May vows to see Brexit through, despite wave of resignations and party acrimony

in Britain will have after Brexit, and how a 21-month transition period will work. Approval in Brussels is nearly assured. Far more challenging will be getting the deal through Parliament. British lawmakers are supposed to get their say in early December. May on Thursday predicted that the withdrawal agreement would pass but acknowledged the deal was weighed down by compromise. “I know it’s been a frustrating process — it has forced us to confront some very difficult issues,” May conceded to Parliament. “But a good Brexit, a Brexit which is in the national interest, is possible. We have persevered and have made a decisive breakthrough.” Such optimism was not visible in the chamber. Hardly anyone stood to support May, as the pound sterling plummeted on currency markets and the hashtag #BrexitShambles was trending. Mark Francois, a Conservative lawmaker and top Brexiteer, said that by his calculations, 84 Conservative members — a number “going up by the hour” — would vote against the agreement. Adding to that, he said, “the Labour Party have made plain today that they will vote against this deal,” as will major parties from Northern Ireland and Scotland. “It’s therefore mathematically impossible to get this deal through the House of Commons,” he said. “It’s dead on arrival.” Sarah Wollaston, a Conservative lawmaker and pro-European, said, “It will be blindingly obvious to the entire country that the prime minister’s deal cannot pass this house.” In his resignation letter, Raab said he could not support May’s plan because it treats Northern Ireland’s future trading and customs relations with the European Union in a way that “presents a very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom.” He was referring to the deal’s “backstop” to prevent the reemergence of a hard border — and political tensions — on the island of Ireland. That insurance plan would keep Northern Ireland and, to a lesser degree Great Britain, in a European customs union if Britain and the E.U. fail to sign a future free-trade deal that preserves open borders in Ireland. The rapid-fire resignations sent shudders through E.U. headquarters in Brussels, raising the possibility that May does not have the support she needs to pursue the softer Brexit she negotiated. Raab’s resignation drew special derision in Europe. “Who negotiated those UK terms again . . .? Surely the #Brexit Minister had nothing to do with it and learned of the terms


Saudi Arabia’s latest account of Khashoggi’s death is shocking in its audacity

the Trump administration appears ready to accept its stonewalling. On Thursday, it announced sanctions against 17 people implicated by the Saudis — leaving untouched both the crown prince and top intelligence officials in Riyadh. Accepting the Saudi story means ignoring a number of well-established facts. An audio recording of Mr. Khashoggi’s last moments, which Turkish officials shared with CIA Director Gina Haspel, indicates he was attacked and strangled immediately after entering the consulate. The Saudi version claims he died only after a quarrel and a struggle that prompted the head of the “negotiation team” to decide to murder him by injecting him with drugs. The Saudi account says the operation was ordered by the then-deputy chief of intelligence, Ahmed al-Assiri, and advised by Saud al-Qahtani, a court propagandist. Both are close to Mohammed bin Salman. The two aides, so Riyadh’s story goes, were not complicit in the decision to kill Mr. Khashoggi and were fooled by their team’s claim that the journalist had left the consulate alive. That doesn’t explain a portion of the audio recording reported by the New York Times, in which Maher Mutreb, a close associate of the crown prince, instructs an official by phone to “tell your boss” that the mission was accomplished. As the Times reported, U.S. intelligence officials believe the “boss” is “almost certainly Prince Mohammed.” Other contradictions and improbabilities abound. It’s known that a forensic expert who specializes in autopsies was on the Saudi team; the Turks said he arrived with a bone saw for dismembering Mr. Khashoggi’s body. Yet the Saudis would have the world believe that the specialist was recruited only to clean up any evidence of an abduction, and that officials in Riyadh didn’t know about him. This all-too-transparent tissue of lies only underlines the need for a genuinely independent international investigation led by the United Nations, as Turkey’s foreign minister called for this week. Instead, the Trump administration is abetting the Saudi coverup; the new sanctions do not even cover Mr. Assiri, the official who Riyadh says ordered the Khashoggi mission. Congress should not allow this travesty to continue. It should suspend all military sales and cooperation with Saudi Arabia until a credible international investigation of the Khashoggi killing is completed. The Saudi cover story is just one more instance of Mohammed bin Salman’s arrogant and reckless behavior. The true murderers of Jamal Khashoggi must be named and punished.


Medal of Freedom honoree Alan Page will put aside his feelings about Trump

of the world is the same today as it was a year ago, and the year before that. But this medal, this honor is far more important than my personal beliefs, my personal likes and dislikes. “The politics of it, that’s something that at this point is not important to me. What’s important is trying to make this world a better place, and literally, that is my focus.” For Page, who played in the NFL from 1967 to 1981 and was a justice from 1993 to 2015, one focus is the Page Education Foundation, which he and his late wife, Diane, created in 1988. The foundation has raised over $14 million for college scholarships. “My reaction [to getting the award] was pretty much the same reaction I’ve had with most of the honors I’ve received,” Page told the paper. “It was, ‘How does that help me do the things that Diane and I have worked so hard to do over time? How can it be used to lift other people up?'” Three of Page’s four children will attend the ceremony, which will be especially poignant because Page’s wife died of breast cancer earlier this fall. “It breaks my heart that she can’t be a part of it,” he said. And this week’s ceremony, his daughter Georgi pointed out, will provide a national platform for his work. The award recognizes “especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” This year’s winners also include Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, baseball legend Babe Ruth, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and humanitarian Miriam Adelson. “Conventional wisdom might say, ‘Oh, this doesn’t really square with Alan Page,’” Georgi Page told the paper. “He has his eye on sort of a higher vision, and I think [with] this award he probably feels that it transcends politics and it’s important to put a message and a mission out there that will hopefully inspire people.” Read more from The Post: What Le’Veon Bell’s decision to sit out the season means for him and for the Steelers NFL moves Rams-Chiefs Mexico City game to L.A., citing poor field conditions Warriors suspend Draymond Green after heated exchange with Kevin Durant The latest blow to Markelle Fultz’s psyche may be the 76ers' Jimmy Butler trade


Experts chase the cause of a paralyzing childhood disease spiking this year

CDC confirmed 120 cases. In 2016, there were 149. This year, at least 90 cases have been confirmed in 27 states, with 162 more under investigation. A few weeks ago, the CDC began reporting the larger number of suspected cases alongside confirmed ones to alert parents and physicians to the latest spike. The CDC announced Tuesday that it will track the long-term outcomes of all AFM cases from this year and previous years. Several experts say there is a strong correlation between AFM and outbreaks of a common respiratory virus called enterovirus D68. Some enteroviruses are known to attack the spinal cord. The CDC, however, is also focusing on a different possibility — that AFM is caused not by a viral infection but by the patients’ own immune systems. “It seems to be more of an autoimmune syndrome, as opposed to a direct result of a virus,” Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in an interview. She compared the condition to what happens in Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare disorder in which the immune system attacks nerve cells, often after an illness such as a respiratory infection. Most AFM cases begin in a similar fashion, with fever and coldlike symptoms, such as a cough and lethargy. Sudden weakness or paralysis can follow within hours or days. “Lots of kids get respiratory illness and fever, but only a small proportion go on to develop AFM,” Messonnier said. “What we don’t know about is this black box in between. . . . We’re trying to open up that black box.” Last week, the CDC held a teleconference with a group of experts who treat AFM and on Wednesday released updated treatment guidance for doctors. Separately, about 50 specialists who have diagnosed and cared for patients across the country have taken the unusual step of establishing an informal AFM working group. But without a clear understanding of whether AFM is triggered by a virus or is an autoimmune disease, doctors say it’s difficult to know how to treat it. Some doctors, treating it as an active viral infection, may offer big doses of disease-fighting antibodies. But if AFM turns out to be an autoimmune disorder, it might be more appropriate to use steroids or a blood-filtering technique known as plasmapheresis, which removes harmful antibodies, said Anu Kalaskar, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Children’s Minnesota. Last week,


The Health 202: Senate passage of ‘gag clause’ ban is just a tiny step to lowering drug prices

from a sample of states were prescribed powerful psychiatric drugs without safeguards such as treatment plans or follow-ups, the Associated Press’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar reports. The report, based on a sample of 125 cases from five states with the highest rate of foster children treated with such drugs, found “34 percent of children did not have either treatment plans or follow-up monitoring translates to about 4,500 children in the five states examined,” Ricardo reports. “Kids getting mood-altering drugs they don’t need is only part of the problem,” he adds. “Investigators also said children who need medication to help them function at school or get along in social settings may be going untreated. The drugs include medications for attention deficit disorder, anxiety, PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Foster kids are much more likely to get psychiatric drugs than children overall.” The inspector general’s report is recommending that the Administration for Children and Families establish a plan to help states meet standards for prescribing psychiatric drugs to foster kids. —The Senate passed 99-1 Monday night a sweeping package of 70 bills to address the nation's opioid crisis. The legislation creates, expands, and reauthorizes programs across many agencies aimed at hitting the epidemic from all sides. Lawmakers and advocacy groups hailed the passage as a signal of Washington finally taking seriously an issue that killed nearly 50,000 people last year. But many public health advocates and experts say the narrowly-focused proposals will do little to actually change anything significantly without a large, long-term funding commitment from the federal government. The bill, among many other things, closes a loophole that allows the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, to flow freely through the U.S. Post Office, creates a grant program to establish more recovery centers, expands doctors and nurses access to medication-assisted-treatments, and allows the Food and Drug Administration to require drug companies to package their opioids in three to seven-day supplies. Lee was the lone dissenter. — Rep. Chris Collins's attorney said the New York Republican will stay on the ballot in November following his federal indictment for insider trading and lying to investigators, our Post colleague Mike DeBonis reports, a reversal of his initial decision to suspend his campaign. Federal prosecutors in August charged Collins, alleging he schemed with his son to avoid losses on an investment in biotechnology company Innate Immunotherapeutics. “That is a scenario that Republican Party officials had hoped to avoid,” Mike


D.C.-area forecast: A bit of a break through the weekend and into next week

10:40 a.m. update: TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 7/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: Tonight: Tomorrow: View the FORECAST IN DETAIL We’ve got a rather tranquil stretch ahead it seems. That’s good news after all the nonstop storminess of late, and given the longer range is already hinting at a pattern to watch for more storms. An active pattern and a frontal zone in the region keep some clouds around, and it stays rather cool. But there are no major weather worries in our near future. Get our daily forecasts on your Amazon Alexa device. Today (Saturday): Tonight: Follow us on Tomorrow (Sunday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD We’re briefly in a somewhat milder surge of air out ahead of the next upper-level wave. Skies are mostly cloudy, and temperatures should make it well into the 50s, and perhaps near 60. Some showers are possible by sunset or into the night. Confidence: Medium Another dip in the jet stream is passing through around Monday night into Tuesday. We may need to watch for some cloudier times or even some rain and/or snow showers, particularly in the morning. Highs are in the mid-40s to around 50. Confidence: Medium


The once poisoned and imprisoned foes of Putin gather in London

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, who was jailed in Russia on what he says are politically motivated tax charges. Khodorkovsky, in exile in Britain, also attended the ceremony. Magnitsky Awards are given to lawyers, journalists, activists and Western politicians who have fought injustice they describe as perpetrated by the Russian state. They are the brainchild of Bill Browder, an American-born financier who was once the richest foreign investor in Russia. Wanted by Russia, which has an Interpol arrest warrant out for him, Browder named the awards after his lawyer, who died in a Russian jail in 2009 after exposing a massive fraud involving Russian officials. Magnitsky’s family and friends say he was tortured and beaten to death by his jailers. This led Browder to persuade Congress to pass the 2012 Magnitsky Act, allowing the United States to restrict travel and freeze the assets of any individuals who have committed gross violations of human rights in Russia; the list of sanctioned Russians now stands at 49. The Magnitsky Act is reviled by Russia, which has worked very hard to try stop it, including sending a Kremlin-linked lawyer to meet Donald Trump Jr. in 2016, where they discussed the possibility of repealing it. One of the law’s key advocates was Sen. John McCain, who was posthumously honored Thursday. His daughter Meghan McCain collected the award. In a speech that ended with a standing ovation, McCain delivered a sharply worded polemic contrasting her father and Russian dissidents to Putin, whom she called a “dictator” and a “killer”. “The world is entering a new era of strong men and autocrats, animated by a new nationalism that recaptures the glorious past and repackages it,” McCain said. Hinting at her father’s open criticism of President Trump, McCain continued, “There are those, I am ashamed to say, even in America, who look at (the Russian regime) and ask, ‘what’s so bad about it?’ ” Kara-Murza, who was chosen by Sen. McCain to be a pallbearer at his funeral, presented Meghan McCain with the award. Reflecting the oppressive environment in which Russian activists must operate, not all awardees were able to attend. As if to hammer home the point, opposition leader Alexei Navalny and Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov were missing from the ceremony. Navalny was in Strasbourg, being vindicated by Europe’s top human rights court following arrests after organizing street protests across Russia. Sentsov, a native of


وكالة الاستخبارات المركزية تستنتج أنّ ولي العهد السعودي أمر باغتيال جمال خاشقجي

بقلم شَين هارِس، غريغ ميلر وجوش دوسي 16 نوفمبر/تشرين الثاني 2018 – 6:11 م بتوقيت واشنطن [Read in English: CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination] خلصت وكالة الاستخبارات المركزية “سي آي أيه” إلى أنّ ولي العهد السعودي الأمير محمد بن سلمان قد أمر باغتيال الصحفي جمال خاشقجي في إسطنبول الشهر الماضي، وهو ما يتناقض مع ادعاءات الحكومة السعودية بأنّه غير منخرط في عملية قتله، وفقًا لأشخاص مطلعين على المسألة. تقييم “سي آي أيه” لخبايا القضية، حيث قال المسؤولون أنّ لديهم ثقة عالية بصحته، هو الأكثر دقة حتى الآن بشأن ربط بن سلمان بالعملية، ويُعَقِّد التقييم جهود إدارة ترامب للحفاظ على علاقتها مع حليفها الوثيق. كان قد سافر فريق يتألف من 15 عميلًا سعوديًا إلى إسطنبول على متن طائرة حكومية في أكتوبر/تشرين الأول وقتل خاشقجي داخل القنصلية السعودية التي زارها من أجل استلام وثائق كان يحتاجها لإتمام زواجه من امرأة تركية. وقد بحثت الوكالة في مصادر استخباراتية متعددة من أجل التوصل لهذه الاستنتاجات، بما في ذلك مكالمة هاتفية أجراها شقيق ولي العهد السفير السعودي لدى الولايات المتحدة خالد بن سلمان مع خاشقجي، وفقًا لما ذكره الأشخاص المطلعون على الأمر ممن تحدثوا عن المسألة بشرط عدم الكشف عن هوياتهم. خالد كان أخبر خاشقجي، الذي كان كاتب أعمدة مساهم في صحيفة “واشنطن بوست”، أنه يجب عليه الذهاب إلى القنصلية السعودية في إسطنبول من أجل استلام الوثائق ومَنَحَه ضمانات بأمانه إن فعل ذلك. ليس من الواضح ما إذا كان خالد يعلم أنّ خاشقجي سيُقتل، لكنه أجرى المكالمة التي اعترضتها الاستخبارات الأميركية بتوجيه من أخيه، بحسب الأشخاص المطلعين على المكالمة. وقالت المتحدثة باسم السفارة السعودية في واشنطن فاطمة باعشن إنّ السفير وخاشقجي لم يناقشا أبدًا “أي شيء يتعلق بالذهاب إلى تركيا”. وأضافت أنّ الادعاءات الواردة في تقييم “سي آي أيه” “غير صحيحة. لدينا نظريات مختلفة ولا نزال نسمع غيرها دون أن نرى أساسًا لهذه التكهنات”. استنتاج “سي آي أيه” حول دور بن سلمان كان يستند أيضًا إلى تقييم الوكالة للأمير باعتباره الحاكم الفعلي للبلاد الذي يشرف حتى على شؤون المملكة الصغرى. وقال مسؤول أميركي مطلع على استنتاجات الوكالة: “إنّ الموقف المتفق عليه هو أنه لم يكن هنالك أي سبيل لحدوث هذه العملية دون علمه أو مشاركته”. ترى “سي آي أيه” أنّ بن سلمان “تكنوقراط جيد”، كما وصفه المسؤول الأميركي، ولكن أيضًا تراه كشخص متقلب ومتغطرس و”متهور لا يفهم أنّ هنالك بعض الأشياء التي لا يمكنك فعلها”. يعتقد محللو “سي آي إيه” أنّ لديه قبضة قوية على السلطة وأنه ليس في خطر من فقدان منصبه كوريث للعرش على الرغم من فضيحة خاشقجي. وقال


ووزارة الخارجية الأميركية عن مكان جثة خاشقجي وقد شعر بالإحباط من عدم تمكنهم من تقديم إجابة. وكالة “سي آي أيه” لا تعرف مكان رفات خاشقجي، وفقًا لأشخاص مطلعين على تقييم الوكالة. ومن ضمن المعلومات التي جمعتها وكالة “سي آي أيه” تسجيل صوتي من جهاز استماع زرعه الأتراك داخل القنصلية السعودية، بحسب الأشخاص المطلعين على المسألة. أعطى الأتراك الوكالة نسخة من هذا التسجيل الذي استمعت له مديرة الوكالة جينا هاسبل. ويبيِّن التسجيل أنّ خاشقجي قد قُتِل بعد لحظات من دخوله إلى القنصلية، وفقًا لمسؤولين في بلدان متعددة استمعوا له أو أُطلِعوا على محتوياته. توفي خاشقجي في مكتب القنصل السعودي الذي يمكن سماعه معربًا عن استيائه من الحاجة إلى التخلص من جثة خاشقجي وتنظيف أي دليل متبقٍ، وفقًا لأشخاص على دراية بالتسجيل الصوتي. وفحصت وكالة “سي آي أيه” أيضا مكالمة أجراها عضو مزعوم في فريق الاغتيال السعودي يدعى ماهر المطرب من داخل القنصلية بعد عملية القتل، وهو مسؤول أمني يمكن رؤيته في كثير من الأحيان إلى جانب ولي العهد وتم تصويره أثناء دخوله القنصلية ومغادرتها يوم العملية. اتصل المطرب بسعود القحطاني، الذي كان آنذاك أحد كبار مساعدي بن سلمان، وأبلغه أن العملية قد تمت، وفقًا لأشخاص مطلعين على المكالمة. صادقت وزارة المالية هذا الأسبوع على معاقبة 17 فرداً قالت إنّهم متورطون في وفاة خاشقجي، بما فيهم القحطاني والمطرب والقنصل السعودي في تركيا محمد العتيبي. تقييم وكالة “سي آي أيه” لدور بن سلمان في عملية الاغتيال يتناسق أيضًا مع معلومات أدلت بها حكومات أجنبية، وفقًا لمسؤولين في عدة عواصم أوروبية استنتجوا أنّ العملية كانت متطاولة للغاية بحيث لم يكن لتحدث من دون توجيه من ولي العهد. قال الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان إنّ حكومته شاركت التسجيل الصوتي مع ألمانيا وفرنسا والمملكة المتحدة والسعودية. بالإضافة إلى المكالمات والتسجيلات الصوتية، فقد ربط محللو “سي آي إيه” بعض أعضاء الفريق السعودي مباشرة بولي العهد نفسه. وقد خدم بعض الأعضاء الخمسة عشر في فريقه الأمني وسافروا إلى الولايات المتحدة خلال زيارات قام بها مسؤولون سعوديون كبار، بما فيهم ولي العهد، وفقًا لسجلات جوازات السفر التي راجعتها “واشنطن بوست”. كما حصلت الولايات المتحدة على معلومات استخباراتية قبل وفاة خاشقجي تشير إلى أنّه قد يكون معرضًا للخطر. ولكن لم تبدأ وكالات الاستخبارات الأميركية في البحث عن سجلات الاتصالات المُعترَضة إلا بعد اختفائه يوم 2 أكتوبر/تشرين الأول واكتشفت مواد تشير إلى أن العائلة المالكة السعودية كانت تسعى لجذب خاشقجي إلى الرياض. وقال مسؤولان أميركيان إنّه لا توجد مؤشرات على أنّ المسؤولين كانوا على علم بهذه المعلومات قبل اختفاء خاشقجي أو على أنّه قد فاتتهم أي فرصة لتحذيره. وقال أحد المسؤولين


Woman says she married Khashoggi in ceremony kept secret from his fiancee and some in his family

An Egyptian woman says she married Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a religious ceremony in the United States this year, months before he was killed at a Saudi consulate in Turkey while seeking papers needed to marry a different woman. The disclosure of the marriage, which Khashoggi appears to have kept hidden from his Turkish fiancee and even members of his family, adds to the complicated timeline of Khashoggi’s final months before he was killed by a team of Saudi assassins in October. In an interview, the woman said she was coming forward to reveal her relationship with Khashoggi because “as a Muslim wife, I want my full right and to be recognized.” She spoke on the condition that she be identified only by her first initial and last name, H. Atr, citing concern for her security and her job. Atr provided The Washington Post with text messages that she and Khashoggi exchanged and photos of them together, including some from their wedding ceremony, which took place in June in a Washington suburb. A longtime associate of Khashoggi who participated in the ceremony as a witness confirmed Atr’s account. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. Members of Khashoggi’s family declined to comment on the marriage. His Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said in a telephone interview that she was not aware of Khashoggi’s relationship with Atr and questioned her motives. “Jamal never told me about this woman,” Cengiz said. “Why is she trying to change the picture people have of Jamal? What does she want? . . . I suspect that this is an attempt to discredit him and hurt his reputation.” If she were to establish that she was Khashoggi’s legitimate wife, Atr could be in a position to claim part of any compensation that his family collects from the Saudi government. The legal status of Atr’s marriage to Khashoggi is unclear, however — neither appears to have obtained a marriage license. Atr said that she has provided photos and other evidence of her marriage to Saudi and Turkish officials at a consulate in the Middle East. Some of those photos surfaced online this week in several posts to a Twitter account supportive of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi was frequently critical of the Saudi government and royal family in columns for The Post and other publications. The CIA has assessed that his


Immigration worries drove the Brexit vote. Then attitudes changed.

front pages with headlines such as “Migrants Rob Young Britons of Jobs,” “Migrant Workers Flooding Britain” and “Workers Are Fired for Being British.” According to one researcher, over a six-year period starting in 2010, the Daily Express carried front-page migration stories on 179 occasions, and the Daily Mail, 122 times. George Osborne, the former chancellor of the exchequer who campaigned for Britain to remain in the E.U., recently told the BBC that his Conservative Party’s remain campaign didn’t do enough to promote the benefits of European immigration. But fast-forward two years, and public space is no longer dominated by fears of Britain being overwhelmed by migrants, but rather by concerns about how Brexit may disrupt life and hurt the economy, especially if Britain “crashes out” of Europe in a no-deal “doomsday scenario.” The biggest immigration story since the Brexit vote didn’t have anything to do with E.U. workers or migrants from the Middle East and North Africa. It was about the “Windrush generation,” people brought legally from Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean to help rebuild Britain after World War II, only to find their legal status questioned by British authorities decades later. When Brexit news features E.U. migrants, the stories typically highlight how Britain could lose European nationals who contribute to the economy by working as berry pickers, baristas, and nurses at the National Health Service. “People are realizing there are trade-offs,” said Jonathan Portes, professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London. “There is a greater realism in the media coverage and the public debate.” Rosie Carter, a senior policy officer with the group Hope Not Hate, said when her organization offered an online anonymous survey, where self-selected, non-randomized respondents could choose a number from 1 to 10 (very negative to very positive) to describe their feelings about immigration, the majority choose either 1s or 10s — meaning they went to the extremes, which is what many people experience through social media. But when the group hired professional pollsters to survey a representative sample, they found that most Britons are “balancers,” who see the dueling “pressures and gains” of immigration. Wells, of YouGov, wonders how much the shift in opinion on immigration has to do with how the tribes of Brexit “leavers” and “remainers” want to think of themselves. The roughly half of voters who identify as remainers are able to defend their position on Brexit by


What we can learn from the world’s oldest literature

grow up to overthrow him. He ordered one of his soldiers to take the infant and expose him in the wilds, where the child would not survive. The soldier was unwilling to do this and secretly gave the child to a farmer to raise. When the child was grown and his noble nature evident to all who met him, Astyages discovered him and, fearing for his sovereignty, determined to punish the dissenting soldier. He killed the soldier’s son and dismembered him. This tyrant’s cruelty did not end there; he then had the child cooked and fed the meal to the soldier. We believe we live in a world that has left antiquity behind. This is because we believe that time moves forward in a steady upward march, an arc of history that bends toward justice. This view is a misapprehension. Human brutality lurks always just below the surface. Our ancient violence is always with us. The project of justice is to achieve for a specific people, in a specific place, for this society, this polity, an oasis of peace and decency that can keep violence, domination and grasping tyranny at bay. Over millennia, humankind has been able to invent the tools that make it possible to cultivate such oases for all of us — the rule of law, constitutionalism, an expectation that free and equal citizens can rule and be ruled, in turn, in a polity that defines membership inclusively on principles of human equality. These inventions did not emerge all at once. Their pieces and parts have appeared, here and there, over the course of long spans of time on the world’s stage. I am sure there are still more inventions of this kind to be secured so as to increase the prospects of safety and happiness for future generations. But these inventions do not put millennia between us and the alternative of disorder, domination, disunion and despair. They scarcely put more than one generation between us and those things. It is always only a question of whether we can keep alive for another generation the peace-bringing knowledge, the freedom-protecting expertise, and the equality-respecting wisdom. This is why I have committed myself to the work of civic education, not only in my classroom, but also in my efforts to support the renewal of civic education in our K-12 system. I wish there were more of us pursuing this work.


CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination

consulate after the killing by an alleged member of the Saudi hit team, Maher Mutreb, a security official who has often been seen at the crown prince’s side and who was photographed entering and leaving the consulate on the day of the killing. Mutreb called Saud al-Qahtani, then one of the top aides to Mohammed, and informed him that the operation had been completed, according to people familiar with the call. This week, the Treasury Department sanctioned 17 individuals it said were involved in Khashoggi’s death, including Qahtani, Mutreb and the Saudi consul general in Turkey, Mohammad al-Otaibi. The CIA’s assessment of Mohammed’s role in the assassination also tracks with information developed by foreign governments, according to officials in several European capitals who have concluded that the operation was too brazen to have taken place without Mohammed’s direction. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his government has shared the audio with Germany, France, Britain and Saudi Arabia. In addition to calls and audio recordings, CIA analysts also linked some members of the Saudi hit team directly to Mohammed himself. Some of the 15 members have served on his security team and traveled in the United States during visits by senior Saudi officials, including the crown prince, according to passport records reviewed by The Post. The United States had also obtained intelligence before Khashoggi’s death that indicated he might be in danger. But it wasn’t until after he disappeared on Oct. 2 that U.S. intelligence agencies began searching archives of intercepted communications and discovered material indicating that the Saudi royal family had been seeking to lure Khashoggi back to Riyadh. Two U.S. officials said there has been no indication that officials were aware of this intelligence in advance of Khashoggi’s disappearance or had missed any chance to warn him. Khashoggi “was not a person of interest” before his disappearance, and the fact that he was residing in Virginia meant that he was regarded as a U.S. person and therefore shielded from U.S. intelligence gathering, one of the officials said. Trump has told senior White House officials that he wants Mohammed to remain in power because Saudi Arabia helps to check Iran, which the administration considers its top security challenge in the Middle East. He has said that he does not want the controversy over Khashoggi’s death to impede oil production by the kingdom. One lingering question is why Mohammed might


Trump won’t believe his own intelligence community — again

This post has been updated. It has been abundantly clear from day one that President Trump does not want to blame Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death. Trump has even said as much: “I hope that the king and the crown prince didn’t know about it,” he said Oct. 17. Even as Trump has occasionally offered tough words, none of it pointed to the top, and most everything Trump has said has offered an alternative narrative that doesn’t implicate Mohammed. That wishful thinking now meets reality, but Trump appears primed to doubt his own intelligence community and/or fail to act upon its conclusions on an issue of huge international import. Again. The Washington Post reported late Friday that the CIA now has high confidence that Mohammed personally ordered the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist and former ally of the Saudi royal family who became a critic. This contradicts the official Saudi explanation, which is that Mohammed’s deputies merely ordered the repatriation of Khashoggi and the team sent to Istanbul instead killed him. The situation — and Trump’s position in it — now carries eerie parallels to the Russia investigation. The U.S. intelligence community concluded Russia interfered in the U.S. election and favored Trump, but Trump has spent most of his presidency publicly casting doubt on this and resisting punitive measures. His administration has still punished Russia. But Trump, whose personal interest in doubting Russian interference is clear (he feels it undermines his 2016 election win), has frequently been a less-than-willing participant. And just like then, The Post is reporting Trump remains skeptical of the finding that the prince was responsible — despite the evidence: Trump said Saturday that he hadn’t been briefed on the matter yet and that he would be speaking with the CIA. But aides say he’s seen evidence implicating Mohammed and looked for ways to avoid pinning the blame on him. As with Russia, Trump’s motivation to disbelieve his intelligence community is apparent: The Saudis are an important strategic ally; his son-in-law Jared Kushner is close to Mohammed; and Trump has long-standing business ties with Saudis. And this week was full of signs that Trump’s administration isn’t prepared to hold Mohammed accountable — signs that are even starker now that we know what Trump has been told behind the scenes. The Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions against 17


ترامب يدافع عن أكاذيب محمد بن سلمان ويجب أن يصرّ الكونغرس على الحقيقة

عامًا كحليف استراتيجي كان خاطئًا بشكل سافر. كما هو الحال في قضية تدخل روسيا في الانتخابات الرئاسية لعام 2016، فإنّ السيد ترامب يرفض الاستنتاجات القاطعة لمجتمع الاستخبارات الأميركي لأنها لا تناسبه سياسيًا. وكما هو الحال في تلك المسألة، فيجب على الكونغرس أن يمضي ببناء السياسة الخارجية الأميركية على أساس الحقيقة وليس الكذب. رفض عدد من المشرّعين من كلا الحزبين بصوت عالٍ التستر السعودي ورد الإدارة البائس. انضم ثلاثة من أعضاء مجلس الشيوخ الجمهوريين – لِندسي غراهام (ولاية ساوث كارولاينا) وتود يونغ (ولاية إنديانا) وسوزان كولِنز (مَين) – إلى ثلاثة ديموقراطيين، بمن فيهم عضو الأقلية رفيع المستوى في لجنة العلاقات الخارجية بمجلس الشيوخ روبرت منِنِديز (ولاية نيوجرسي)، من أجل تأييد تشريع يُلزِم إدارة البيت الأبيض بفرض عقوبات على “أي مسؤول في الحكومة السعودية أو أحد أفراد العائلة المالكة” مرتبط بمقتل خاشقجي “استنادًا على أدلة موثوق بها” في غضون 30 يومًا. وبالنظر إلى استنتاجات “سي آي أيه”، فإنّ هذا التشريع سيشمل محمد بن سلمان. كما سيوقف مشروع القانون معظم مبيعات الأسلحة الأميركية إلى السعودية وتسليمها إلى أن “تفي بوقف تام للأعمال العدائية في حرب اليمن” وتتوقف عن التدخل في جهود توصيل شحنات المساعدات الإنسانية. ويضغط أعضاء مجلس الشيوخ من أجل تبني لجنة العلاقات الخارجية لهذا التشريع في جلسة عملها بعد نهاية إجازة عيد الشكر حتى يتسنى له التحرك خلال جلسة الفترة الانتقالية. لم يقدِّم رئيس اللجنة بوب كوركر (جمهوري – ولاية تينيسي) أي التزام بشأن التشريع عندما سألناه عنه. لكنه قال لنا إنّ محمد بن سلمان “يجب أن يخضع للمحاسبة”. كما قال السيد كوركر إنّه طلب “جلسة إدارية رفيعة المستوى لتزويد المعلومات تتضمن جميع أعضاء مجلس الشيوخ بشأن ما سنفعله حتى نتمكن من تنسيق أي مكون تشريعي ضروري لإعلان استجابة على كافة مستويات الحكومة”. السيد كوركر يمنح السيد ترامب فرصة لنطق الحقيقة عن محمد بن سلمان وتعديل سياساته وفقاً لها، وذلك تصحيح ضروري من أجل تطبيق استراتيجية أميركية عقلانية وعملية في الشرق الأوسط. إن استمر البيت الأبيض بدلاً من ذلك في تشجيع ولي العهد على أكاذيبه، فيتوجب على الكونغرس أن يتحرك بسرعة وبشكل حاسم. Read more: The Post’s View: Saudi Arabia’s latest account of Khashoggi’s death is shocking in its audacity Sarah Margon: A U.N. investigation would offer a true path to justice for Jamal Khashoggi The Post’s View: So far, the Trump administration is abetting a Saudi coverup of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. Will Congress go along? The Post’s View: To rescue Yemen, the U.S. must end all military support of the Saudi coalition Read Jamal Khashoggi’s columns for The Washington Post


Slow probe by federal agency delays redress for victims of deadly Silver Spring explosion

from home in Lake Charles, La. Two other pipeline-investigator positions are unfilled, he said. “We’ve actually had difficulty hiring into those positions because we can’t compete salary-wise with pipeline companies.” The division has been stretched particularly thin after gas line explosions in September north of Boston killed one person, injured many more and prompted the governor of Massachusetts to declare a state of emergency. Hall said “because we’re so shorthanded on pipeline,” the agency “sent one of our rail investigators up to help.” In its 2017 report to Congress, the NTSB listed eight open pipeline investigations, of which the Silver Spring explosion was the oldest. In addition to significant gas line and pipeline accidents, the NTSB is responsible for investigating all civil aviation accidents and many rail, marine and highway accidents. “One other complicating factor in Silver Spring is that our investigator in charge retired suddenly without notice, and we were left a bit scrambling to bring somebody else up to speed to complete the investigation,” Hall said. “Otherwise, it would have been out probably a couple of months ago.” That investigator, Ravi Chhatre, told local journalists and officials within days of the blast that the NTSB aimed to finish investigating within a year. Reached by phone Friday, Chhatre said he gave “two weeks notice, standard,” before his retirement this spring and had finished his portion of the investigation. “I did complete the investigation,” he said. An NTSB spokesman, Keith Holloway, said issues beyond Chhatre’s work must be included in the final report, including recommendations for how to avoid similar incidents in the future. “We’re not blaming him,” Holloway said of Chhatre. “There are a lot of other things that impact the length of the investigation.” The NTSB has known for years of the potential for coming retirements to prolong investigations. A decade ago, the agency said it needed to increase its staff by 22 percent to carry out its mission. In the years afterward, the agency’s staff increased by about half that amount, a 2016 report by the Congressional Research Service said. “The NTSB has raised specific concerns about potential staffing shortages due to retirements and emerging skill gaps in certain management and mission-critical occupations,” the CRS report said, adding data suggested “ongoing staffing challenges are most acute” in the division that handles pipeline, railroad and hazardous-material incidents. The lawsuits over the Aug. 10, 2016, explosion at Flower Branch


Trump’s border deployment will face scrutiny from new Democrats with national security experience

(D-Mass.), a Marine Corps veteran who spent the past year urging others with military backgrounds to seek office. “Now we have these amazing veterans who can take on these issues.” For some, the issue is respect for the troops. In their estimation, Trump has failed on that front, despite his professed reverence for the military. “He likes to pound his chest and talk tough, but he has not served our nation in uniform,” Rep.-elect Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said in an interview, noting that many service members sent to the border have already logged multiple combat deployments. “ . . . They’re going to be spending yet another holiday away from their families in tents without running water,” he said. Others questioned the logic of using an already overextended military to meet civilian migrants, most of whom are fleeing countries plagued by violence and poverty. A congressionally mandated study determined the military power of rival nations, including China and Russia, could soon eclipse that of the United States unless more strategic investments are made. “We’re burdening them over and over again, and I want to know why this is the right thing to do,” said Rep.-elect Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who served in the Defense Department and the National Security Agency under President Barack Obama. Kim said Congress should determine whether Trump announced the deployment as a political ploy. “I don’t want to see an ounce of politics when it comes to our troops,” Kim said. Taking stock of Trump’s policies, incoming lawmakers also cited the war in Syria, the mission in Afghanistan and the perennial debate over a new authorization for military force as other areas they would like to investigate. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who is expected to take over as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has suggested that Democrats would challenge Trump’s plans to augment spending on nuclear weapons and establish a Space Force, and scrutinize his attempt to ban transgender people from serving in the military. However, it is the president’s response to the caravan that has emerged as a lightning rod for critics of both Trump’s military and social policies — and the more Trump attempts to justify it, the more resolve Democrats appear to show in challenging it. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen visited troops stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border, delivering a message of thanks and encouraging


D.C.’s Mount Vernon Square eyed for high-speed maglev train station

The District’s Mount Vernon Square area is in the running to be the home of the proposed high-speed maglev train that would take passengers from the nation’s capital to Baltimore in 15 minutes. Project officials have settled on putting the maglev station in the trendy Northwest neighborhood that was once known for its run-down parking lots but now is a popular destination with condos, shopping and restaurants. In Baltimore, project officials have yet to settle on having the maglev station in the Inner Harbor or in an area of South Baltimore that is slated for development, according to a new project report that puts the high-speed rail line that much closer to construction. The 40-mile “superconducting magnetic levitation train system,” commonly called a maglev, is planned as the first leg of a system that would carry passengers from Washington to New York in an hour. Once built, proponents say, it could ease travel along congested Interstate 95 by adding rail capacity to the Northeast Corridor — the nation’s busiest rail network. The technology, being tested in Japan, would also revolutionize train travel in the country and free it of the delays that plague today’s railroads. The maglev would travel at 311 mph, project officials said. “This is a transformational change to this corridor, and it’s long past due,” said David Henley, project director for Baltimore-Washington Rapid Rail, which would develop and operate the train. Building the D.C.-Baltimore stretch could cost between $10 billion and $12 billion. Northeast Maglev, the team of private investors behind the project and its sister company, Baltimore-Washington Rapid Rail, says it has secured financial commitments, including $5 billion from Japan. Project officials have said they also would seek federal loans and grants. The report released Thursday by the team conducting a federal environmental review offered more details about the two potential routes under consideration and the three planned stops: one in each city and at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport. The train would not stop in communities between Baltimore and Washington. The two routes are parallel to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. On the east side of the highway, the route would encroach on federal land, including the parkway, the National Security Agency at Fort Meade and NASA in Greenbelt. Northeast Maglev officials say this is their preferred option. On the west side, the rail line would track along the edge of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway right of way and


Trump speaks with CIA about Khashoggi killing, says there will be a report by Tuesday

his upcoming marriage. Once inside, Khashoggi was set upon by a team of Saudi agents who had flown to Istanbul to kill him, according to intelligence assessments by the United States and European governments. The team is thought to have dismembered Khashoggi and disposed of his remains. The CIA analyzed audio recordings from inside the consulate, which were provided by the Turkish government, as well as intercepted phone calls, according to people familiar with the matter. One of those calls was placed by a member of the hit team from inside the consulate to a senior aide to Mohammed, informing him that the killing had taken place, according to people familiar with the call. The Saudi government has insisted that the prince knew nothing of the operation, which it has blamed on rogue actors who went beyond their authority in a mission meant to bring Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi had written critically of Mohammed’s policies and was living in a self-imposed exile in Virginia out of concern for his safety in his native country. “The claims in this purported assessment are false,” Fatimah Baeshen, a spokeswoman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, said of the CIA findings. “We have and continue to hear various theories without seeing the primary basis for these speculations.” For more than a month, Trump has struggled to balance his interest in maintaining strong relations with the Saudi government with growing pressure in Congress and around the world to punish the Saudi regime. Trump has told aides that he wants Mohammed to stay in power and that he sees the Saudis as the best strategic check on Iran and as a vital source of oil. Mohammed has a close relationship with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser who helps lead the administration’s Middle East strategy. This past week, the Saudi public prosecutor acknowledged that a team of Saudi agents had killed Khashoggi, but he claimed that they had been sent only to bring him back to Saudi Arabia. The prosecutor has brought charges against 11 people he characterized as part of a rogue operation, and he said he would seek the death penalty for five of those involved. The Treasury Department also announced that it would freeze the assets of 17 Saudi individuals and prohibit companies from doing business with them. On Friday evening, Kirsten Fontenrose, the National Security Council official in


Trump’s attack on retired admiral who led bin Laden raid escalates a war of words

week that the number of active-duty troops deployed in fact had peaked at about 5,900. An additional 2,000 members of the National Guard have been there since April. Although Mattis defended the deployment as necessary support for the Department of Homeland Security and good training for troops, other members of the military community took offense at what they saw as a wasteful politicization of the armed forces. Trump’s suggestion Trump, who attended New York Military Academy but avoided serving in the Vietnam War through draft deferments, also answered questions Sunday about why he hadn’t visited American troops serving in combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan. “I think you will see that happen,” Trump said. “There are things that are being planned.” But former and current administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, didn’t recall hearing about the possibility of Trump visiting troops in Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria during his first year and a half in office. An attempt to visit the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in late 2017 was scuttled by bad weather. Trump has also been a vocal advocate of withdrawing from the conflicts where American troops are deployed abroad, but Mattis and other national security officials have persuaded him to stay the course in Syria and Afghanistan. When Wallace pointed out during Sunday’s interview that Trump hadn’t visited troops in Iraq or Afghanistan, the president was quick to note that he opposed the war in Iraq, although it’s unclear if he ever voiced that opposition before the 2003 invasion. “But this is about the soldiers, sir,” Wallace said. “You’re right,” Trump replied. He promised to make a visit despite his “unbelievably busy schedule . . . on top of which you have these phony witch hunts.” Monetary support for the military has long been at the heart of Trump’s political messaging. When former first lady Michelle Obama said in a newly released book that she couldn’t forgive Trump for loud and reckless innuendos about her husband’s birthplace that endangered her family, Trump quickly shot back that he couldn’t forgive his immediate predecessor for “what he did to our military.” Years of budget caps damaged the American military’s preparedness, according to the Pentagon, which says the consistent funding during the first two years of the Trump administration has helped assuage problems with training, maintenance, personnel and equipment. In August, Trump


Man fatally shot Sunday night in Northwest Washington

A man was shot and killed Sunday night in Northwest Washington, the D.C. police said. The victim was found about 6:30 p.m. near 9th and Jefferson Streets NW, the police said. The address was also given as the 800 block of Jefferson. He was suffering from gunshot wounds, said Karimah Bilal, a police spokeswoman. Homicide detectives are investigating, she said. The site is in a largely residential neighborhood in the Brightwood Park area, east of Georgia Avenue. Martin.Weil@washpost.com


The Daily 202: Trump’s pattern of insulting war heroes continues with commander of bin Laden raid

check for $25,000 and would direct his staff to establish an online fundraiser for the family, but neither happened -- The most famous clash with a Gold Star family came before Trump took office. Trump responded by saying, “I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard.” He then said Hillary Clinton’s writers gave him the speech to deliver, which Khan denied, and suggested that Ghazala Khan, Capt. Khan’s mother, did not speak at the DNC because the Islamic religion does not allow her to speak in public. “I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention,” Trump tweeted later. “Am I not allowed to respond?” -- Today is the sixth anniversary of this Trump tweet: WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: -- The White House informed CNN reporter Jim Acosta it would again revoke his press pass once a judge’s temporary order expires. GET SMART FAST: CALIFORNIA ON FIRE: -- The death toll in California’s Camp Fire rose to 76 as more than 1,000 people remain missing. -- The garage of one family who fled the fire became a safe haven for an ambulance crew and their patients. -- Trump incorrectly suggested California could prevent wildfires by following Finland’s example and raking forests. -- Finland instead focuses on removing dead trees from forest floors and providing early warning of fires. THE NEW WORLD ORDER: -- Trump said he will not listen to the “suffering tape” of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. “‘We have the tape. I don’t want to hear the tape. No reason for me to hear the tape,’ Trump said in the Fox interview ... -- Trump’s comments underscored how hesitant he is to break with MBS after building his Middle East strategy around the crown prince. -- Mike Pence and Chinese President Xi Jinping escalated their trade attacks during this weekend’s Pacific Rim trade summit. -- China’s continued success has defied U.S. predictions that its economic model would not last. -- John Bolton has centralized national security decision-making in Trump’s administration, a move that has been criticized by some of his colleagues. -- New U.S. sanctions on Iran are having a severe impact on medical imports. -- The Trump administration’s opposition to U.N. aid for Palestinian refugees has sparked a debate over who gets to define refugees. THERE’S A BEAR IN THE WOODS: -- Trump


11 things to do in the D.C. area this week

Monday, Nov. 19 Joel Harrison at Blues Alley Ice skating at National Gallery of Art ice rink Tuesday, Nov. 20 ‘An Inspector Calls’ at Sidney Harman Hall Wednesday, Nov. 21 Festival of Lights at Bull Run Park: Holiday light display season in the D.C. area is in full swing. The opening night of this 2½-mile stretch of holiday lights in Centreville, Va., is enjoyed entirely from the comfort of your car. Starting Friday, the carnival that accompanies the light display opens, and on Nov. 29, the holiday village — which has bonfires, s’mores and a gift show — will complete the full showcase at Bull Run. Through Jan. 6. 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. $20-$25 ($5 off coupon available online). Werk Ethic at U Street Music Hall [Werk Ethic is your chance to party like it’s 1999 — or earlier] Pusha T at the Fillmore Thursday, Nov. 22 Thanksgiving dinner at Unconventional Diner [6 restaurants serving Thanksgiving dinner around Washington] Friday, Nov. 23 ZooLights at the National Zoo Mount Vernon by Candlelight at George Washington’s Mount Vernon Downtown Holiday Market at Eighth and F streets NW Barrel-Aged Black Friday at Old Ox Brewery — Hau Chu, Adele Chapin, Fritz Hahn, Chris Richards and Michael J. West


Trump says he won’t listen to Khashoggi ‘suffering tape’

President Trump acknowledged the existence of an audio recording of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul but said he has not listened to what he called the “suffering tape” and dismissed a growing clamor among lawmakers for Saudi Arabia to face more serious consequences for the killing. Based in part on the tape and other intercepted communications, the CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered last month’s killing of Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi leaders and a contributing columnist to The Washington Post. But Trump maintained in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that the crown prince had told him “maybe five different times” and “as recently as a few days ago” that he had nothing to do with the killing. Aides have said Trump has been looking for ways to avoid pinning the blame on Mohammed, a close ally who plays a central role in Trump’s Middle East policy. That goal has been complicated by shifting, contradictory stories from Riyadh, the Saudi capital, and the emergence of evidence pointing to Mohammed, including the recording, which was provided by Turkey and captures Khashoggi being killed by a Saudi hit team moments after entering the consulate on Oct. 2. “We have the tape. I don’t want to hear the tape. No reason for me to hear the tape,” Trump said in the Fox interview, which was recorded Friday and aired Sunday. He described it as “a suffering tape” and told Fox host Chris Wallace, “I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it . . . . It was very violent, very vicious and terrible.” Still, Trump demurred when Wallace asked about Mohammed’s role in the killing and whether the crown prince may have been lying to Trump about his lack of involvement. “Well, will anybody really know?” Trump said. “You saw we put on very heavy sanctions, massive sanctions on a large group of people from Saudi Arabia. But, at the same time, we do have an ally, and I want to stick with an ally that in many ways has been very good.” The Treasury Department announced last week that it was imposing sanctions on 17 Saudi individuals it said were involved in Khashoggi’s death. The interview marks another instance of Trump openly casting doubt on the conclusions of American intelligence agencies. At a July


Why Trump can’t stop personally attacking military veterans

general, I think that that’s something highly inappropriate,” which is, of course, ludicrous. But there is a simple rule anyone can follow: While it is perfectly fine to disagree with anyone, denigrating a veteran’s military service itself is probably out of bounds. It is possible that Trump chafes at the idea that retired admirals or generals are accorded a special status when criticizing him, receiving attention for their opinions that others might not enjoy. You might even be able to contend that McRaven’s views about press freedom are no more inherently valuable than anyone else’s. But Trump can’t seem to stop himself from taking it that one step further, not just to say “he’s wrong,” but to attack the thing McRaven is best known for in his military career. (As has been pointed out, the special forces that McRaven commanded weren’t charged with finding Bin Laden; that was an intelligence matter. The special forces went in and got bin Laden once he was located.) This helps explain why Trump’s other actions toward the military have shown none of the special concern he claims to have, and which all presidents have shown. Ahead of the midterm elections, he deployed thousands of troops to the southern border to heighten tension over the phantom threat of a caravan of migrants; those troops are still there, cooling their heels and missing Thanksgiving with their families. He orders an idiotic military parade (which was thankfully canceled), wasting their time and money, for no purpose other than his own aggrandizement. He hasn’t visited any of the deployed troops in war zones anywhere in the world, and when asked why not, he answers that he opposed the war in Iraq. The proper response to that excuse is of course, “Who the hell cares?” It’s not as though the men and women who are there had any say in the matter, and visiting them is a way of demonstrating that you honor their service. Barack Obama opposed the war but, as president, he made multiple visits to the troops in Iraq and in Afghanistan, as well. But for Trump, it’s all personal. He regularly refers to “my military” and “my generals” as though they belong not to the country but to him personally. And if they displease him? Then they’re dead to him, and they go right in with all his other enemies as targets for personal destruction.


Democratic marijuana lobbyist wins statewide race after Florida recount

oversee a department that traditionally has been friendly to farmers and businesses, and also to the National Rifle Association. In Florida, it’s the Agriculture Commission that conducts weapons background checks and issues concealed-weapons permits. Fried is a gun owner, and she has a concealed-weapons permit. Still, she has advocated for stronger gun-control measures. In October, Fried tweeted, “I have a message for the @NRA: Your control over concealed weapons permits is finished. As Commissioner of Agriculture, I won’t be beholden to you — but to the people of Florida.” The NRA endorsed Caldwell, and NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer called Fried an “anti-gun extremist who will eliminate our freedoms.” Fried also supports new ways of using and monitoring agricultural runoff, which is blamed for contributing to the massive red-tide and blue-green algae outbreaks that plagued the state this year. Fried said she believes her platform appealed not only to Democrats but also to Republicans and the growing segment of the electorate that does not affiliate with either major party. “The issues that I have been talking about really cross party lines,” Fried said. “Access to medical marijuana, water quality in our state, sensible gun regulations. These are things that are not partisan. I believe that I was able to capture a lot of independent votes, and a lot of Republican votes.” Fried’s big issue, however, was marijuana — medical as well as recreational. Florida voters in 2016 passed an amendment allowing the use of medical marijuana. The issue was popular — it passed by 71 percent — but the state has been slow in rolling it out. Fried, whose marijuana lobbying firm is called Igniting Florida, said she saw firsthand how medical marijuana helped children with seizures. She said she also saw what she considered roadblocks put up by legislators that made it difficult to get a license to provide the substance. Her outspoken support of marijuana came with a price during the election: Because Fried took donations from the medical marijuana industry, Wells Fargo and BB&T banks closed her campaign accounts briefly, citing policies against serving businesses related to marijuana, which is still prohibited under federal law. Fried plans to keep pot in the forefront when she takes office. “It’s definitely seen as taboo. They don’t even want to talk about it in Tallahassee,” Fried said. “I think now the conversation will start, and we’ll move the issue forward.” national@washpost.com


The Finance 202: U.S.-China trade conflict is worsening

a more transparent manner.” — What's next for HQ2 losers?NYT's Neil Irwin: “Some promising answers are bubbling up, although there may not be a single plan that all the people who study these issues can agree upon. A new paper by Clara Hendrickson, Mark Muro and Bill Galston at the Brookings Institution aims to summarize the facts about these regional divides, as well as how policy contributes to them and how it could help reduce them. They argue for heavy investment in digital skills, even in areas without a large existing high-tech sector. They seek new channels to ensure that businesses in struggling areas have access to capital, including small-business lending from banks and venture capital for start-ups.” Related: Trump country is falling further behind — Deutsche Bank no longer indispensable.Bloomberg's Steven Arons and Chris Reiter: “As Deutsche Bank AG approaches its 150th anniversary, Germany’s biggest lender is facing an inconvenient truth: it is no longer irreplaceable for the country’s economic elite. From corporate giants to specialist engineering firms, Germany Inc.’s once-solid allegiance to Deutsche Bank is waning after years of crises stemming from efforts to emulate Wall Street investment banks, according to discussions with numerous executives. After working with Deutsche Bank for more than half a century, ‘I feel genuine regret for the decline of this once so proud and trusted institution,’ said Reinhold Wuerth, the 83-year-old billionaire and patriarch of building-materials maker Wuerth Group.” — Waters's Trump probe could meet Dem resistance. Politico's Zachary Warmbrodt: “Rep. Maxine Waters is running into an unexpected obstacle in her bid to investigate a president who has mocked her as a ‘low IQ person’: members of the California Democrat’s own party. Waters, the incoming chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, has promised to follow the ‘Trump money trail,’ targeting the Trump Organization’s hundreds of millions in loans from Deutsche Bank, the German lender that has been under scrutiny in connection with Russian money laundering. But the committee has a handful of moderates who worry that such aggressive moves will backfire. “’The American people will understand thoughtful, well-grounded investigations,’ said Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat. ‘But they will bridle at investigations that seem overtly political.’ That tension between cautious Democrats and those who want to train their subpoena firepower at the White House is being repeated throughout the House, as establishment veterans face off against progressives out for revenge against [Trump].”


Brexit and Trump: Easy answers to hard questions

decisions that, without our consent, throw us into sink-or-swim global markets. It is easy for those of us who benefit from the status quo to reject such apparent atavism. We cite economic analysis showing that immigration has not hurt the living standards of native-born people; we tout the benefits of technological innovation and “creative destruction”; we argue that expanded trade has been a net plus. Progressive elites, of which I’m one, argue that the carnage/Brexit narrative is designed to divide a potentially powerful working-class coalition that could, were it to unite at the ballot box, take the fight to the real enemy: the top few percent who are, as we fight about borders both in Mexico and Northern Ireland, rigging the game to redistribute even more income, wealth and power their way. But our rejection neglects a fundamental truth: Trump and Brexit offered voters an easy answer to a hard question. The question was: “How can we adapt to an unwelcoming economy?” The answer was: “You don’t have to; you can be much better off by rejecting it.” One can glimpse the falsehood of this answer in the U.K.’s struggles to implement the results of the 2016 referendum on exiting the European Union. As the March deadline approaches for the U.K. to leave the bloc, a concrete plan to do so is foundering on the same principle I’ve often cited in writings on Trump’s protectionism: No one knows how to unscramble the globalization omelet. In one of the oldest political plays, populists and other nostalgists have long risen to power pretending they can restore a former, allegedly blissful period for those left behind. The result has ranged from economic overheating and collapse, these days often triggered by a currency run (“sudden stop”) as financial markets abandon the offending country, to world wars and genocide. While neither of these results has beset the U.K. or the United States, of course, we are unquestionably witnessing the rise of racial and religious intolerance that too easily crosses the line to supremacy movements that preach and pursue murderous violence. There is, however, a much better answer, where “better” means both more realistic and fairer. The only way to successfully adapt to a global economy is not to try to unscramble the omelet. It is to ensure everyone gets a slice of it. In a way, this all gets back to the simple premise, one


Trump just can’t quit MBS

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Saudi authorities have spent almost two months obfuscating what happened to slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi After first denying any hand in Khashoggi’s disappearance, Riyadh eventually admitted to presiding over his death in what the Saudis said was a botched operation carried out by “rogue” agents. Last week, a Saudi prosecutor announced charges against 11 participants in the plot against Khashoggi, five of whom could face the death penalty. The prosecutor, as well as other prominent Saudi officials, emphasized that the crown prince had nothing to do with the crime. But that claim took a sharp blow over the weekend, when The Washington Post revealed that the CIA has concluded Mohammed himself ordered Khashoggi’s assassination. “The CIA’s assessment, in which officials have said they have high confidence, is the most definitive to date linking Mohammed to the operation and complicates the Trump administration’s efforts to preserve its relationship with a close ally,” my colleagues reported. “A team of 15 Saudi agents flew to Istanbul on government aircraft in October and killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate, where he had gone to pick up documents that he needed for his planned marriage to a Turkish woman.” As a European intelligence official Publicly, both the White House and the State Department distanced themselves from the revelations. “Recent reports indicating that the U.S. government has made a final conclusion are inaccurate,” said Heather Nauert, the State Department’s spokeswoman. “There remain numerous unanswered questions with respect to the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. The State Department will continue to seek all relevant facts." Earlier in the week, White House national security adviser John Bolton insisted that the intelligence he had seen did not implicate MBS. Trump, when pressed by reporters again Saturday, said little information had been “assessed” and that his administration would make its position clear on Tuesday. As my colleagues at The Post’s editorial page argued, part of Trump’s reticence may be due to his congenital unwillingness to admit that he was wrong — in this case, in placing such a big bet on MBS as a staunch U.S. ally. “This is a situation where everyone basically knows what happened,” said a Trump adviser who spoke to my colleagues on the condition of anonymity, indicating that Trump privately seemed to


Why bring a bonesaw to a kidnapping, Your Highness?

they said. Where is the paperwork he came to fill out? They did not bother to reply. No doubt they would have stuck by that story, malfunctioning cameras and all, but evidence got in the way. The Turkish government had photographs of a 15-man hit squad arriving from Saudi Arabia and entering the consulate shortly before Khashoggi. The Turks had audiotape of Khashoggi’s brutal killing, almost as soon as he entered the consulate. They knew that the hit squad included a forensic specialist who arrived with his bonesaw, who put on earphones and listened to music as he dismembered the body. The Saudis retreated to a new story: No, our friend Jamal had not walked out of the consulate. Yes, they admitted, he had died inside. But he had perished in a brawl, when he tried to grapple with the security team (not a hit squad!) that had been sent to meet him. That story, too, was too preposterous to sustain — or so we thought — and the Saudi prosecutor abandoned it, coincidentally just as Turkey was playing the audiotape for Haspel. Never mind, they said, there was no brawl; Khashoggi was the victim of a premeditated murder, after all. Who had premeditated it? They would find out and tell the world, the crown prince himself assured Pompeo, and Pompeo assured us. But on Thursday, the brawl myth was back. The Saudis announced that Khashoggi’s death was unintentional, that a friendly invitation to return to Saudi Arabia had gone awry. Why would you need a 15-man team to tender such an invitation? And even if what you had in mind was “only” a forcible rendition — what you or I would call a kidnapping — why would you need a bonesaw? Oh, and where is Khashoggi’s body? Turned over to a mysterious “Turkish collaborator,” whom the Saudis are unable or unwilling to identify, even to Turkish police. Probably no one in the United States government harbors the slightest doubt that the architect of this crime was the crown prince, as the CIA has concluded. His closest henchmen orchestrated the deed, and they would not dare act without his knowledge. He bets that it won’t matter. He bets that he can feed an already discredited fairy tale to Trump and Pompeo and Bolton, and they will obediently swallow it. So far his bet seems safe. But that doesn’t mean the


Trump is defending Mohammed bin Salman’s lies. Congress must insist on the truth.

SAUDI ARABIA’S crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is brazenly seeking to lie his way out of accountability for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — and the Trump administration is helping him do so. On Thursday, a state prosecutor in Riyadh advanced an account of the killing blatantly at odds with established facts, excusing the crown prince from all blame. Rather than reject this contemptible coverup, President Trump, who had pledged to “get to the bottom” of the case, went along with it. The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 17 mostly low-level suspects already implicated by the Saudis, while excusing both Mohammed bin Salman and top intelligence officials. Now we learn that Mr. Trump backed the Saudi leader despite a conclusion by the CIA that the prince was, in fact, responsible for ordering Khashoggi’s assassination. The Post reports that intelligence officials have “high confidence” in their assessment and have briefed the president on their evidence, which includes an audio recording of the killing and phone calls by the leader of the kill team as well as the Saudi ambassador in Washington. Mr. Trump nevertheless has refused to accept Mohammed bin Salman’s responsibility, perhaps because that would mean acknowledging that the White House’s outsize bet on the 33-year-old prince as a strategic ally was badly mistaken. As in the case of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, Mr. Trump is rejecting a firm conclusion by the U.S. intelligence community that he finds politically inconvenient. And as in that instance, Congress should move to base U.S. foreign policy on truth rather than lies. A number of legislators from both parties have spoken up in rejection of the Saudi coverup and the administration’s pitiful response. Three Republican senators — Lindsay O. Graham (S.C.), Todd C. Young (Ind.) and Susan Collins (Maine) — have joined three Democrats, including Robert Menendez (N.J.), the ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to back legislation that would require the administration to sanction within 30 days “any official of the government of Saudi Arabia or member of the royal family” tied to the Khashoggi murder by “credible evidence.” Given the CIA conclusion, that would cover Mohammed bin Salman. The bill would also suspend most U.S. arms sales and deliveries to Saudi Arabia until it “honored a complete cessation of hostilities in the Yemen war” and stopped interfering with deliveries of humanitarian aid. The senators are


How medical marijuana made me a better mom

therapy, practicing yoga and exercising regularly. Rather than become dependent on benzodiazepines or suffer more pharmaceutical side effects, I got out my green card and made an appointment at the local dispensary. The modest office felt like a hippie health spa, with green-and-white decor and posters displaying different plant strains. My consultant, Mike, quickly put me at ease with his cheerful brown eyes and gentle manner. Clad in jeans and plaid flannel, Mike told me that cannabis had been his “exit drug” from opiates, then listened carefully to my history of chronic pain and depressed mood. He explained the healing properties of endocannabinoids and cited a recent study in which cannabis significantly reduced reports of stress, anxiety and depression, especially in women. Because I didn’t like to smoke and wanted minimal psychoactive effects, Mike recommended I try microdosing — taking small amounts of cannabis to reap the therapeutic benefits without getting stoned. I took home a tin of indica-dominant butter-mints, some salted caramel gummies and a high-CBD oral tincture. (Indica strains of cannabis tend to be more sedating and relaxing; CBD, or cannabidiol, is a non-psychoactive cannabis compound with anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties.) The sativa-strain gummies were strangely activating and made me irritable, but even one tiny buttermint allowed me a blissful night’s sleep. And the oral tincture proved the holy grail — one dropper-full to relieve anxiety and sustain a mellow relaxation for hours. Within a week, I felt my depression lighten, and for the first time all summer, I could laugh with my family. Stigmas and false stereotypes have surrounded marijuana use since the 1930s, when it was classified a federal Schedule 1 substance, like heroin. Maybe because of this disrepute, I never expected the gifts of cannabis to go beyond symptom relief. But I’ve discovered that the plant slows me down and tunes me in, softens my competitive edges. When I microdose, I experience a heightened sense of gratitude and patience, as well as lighthearted humor. Joining the kids on the couch for a lovefest with the dog or playing a family game of cards, I feel more present, more grounded in my body, free from mental agitation. Other mothers have told me they enjoy these benefits, too. Jane Lanza, a yoga teacher certified in cannabis science and medicine through the University of Vermont’s Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine, says she sees cannabis as a healthier


40 years ago, this journalist survived the Jonestown massacre. He warns it could happen again.

Forty years ago, Charles Krause lay on the tarmac of a remote jungle airstrip in Guyana, shot in the hip, holding still and pretending to be dead. A Washington Post foreign correspondent at the time, Krause had come to South America along with California congressman Leo J. Ryan and his entourage to visit a remote cult compound known as Jonestown. Ryan had constituents who had joined the agricultural commune following the charismatic, self-titled Rev. Jim Jones and his California-based Peoples Temple. After hearing reports from concerned family members — who claimed that temple members were held there against their will, assaulted and abused — the congressman decided to fly down to investigate, accompanied by several members of the press. But Jones had no intention of allowing the visitors to leave and dispatched several of his armed followers on a flatbed truck to stop Ryan’s plane. What followed — the assassination of Ryan and the murder of four others at the airfield, and the mass murder-suicide of more than 900 Peoples Temple followers, including hundreds of children forced to drink cyanide-laced grape-flavored punch — would reverberate across the world and leave an indelible mark on American culture. Despite his own injury, Krause kept reporting on Jonestown in the days after, filing detailed reports as the first journalist allowed to return to the gruesome site. He later wrote a best-selling book, “Guyana Massacre: The Eyewitness Account.” Krause, 71, who now runs the Center for Contemporary Political Art in Northwest Washington, recently spoke with The Post ahead of the Nov. 18 anniversary of the massacre about his recollections and the lasting lessons of Jonestown. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. You’ve written so much about Jonestown over the years. All this time later, are there still certain moments that stand out most vividly in your mind? When I first went back, I was looking for some of the people who I remembered were on that flatbed truck. At that point, the bodies were there, but they didn’t realize that they were stacked on top of each other. So they had counted about 450 people who were dead, but they were missing close to 500 or something. And so we didn’t know where they were. . . . I didn’t find any of them actually. But it turned out that most everybody was killed. You spent time with Peoples Temple


A craving for snacks brought three D.C. boys out on a frigid night. Then gunfire changed everything.

police, but detectives in D.C. didn’t know that. And because the car hadn’t entered Maryland, the county auto-theft squad was ignoring it. On Jan. 18, four nights after the shooting, patrol officers in Northeast D.C. spotted a Mercedes matching the description of the getaway car. As nine officers converged on the vehicle at a Shell station, the three occupants bailed out. All were quickly chased down and turned over to the homicide branch for questioning, while the stolen E500 was hauled to the city’s Forensic Sciences Department to be examined. Evidence technicians say they found a weapon in the glove compartment: a .45-caliber Springfield 1911 A1 TRP-model semiautomatic — no ordinary street gun. The TRP, or “tactical response pistol,” is a luxury piece priced at about $1,700 in stores. Gun reviewers rave about the TRP. It’s the mass-production version of the .45-caliber sidearm that Springfield Armory began custom-manufacturing in the 1990s for the FBI’s elite, paramilitary Hostage Rescue Team. How the TRP in the glove compartment traveled from Springfield’s Illinois plant to the D.C. crimescape isn’t publicly known. Lab tests showed it was the gun used to kill Steve. Also after the Mercedes was recovered, D.C. detectives “became aware of that GPS,” an official says. The stored data supplied by Prince George’s police was an evidentiary bonanza, a digital record of the car’s movements, block by block, in the hours before the shooting and the days following it. The three young men caught in the car at the Shell station told interrogators they had nothing to do with any murder. When detectives compared their cellphone records with the locations of cell towers in the vicinity of the Mercedes around the time Steve was killed, they found no cellular evidence linking the men to the shooting. But detectives did get a break. A fingerprint lifted from the driver’s outside mirror on the Mercedes matched a print already in police files. An affidavit says it came from the left thumb of a man with a record of gun-possession arrests: Anthony Deandre Allen. His address was on C Street SE, close to where the Mercedes was parked when Prince George’s police put the GPS device on it. Tracking data showed the car traveled from C Street to Fairlawn before the killing and back to C Street afterward, an affidavit says. Detectives looked at Allen’s cellphone records. They say his number received two calls


Trump shows his contempt for the men and women in uniform

of miles from the U.S. border. He even suggested that the troops should commit the war crime of opening fire on migrants who threw rocks. The Pentagon grandly dubbed this Operation Faithful Patriot and circulated pictures of troops in full “battle rattle” stringing barbed wire, only to quietly drop the ludicrous moniker amid Election Day. Conveniently enough, Trump and his friends at Fox essentially stopped speaking about the caravan once the votes were cast. But, as the New York Times reports, the troops are still in the field, without electricity or hot meals — or a mission. They will likely spend Thanksgiving away from their families. Naturally, Trump will not bother to visit them, even though there is no risk in traveling to Texas. He still has not visited U.S. troops deployed to a war zone — although he has spent 72 days at Mar-a-Lago and 58 days at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club. To add insult to injury, consider Trump’s reaction after Ian David Long, a Marine veteran of Afghanistan, killed 12 people in a Thousand Oaks, Calif., bar this past week. Trump called him a “very sick puppy” and blamed his rampage on post-traumatic stress disorder without any actual evidence. (A high school track teacher reported that Long physically menaced her long before he joined the Marine Corps.) “People come back — that’s why it’s a horrific thing — they come back, they’re never the same,” the president said. This is precisely the kind of pernicious stereotype — that veterans are ticking time bombs — that veterans groups have worked so hard to refute. It simply isn’t true, and it demeans the service of countless soldiers who serve honorably and return to live peaceful, productive lives. “Comments like this one from the Commander in Chief are extremely unhelpful,” Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America told The Post. So much for Trump’s conceit that he is pro-military. It has about as much factual foundation as his claim not to know his newly appointed acting attorney general. He has no understanding of what soldiers do or the honor code by which they live. His idea of military service is marching in a parade — and he is peeved he couldn’t have one in Washington this Veterans Day. Through his words and deeds, the commander in chief shows his contempt for the men and women in uniform. writetoboot@gmail.com


What’s the deal with Brexit?

Regarding the Nov. 16 editorial “Far from Britain’s finest hour” and front-page article “May clings to her Brexit deal as support withers”: The editorial, after chronicling the political fisticuffs, pointed out that the nub of the debate between Prime Minister Theresa May and hardcore Brexiteers in her own Conservative Party has to do with fudging the “most intractable issue” — the border between the Republic of Ireland (a remaining European Union member) and Northern Ireland — by establishing a “customs union” that may endure indefinitely. The editorial then gave a nod of plausibility to the Brexiteer faction’s concern that this would come at a cost to Britain’s sovereignty. It would have been helpful to readers at this point to explain just what a “customs union” entails — the benefits and any detriments. Neither the editorial nor the article provided the context by which readers can evaluate the merits of Ms. May’s compromise vs. her estranged colleagues’ objections. Instead, the stories dwell on the political thunderbolts being exchanged within Ms. May’s party and with the European Union. Kenneth Barry The Nov. 16 editorial To take just one example, there is no legal basis for Britain to have to pay a so-called divorce bill. The offer to pay this money should have been withheld until the outlines of a fairer deal became clear. But that would have required leaders with Churchillian qualities; they are not in evidence in the current British government. Peter Fisher


لدى محمد بن سلمان سجل سام من التهور وإدارة ترامب ليست بحاجة إليه

بقدر أكبر مما تقدمه لها. كما أنها تخلط بين النظام السعودي وأمير يبلغ من العمر 33 عامًا تسبب في تراكم سجل سام من الأفعال المتهورة خلال بضع سنوات قليلة. كما كتبنا سابقًا، فيبدو أنّ السيد ترامب يبالغ في مقدار أهمية السعودية كمشترٍ للأسلحة ومنتج للنفط وكـ”حليف” ضد إيران. الحقيقة هي أنّ النظام لا يفي بأي من التزاماته في هذه الجبهات. ولم يُكمِل سوى جزء صغير من عملية شراء أسلحة يقدر ثمنها بـ110 مليارات دولار طالما كان يمدحها السيد ترامب. يُقال إنّ السعودية تفكر في خفض إنتاج النفط على الرغم من رجاء السيد ترامب المتكرر لهم بتصعيد الضخ. وبصفتها شريكًا عسكريًا في مجابهة العدوان الإيراني، فإنّ السعودية كانت أسوأ من عديمة الجدوى. ليس لها وجود كبير في سوريا، حيث تباشر طهران في أقوى دفعة عسكرية لها. أدى التدخل الذي أطلقه محمد بن سلمان في اليمن إلى كارثة إنسانية في الوقت الذي عزز فيه الموقف الإيراني. ابتسمت طهران عندما شن الأمير بتهور حصارًا على جارته قطر، موقع أكبر قاعدة جوية أميركية في الشرق الأوسط، ثم هلّلت عندما اختطف بن سلمان رئيس وزراء لبنان الموالي للولايات المتحدة. كان محمد بن سلمان بارعًا في إثارة إعجاب الغرب به من خلال الحديث عن الإصلاح الديني والتحديث الاقتصادي، ولكنه في الواقع تسبب في ضرر هائل لتلك المساعي. لقد سجن عشرات من السعوديين الليبراليين الذين يدعمون الإصلاح، بما في ذلك النساء اللاتي دافعن عن حقهن في قيادة السيارة. بإشرافه على مقتل السيد خاشقجي، فقد أسكت صحفيًا مؤثرًا أيّد أهدافه وإن كان ينتقد أساليبه. كما تراجع عن العديد من الإصلاحات الاقتصادية الكبيرة. لا يمكن للولايات المتحدة أن تزيح محمد بن سلمان عن السلطة، وحقيقة أنّه قد يبقى هي ذريعة أخرى لتبرير رد الإدارة. لكن من الممكن تمامًا أن نعاقب الزعيم السعودي وننبذه بينما نستمر في التعامل مع نظامه. لا تستطيع العائلة المالكة السعودية تحمل نفقات شرخ محتمل مع الولايات المتحدة ولن تسمح بحدوث ذلك. ومن المرجح أن يؤدي ضعف ولي العهد إلى المزيد من الاستقرار في السعودية وعبر الشرق الأوسط. في المقابل، فإنّ الفشل في كبح جماح محمد بن سلمان سيؤدي لسلوكيات أكثر دمارًا. Read more: The Post’s View: Trump is defending Mohammed bin Salman’s lies. Congress must insist on the truth. The Post’s View: So far, the Trump administration is abetting a Saudi coverup of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. Will Congress go along? Sarah Margon: A U.N. investigation would offer a true path to justice for Jamal Khashoggi David Von Drehle: Mohammed bin Salman could bring his kingdom crumbling down Read Jamal Khashoggi’s columns for The Washington Post


White House discusses possible Trump visit to troops in Iraq or Afghanistan

President Trump has begun telling advisers that he may visit troops in a combat zone for the first time in his presidency, as he has come under increasing scrutiny for his treatment of military affairs and failure to visit service members deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. Trump has so far declined to visit those combat regions, saying he does not want to associate himself with wars he views as failures, according to current and former advisers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Current advisers said Trump is not expected to visit a war zone during the Thanksgiving break, which he will spend at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida. The president has often cast himself as a champion of the Pentagon, invoking the strength and size of the military at his campaign rallies and on Twitter. At the same time, he has frequently criticized U.S. military missions and decisions while personally attacking some former military leaders, contributing to a complicated relationship with the armed forces he commands. Although he signed off on Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s requests to bolster the American military presence in Afghanistan and Syria and retain the footprint in Iraq, Trump isn’t a fan of U.S. military operations there. In meetings about a potential visit, he has described the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan as “a total shame,” according to the advisers. He also cited the long flights and potential security risks as reasons he has avoided combat-zone visits, they said. Questioned last week about why he has not visited American troops deployed in overseas conflicts, Trump indicated during a Fox News interview that a trip was in the works. “I think you will see that happen,” Trump said in the interview with Chris Wallace that aired Sunday. “There are things that are being planned. We don’t want to talk about it because of security reasons and everything else.” The president also repeated his erroneous contention that he was opposed to the Iraq War. The Washington Post’s Fact Checker has found that Trump initially expressed support for the invasion and did not register public objections until more than a year after the war began. “I think it was a tremendous mistake, should never have happened,” Trump told Wallace. “But this is about the soldiers, sir,” Wallace responded. “You’re right,” Trump said. “I don’t think anybody’s been more with the military than I


Obstruction charge is filed in 10-year-old girl’s slaying

in the fatal shooting of a man in May in Northeast Washington, according to D.C. police. David H. Beale of Greenbelt was charged with first-degree murder while armed. Police said the shooting occurred about 9:50 p.m. May 7 in the 800 block of Oglethorpe Street NE, near the Maryland line. Police said that two victims were shot and that one died. The slain man was identified as George Johnson Jr., 43, of Northeast Washington. The shooting took place in front of a house on a residential street. A police report said an officer heard several gunshots and rushed to the scene. The report said that two vehicles were damaged by bullets and that one bullet went into a home through bedroom and dining room windows. — Peter Hermann Jury convicts man in 2016 murder case A 20-year-old D.C. man was found guilty of first-degree murder Monday in a fatal shooting that followed a robbery in 2016, prosecutors said. Kenneth Adams shot and killed 21-year-old Dante Kinard near 19th Street and Benning Road NE in February 2016, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia said in a statement. On Feb. 15, 2016, Adams and two others robbed a woman and “threatened her brother would be next,” authorities said. The woman’s brother later confronted Adams. On Feb. 19, 2016, Adams fired multiple times at the woman’s brother, but he was not hurt. Instead, the gunfire killed Kinard, who was part of a group with the woman’s brother, the statement said. On Monday, Adams was found guilty of first-degree murder, robbery and a weapons charge in a jury trial, prosecutors said. Adams has been incarcerated since he was arrested in 2016. — Justin Wm. Moyer VIRGINIA Norfolk joins cities saying 'no' to scooters Norfolk has joined the growing ranks of U.S. cities saying “no” to scooters, impounding hundreds owned by one of the nation’s largest operators. The coastal city has impounded 560 Bird scooters since the company opened shop, unannounced, in late August. “We are keeping the scooters locked in a secure facility,” city spokeswoman Lori Crouch said, where they will remain until Bird pays fines and storage fees. Bird has been known for entering U.S. markets unannounced — similar to Uber and other transportation start-ups. The company’s rationale has been that if there are no regulations prohibiting their operations, there is no harm in launching without permission. — Luz Lazo


Washington Post Publisher and CEO Fred Ryan statement on Jamal Khashoggi

Washington Post Publisher and CEO Fred Ryan’s response to President Donald Trump’s statement regarding the murder of Jamal Khashoggi: “President Trump’s response to the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is a betrayal of long-established American values of respect for human rights and the expectation of trust and honesty in our strategic relationships. He is placing personal relationships and commercial interests above American interests in his desire to continue to do business as usual with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The Central Intelligence Agency has thoroughly investigated the murder of this innocent journalist and concluded with high confidence that it was directed by the Crown Prince. If there is reason to doubt the findings of the CIA, President Trump should immediately make that evidence public. President Trump is correct in saying the world is a very dangerous place. His surrender to this state-ordered murder will only make it more so. An innocent man, brutally slain, deserves better, as does the cause of truth and justice and human rights. In this failure of leadership from President Trump, it now falls to Congress to stand up for America’s true values and lasting interests.”


NASA to launch safety review of SpaceX and Boeing after video of Elon Musk smoking pot rankled agency leaders

details of developing rockets and spacecraft but rather the companies’ safety culture — encompassing the number of hours employees work, drug policies, leadership and management styles, whether employees’ safety concerns are taken seriously, and more. “Is the culture reflective of an environment that builds quality spacecraft,” Gerstenmaier said. The review would be led by NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, which has conducted similar probes inside NASA. Gerstenmaier said the process would be “pretty invasive,” involving hundreds of interviews with employees at every level of the companies and at multiple work locations. He added that the “companies are responsible. If they see something, they’ll take action.” The review comes as the companies are working toward flying crewed missions from United States soil for the first time since the space shuttle was retired seven years ago. In 2014, NASA awarded contracts — $4.2 billion to Boeing and $2.6 billion to SpaceX — to fly its astronauts under what is known as the Commercial Crew Program. Since then, the companies have faced setbacks and delays as they work to develop their spacecraft. Earlier this year, Boeing had a propellant leak during a test of its emergency abort system. A safety advisory panel also found recently that Boeing still has a number of key tests that it has not completed, included tests of its spacecraft’s heat shield and parachute systems. It also found that SpaceX is struggling with “difficulties and problems” with the spacecraft’s parachute system. “Clearly crew cannot be risked without complete confidence in the parachute design,” the panel found. Given the problems both companies are facing, the panel concluded that their schedules to fly crews “have considerable risk and do not appear achievable given the number of technical issues yet to be resolved.” Those technical issues are separate from the safety review. And SpaceX said it has made real progress in the development of the version of its Dragon spacecraft that is designed to fly humans. “We couldn’t be more proud of all that we have already accomplished together with NASA, and we look forward to returning human spaceflight capabilities to the United States,” it said in the statement. SpaceX is planning to a launch its spacecraft without crew in January and plans to fly with astronauts on board by June. Boeing has said its first flight without crew would be in March, and with astronauts by the following August.


For Trump, the relationship with Saudi Arabia is all about money

crucial Saudi role in changing the behavior of Iran, “the world’s largest state sponsor of terror,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this month. Even as a growing bipartisan coalition in Congress has blamed Mohammed for Khashoggi’s death and demanded harsh punishment, some current and former U.S. officials, along with experts in the region, say that shared interests and deep roots will ensure that key bonds survive. If the administration took “serious action” against the Saudis, Riyadh would “feel a need to somehow respond, but they’d want to do it in a way that would not escalate,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive matter. “Maybe they would not be as supportive in the oil market, or they might do a big arms purchase from the Russians or the Chinese. . . . We could live with that.” Intelligence ties, the former official said, also would withstand the pressure. “What happens in almost every case I can think of, where a political relationship goes into a rocky time, is the intelligence relationship remains untouched . . . it’s too important to both countries.” Others say that even if a serious breach occurred, there would be little to lose because both the Saudi money and the strategic cooperation are less substantive than they may appear. “On the peace process, the administration wants the Saudis to deliver the Palestinians, through moral suasion or paying them off, or some combination,” said Anne Patterson, a career diplomat with long experience in the region who was President Barack Obama’s assistant secretary of state for the Middle East. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, White House adviser and point man on the peace plan, has cultivated a personal relationship with Mohammed in hopes that he will lead the Arab world toward a new rapprochement with Israel, at the possible expense of a viable Palestinian state. Trump has already made moves in that direction with his recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and withdrawal of U.S. aid to the Palestinians. But other Arab leaders have long considered those hopes naive, and they warn that any backing away from support for the Palestinians risks public outrage. While Mohammed’s father, King Salman, may be content to allow his son to lead on most issues, he has repeatedly made his views on the peace process clear. “The Palestinian cause is our main