CIA Director Heads To Turkey As Trump Says He’s Unsatisfied With Saudi Explanation

on May 21, 2018 in Langley, Virginia.
LANGLEY, VA - MAY 21: Gina Haspel speaks after she was sworn in as CIA director during a swearing-in ceremony at agency headquarters, May 21, 2018 in Langley, Virginia. Last week the Senate confirmed Haspel to replac... LANGLEY, VA - MAY 21: Gina Haspel speaks after she was sworn in as CIA director during a swearing-in ceremony at agency headquarters, May 21, 2018 in Langley, Virginia. Last week the Senate confirmed Haspel to replaced Mike Pompeo who was sworn in as Secretary of State earlier this month. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

CIA Director Gina Haspel left the U.S. for Turkey on Monday, just as President Donald Trump told reporters he was “not satisfied” with Saudi Arabia’s explanation of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi’s death, The Washington Post reported.

Haspel’s visit comes just as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for Saudi officials to be tried in Turkish court on Tuesday over what he called the “savage murder” of Khashoggi.

While Saudi officials initially denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s disappearance or alleged death, the Saudi government on Saturday said he was killed by “rogue” agents who did not have the crown prince’s consent. Saudi officials claim he died as the result of a fist fight, which Turkey says it can disprove with apparent audio and video recordings of the incident.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for newton newton says:

    Can’t help the Saudi’s cook up a good story until your top dog knows what the evidence is. Or… until you put your intelligence screws to Erdogan to help cough “clarify” the evidence.

  2. If they wish to keep the means by which they obtained their evidence secret, why would Turkey tell or show Haspel anything they haven’t already said publicly? The way Trump and this administration leak, they may as well cut out the middle woman and publish a “how to” on the internet.

  3. Avatar for jills jills says:

    Sure. She’s going to go and pretend to find something and then say what Kushner and Trump tell her to say. Please. What a waste of taxpayer money.

  4. The question “What will he do in a real crisis?” is pretty much answered. His childish ideas about what presidents do (“I have no time for TV, because I’m reading documents all day”) suggest to him that in a crisis you make someone get on a plane. Then your emissary and the furriner fix it somehow, in a way Trump couldn’t imagine, because the ways of responsible, competent adults are opaque to him.

  5. Avatar for davidn davidn says:

    Yup, the Saudi’s need a refresher course on plausible deniability for their black ops clandestine torture operations.

    Gina can help them with that.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

13 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for newton Avatar for sysprog Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for cervantes Avatar for juliagrey Avatar for Lacuna-Synecdoche Avatar for bodie1 Avatar for tiowally Avatar for canyoncountry Avatar for greysea Avatar for jills Avatar for davidn Avatar for greenman66 Avatar for occamscoin Avatar for holywah

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: