Flickr user Gage Skidmore
John Bolton Won’t Listen To The Khashoggi Murder Tape Because It’s In Arabic
"What do you think I'll learn from it?" Trump's top national security advisor asked reporters at the White House.
Donald Trump’s top security advisor, John Bolton, told reporters at the White House today that there was no reason for him to listen to an audio tape of Jamal Khashoggi’s killing, because there’s nothing he would “get from it.”
Bolton, the head of the National Security Council, is tasked with correlating and analyzing information from thousands of US intelligence experts across various agencies and the military, and serves as the president’s closest advisor on U.S. security matters. He told reporters at the White House briefing room that he wasn’t planning on listening to the Khashoggi tape because he doesn’t speak Arabic.
John Bolton says he has not listened to Khashoggi recording.
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 27, 2018
"What do you think I'll learn from it?" he asks. "Everybody who says 'Why don't you listen to the tape'—unless you speak Arabic, what are you going to get from it?" https://t.co/iY5NqsOJPc pic.twitter.com/wZttJmKZk7
“You…don’t have access to a translator?” an incredulous reporter asked.
The Central Intelligence Agency and Turkish officials say that Khashoggi was brutally murdered on the orders of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul in October. Last week, Trump nevertheless issued a much-mocked press release defending the prince, stating “maybe he did, maybe he didn’t” order the killing and that “we may never know.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has asked CIA head Gina Haspel, who has heard the tape, to brief them on the Khashoggi situation alongside secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Nov. 28. Neither Pompeo or Trump have listened to the tape, which is Trump described as “terrible” and “very violent.” Trump said in an interview this month that there was “no reason” for him to listen to it.
Bolton’s refusal to listen to the tape was ridiculed by Middle East experts, in part because of his hawkish advocacy for military intervention in the area. ”Not knowing enough Arabic to understand the region has somehow never prevented Bolton from advocating for bombing it all the time,” noted Yousef Munayyer, the executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian rights.
(Image via Flickr user Gage Skidmore)