CIA director briefs senators on Saudi role in Khashoggi killing

Source: Washington Post

CIA Director Gina Haspel appeared on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to brief key senators on the agency’s assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman probably ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Haspel had faced mounting pressure to speak to lawmakers and more fully explain the CIA’s findings, which President Trump has said don’t conclusively show that Mohammed was involved in the assassination.

Haspel was noticeably absent last week from an all-senators briefing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Lawmakers complained that the Trump administration was depriving Congress of key information about the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, by refusing to order Haspel to go to the Hill and explain the CIA’s assessment.

The CIA has concluded that Mohammed probably ordered the killing, based in part on intercepted communications involving him and a key aide, who is alleged to have overseen the team that killed the journalist inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October, according to people familiar with the matter.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-director-briefs-senators-on-saudi-role-in-khashoggi-killing/2018/12/04/e6d6498c-f7d5-11e8-8d64-4e79db33382f_story.html