If Trump is attempting to find a way to rationalize the Khashoggi murder-to conscience it-then he really, truly is a Sociopath. It goes far beyond just NPD with him. And it's pathological. He's gotta go. Soon. #SaturdayMorning washingtonpost.com/world/national…
2/"President Trump on Saturday spoke with CIA Director Gina Haspel after saying he would receive a briefing about the agency’s finding that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Washington Post first reported that the CIA
3/"had assessed with high confidence the Saudi leader’s role, based on multiple sources of intelligence. “We haven’t been briefed yet,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before leaving to survey damage from wildfires in California. But the president had
4/"already been shown evidence of the prince’s alleged involvement in the killing, and privately he remains skeptical, Trump aides said. He has also looked for ways to avoid pinning the blame on Mohammed, the aides said. Trump spoke with Haspel and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
5/"during his flight, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One. It was not immediately clear what the officials said, and the president made no immediate comments after landing. The president’s skepticism has put him at odds with the findings
6/"of the CIA and senior intelligence officials. Haspel and John Bolton, the national security adviser, have briefed Trump on the intelligence community’s findings, with Haspel offering the various pieces of evidence that show lieutenants of MBS — as the crown prince is known —
7/"were directly involved, according to people familiar with the matter. In conversations with his intelligence and national security advisers, the president has seized on the question of whether evidence shows that Mohammed “ordered” Khashoggi’s death, asserting that his
8/"advisers haven’t offered him definitive proof. He has also asked CIA and State Department officials where Khashoggi’s body is and has grown frustrated that the journalist’s remains haven’t been found. Khashoggi was a contributor to The Post’s Global Opinion’s section.
9/"Referring to the crown prince, Trump told reporters Saturday, “As of this moment, we were told that he did not play a role, we’re gonna have to find out what they say.” The president didn’t specify who had said Mohammed had played no role. The CIA did not respond to a
10/"request for comment. But within the White House, there has been little doubt that Mohammed was behind the killing. “This is a situation where everyone basically knows what happened,” said one adviser who talks to Trump often. This person said Trump has repeatedly criticized
11/"how Mohammed has handled the situation and has said it is clear they are hiding facts. The Saudis have offered multiple and contradictory explanations for what happened to Khashoggi since he stepped inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to obtain documents
12/"for his upcoming marriage. Once inside, Khashoggi was set upon by a team of Saudi agents who had flown to Istanbul to kill him, according to intelligence assessments by the U.S. and European governments. The team is believed to have dismembered Khashoggi and disposed of his
13/"remains. The CIA analyzed audio recording from inside the consulate, which were provided by the Turkish government, as well as intercepted phone calls, according to people familiar with the matter. One of those calls was placed by a member of the hit team from inside the
14/"consulate to a senior aide to Mohammed, informing him that the killing had taken place, according to people familiar with the call. The Saudi government has insisted that the prince knew nothing of the operation, which it has blamed on rogue actors who went beyond their
15/"authority in a mission meant to bring Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi had written critically of Mohammed’s policy and was living in a self-imposed exile in Virginia out of concerns for his safety in his native country. “The claims in this purported assessment are
16/"false,” Fatimah Baeshen, a spokeswoman for the Saudi embassy in Washington, said of the CIA findings. “We have and continue to hear various theories without seeing the primary basis for these speculations.” For more than a month, Trump has struggled to balance his interest in
17/"maintaining strong relations with the Saudi government with growing pressure in Congress and around the world to punish the Saudi regime. Trump has told aides that he wants Mohammed to stay in power and that he sees the Saudis as the best strategic check on Iran and as a
18/"vital source of oil. Mohammed has a close relationship with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser who helps to lead the administration’s Middle East strategy. Earlier this week, the Saudi public prosecutor acknowledged that a team of Saudi agents had
19/"killed Khashoggi, but he claimed that they had only been sent to bring him back to Saudi Arabia. The prosecutor has brought charges against 11 people he characterized as part of a rogue operation, and he said he would seek the death penalty for five of those involved.
20/"The Treasury Department also this week announced it would freeze the assets of 17 Saudi individuals and prohibit companies from doing business with them. Trump has accused the Saudi government of trying to coverup its role. But he has looked for ways to avoid pinning the
21/"blame on Mohammed, aides and advisers said. He has continually thought about scenarios where Mohammed would not have known what his underlings were doing, one adviser said.“It is possible that this took place without his knowledge,” Trump said in an interview last month
22/"with The Washington Post. “And now they are trying to clean up a mess.” That also contradicts the CIA’s findings. The agency determined that because Mohammed exercises absolute authority in the kingdom, it was inconceivable that an operation of such scale, involving 15 agents
23/"traveling internationally on government aircraft, could have been completed without the prince’s knowledge and authorization, according to people who are familiar with the agency’s conclusions. Moreover, several members of the hit team can be tied directly to Mohammed.
24/"Some worked on his security detail, and others have traveled in the U.S. at the same time as the prince or other senior Saudi officials, passport records and other public information show. Trump has made clear to European allies that he is uninterested in a joint response to
25/"the killing, even as pressure mounts to hold the Saudi regime accountable, according to a diplomat briefed on the calls. The adviser who talks to Trump said, “If the president had his way, he would stay entirely out of the Middle East and all of the problems.
26/"This is a problem that he wants to go away.”
~Shane Harris & Josh Dawsey, WaPo, 11/17/18
~Shane Harris & Josh Dawsey, WaPo, 11/17/18
