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Pompeo photographed his departure from Riyadh after meeting with Crown Prince bin Salman and Saudi officials in an attempt to investigate the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 17, 2018.
By Leah Millis / AFP / Getty Images.
It was certainly a disconcerting scene: there was the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tenderly the hand of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a boardroom adorned in Riyadh a fortnight later Washington Post Saudi columnist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi was missing. The constant pace of the revelations had been perplexing and overwhelming and almost inconceivable: the video evidence of Khashoggi's entry at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul; reports that a Saudi "kill" team of 15 Saudis, including a so-called bone saw expert, was landing in the city; and Donald Trump's myriad equivocal. Yet, evidence suggests more and more a connection between Mr. B.S. and the alleged murder, Pompeo's visit seemed to be the last assault on diplomacy. Despite what should have been a dark and bitter affair, he looked like Ed McMahon about to present an oversized check in front of the camera. (On Friday night, the Saudis conceded what everyone knew for a long time: Khashoggi was dead.)
Back in Washington, the members of the diplomatic and intelligence community I spoke to were mad. While Axios has reported that Pompeo pronounced harsh words under his avuncular civility, many found the insurmountable optics. "The handle and the slightly stunned smile of the people who saw it," said a congressional assistant. "He lacks confidence in himself to do everything in his power so that the truth is really done in this matter." Among the veterans of diplomacy, Pompeo's affable behavior was a false step. "Pompeo has not handled this well," sighed a former senior state department official. "I do not think it would have been difficult to be darker in meetings and more nuanced in comments afterward." As a State Department official lamented, "Certainly from my current position, it is discouraging to see the administration seemingly subordinate our values to other interests in such an egregious case. . "
Since reports of Khashoggi's disappearance have begun to circulate, Trump said that the death of a journalist – a Saudi citizen rather than a US citizen – was not worth the trouble of breaking US-Saudi relations. Last week, the president said that it would be a "very difficult pill to swallow for our country" if the kingdom was held responsible for the alleged killing of Khashoggi and that a deal of sale of weapons of 100 billions of dollars with Saudi Arabia was also threatened. And despite the growing evidence that M.B.S. Trump suggested last Monday that "dishonest killers" could have been at the origin of the coup. "I have never seen anything like it.The President played the role of defense attorney to someone who seems to have murdered a US resident abroad in flagrant violation. of all diplomatic standards ", Daniel Benaim, who served as vice president's advisor to the Middle East Joe Biden, I said. "Not pretending to have an interest in the rule of law, and going directly to the part where you whiten the crimes of others, is a blatant abdication of American values."
"The president was looking for an apology for the Saudis. Normally, the president would never do that, "said another former senior state department official who served in the Middle East. Instead, said the source, a typical president would emphasize the gravity of the situation, congratulate Khashoggi and the free press, ask for an investigation – possibly by the United Nations – and rally US allies to consolidate the information. In no case would he have expressed his fear that the arms agreement would become a guarantee. "There would be no indication in one way or another of what we were going to do," they said.
It is not a hyperbole to suggest that the Trump administration manages the M.B.S file. This question could well define the second half of the president's term. US-Saudi relations affect everything, at a meta level, from oil prices to the puzzle of peace in the Middle East. More specifically, Saudi Arabia has used its vast sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, to interfere in the US financial community. Saudi money transits through Uber, JPMorgan Chase, Blackstone, Snap and, until recently, William Morris Endeavor. It is also a bulwark against nuclear Iran, a sort of inelegant centerpiece of Israel's defense.
More than during the first crises of his presidency, Trump seems to understand the complexity of all this, which could well make the response of his administration so soft. Earlier this month, Trump spoke on Twitter that Mr. B.S. was innocent until proven otherwise, a similar chorus that he had used to protect Brett Kavanaugh's nomination. In the end, he seems to hope that everything will crumble.
This defensive falls largely flat among his fellow lawmakers. "On the other side of the hill, the absolute disgust of what seems to have happened and the confusion caused by the reaction of the administration. And I think that goes from the population whose initial position would be profoundly skeptical about the US-Saudi relationship with people who have always been strong supporters of the US-Saudi relationship, "he said. Confided the congressman. "Overall, the reaction on the hill is scandalized and insist that we get a complete and clear accounting and a deep skepticism that the Saudis are investigating this case by themselves – despite the assurances of Secretary Pompeo – will bring clarification. . "
Benaim distilled the dissonance. "Other jurisdictions would certainly have struggled to find a balance between America's values and interests, given the impact of such a case on both," he told me. "But Donald Trump does not seem to have this fight." Instead, Trump says the quiet part aloud. "The funny thing is that Donald Trump basically adopts left-wing criticism of the US-Saudi relationship – which reduces a very complex situation with many different variables – basically" they can get away with it better because they will buy our weapons. "He actually takes the left-wing critique of the relationship – and embraces it."
As Khashoggi's tragedy unfolded, the close relationship between Mr. B.S. and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor has been re-examined. (The New York Times reported this week that Kushner was pleading on behalf of Mr.B.S. within the White House.) Their relationship dates back to the early days of Trump's presidency, when Rex Tillerson still headed the state department. As Dexter Filkins noted in The new yorker, Kushner identified M.B.S. as an "agent of change" in the region and developed a relationship that effectively dismissed Tillerson. According to a former head of administration, Kushner's communications with Mr. B.S. on the encrypted WhatsApp messaging service was a topic of contention within the administration, a point that was partially appeased when Kushner began providing screenshots of his conversations with the Security Council national. But, this person added, "It was always after the fact."
In recent days, a number of sources with whom I spoke have raised the possibility that Mr. B.. with Kushner instilled in the crown prince the conviction that America would effectively close the eyes on Khashoggi's murder. "I think there is a lot to say [about how] M.B.S. thought that he could get by, because Jared Kushner was in his pocket, and the president too, from somewhere else, "said the former head of the state department who worked in the Middle East. And after all, the Trump administration largely ignored the war in Yemen; the strange stay of the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Saudi Arabia; the unhappy boycott of Qatar; and Mr. S. Spats with Canada and Germany. "The Trump administration has made it clear that it has a blank check. What do you do when you have a blank check? You write with the wildest sum imaginable and bring it to the bank, and that's what it did, "Benaim told me. "Only it seems that the blank check has been returned, at least with Congress, if not with the President." (The White House has not responded to a request for comment.)
It remains to be seen whether Trump will succumb to pressure from Capitol Hill and the international community, or alongside his son-in-law and his boyfriend, remains an open question. But if the evidence shows that Mr. B.S. was behind the death of Khashoggi, the Crown Prince will join the ranks of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russian President Vladimir Poutine, and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, all of whom engaged in extraterritorial killings to send a clear message to the dissidents. Meanwhile, all hope remaining that Mr. B.S. is the idealist he claims to be, quickly dissipated. "I think there was a legitimate hope when Mr.B.S. came on the scene that he was going to be a reformer and that he was going to change course, "said Congressional aide. "And despite the initial appearances and words to that effect, it's pretty clear that this is not the case."
