Former CIA chief
TEHRAN, (MNA) – Former CIA Director John O. Brennan said that US President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have allowed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“We have to hold the Saudis as well as others to account for any type of human rights atrocities… [But] Donald Trump and Jared Kushner and the White House have given MBS… a pass for that horrific murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi,” he told CNN on Friday.
Khashoggi, a former advocate of the Saudi royal court who later became a critic of Mohammed bin Salman, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, after he entered the perimeter to collect documents for his planned wedding. He had been falsely promised the documents.
Brennan said that Mohammad bin Salman is “a quintessential authoritarian leader” who has “incarcerated and suppressed many Saudis including activists and women activists in the Kingdom with widespread reports of maltreatment. And this is something that unfortunately Donald Trump has turned a blind eye to.”
Noting that Trump has earlier cited ‘money’ as the main reason for supporting Saudi Arabia, Brennan added “Donald Trump sees life and the world through a prism of dollar sides.”
“Having lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for five years, I know that that murder would not have been carried out unless it was authorized by the highest authority.”
The Washington Post, for which Khashoggi was a columnist, reported in November 2018 that the CIA had concluded that bin Salman personally ordered his killing.
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