Surprised no one has mentioned this, but any question that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman—or rather, Mohammed Bone-Sawman—was involved in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi may have been put to rest.
Hurriyet Daily News, the English-language edition of Turkey’s largest newspaper, claims that the CIA has a tape of the crown prince personally ordering Khashoggi’s murder.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is in possession of a phone call recording of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in which he is heard giving an instruction to “silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible,” Hürriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote on Nov. 22.
According to Selvi, CIA Director Gina Haspel “signalled” during her trip to Ankara last month the existence of the wiretapped phone call between Crown Prince Mohammed and his brother Khaled bin Salman, who is Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States.
Reportedly, Mohammed and Khaled were perturbed at the “discomfort” Khashoggi’s criticism was causing in Riyadh, and decided they had to get Khashoggi out of the way as soon as possible.
According to the New York Post, Haspel told Turkish officials that the CIA had a recording of the call, and briefed Trump on the investigation last month.
If this is at all true, there will be no defensible reason for Trump to stand by the Saudis.