Saudis still getting a pass on the Khashoggi murder

Shortly after he accused former President Barack Obama of “misguided” thinking that diminished the U.S. role in the Middle East, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went to Saudi Arabia and kissed the hem of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s robe on the singularly important issue of the brutal killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Pompeo met Monday with Salman and his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, ruler of the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation that President Donald Trump has called an important ally in the region.

“We spoke about human rights issues here in Saudi Arabia, women activists,” Pompeo told reporters after the meeting. “We spoke about the accountability and the expectations that we have. The Saudis are friends, and when friends have conversations you tell them what your expectations are. Every single person who has responsibility for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi needs to be held accountable.”

But here’s what the secretary of state didn’t tell the leading members of the brutal ruling family: The CIA has implicated Crown Prince Salman in the murder of Khashoggi, who had used his column in the Washington Post to harshly criticize the Saudi government, in general, and the successor to King Salman, in particular.

Pompeo also did not demand, as he should have, that the Saudis agree to an independent investigation of the killing coordinated by the United Nations.

Khashoggi, who had been living in exile in the U.S., was killed last October in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, where he had gone to obtain documents that would have permitted him to marry his Turkish fiancee.

The journalist never made it out of the consulate. The ongoing investigation by the Turkish government has revealed that an assassination squad from Riyadh arrived in Istanbul and went to the consulate while Khashoggi was inside. The assassins left the country and shortly thereafter the Saudis claimed the journalist had walked out of the building. That was a lie.

Dissolved in acid

The Turkish government says the body was cut up into pieces that were dissolved in acid.

After denying Khashoggi had been killed, the Saudi government admitted he was dead, but says it does not know what happened to the body. In an obvious attempt to cover its tracks, the ruling family has arrested several Saudis who are accused of participating in the murder.

Show trials are being held, but only President Trump, who has made it clear he does not intend to undermine U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia over the journalist’s death, considers them legitimate.

Trump has said the claims against the crown prince are unsubstantiated and has dismissed the CIA’s conclusions.

He has also denounced U.S. Senate resolutions blaming Salman for the killing.

“It could well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event,” the president said. “Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t.”

By contrast, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for an independent investigation by international experts, while the head of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, Michelle Bachelet, has said that a forensic examination and autopsy are crucial in the ongoing investigation.

That’s why Pompeo’s visit to Saudi Arabia and his unwillingness to demand that the ruling family agree to an independent investigation are causes for concern.

The Trump administration is willing to give the Saudis a pass on the brutal murder of a journalist who was living in the U.S., and yet the secretary of state has no qualms about accusing the Obama administration of diminishing the role of the U.S. in the Middle East.

Pompeo contended that ex-President Obama’s U.S. policy led to the rise of the Islamic State and emboldened Iran.

In response, former administration officials and foreign policy experts accused the Trump administration of celebrating autocrats and ignoring human-rights abuses that sparked the 2011 Arab Spring.

To further cloud the issue of America’s policy in the Middle East, President Trump has sent mixed signals about his administration’s goals in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Indeed, while Pompeo was in Saudi Arabia on Monday, Trump tweeted a threat to NATO ally Turkey warning of economic harm should the Turks attack U.S.-backed rebel forces in Syria.

The secretary of state was caught off guard and was unable to clarify what the president meant. He referred questions about the tweet to the White House.