Where is the evidence to prove who bombed the Saudi oil fields?

Hood River News (Oregon) Letter:
What to believe?

And more information about this subject is at this link (where "real news" is reported- BBC)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49718975

Who bombed the Saudi oil field? The Saudis claim it’s the Houthis or Iran — those are the same Saudis (MBS)- Mohammad bin Aasif Salmani - who deny torturing and dismembering a member of the U.S. press, Jamal Khashoggi, and Donald Trump agrees with them.
During his administration, our president has lied or obfuscated so many times you never know what to believe; is he lying or is this actually the truth he’s speaking? They show us the so-called remains of a missile on TV — it has no discernible markings and it’s hard to believe that that much remains of a missile that blew up.
MBS, a known liar and probably involved in Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment, can’t be believed any more than our president, who indicated he was awaiting word from the Saudi’s in regard to taking action against Iran. 

Is MBS now running the Pentagon?
Just to make this mess more interesting, the Saudi’s are preparing to take Aramco (Arabian American Oil Company) public. It’s their oil company. Unfortunately, the price of oil isn’t high enough to justify the amount of money they’d like from going public, so *did the Saudi’s blow their own oil field?* It certainly raised the price of oil, at least temporarily, and when the Saudi’s deny doing this, would you believe them or President Trump no matter what they said?

If so, there’s a lovely bridge in Hood River I’d like to sell you, or maybe you prefer the Bridge of the Gods …
Rob Brostoff in Cascade Locks, Oregon

Donald Trump speaks fake words - "locked and loaded" for what?

"Trump drew a red line. And with that line, he painted himself into a corner."- The Las Vegas Sun editorial 

This is an excellent editorial!

Stupid Donald Trump spends time telling lies about what he actually says, as though people who hear his fake words have faulty auditory nerves in our ears and brains. I can't figure out how anybody with integrity can possibly work for him. Moreover, because the international community has figured out how vulnerable Donald Trump is to his own bad judgement, the world leaders are either laughing their asses off behind closed doors every time he speaks or, like the Iranian leader, Hassan Rouhani, they continue to test his stupidity, to prove his incompetence.

"Locked and Loaded" is another example of how Donald Trump uses fake words and, in so doing, continues his idiotic streak.

When will Republicans wake up to Donald Trump's ignorance?

This editorial was published in the Las Vegas Sun newspaper:

Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019

The White House has tried to walk back Donald Trump’s “locked and loaded” tweet after this past weekend’s attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, but the damage is already done.

Trump drew a red line. And with that line, he painted himself into a corner. Now, he’s left with no good options for moving forward.

Take military action? Trump repeatedly has stated disdain at getting the U.S. into another prolonged conflict, and there’s little appetite for it in Congress or even in Trump’s base. Yet if he doesn’t take action after making his reckless tweet, it will signal to Iran that it can get away with the kind of aggression it apparently carried out in the Saudi attacks.

This lose-lose situation for the U.S. is the direct culmination of the chaos of the Trump administration and the instability of Trump himself.

This is a president who acts on impulse, has no understanding of geopolitics and no interest in learning, disdains opinions that differ from his own and is motivated by self-interests. 

Also, he appeared happy to be manipulated by the Saudis, which became clear after the slaying of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and with his approval of arms sales to Saudi Arabia over a bipartisan uproar in Congress.

Jamal Khashoggi (1958-2018)

Then came Trump’s tweets after the attacks, in which he made his foolish “locked and loaded” comment and announced that the White House was waiting to hear from the Saudis “under what terms we would proceed.”

This is a dark hour. The U.S. can’t let the attacks on oil resources go unchecked, but Trump long ago demolished the crucial structure for determining how such a response is determined. In its place is a culture where staff appeases the erratic president like a petulant tyrant and even bends reality to meet his twisted version of it, as proven most recently in the Sharpie incident.

Dissension with Trump is not tolerated by the White House. Just ask the parade of Cabinet members Trump has kicked out — James Mattis, H.R. McMaster, John Kelly, John Bolton, Michael Flynn, Reince Priebus, etc.

Worse, all of his acting appointees in Cabinet and other key slots are now coming back to bite us — just when we need adults in the room, we have the withered losers Trump has gathered around him.

With this reality show approach, Trump eliminated the give-and-take that helps leaders see situations from all angles and make well-rounded decisions. His attacks on allies and praise for murderous dictators undermined America’s credibility as a global leader, and his war on facts crippled trust in the White House among Americans.

Now, with the Middle East on the verge of exploding in conflict, this is where the terrifying consequences of Trump’s election play out. The dreaded 3 a.m. call may indeed soon come.

If and when it does, it will be answered by a president who won’t or can’t even read a briefing paper. And unlike the situation with the hurricane maps, Iran won’t appease Trump’s bumbling of facts like his toady staff members did.

It is in times like these that the U.S. needs solid allies who trust our steadiness just as much as we trust theirs — and Trump has destroyed that too by savaging allies and cozying up to enemies.

If he’s not getting orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin or the Saudis — or swooning in love with North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un — he’s lost.

The Saudi attacks and Trump’s bumbling response were the outcome of tearing up the Iran agreement in the name of political theatrics and red-meat tweets to Trump’s base.

If and when the 0-dark-thirty call does come, someone — anyone — needs to make sure Trump doesn’t push the wrong button at the wrong time. Here’s hoping that situation doesn’t come to pass.

When voters go to the polls in 2020, it’s vital to remember moments like these!

Florida impeach opinion echo

          It is our ‘patriotic duty’ to impeach Donald Trump 

"...impeachment of Donald Trump is our moral and patriotic duty."

Bradenton Herald a Florida newspaper echo letter to the editor

The debate about whether or not to impeach Donald Trump has centered on removing him from office, whether the Senate would go along with it, and what the political fallout would be. However, there is more at stake than that. Our collective soul is at stake.

The word “impeach”, at dictionary.com, means: to accuse an official of misconduct in office, to bring an accusation against. There are a few other definitions, but nothing about removal from office. I realize there’s a difference between the ordinary meaning of the word and the act in Constitutional law, but the more important issue is: What is our responsibility as Americans?

The impeachment of Donald Trump is our moral and patriotic duty. Witnesses will testify to the facts regarding Donald Trump’s crimes. Tax fraud, business fraud, financial fraud, obstruction of justice, sexual assaults and more. Investigations have been conducted by highly respected professionals and the evidence has been compiled. The man is a criminal. He is a pathological liar and fraud, and has even been complicit in the cover-up of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s (1958-2018) murder. 

We know Trump knew of the evidence of the murder and he helped one of the murderers to evade justice.

Our country faces the most serious threat to our democracy that it has ever faced. We have a psychopathic criminal and demagogue occupying the office of the President of the United States. 

What are we going to do about that? Excuse him? Let him continue issuing orders as our chief executive and commander of our armed forces? We are now watching him establish concentration camps and engaging in brinksmanship with nuclear weapons.

From William Anderson, Bradenton Florida

Echo from Washington DC - Donald Trump's broken promises

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/07/trump-promised-restraint-has-delivered-more-calamitous-intervention/?utm_term=.8363ae27f68b

Trump promised restraint but has delivered more calamitous intervention- vote Blue 2020!

Echo opinion by columnist Katrina vanden Heuvel, published in The Washington Post.

The lie of “promises made, promises kept,” a favorite phrase in Donald Trump’s stump speech for reelection, is perhaps most apparent in his foreign misadventures. 

In fact, the candidate who scorned “regime change,” and promised to end the policy of “intervention and chaos,” is sowing chaos and intervening from Yemen to Iran to Venezuela and beyond. Instead of wasting money on endless wars, Trump would rebuild America’s roads and bridges. The candidate who promised restraint has only delivered more calamitous intervention.

Last week, Trump vetoed the bipartisan joint resolution of Congress directing the president to withdraw U.S. support for the war in Yemen. This veto is a particularly execrable folly. The administration is continuing to support Saudi Arabia in its unconscionable savaging of that impoverished country, creating the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Fourteen million Yemenis are facing war-induced starvation. A cholera epidemic has broken out.

After the Saudi regime assassinated Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside their consulate in Istanbul, Congress — led by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) in the House, and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) in the Senate — backed a joint resolution, under the authority of the War Powers Resolution, directing the president to end our complicity in this horror. 

Bipartisan majorities in both houses voted to end this shameful policy started under Barack Obama. Instead, Trump reasserted the claim of untrammeled executive prerogative in matters of war and peace and vetoed the resolution. Sadly, Congress failed to overturn the veto.

Meanwhile, the latest U.S.-backed coup attempt in Venezuela has sputtered, tramples international law and gives lie to Trump’s promise that “we will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with.” The administration decided that the misrule by authoritarian Nicolás Maduro, whose election as president was marred by voting irregularities, must end. It rushed to support the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, when the opposition leader announced that he was the legitimate leader of Venezuela. In an economy that has already shrunk by half over the past five years, sanctions have been tightened and tightened again, to the point that former U.N. special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas has called them “crimes against humanity.”

Trump announced that “all options were on the table.” His truculent trio of advisers — national security adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and viperous special envoy Elliott Abrams — openly threatened U.S. intervention. Frustrated by the public embarrassment of the failed coup, Pompeo warned that “military action is possible.” 

(OMG!) Bolton asserts that “the Monroe Doctrine (?) is alive and well. It’s our hemisphere,” and invokes the Roosevelt Corollary, claiming the U.S. right of unilateral military intervention anywhere in the hemisphere.  (Did Monroe refer to Venezuela, a nation that was founded in 1811? Just asking.)

James Monroe  (1758-1831)

In 2015, Trump argued that “We’re nation-building. We can’t do it. We have to build our own nation.” 

Now, his administration’s aides are boasting about plans to revive the economy, after Maduro is ousted. Venezuela is a bitterly divided nation of nearly 32 million people. If the administration’s coup does succeed, horrific chaos is sure to follow.

And the “endless wars” that Trump promised to end continue — Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and so on. Libya is a failed state, mired in violence since our “humanitarian” intervention. Drone attacks have escalated in eight nations, almost certainly generating more terrorists than they kill. U.S. Special Operations forces were in 149 countries in Trump’s first year in office. The administration is ramping up economic sanctions against Iran, remaining bellicose with Russia and (especially) China, and going all in with Saudi Arabia and Israel, with Bolton and others pushing for military action. Bolton has designated Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua as the “triangle of terror,” expanding the list of targets.

Here, the so-called adults in the room, the keepers of the “guardrails” to protect an ignorant and impulsive president from himself, are part of the problem. When Trump called for removing troops from Afghanistan and Syria, his national security advisers got in the way. As Trump expresses caution about actual military action in Venezuela, the truculent trio barrels forward.

Trump has trampled his promise to war-weary Americans. Opposition to this endless folly is building, however. Progressives in the Congress — led by Khanna and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) in the House, and Sanders in the Senate — are intent on reasserting congressional power over war and peace. Republicans such as Lee and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) add bipartisan support.

Trump apparently believes that a bellicose position on Venezuela can help him win Florida in 2020. His broken promises about opposing regime change and ending our endless wars should cost him far more. Americans have voted for candidates who promised restraint again and again since 2000. They are likely to keep doing that until they elect someone who will actually live up to that pledge.

Donald Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Guest Editorial published by The Washington Post and re- published in the Idaho The Lewiston Tribune newspaper.

Donald Trump has no problem protecting tyrants like the Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Vladimir Putin

This echo editorial includes an follow up article to help explain how Trump is in violation of the Magnitsky Act

Senator James Risch of Idaho can hold Donald Trump accountable for Saudi misdeeds

It has been a month since the Trump administration flouted a legal requirement to report to the Senate on the responsibility of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 

Rather than comply with the law, on March 4 it dispatched midlevel officials from the State and Treasury departments to obfuscate before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They provided no new information about the killing and would not say when or whether the White House would issue a finding on the crown prince. Reactions from senators, including Republicans, were scathing: “Worthless,” was the summary of Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, R-S.C.

The bipartisan outrage is justified. In his zeal to cover for Mohammed bin Salman, who the CIA concluded ordered Khashoggi’s murder, Donald Trump is defying Congress’ authority under the Global Magnitsky Act*, which provides for U.S. action in cases of gross human rights abuses. The law allows legislators to require a finding by the president in specific cases; that provision was invoked last year by then-Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and ranking Democrat Robert Menendez (N.J.), who asked for a determination of Mohammed bin Salman’s responsibility. The Senate’s view is already clear: It unanimously approved a resolution in December holding the crown prince responsible.

Now the question is whether the Senate will act to uphold its authority under the law and prevent the Saudi ruler from escaping accountability for the gruesome murder and dismemberment of a journalist who was a Virginia resident and a contributor to the Post. Not only the question of justice for Khashoggi is at issue: The crime is part of a pattern of reckless and destructive behavior by Mohammed bin Salman that ranges from the bombing of civilians in Yemen to the imprisonment and torture of a number of Saudi female activists, as well as a U.S. citizen.

Several pieces of legislation addressing the Yemen war or the Khashoggi case are pending in the Senate and House. 

But the broadest and most useful vehicle may be a bill sponsored by Mr. Menendez and six other senators, including Mr. Graham and two other Republicans. It would mandate sanctions on any Saudi official or member of the royal family who was “responsible for, or complicit in . . . acts contributing to or causing the death of Jamal Khashoggi,” a catchall from which the crown prince could not be easily excluded. It would also address the Yemen war by restricting sales of U.S. weapons, banning refueling of Saudi planes and imposing sanctions on those who interfere with the delivery of humanitarian aid.

There appears to be broad bipartisan support for congressional action on Saudi Arabia. Mr. Menendez points out that based on its sponsorship alone, his measure could win the approval of the Foreign Relations Committee if its new chairman, Sen. James E. Risch, R-Idaho, allows a vote. At a hearing Wednesday, Mr. Risch expressed unease at Saudi human rights violations, saying, “We cannot look the other way.” If he means that, he should schedule action on the Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen bill.

* Why You Keep Hearing the Name Magnitsky in the News. It pops up in all sorts of places. The U.S. law known as the Magnitsky Act has been wielded against Russian officials and the Myanmar military, proposed as a tool to punish China and Saudi Arabia and invoked in the ongoing investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. There’s quite a story behind it as well.

What is the Magnitsky Act?- Reported in Bloomberg  by Lawrence Arnold

How did Russia respond?

The law infuriated people in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s circle and prompted Russia to retaliate by halting most adoptions of Russian children by American families. At a joint July press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in Helsinki, Putin took direct aim at William Browder, Hermitage Capital’s American-born founder and a driving force behind the sanctions push that led to the law. Putin suggested that Browder and his partners in a separate company illegally siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars out of Russia -- and, for good measure, that he funneled that moneyinto the campaign of Trump’s opponent in the 2016 presidential race, Hillary Clinton. (A court in Moscow last year sentenced Browder, who lives in the U.K., to nine years in prison for deliberate bankruptcy and tax evasion.) Browder called Putin’s allegations "so ludicrous and untrue that it falls into delusion." He added, "Since 2012, Putin has made it perhaps his largest foreign policy priority to have the Magnitsky Act repealed. But none of his efforts have worked."

It’s a law signed in 2012 by President Barack Obama that authorizes some of the sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Russian companies and individuals. It’s named for Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax lawyer who, while working for the international investment company Hermitage Capital Management in 2008, identified what he called a Kremlin-connected scam to steal a $230 million tax rebate that Hermitage had paid to the Russian government in 2006. He was arrested, held without trial and died in a Moscow prison in 2009. The U.S. said he was beaten to death. The Magnitsky Act was written to punish "persons responsible for the detention, abuse and death" of Magnitsky by refusing them entry into the U.S. and freezing any of their assets in the U.S.

A group of U.S. senators has urged Donald Trump to consider using the Global Magnitsky Act to sanction high-ranking Saudi Arabian officials over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist who had been critical of the Saudi government. (The global version of the law gives the president 120 days to respond to such requests.) Earlier, two U.S. senators asked the White House to use the same law to freeze the travel and assets of Chinese officials over the alleged detention, mistreatment and forced "re-education" of ethnic Muslim Uighurs in the far-western region of Xinjiang.

Kudos to The Washington Post- Democracy Dies in Darkness

"...this commercial has a different goal."

The Washington Post Superbowl ad

The Washington Post debuted its first Super Bowl commercial — a message underscoring the importance of news gathering and the dangers journalists can face — during Sunday’s game between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. The 60-second spot, narrated by actor Tom Hanks, aired in the fourth quarter of the game, shortly before the two-minute warning.

The commercial, produced in partnership with Mark Woollen and Associates, shows scenes from major news events from World War II through the present day. 

Hanks’s narration describes the role of journalists as eyewitnesses and gatherers of fact as well as the profession’s larger importance to society. The commercial ends with The Post’s logo and its slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

Jamal Khashoggi

“The Super Bowl is a remarkable moment to recognize the courage and commitment of journalists around the world that is so essential to our democracy,” said Fred Ryan, publisher and CEO of The Washington Post. “We decided to seize the opportunity to make this a milestone moment in our ongoing campaign.”

The advertisement briefly showed several slain and missing journalists affiliated with The Post and other publications. 

They included freelance reporter Austin Tice, who has been missing in Syria for more than six years. Tice is believed to be alive, though his whereabouts are unknown. Another freelance journalist, columnist Jamal Khashoggi, was killed at the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. The CIA determined, with high confidence, that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s killing.

A third journalist shown in the commercial, Marie Colvin, was an American war correspondent for the Sunday Times in London. She was killed in 2012 by Syrian forces while reporting in Homs, Syria. Colvin is the subject of the 2018 film “A Private War,” and on Wednesday, a U.S. court ordered the Syrian government to pay $302 million in damages to Colvin’s family.

Ryan said The Post purchased the spot when it became available last week. A Post spokeswoman declined to say how much the advertisement cost to produce, or how much money The Post paid for the slot. CNBC reported that CBS is charging a record $5.25 million for a 30-second slot.

Some advertisers begin planning their ads months before the big game, but The Post’s commercial was produced in one week. Choosing Hanks as the narrator was a nod to his role as former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee in the 2017 Steven Spielberg film “The Post,” about the paper’s decision to publish the Pentagon Papers.

Previous Post advertisements that ran on TV were used to sell subscriptions. But this commercial has a different goal.

“This was a chance for a broader message about the role journalists play in our everyday lives and the risks they take to bring us the facts,” Ryan said.

During the 2017 Academy Awards, the New York Times debuted its first ad campaign in more than a decade. Agency Droga5 created a commercial that hinges on the phrase “The truth is,” presenting a series of conflicting statements and ending with bold type that reads: “The truth is more important now than ever.” It, too, did not include any information about buying a subscription.

An ongoing ad campaign for CNN carries the tag­line “Facts first.”

Immediately after The Post’s ad aired , the video was published on its website and social media channels.

Capital Gazette among the Guardians of Truth

My husband and I saw Editor of the Capital Gazette, Rick Hutzell, when he spoke at the Rotary Club of Annapolis and we met his wife Chara Hutzell, who is a Rotarian with the club.

Capital Gazette staff among Time Person of the Year honorees

Reported by Sara Meehan 

Time magazine has chosen “The Guardians and the War on Truth” for its Person of the Year, and the staff of the Capital Gazette are among those being honored.

The magazine unveiled four covers on Tuesday featuring journalists whose work led to their arrests or their deaths. In addition to the Capital Gazette staff, the honorees include slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi; Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were arrested in Myanmar and are represented on the cover in photos held by their wives; and Maria Ressa, editor of the Rappler news website in the Philippines.

Five Capital Gazette employees — Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Wendi Winters, Rebecca Smith and Gerald Fischman — were killed in June when a gunman broke into the newspapers’ Annapolis office.

“Time” unveiled its choice Tuesday December 11, 2018, in the morning on the TODAY Show.

Secretary Pompeo ~ smiling in the face of murder

'That grip and grin will come back to haunt him': Pompeo justifiably takes heat for friendly Saudi sit-down

"Would a little more solemnity have harmed his mission?” asked Jon Alterman, a Middle East analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It might have helped it.”

The Week reports:  There's a growing consensus in Washington and Europe that Saudi Arabia, specifically Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is culpable in the Oct. 2 disappearance and likely murder of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And the latest group signaling its conviction of the crown prince's guilt is the U.S. intelligence community, The New York Times reports.
A Politico opinion by Nahal Toosi

Pressed on why he might believe Riyadh’s future findings, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to acknowledge the possibility that Jamal Khashoggi was killed, describing him instead as “missing.” | Leah Millis/AFP/Getty Images

The secretary of state's amiable tone toward the Saudis in public following the suspected murder of a journalist has drawn criticism.

Just this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo published an essay arguing that one major reason President Donald Trump’s foreign policy vision will succeed is its “moral clarity.”

But then there he was: The same Mike Pompeo, in the same week, smiling and chatting amiably with Saudi leaders suspected of orchestrating the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 

Pompeo expressed confidence that the Saudis will conduct a legitimate probe into the case and hold wrongdoers accountable — a stance many in Washington found hard to believe.

Pompeo’s performance can be chalked up to any number of factors, including the inevitable trade-offs most U.S. administrations find they must make in dealing with unsavory allies who happen to be key to American interests. But it was also an example of Pompeo — a former Army tank commander who loves tough talk — toeing the Trump line, even if it risks tarnishing his image.

The approach, particularly Pompeo's friendly tone toward the Saudis in public, has drawn criticism from the foreign policy establishment, Democrats and newspaper editorial boards, with some warning he could be complicit in a Saudi cover-up.

“Would a little more solemnity have harmed his mission?” asked Jon Alterman, a Middle East analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It might have helped it.”

Added a Democratic congressional aide: “That grip and grin will come back to haunt him.”

Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident who was living in the U.S. and writing for The Washington Post, is alleged to have been killed and dismembered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to obtain marriage-related documents.

Just this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo published an essay arguing that one major reason President Donald Trump’s foreign policy vision will succeed is its “moral clarity.” (MaineWriter~ "Ugh!", like Kim JungUn and Vladimir Putin are examples of "moral clarity!" HELLO?) 

But then there he was: The same Mike Pompeo, in the same week, smiling and chatting amiably with Saudi leaders suspected of orchestrating the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Pompeo expressed confidence that the Saudis will conduct a legitimate probe into the case and hold wrongdoers accountable — a stance many in Washington found hard to believe.

Pompeo’s performance can be chalked up to any number of factors, including the inevitable trade-offs most U.S. administrations find they must make in dealing with unsavory allies who happen to be key to American interests. But it was also an example of Pompeo — a former Army tank commander who loves tough talk — toeing the Trump line, even if it risks tarnishing his image.

The approach, particularly Pompeo's friendly tone toward the Saudis in public, has drawn criticism from the foreign policy establishment, Democrats and newspaper editorial boards, with some warning he could be complicit in a Saudi cover-up.

“Would a little more solemnity have harmed his mission?” asked Jon Alterman, a Middle East analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It might have helped it.”

Added a Democratic congressional aide: “That grip and grin will come back to haunt him.”

Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident who was living in the U.S. and writing for The Washington Post, is alleged to have been killed and dismembered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to obtain marriage-related documents.

Turkish officials have alleged a 15-member Saudi hit squad targeted him, possibly for criticizing the powerful Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Turkish media on Wednesday published details from purported audio recordings that indicated the Saudi hit team severed Khashoggi’s fingers while interrogating him, then later beheaded and cut up his body.

The crown prince and Saudi King Salman have denied any knowledge of what happened. But while at first Saudi leaders insisted Khashoggi had left the consulate safely, more recently they’ve been floating another theory: that the Saudis sent to either interrogate or abduct Khashoggi went too far.

The case, and Saudi officials’ shifting narratives about it, has angered Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who already were unhappy with a range of Saudi actions, including their killing of civilians in the war in Yemen. U.S. lobbyists and business leaders have also been abandoning their Saudi ties in the wake of the Khashoggi incident.

Trump and his aides have been more cautious in their response, keeping in mind that Riyadh is a major part of their plans to weaken the regime in Iran while keeping oil markets stable. Trump has also balked at halting U.S. arms sales to the Saudis, saying it would hurt U.S. jobs.

From the start, Pompeo and the State Department have been hesitant to discuss the case. Pompeo issued his first statement about the journalist almost a week after Khashoggi vanished. The statement noted that were “conflicting reports” about what may have happened.

Since then, Pompeo and the department have largely stuck to the line that the U.S. doesn’t know much about what happened and have called for more facts to come out before making a judgment on the incident.

By State Department standards, observers say the U.S. tone has been mild for what is a growing diplomatic crisis. 

For example, while the department keeps saying it is “concerned” about Khashoggi’s fate, it has not raised the verbal heat as it traditionally would by saying it is “deeply concerned."

The State Department’s readouts of Pompeo’s meetings in Saudi Arabia and Turkey this week also don’t focus strictly on Khashoggi — whose killing was presumably the reason Trump dispatched his chief diplomat to the region. Instead, the readouts describe the discussions as covering a range of bilateral issues, including Syria. In at least one case, Khashoggi is the last topic listed.

And while a number of U.S. lawmakers, as well as Khashoggi’s family, have called for an independent investigation, Pompeo seems content to let the Saudis do their own probe, even thanking the Saudi king for his commitment to a “transparent” investigation.

The Washington Post wrote a blistering editorial about Pompeo’s friendly demeanor alongside the Saudi crown prince, saying Pompeo “appeared less intent on determining the truth than in helping the de facto Saudi ruler escape from the crisis he triggered.”

Pressed about why he might believe Riyadh’s future findings, Pompeo declined to acknowledge the possibility that Khashoggi was killed, describing him instead as “missing.” 

Pompeo also stressed the many interests the United States has in Saudi Arabia.

“I do think it’s important that everyone keep in their mind that we have lots of important relationships — financial relationships between U.S. and Saudi companies, governmental relationships, things we work on together all across the world — efforts to reduce the risk to the United States of America from the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, Iran,” Pompeo told reporters. “The Saudis have been great partners in working alongside us on those issues.”

Asked whether the Saudis had mentioned whether Khashoggi was dead or alive, Pompeo said: "I don't want to talk about any of the facts. They didn't want to either, in that they want to have the opportunity to complete this investigation in a thorough way."

Pompeo denied he was giving Saudi Arabia the benefit of the doubt. “It’s reasonable to give them a handful of days more to complete it so they get it right, so that it’s thorough and complete,” he said.

Since joining the Trump administration, Pompeo has often downplayed or denied any potential differences between him and the president. He’s supported Trump on just about every front.

He has defended the president after Trump claimed that North Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat to the United States, despite Pyongyang taking what experts say are few, if any, tangible steps toward denuclearization. The secretary also has gone along with Trump's desire to slash the number of refugees resettled in the United States, and he has not spoken out against Trump's efforts to slash the State Department's budget.

Trump this week went further than Pompeo in trumpeting Saudi leaders' talking points on Khashoggi, repeatedly pointing out that the crown prince and king denied any knowledge of what happened. The president even likened the case to the sexual assault accusations against Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court.

“Here we go again with, you know, you’re guilty until proven innocent,” Trump told The Associated Press in an interview released Tuesday night. “I don’t like that.”

Pompeo’s approach to the Khashoggi murder may be another example of the secretary of State choosing to stay in lockstep with the president.

It could also be part of his desire to stay tough on Iran.

Pompeo has long been a hawk on Iran. While serving in the House, Pompeo repeatedly slammed the Obama administration for agreeing to a nuclear deal with Iran — a deal Trump quit — casting the former president as naive for believing Iran would curb its nuclear program.

Since joining the Trump team, Pompeo has made weakening the Iranian regime a top goal — one that could shape his legacy at Foggy Bottom.

In the essay in Foreign Affairs posted this week, Pompeo lays out the administration’s strategy against Iran, calling for a maximum pressure campaign of sanctions and public exposure of the Iranian leadership’s brutality and corruption. Pompeo wrote that Trump’s approach to Iran involves a “moral confrontation” that he likened to how Ronald Reagan approached the Soviet Union.

Pompeo’s decision last month to certify to Congress that the U.S. should keep supporting the Saudis in Yemen, despite allegations they had committed war crimes, was believed to hinge in part on maintaining Saudi cooperation on Iran.

The Saudis have their own rivalry with Iran, making it unlikely a rupture with the U.S. would lead Riyadh to embrace Tehran. But the timing is critical now: Pompeo is working to ensure that the Saudis will fill any gaps in the energy market after Nov. 4, when a series of punishing U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports takes effect.

While there may be discomfort on the right about the forgiving tone Trump and Pompeo are taking with Saudi Arabia, there have been no calls to completely break off ties with the strategically important country.

Asked on Wednesday to discuss Pompeo’s performance in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Republican lawmakers largely sidestepped the question.

“We have a tremendous relationship with the Saudis. They’re important to us, we’re important to them, but we have to be honest and watch these things closely,” said Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.

The U.S. has to think about its long-term interests, said GOP Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana.

“You’re a dream weaver if you think we can keep a lid on the Mideast by turning to all of the countries there and saying, ‘You’re all a bunch of authoritarian despots and we’re not going to talk to you anymore,’” Kennedy said. “You do that and you’re going to create a vacuum. And I can tell you who’s coming in: Russia, and China and a lot of other countries.”

Burgess Everett and Elana Schor contributed to this report.

MaineWriter post script ~ First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

~Martin Niemöller