The pattern is now well-established. When Trump doesn't like the findings of the U.S. intelligence community, he seeks to discredit and/or downplay them. It has been widely reported that the CIA has found that there is a high degree of confidence that the Saudi Crown Prince ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Trump, nevertheless, told reporters: "It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn't! That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi." https://www.npr.org/2018/11/20/669708254/maybe-he-did-maybe-he-didnt-trump-defends-saudis-downplays-u-s-intel
In The Wall Street Journal, Mike Pompeo wrote a guest commentary the other day about efforts in the legislative branch to punish Saudi Arabia over the murder of a Washington Post reporter. He wrote: "The Trump administration’s effort to rebuild the U.S.-Saudi Arabia partnership isn’t popular in the salons of Washington, where politicians of both parties have long used the kingdom’s human-rights record to call for the alliance’s downgrading. The October murder of Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey has heightened the Capitol Hill caterwauling and media pile-on. But degrading U.S.-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the U.S. and its allies." https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-u-s-saudi-partnership-is-vital-1543362363
A number of U.S. senators, however, were not buying what Trump and his Secretary of State were selling. In a rare moment of bipartisanship, a number of Republican senators joined with their Democratic colleagues to open debate on ending U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen as a punishment for their involvement in the murder of Khashoggi. Many senators on both sides of the aisle were "pissed" over the fact that Trump did not send CIA Director Gina Haspel to the Hill to brief them on their findings. Instead, Pompeo and Mattis were dispatched to advance Trump's argument that Saudi Arabia is simply too important to U.S. interests to let a little thing like murder and dismemberment get in the way. https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/pompeo-mattis-to-brief-senate-on-saudi-arabia-khashoggi-and-yemen/2018/11/27/ee4e36c0-f28a-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?utm_term=.bacc7311aaaf
The whole incident reminds me of a similar occurrence of the Twelfth Century. King Henry II of England was apoplectic over the behavior of one of his subjects - the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. Becket had openly criticized and opposed the king's efforts to exert his control over the English Catholic Church. In frustration, the king is supposed to have said aloud "will no one rid me of this turbulent/troublesome/meddlesome priest" (the various accounts of the incident differ as to the exact wording of his statement). A short time later, some of the king's supporters went to Canterbury Cathedral and murdered the troublesome archbishop. Even in those barbaric times, however, the king had to accept responsibility for what had happened and was forced to do public penance for the deed!
It seems to me that, at a bare minimum, the Crown Prince has to acknowledge his complicity in the murder of this man and acknowledge that this isn't an acceptable way to deal with opponents. Sweeping this horrendous act under the carpet is NOT going to make it go away!
In The Wall Street Journal, Mike Pompeo wrote a guest commentary the other day about efforts in the legislative branch to punish Saudi Arabia over the murder of a Washington Post reporter. He wrote: "The Trump administration’s effort to rebuild the U.S.-Saudi Arabia partnership isn’t popular in the salons of Washington, where politicians of both parties have long used the kingdom’s human-rights record to call for the alliance’s downgrading. The October murder of Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey has heightened the Capitol Hill caterwauling and media pile-on. But degrading U.S.-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the U.S. and its allies." https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-u-s-saudi-partnership-is-vital-1543362363
A number of U.S. senators, however, were not buying what Trump and his Secretary of State were selling. In a rare moment of bipartisanship, a number of Republican senators joined with their Democratic colleagues to open debate on ending U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen as a punishment for their involvement in the murder of Khashoggi. Many senators on both sides of the aisle were "pissed" over the fact that Trump did not send CIA Director Gina Haspel to the Hill to brief them on their findings. Instead, Pompeo and Mattis were dispatched to advance Trump's argument that Saudi Arabia is simply too important to U.S. interests to let a little thing like murder and dismemberment get in the way. https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/pompeo-mattis-to-brief-senate-on-saudi-arabia-khashoggi-and-yemen/2018/11/27/ee4e36c0-f28a-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?utm_term=.bacc7311aaaf
The whole incident reminds me of a similar occurrence of the Twelfth Century. King Henry II of England was apoplectic over the behavior of one of his subjects - the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. Becket had openly criticized and opposed the king's efforts to exert his control over the English Catholic Church. In frustration, the king is supposed to have said aloud "will no one rid me of this turbulent/troublesome/meddlesome priest" (the various accounts of the incident differ as to the exact wording of his statement). A short time later, some of the king's supporters went to Canterbury Cathedral and murdered the troublesome archbishop. Even in those barbaric times, however, the king had to accept responsibility for what had happened and was forced to do public penance for the deed!
It seems to me that, at a bare minimum, the Crown Prince has to acknowledge his complicity in the murder of this man and acknowledge that this isn't an acceptable way to deal with opponents. Sweeping this horrendous act under the carpet is NOT going to make it go away!
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