doesn’t impose severe sanctions—diplomatic,
economic, and military—on both the Saudis and Prince Mohammed,
it will be “tantamount to letting him get away with murder.”
Sadly, it appears that “nothing can disrupt the White House’s
bond” with the prince, said The Washington Post, even the findings
of American intelligence agencies. It’s
true that the U.S. can’t completely abandon
its strategic relationship with Saudi
Arabia. But the Trump administration is
“mistakenly conflating” the Saudi regime
with a 33-year-old princeling whose
“toxic record of recklessness” began long
before Khashoggi’s murder. That includes
instigating a catastrophic war in Yemen
that has done nothing to achieve the ostensible
goal of reining in Iran. “The Saudi
royal family cannot afford and will not
allow a rupture with the United States.”
The prince is expendable.
What the columnists said
Trump “has never wanted to make a big deal” out of Khashoggi’s
killing, said Jonathan Swan in Axios.com. Privately, he’s been
telling aides that other countries America deals with “do a lot of
bad things,” and he can’t understand why the murder of one man
has garnered so much attention. His only agenda is to “get back to
business with the Saudis.”
“Trump might well decide that broader U.S. goals are more important
than holding the crown prince accountable,” said Erin Dunne
in WashingtonExaminer.com, but he should at least have the courage
to face the meaning of his actions. The president says there’s
“no reason” for him to listen to audio recordings of Khashoggi’s
killing, calling it “very violent, very vicious and terrible.” He needs
to listen. If Trump is willing to excuse chopping a man into bits for
the sake of stronger U.S.-Saudi relations, he should “know what
exactly it is that his administration is sweeping under the rug.”
Trump badly underestimates the depth of anger at the Saudis, said
Heather Hurlburt in NYMag.com. The list of American grievances
is long, from horror at Saudi human rights abuses, to frustration
over the kingdom’s clout in setting oil prices, to anger over
the Sept. 11 attacks and the Saudi role in “incubating’’ Al Qaida.
Polling shows that the kingdom is increasingly unpopular in both
parties, freeing up congressional Republicans to overrule Trump
and join with Democrats in cutting off arms sales and imposing
sanctions. The U.S.-Saudi reckoning may have finally arrived.
“That’s what the death of one man can do.”
