The conclusion about Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was obvious, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Thursday, adding he could not understand the "PR effort by the Trump administration" to take shift blame away from him.
"This was an orchestrated decision by some 15 members of the Saudi forces to go into Istanbul to lure Khashoggi into the consulate to kill him," Durbin, one of several senators to hear a briefing from CIA Director Gina Haspel this week, told CNN's "New Day." "MBS must have been part of this, as it reached the highest levels of his security force."
Senators sat down with the same intelligence analysts, including Haspel, Durbin said, and he does not understand the efforts made by the Trump administration, including comments from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis that cast doubt on the prince's involvement.
However, he said he is not accusing Mattis or Pompeo of lying, as what they mean by a smoking gun is up to them.
"But I will tell you, we were disappointed that the CIA did not make that presentation that we saw, a dozen of us saw, this last week, when they didn't make that presentation to the remainder of the senators," Durbin said.
Further, there will not be a communication from the Saudi prince admitting complicity, said Durbin, but "all roads" lead to that conclusion.
"His security force launched this attack involving so many people in the highest levels of his administration and this calculated murder of Khashoggi," Durbin said. "It could not have happened without his knowledge or at least approval, maybe with his own planning."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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