{"id":186856,"date":"2018-10-24T05:27:29","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T09:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=186856"},"modified":"2018-10-24T05:27:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T09:27:29","slug":"us-revoke-visas-saudis-implicated-killing-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/10\/24\/us-revoke-visas-saudis-implicated-killing-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"US to revoke visas of Saudis implicated in killing of writer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
“It was carried out poorly, and the coverup was one of the worst coverups in the history of coverups. Somebody really messed up, and they had the worst coverup ever.” (File photo<\/a>: Donald Trump\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump described the killing of a Saudi journalist as a botched operation and a \u201cbad original concept\u201d as his administration took its first, careful steps toward punishing the Saudis by moving to revoke the visas of the suspects.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the entire operation was a fiasco.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a very bad original concept,\u201d Trump said on Tuesday. \u201cIt was carried out poorly, and the coverup was one of the worst coverups in the history of coverups. Somebody really messed up, and they had the worst coverup ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in the face of ugly details of Jamal Khashoggi’s slaying, Trump has resisted calls to cut off arms sales to the kingdom and has been reluctant to antagonize the Saudi rulers. Trump considers the Saudis to be vital allies in his Mideast agenda.<\/p>\n

Members of Congress have demanded that sanctions be imposed on Saudi Arabia over the killing of Khashoggi, who lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. and wrote critically about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The writer, who was a contributor to The Washington Post, vanished Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey, where he went to pick up documents for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee.<\/p>\n

Turkish officials say that a Saudi team of 15 men tortured, killed and dismembered the writer and that Saudi officials had planned the killing for days. Saudi officials \u2014 after weeks of denials \u2014 now concede that he died, but they say it happened accidentally in a fight at the consulate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a total fiasco,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThe process was no good. The execution was no good. And the coverup, if you want to call it that, was certainly no good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the move to revoke visas was just a first step.<\/p>\n

Visa records are confidential and Pompeo was not more specific about who the revocations would affect, but the State Department later said 21 \u201cSaudi suspects\u201d would have visas revoked or would be declared ineligible to enter the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese penalties will not be the last word on this matter,\u201d Pompeo told reporters at the State Department.<\/p>\n

The administration \u201cwill continue to hold those responsible accountable. We’re making very clear that the United States does not tolerate this kind of ruthless action to silence Mr. Khashoggi, a journalist, with violence,\u201d he said. \u201cNeither the president or I am happy with this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Pompeo stressed the strategic importance of the U.S.-Saudi relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to view as achievable the twin imperative of protecting America and holding accountable those responsible for the killing of Mr. Khashoggi,\u201d Pompeo said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump described the killing of a Saudi journalist as a botched operation and a \u201cbad original …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":180989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-matthew-lee","mauthors-susannah-george","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}