Saudi FM Dismisses CIA Assessment of Khashoggi Killing

Trump praises Saudis as a 'very good' ally

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir issued a statement rejecting the CIA’s assessment of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying that everyone in Saudi Arabia knows that the crown prince is totally innocent of the plot.

Jubeir went on to say that everyone should assume the CIA assessment wasn’t correct because it was called an “assessment,” which he believes means it was drawn without any conclusive evidence.

The CIA cited an intercepted phone call and other evidence in having “high confidence” that the crown prince ordered the murder. President Trump also complained that the CIA acted prematurely in making such an assessment.

Trump has long made clear he doesn’t want to blame the crown prince, and praised the Saudi kingdom as a “very good” ally. And while Trump said he doesn’t know for sure that the Saudi king didn’t lie to say his son was innocent, he told him that at least five times, and that would be an awful lot of lying.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.