‘I don’t know where my daughters are’: Odd encounter deepens mystery surrounding disappearance and deaths of Saudi sisters

been likely to see the pair on the bridge. The Arab News, citing unnamed family members in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, reported that the family has rejected the idea that the sisters committed suicide. The Arab News said family members said Tala missed her sister and had run away from home to be with her in New York City, where the family members said Rotana was attending college. The family members told the Arab News that relatives were concerned about Tala Farea’s disappearance but called off their search after discovering that the teen was with her sister. The veracity of those reports could not be confirmed. Johnson, the former neighbor, said the younger sister lived in a Fairfax, Va., apartment with her mother and a brother, who was around 12, and possibly an older second brother. He said he thought Rotana was living elsewhere. He said the sisters’ father lived in Saudi Arabia and may have worked for the government there. He would visit periodically. He said that the family moved out over the summer and that he had seen no obvious problems in the household. “They were always pleasant,” Johnson said. Johnson said a succession of Saudi exchange students had lived in the apartment before the Fareas. George Mason University spokesman Michael Sandler said Rotana had attended the school but left in the spring. “The news of her death is tragic,” Sandler wrote in an email. “University officials are cooperating with police and will assist in any way we can.” Tala attended Fairfax High School for part of the 2017-2018 school year, but a spokesman for Fairfax County Public Schools said he could offer no other details because of student privacy restrictions. “On behalf of all members of the Fairfax High School family, we extend our deepest condolences to family, friends, and all those impacted by this event,” Principal Erin B. Lenart wrote in a message to school families this week. Fairfax County court records show the Farea family may have been in financial distress. In 2016, family members were evicted from an apartment in Falls Church’s Skyline Towers after failing to pay nearly $1,700 in rent, according to court records. After the family moved to the apartment in Fairfax, another management company initiated eviction proceedings over a failure to pay rent, but the case was ultimately dropped. Police said the family came to the United States in 2015. justin.jouvenal@washpost.com


The U-Md. debacle is what happens when a university cares about sports above all else

at Berkeley hired a new athletic director this summer who touted the “front porch” and said he hoped to use the football team as a “platform for our university to celebrate what makes it exceptional.” Berkeley has not played in a major bowl game since 1959, but it has long been a great school; failures on the gridiron have hardly held it back. Eventually, the sports sales pitch began to remind me of the Las Vegas casino-hotels. To get to your room, you have to wind your way around the blackjack tables, past the noisy crowds playing roulette and through the rows of slot machines. It lets you know what’s important. Except, while gambling is the point of a casino, sports are not the point of a university — although inadvertently, perhaps, and often catastrophically, they become the point. The University of Maryland has 39,000 students (from all 50 states and 118 countries) and 4,400 faculty members (including four Nobel laureates). Most of what goes on at the university has absolutely nothing to do with sports. And yet the events of the past several months — starting with the tragic death of a football player — show the unique ability of sports to throw a campus into chaos. On May 29, Jordan McNair, a 19-year-old offensive lineman on Maryland’s football team, suffered heatstroke during a strenuous practice on a hot late-spring day. He died two weeks later. It was a preventable death: More than an hour elapsed from the time he first showed symptoms to when the team’s medical staff finally called an ambulance. They never gave him the standard treatment of cold-water immersion; that occurred only after he reached the hospital. Two months later, an ESPN investigative report described what it called a “toxic” culture under Maryland’s head coach, DJ Durkin, in which coaches belittled players who couldn’t complete conditioning drills and subjected them to homophobic slurs. "If a kid would stop or go on the ground,” former player J.T. Ventura said, they were sometimes dragged to their feet and made to continue. A strength and conditioning coach hired by Durkin was alleged to have been particularly brutal — including incidents in which he was said to have thrown “food, weights and on one occasion a trash can full of vomit” at players, according to a report released after an external investigation. Durkin, 40, was in just his second


U.S. soldier in Afghanistan is killed in insider attack

KABUL — A U.S. service member was killed and another was wounded in an insider attack Saturday in Kabul, when a member of the Afghan security forces opened fire on them, officials said. The wounded soldier was evacuated to Bagram air base, a U.S. military installation about 35 miles north of Kabul, for medical treatment, according to a statement from Debra Richardson, a spokeswoman for the U.S.-led NATO coalition . Richardson said the assailant was gunned down by other Afghan troops at the scene. Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Sayed Javid Ghafoor confirmed her account. Speaking by phone, he said the attack happened at a base in Kabul where foreign troops provide training for Afghan forces. The motive for the shooting — the second insider attack at a base against foreign troops in less than two weeks — was not immediately clear. The Taliban praised Saturday’s attack, saying it was conducted by a “sensible” Afghan. Foreign troops for days had avoided visiting Afghan bases because of the threat of insider attacks, after a Czech soldier was gunned down on Oct. 22 by an Afghan forces commando just days after a top Afghan regional police commander was killed by a gunman in an Afghan army uniform. In the wake of those attacks, U.S. military officials said they had halted most face-to-face contact with members of the Afghan security forces and had temporarily withdrawn from Afghan security facilities. The latest assaults have raised new concerns over attacks against coalition personnel by Afghans in uniform. Since 2008, such attacks have left more than 150 U.S. or coalition troops or contractors dead and wounded about 200. Insider attacks peaked in 2012 but have since declined steadily, with added vetting of Afghan recruits, extra guards accompanying foreign advisers, and the withdrawal of most foreign troops. However, there have been several such deadly attacks in the past two years, including some at the hands of highly trained Afghan commandos. foreign@washpost.com


Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Suudi Arabistan’ın, Cemal Kaşıkçı’nın öldürülmesi hakkında hâlâ cevaplaması gereken birçok soru var

çalışma arkadaşlarının da aralarında olduğu dostlarına, bu onurlu adama veda etme ve saygılarını sunma imkânını vermek boynumuzun borcudur. Dünyanın aynı soruları sormaya devam etmesi amacıyla elimizde bulunan kanıtları Amerika Birleşik Devletleri başta olmak üzere tüm dost ve müttefik ülkelerle paylaştık. Sorularımızın cevaplarını ararken, Türkiye ve Suudi Arabistan’ın dostça ilişkiler içinde olduğunu vurgulamak isterim. Cemal Kaşıkçı’nın öldürülmesi emrini Hadim ül-Haremeyn Kral Salman’ın verdiğine inanmam kesinlikle mümkün değildir. Dolayısıyla bu cinayetin, Suudi Arabistan’ın resmi politikasını yansıttığına inanmak için de herhangi bir sebep bulunmamaktadır. Bu itibarla Kaşıkçı cinayetini iki ülke arasında bir “problem” olarak görmek yanlış olacaktır. Öte yandan Riyad’la uzun yıllara dayanan dostluğumuzun, gözlerimizin önünde işlenen bu planlı cinayeti görmezden geleceğimiz anlamına gelmemektedir. Kaşıkçı’nın öldürülmesinin izahı mümkün değildir. Bu suç Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nde veya bir başka ülkede işlenseydi, o ülkenin makamları yaşanan olayı aydınlatırlardı. Bizim farklı bir davranış sergilememiz söz konusu değildir. Hiç kimse bir daha bir NATO müttefikinin topraklarında böyle bir suç işlemeye cüret etmemelidir. Eğer bu uyarı gözardı edenler olursa, çok ciddi sonuçlarla karşı karşıya kalacaklardır. Kaşıkçı cinayeti Konsolosluk İşleri Hakkında Viyana Sözleşmesi’nin açık bir ihlali ve suistimalidir. Sorumluların cezalandırılmaması hâlinde gelecek için çok tehlikeli bir emsal teşkil edecektir. Bu nedenle bazı Suudi yetkililerin, dostluğumuzun gerektirdiği biçimde adalet davasına hizmet etmek yerine Kaşıkçı’nın kurban gittiği planlı cinayetin üstünü örtme çabalarını şaşkınlık ve üzüntüyle karşıladık. 18 şüpheliyi derdest eden Riyad’ın medyaya yalan söyleyen ve kısa bir süre sonra Türkiye’den kaçan Suudi konsolosa yönelik hiçbir adım atmaması endişe vericidir. Aynı şekilde bu hafta İstanbul’a gelerek muhatabıyla görüşen Suudi savcının soruşturmaya destek olmayı ve en basit sorulara bile cevap vermeyi reddetmesi çok üzücüdür. Kendisinin Türk savcıları ek görüşmeler için Suudi Arabistan’a davet etmesi, umutsuz ve kasıtlı bir oyalama taktiği olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Nasıl Watergate skandalı bir hırsızlık olayından daha büyükse ve 11 Eylük terör saldırıları uçakları kaçıran kişilerden ibaret değilse, Cemal Kaşıkçı cinayetinde de bir avuç güvenlik görevlisinden çok daha fazla kişinin parmağı vardır. Uluslararası toplumun sorumluluk sahibi üyeleri olarak Kaşıkçı’nın öldürülmesi olayındaki kuklacıları teşhis etmek ve olayı örtbas etmeye çalışan Suudi yetkililerin kime güvenerek bu hareketleri yaptığını ortaya çıkarmak mecburiyetindeyiz. Read more: The Post’s View: The future of the Middle East depends on justice for Jamal Khashoggi Hatice Cengiz: The international community must bring my fiance’s killers to justice Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression Abdullah Alaoudh: We Saudis will never be silent about Jamal Khashoggi’s death Jackson Diehl: Why so many Middle East observers bet on MBS


How Ethiopia’s medieval ruins inform its modern-day ethnic strife

MENEGASHA, Ethiopia — On a wooded hill near Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa, bits of red clay litter the ground next to glittering flakes of obsidian. Nearby, half-buried stones are arranged in a line. On the other side of the hill, a rectangular stone slab appears to have been broken in half. For archaeologists like Samuel Walker and his colleague Ayele Tarekegn, it’s evidence that this was once the site of a medieval city. The bits of clay are shards of pottery, the flakes of obsidian were tools used by artisans to work leather, and the stones probably were once the walls of churches and palaces. “It’s unbelievable that it’s here,” Walker said. “When I saw this, I thought this is just the tip of the iceberg — everywhere we dig, we find stuff.” Archaeological digs are rare in Ethiopia, despite its wealth of potential sites. “It’s a poor country, and archaeology is a very expensive subject,” said Ayele, who is trying to develop the field in the country. “It’s all to do with money and developing the expertise, the personnel and the manpower.” There are plans to organize a conference of donors in January to develop Ethiopian archaeology, preserve existing sites and maybe explore new ones. More investment in the field could shed light on little-known parts of the country’s history. Perhaps more important, it may bring clarity to some of the modern debates roiling Ethiopia as it transitions from oppressive authoritarianism to a freer society in which its many ethnic groups can make their voices heard. When reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to office in April, he sought to open up the country by inviting back exiled rebels, releasing political prisoners and ending long-running government repression. His changes have been enormously popular, but they have also been accompanied by unrest. With more than 80 ethnic groups competing for land and influence, animosities suppressed by the old government have risen to the surface, especially between the two main groups: the Oromo — the largest in the country, but one that has long felt marginalized — and the Amhara, the historical rulers of much of Ethiopia. Both groups are sparring over which can lay claim to the capital, Addis Ababa. The Oromo say it was their land before Emperor Menelik II, the ruler of the Amhara-dominated Abyssinian Empire, took it away to found the city in 1887. The Amhara


U.S. lowers the sanctions boom on Iran, again

have at least some leverage, however — mostly in terms of blocking American efforts to ban Iran from SWIFT, a Belgium-based banking messaging service designed to facilitate financial transactions. Of the company’s 25-seat board, only JPMorgan and Citi are U.S. banks. In theory, European operators could defy Washington on banning Iran from the service. But U.S. authorities announced that they could threaten banks on the company’s board unwilling to review their policy on Iran. The differences ensure that the United States will find few allies willing to help them enforce the sanctions. “We may be very vigilant in terms of trying plug the holes in sanctions regime, but the fact is we’re not going to be joined by too many others,” said Dennis Ross, a former Middle East envoy who now is with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “So we’re going to have to be doing this largely on our own.” Little is expected to happen on Monday, beyond a relisting of about 400 people and companies that were delisted when the nuclear agreement took effect, and the addition of about 300 others. Officials say they will release the names of the eight nations that have been granted temporary waivers from secondary sanctions so they can continue to buy oil. But sanctions apply to activities that happen from Monday going forward, so it could be weeks or longer before any new punishments come down. “People have to actually break rules,” said Jarret Blanc, who worked on monitoring Iranian compliance on the nuclear deal in the Obama administration and now is with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Cases have to be built, and the administration has to decide whether to immediately sanction. Under normal sanctions it takes months.” Iran will likely hobble along. Turkey and India are expected to get waivers. China, the biggest customer for Iranian oil, has sent mixed signals. Even less uncertain are the prospects for Iran to change its behavior and renegotiate the nuclear deal, the ultimate U.S. goals. “As they face the economic heat, they will have a strong incentive to negotiate,” said Robert Einhorn, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “But they’ll want to make sure that they’re negotiated with a United States willing to be reasonably flexible in arriving at the outcome. So far, all they see is the Trump administration determined to force them to capitulate or collapse.” carol.morello@washpost.com


U.S. sanctions against Iran just got tougher. What happens now?

its intention to withdrawal from JCPOA and reimpose sanctions against Iran — establishing two waiver periods before the sanctions would fully go into effect Nov. 5. In August, the Trump administration reinstated restrictions on Iran’s ability to obtain U.S. dollars and precious metals, along with export sanctions on auto/aerospace products and services. This latest announcement reimposes harsh sanctions designed to prevent Iran from exporting fossil fuels and further isolate its financial sector that had been in effect before the JCPOA deal. The United States has significant leverage over foreign financial institutions that depend upon access to the U.S. financial system to carry out international transactions. Many governments sought and received waivers to continue purchasing fossil fuels from Iran during the 180-day waiver period. The Trump administration announced that only eight countries — and not the E.U. — would continue to receive that waiver after Nov. 4. Sanctions don’t work well when other countries go around them Sanctions-busting Being SDN-designated is more than a modern-day Scarlet Letter — it can be an economic death sentence for parties relying on international trade or transactions. The U.S. secondary sanctions and aggressive use of the SDN list against Iran will undoubtedly damage many foreign companies’ bottom lines — forcing them to pay a price for a U.S. policy their governments oppose. And economies beyond Iran will also suffer. In the absence of broad cooperation from foreign governments, the United States will rely heavily on SDN/secondary sanctions to dissuade foreign companies from undercutting its sanctions against Iran. In the past, such policies have provoked significant political backlash from foreign governments. For example, Canada, Mexico and E.U. members strongly resisted U.S. efforts at using secondary sanctions against Cuba during the 1990s. In the early 1980s, President Ronald Reagan’s efforts to target companies that supported a new gas pipeline from the Soviet Union to Europe prompted adamant opposition from a number of NATO allies. So it’s not surprising that the E.U. also adopted a blocking statute in August, requiring E.U. companies not to comply with U.S. secondary sanctions. The E.U. also announced the creation of SPVs to facilitate continued trade with Iran by providing channels for financial transactions that are firewalled from the U.S. financial system. The E.U.-backed SPVs would serve as third parties in transactions with Iran — operating outside of the international banking system, and shielding the transactions of the companies that use them. The


It’s not rocket science: Climate change was behind this summer’s extreme weather

tools to diagnose the impact climate change is having on extreme weather events. One of these tools, “extreme event attribution,” can be thought of as climate science’s version of an X-ray. In this case, a climate model is run both with and without the human effect on climate. One then compares how often a particular extreme event happens in both the “with” and “without” cases. If it occurs sufficiently more often (i.e., beyond the “noise”) in the former case, a study can “attribute” and quantify how climate change affected the extremeness of the event. The scorching European heat wave this summer, according to one such study, was made more than twice as likely by global warming. The record rainfall in North Carolina from Hurricane Florence was, according to another study, increased by as much as 50 percent by warming oceans. The climate models used in these sorts of studies represent remarkable achievements in the world of science. But no tool is perfect. In our medical analogy, some injuries — such as soft tissue damage — are too subtle to be detected by an X-ray. So medical professionals developed even more sophisticated tools, such as MRI. Similarly, some climate-change impacts on extreme weather are too subtle to be captured by current generation climate models. In a study my co-authors and I recently published in the journal Science Advances, we identified a key factor behind the rise in extreme summer weather events (such as the ones that played out in summer 2018) that — as we demonstrate in our study — is not captured by current generation climate models. Using an alternative approach based on a combination of models and real-world observations, we showed that climate change is causing the summer jet stream to behave increasingly oddly. The characteristic continental-scale meanders of the jet stream (its “waviness”) as it travels from west to east are becoming more pronounced and are tending to remain locked in place for longer stretches of time. Under these circumstances — when, for example, a deep high-pressure “ridge” gets stuck over California or Europe — we usually see extreme heat, drought and wildfire. And typically there’s a deep low-pressure “trough” downstream, stuck over, say, the eastern United States or Japan, yielding excessive rainfall and flooding. That’s exactly what happened in summer 2018. The spate of extreme floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires we experienced were a consequence of


Former generals worry that Trump’s border mission uses troops as a political tool

President Trump’s decision to send as many as 15,000 troops to the southern border has drawn sharp and unusual criticism from former military leaders, who have called the deployment “wasteful” and raised worries that the president might be using the military as a political tool to influence the midterm elections just days away. “The military has all of a sudden been placed in a highly politicized environment regarding immigration,” retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said of the surge of troops to the border. The blunt criticism of the mission to block what Trump contends is a threatening caravan of migrants encouraged by Democrats reflects the strain that his unusual presidency has put on one of America’s most important norms: the tradition of an apolitical military. Other presidents have deployed forces to the border. But the timing of this deployment and the questionable need for it, with the caravan at least a month away from the border with Mexico and diminishing in size, have led many former military officers to deliver their harshest criticisms yet of Trump. It has also put Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who has worked to keep the military out of politics, in a tough spot. Asked this week if the deployment was a “political stunt,” the former Marine general bristled, “We don’t do political stunts.” The president has cast the caravan as containing potential terrorists and other “tough” men who would particularly pose a threat to women — who are among the most sought-after voters in Tuesday’s election. In fact, women and children are commonplace among the caravaners, who have said they intend to seek legal asylum in the United States. In a tweet Thursday, retired Gen. Martin Dempsey, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the border operation a “wasteful deployment of over-stretched Soldiers and Marines.” Dempsey’s tweet echoed the opinion of several other senior military officers who weighed in on social media or in interviews. “I see no threat requiring this kind of deployment,” retired Gen. Colin Powell, also a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told The Washington Post. Retired Lt. Gen. Jim Dubik, who oversaw the effort to build the Iraqi army and police, said that Trump’s description of the migrant caravan as an “invasion” was wrong. “A sizable portion of those coming are women and children,” he said. The public criticism from


Head of Martha’s Table to step down after six years

use some of what I’d built on” in earlier high-profile positions. She added, “I’ve been able to come in and stand on the shoulders of 30 years of good work.” Stonesifer will stay on through next summer as the organization searches for a successor. Under her leadership, the budget doubled to $12 million. There are now 100 paid employees, seven vans and a much larger thrift shop. In the past three years, the organization has created 53 “Joyful Food Markets” — free monthly pop-ups at schools in Wards 7 and 8 aimed at providing fresh produce in areas seen as food deserts. Her tenure culminated this summer in a move from the 14th Street NW space Martha’s Table had occupied since 1980 to a $20 million, state-of-the-art facility near downtown Anacostia. The new headquarters houses a school and a vegetable and herb garden, and has retractable walls and a sweeping view of the District. It is also closer to the homes of many who need Martha’s Table most. Last week, at a crowded market there, residents filled bags with kale, okra, cauliflower and fruit. The smell of fresh popcorn infused the high-ceilinged space, which was flooded with natural light. Wearing a red Martha’s Table apron, Stonesifer chatted with shoppers, discussing cauliflower recipes with one woman, listening to another who said the book swap needed more board books, asking the face painter how she got into painting faces. “I like that,” said Tony Jones, 59, pointing at a large wall hanging constructed with colorful scraps of cloth. “Amber made that out of clothes that were donated, and she hung that all on chicken wire,” Stonesifer told him, referring to Amber Robles-Gordon, a Ward 8 artist. “That’s really cool,” said Jones, a Metrobus operator who lives in Ward 8 and was visiting the new facility for the first time with his family. They had walked there from their house to check it out. “Once enough people find out about it, it’s going to help a bunch,” he predicted. Lindsay Morton, who oversees the markets and counts Stonesifer as a mentor, said Stonesifer’s down-to-earth nature was the right fit for the organization. “Martha’s Table has been able to be in existence for so long because of its mom-and-pop feeling,” she said. Until Friday, Stonesifer had told just a few people she was leaving. “She told me yesterday, and I cried,” Morton said. tara.bahrampour@washpost.com


Purple Line construction noise that kept residents awake at night halted

Workers excavating a tunnel beneath a Silver Spring neighborhood as part of the construction of the light-rail Purple Line have stopped the noisiest overnight work that some residents had complained was waking them up at all hours, project officials said Thursday. The rock hammering beneath homes in the Long Branch area east of downtown Silver Spring has been halted between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., said Gary Witherspoon, a spokesman for the Maryland Transit Administration. He said the MTA and its contractor are still “testing” to determine what caused the complaints. Maryland transit officials had previously told residents that they were sympathetic to their complaints but that the contractor needed the option of hammering through bedrock round-the-clock to keep construction on schedule. The Purple Line is projected to begin carrying passengers in fall 2022. The change came after five residents met Monday with Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete K. Rahn. After hearing their concerns, Rahn told the group the nocturnal noise was “not acceptable,” according to a video recording of the meeting. Resident Annie Tulkin said she hasn’t heard any overnight hammering since Monday. The noise used to jolt her and her husband awake, she said. “It’s been pretty good,” Tulkin said of her sleep this week. “We still hear a little bit of noise, but it’s nothing like the jackhammering that we heard before.” Kevin Hawkins, of Neighbors Impacted by the Manchester Tunnel, said he and four other residents showed up unannounced at Rahn’s office and were pleasantly surprised when he agreed to meet with them. While many residents look forward to the Purple Line being built, he said, many, including children and older residents, had been losing too much sleep since the nighttime hammering started in September. “It feels really good,” Hawkins said of sleeping uninterrupted. “There’s still a lot more [construction] to come, but this is a nice victory.” Tulkin and Hawkins said they’ve asked state officials for a promise in writing that the overnight hammering will not resume during the rest of the tunnel’s excavation. Witherspoon did not respond to questions about how the schedule change will affect the project’s timeline and cost but said the state and contractor are looking for ways to build the Purple Line “on time, at the best value, and with the least disruption to the community.” State transit officials have said the 1,000-foot tunnel is necessary to carry Purple Line trains


Metro rail-car maker considers exit from the business

Faulty wiring. Bad welding. Poor paint jobs. Metro has had more than its share of problems with its newest fleet of rail cars, the 7000 series. Now it appears those issues are catching up with the company that manufactures the rail cars. Citing disappointing quarterly financial results, a top executive at Kawasaki Heavy Industries said this week that it is contemplating getting out of the rail car building business. According to Jiji Press, Kawasaki chief executive Yoshinori Kanehana said the company may consider forming a business alliance or closing down its rail vehicle business if it can’t turn things around. The Lincoln Journal Star reported that Kawasaki, in announcing its quarterly earnings, said its rolling stock division, which has an assembly plant in Lincoln, Neb., lost more than $78 million for the first two quarters of its fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. Some of those losses were tied to contracts with Metro and the Long Island Railroad, which have proved less profitable than the company anticipated. Kawasaki did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post on the losses or the potential shuttering of its rail-car division. However, even if Kawasaki were to abandon its rail-car business, it’s unlikely to have an impact on its contract with Metro. The company has a $2-billion contract with the transit agency to build 748 rail cars, replacements for the most problematic in the agency’s fleet. “Metro has a binding contract with Kawasaki, and to date, they have delivered 600 of 748 rail cars,” Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly said via email. “We expect to have all 748 on the system late next year, ahead of schedule.” She added that Metro did not anticipate problems with finding replacement parts for the trains in the future because the parts are manufactured by U.S.-based suppliers under federal Buy America requirements. The new trains have had their own problems. Officials identified design flaws as far back as 2015. There were delays in manufacturing, due in part to the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. But in recent months, there have been reports of other problems. In June, federal regulators ordered Metro officials to retrofit the 7000-series cars already in service with new safety devices to prevent passengers from falling between train cars. The order came after a blind passenger fell into a gap between two cars and onto the tracks in May.


U-Md.'s campus roiled by leadership upheavals; University Senate condemns board

pushed into retirement. . . . It’s a great shame.” Coming just days before Tuesday’s election, the matter swiftly became a political issue, with Maryland local, state and federal politicians joining the outcry. The crisis took another stunning turn Wednesday, when Loh — defying the regents — announced that Durkin was fired. And on Thursday, James T. Brady, the chairman of the Board of Regents, resigned. “Right now, it’s an almost inchoate anger,” Cohen said, with people certain that things need to change but unclear on how best to improve the situation. At a student rally on campus Thursday, debate changed from support for the football team to calls to boycott Saturday’s game. “We should not be supporting the athletic program. This university and its athletic program don’t care about black lives,” said Homa Hajarian, a fifth-year senior at U-Md. As many prominent leaders, including the provost and deans at U-Md., rallied behind Loh, asking him to rescind his resignation, some pushed back. “Wallace Loh was extremely lackluster in his leadership on the academic side of things,” Cohen said. “He seemed to put a great emphasis on intercollegiate athletics instead. . . . He struck me as a very poor leader for a research university.” In a news conference earlier this week, Brady rejected the idea that U-Md. prioritized athletics over academics. “I can tell you without equivocation, the idea that academics is not first and foremost at the University of Maryland is absolutely and unequivocally wrong,” he said. A coalition of more than 20 student groups plans to protest Monday to demand the leadership of the system and the university “prioritize and value students’ safety and well-being over profits and politics.” They have three demands, said Paula Molina Acosta, a junior women’s studies major who is a leader with the group Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action in Society. First, they want Loh to commit to retiring in June. They want students to have a role with the regents in selecting school presidents and setting policies. And they want the Maryland General Assembly to change the board to an elected body that actively includes students. Molina Acosta said students have had many concerns, but it “all comes down to the fact that student demands and student voices are not behind heard, not being prioritized on campus. What is being prioritized is profits.” Sarah Larimer and Joyce Koh contributed.


U.S. and Israel weigh whether Saudi crown prince can deliver on Mideast peace and Iran

or Arab-Israeli peace. Trump’s chief Mideast envoy, son-in-law Jared Kushner, however, has discussed with diplomats and others how the crown prince’s position might affect U.S. plans, people familiar with the discussions said. Saudi Arabia has acknowledged that Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist and contributing Washington Post columnist, was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last month. But the kingdom’s shifting explanations have angered and worried some Trump administration officials, who say the episode may leave the prince with less leverage to lead politically or culturally difficult shifts. Mohammed has denounced the killing and denies involvement, but U.S. statements have stopped short of exonerating him. Current and former U.S. officials say the lethal operation could not have occurred without the prince’s knowledge and approval. The Trump administration revoked the visas or made travel ineligible for 21 Saudi nationals implicated by Turkey and Saudi Arabia in Khashoggi’s death. Israeli officials have become more vocal about separating the killing from the kingdom’s strategic value. “What happened in the Istanbul consulate was horrendous and it should be duly dealt with,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday. “Yet at the same time, I say that it is very important for the stability of the world, of the region and of the world, that Saudi Arabia remain stable.” “I think that a way must be found to achieve both goals, because I think that the larger problem is Iran,” he said. Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmad al-Khalifa tweeted that Netanyahu showed “a clear vision to the stability of the region and the role of Saudi Arabia to keep that stability.” Mohammed, known by his initials MBS, has been the leading figure in a tentative and risky strategy to become more open about tacit or secret Israeli-Saudi cooperation. U.S. officials have hoped that he could also be the pivot point for a new, transactional Arab relationship with Israel that would undergird the Trump peace program. That was always a long shot, and it was placed in heavy doubt over the summer. Saudi King Salman, the prince’s father, reassured Palestinians and their Arab backers in July that he would not accept a peace plan that ruled out a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. The month before, Saudi and other Arab leaders told Kushner that the Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy to contested Jerusalem had jeopardized their support for a plan that had


Pompeo said he expects sanctions will change Iranian government’s behavior

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo predicted Sunday that the remaining sanctions against Iran that resume Monday will change the Tehran government’s behavior in the region. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Pompeo said the sanctions — the last ones to snap back after the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal — aim to get Tehran to stop supporting militants in the Middle East, stop testing missiles and treat its own citizens with more respect. And he defended President Trump’s tweet Friday featuring a“Game of Thrones”-inspired poster that warned: “Sanctions Are Coming.” Pompeo said that Trump was “putting the world on notice that the terror regime which threatens Israel through Iranian funding of Lebanese Hezbollah, that the terror regime that attempted to conduct an assassination in Denmark over that past few weeks, that the terror regime that continues to fund Houthis launching missiles into Riyadh and into Dubai, that’s going to stop. That behavior must change, and sanctions of the United States will be reimposed at midnight tonight.” Asked what the administration would do if the Iranians restart their nuclear program, Pompeo replied, “We’re confident that Iranians will not make that decision.” Sunday marks the end of a 180-day deadline the United States set before the second round of sanctions lifted under the 2015 deal were to resume. Although the sanctions are against the financial and shipping sectors, the most significant measures prohibit purchases of Iranian oil, which provides 80 percent of Tehran’s tax revenue. Starting Monday, all countries and businesses that buy oil from Iran risk secondary sanctions from the United States, and the administration has vowed to pursue offenders aggressively. Virtually all multinational companies that had started doing business in Iran after sanctions were suspended in 2016 have pulled out. That has helped send the Iranian rial plummeting and hurt ordinary Iranians amid spiraling prices of basic goods. But only a handful of countries support the U.S. action, and Iranian officials have said that the reimposed sanctions underscore how isolated the United States is. Many Middle East analysts also are skeptical that Iran will change its behavior in any way, in a show of defiance. On “Fox News Sunday,” Pompeo defended the administration’s decision to grant temporary waivers on oil sanctions to eight nations, including some of Iran’s biggest oil customers. The secretary of state has not named the countries, though Turkey has said it has received notice and


prices of basic goods. But only a handful of countries support the U.S. action, and Iranian officials have said that the reimposed sanctions underscore how isolated the United States is. Many Middle East analysts also are skeptical that Iran will change its behavior in any way, in a show of defiance. On “Fox News Sunday,” Pompeo defended the administration’s decision to grant temporary waivers on oil sanctions to eight nations, including some of Iran’s biggest oil customers. The secretary of state has not named the countries, though Turkey has said it has received notice and is among them. China, South Korea, Japan and India also are expected to get waivers. Pompeo said all had made significant reductions in their Iran oil purchases already but “need a little bit more time to get to zero.” Pompeo also said the troops going to the southern U.S. border are intended to keep a caravan of migrants from entering the country illegally, but he suggested the migrants may be allowed to enter if they apply through the proper channels. “If they want to come here lawfully, that’s the American tradition, it’s the American way,” he said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” “We continue to be the most generous nation in the world with respect to immigration. But illegal immigration will not be permitted.” He also said the United States is still seeking to identify everyone involved in the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed last month in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. But Pompeo also said the incident will not be allowed to harm U.S.-Saudi relations. “We’re working with the Turkish government, with the Saudi government and with anyone else who has relevant facts for us to be able to determine all of those who were responsible for this atrocious murder of Jamal Khashoggi, which the Saudis themselves have acknowledged was premeditated,” he said. “We need to get to the bottom of it. We need to find out who was responsible, hold them accountable. “And do all of this while protecting enormously important strategic interests that the United maintains with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” Asked what the administration will do if Crown Prince Mohammed bin Sultan is found to have ordered Khashoggi’s killing, Pompeo said, “We are going to chase the facts wherever they go, and we hold accountable each of those who we find responsible.” carol.morello@washpost.com


It’s a mess, and it’s so damn hard, but Maryland football plays on

When the Mighty Sound of Maryland marching band split into two groups and lined the field late Saturday morning at Maryland Stadium, it opened a path for the people who have been victimized in all this: Maryland’s players. Scores of student-athletes from Maryland’s other sports teams stood in front of the band, offering everything they had, which was their mere presence. You need us? We’re here for you. Put aside the abominable decisions of the days and weeks and months gone by, and that support matters. It’s still a heavy thing, two months into this unprecedented Maryland football season, to see junior offensive lineman Ellis McKennie run through that corridor of band members and jocks carrying a flag bearing Jordan McNair’s No. 79. McKennie didn’t do anything wrong in this mess, yet he and his teammates were left to begin their Saturday date with Michigan State again kneeling around the No. 79 painted in a circle in front of the student section. The school, even the state, is in turmoil over the fate of a football coach and the direction of the program. This was a reminder that these players lost a friend and, in the case of three of them, a roommate. Who cares about the University System of Maryland Board of Regents when you remember that tragedy? Maryland has to start anew somewhere, and the kids were given no choice, just as they have been given no choice throughout this debacle: start Saturday against Michigan State. If you wanted former coach DJ Durkin to stay, let him go because he’s out. If you wanted him gone, don’t revel in it, because there are no winners here. If you’re divided, become one. Just go play. They really had no chance. The final: Michigan State 24, Maryland 3. “There’s a lot going on,” said Matt Canada, saddled with being the interim coach for this entire season — now with the knowledge that Durkin, finally fired Wednesday night by school President Wallace D. Loh, isn’t coming back. This is so hard, all of it. You don’t realize it when you’re in college, but man, what a fleeting time. And for these kids, a full year of it has been wrecked not just because one of their teammates died but because the people charged with leading them were, depending on the particular character in question, cruel and insensitive, petty and divisive, incompetent


New books on space explore the moon and beyond

For starters, the flight simulators didn’t quite prepare them for liftoff on the Saturn V rocket. Said astronaut Bill Anders, “I felt like a rat in the jaws of a giant terrier.” And just as the crew’s photographs and telecasts brought their discoveries into American homes, this book fulfills a similar mission for readers born decades later. Countdown: 2979 Days to the Moon By Suzanne Slade. Illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez. Ages 10 to 14. In “Countdown,” Suzanne Slade and Thomas Gonzalez celebrate the teamwork that went into getting the first men onto the surface of the moon and back again in the summer of 1969. Alongside images that manage to seem both true to life and dreamlike, Slade clearly explains the engineering objectives (“designing, building and testing four new crafts . . . that must work flawlessly together”) as well as the emotional ups and downs experienced by the team. And although the story is full of great risks and bravery, Slade and Gonzalez also make room for lighter moments, as when the astronauts listen to music from a floating cassette-tape player. To the Moon and Back: My Apollo 11 Adventure By Buzz Aldrin with Marianne J. Dyson. Ages 8 to 12. In November 1966, Buzz Aldrin went into space for the first time. Less than three years later, he and Neil Armstrong became the first two humans to walk on the moon. In addition to featuring Aldrin’s memories of these adventures, this book includes lots of photographs and pop-up models of such devices as the Saturn V rocket. The book’s pullout cards discuss those exciting years from the point of view of Aldrin’s daughter. Not yet a teenager, she and her two brothers got to stay up late and watch their father’s moon walk on one of the first color TVs in their neighborhood. Space: The Definitive Visual Catalog of the Universe By Sean Callery and Miranda Smith. Ages 8 to 12. Through photographs and other images, this beautiful, information-packed book reveals all sorts of things we can’t see with our own limited vision. The color of stars, for instance. Above a photo taken with the Hubble telescope, the authors explain how a star’s color (red, white, yellow, orange or blue) indicates its surface temperature. This book contains a universe of discoveries — from our own solar system to the dark matter that astrophysicists are investigating from beyond. kidspost@washpost.com


Worried about emerging infectious diseases outbreaks around the world? Listen to this.

The scariest diseases might be those you haven’t yet heard about, not to mention the ones evolving from older, well-known infections. You can hear all about both of these on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Emerging Infectious Diseases podcast — an informative glimpse at the ever-changing front lines of sicknesses. The podcast reports new research from Emerging Infectious Diseases, an open-source journal published monthly by the CDC. It features interviews with people identifying and treating emerging disease — the researchers, doctors and public health officials responding to outbreaks. The term “emerging infectious diseases” covers illnesses that have recently increased in humans or that are spreading to new places or new groups. Diseases that have been quelled but have returned in the wake of poor public health measures or antibiotic resistance fall into the category, too. And then there are the pathogens that haven’t been identified yet but that one day might cause outbreaks in humans. Recent podcast episodes have covered a flare-up of fungal infection in New York hospitals, pneumococcal diseases among refugee children in Germany, and the ethical issues that come up when dealing with people who carry drug-resistant diseases, such as the ‘superbug” MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Each podcast clocks in at less than 30 minutes, perfect for a commute. The subject matter is heavy, but those interviewed make the science behind the outbreaks easy to understand. Online transcripts are available for each podcast, as well as links to research articles in the journal. The podcast is a reminder that, when you hear about some new disease popping up or spreading, experts are probably already on the case.


Icelandair to buy rival Wow Air, as both discount carriers struggle

rival Wow Icelandair has reached a surprise agreement to buy discount rival Wow Air, bringing together the island nation’s two financially embattled airlines. The carriers will continue to operate under separate brands while aiming to better compete on routes linking Europe with North America, they said Monday. Shares of Icelandair surged on the deal, which will create a combined company with about 3.8 percent of that market. Both airlines have struggled with slumping tourist visits to Iceland, higher oil prices and the introduction of direct low-cost trans-Atlantic flights by rivals, which have made changing planes en route less appealing. Icelandair said last week it had breached debt covenants and asked bondholders to grant a waiver. Unprofitable Wow, founded in 2011, had targeted a listing while seeking a partner to see it through the winter slump. Wow has been working to improve the outlook but was faced with tough decisions, Wow’s founder and chief executive, Skuli Mogensen, said in an email to staff obtained by Bloomberg News. He acknowledged that the sale to Icelandair would come as a shock to many employees and “was not part of the original game plan.” — Bloomberg News RETAIL Lowe's to shutter dozens of stores Home improvement chain Lowe’s announced the closure of an additional 51 underperforming stores in the United States and Canada on Monday as it strives to compete with Home Depot in a slowing housing market. Lowe’s gave no details of job losses in the move, which closes stores in some upmarket areas including Broadway and Chelsea in Manhattan and follows the shutdown of 99 Orchard Supply stores in California. Buffeted in recent quarters by the impact of a long winter in North America, Lowe’s has been striving to find ways to catch up with longtime sector leader Home Depot, each of whose stores on average generate almost twice as much in sales. There are also signs that Americans are spending less on housing as prices and demand peak after a seven-year building spree, although many of the factors underlying the industry’s health remain in place. While Lowe’s is far smaller and less exposed to the arrival of Amazon and other online sellers, the closures follow a wave of similar moves by traditional U.S. retailers facing online competition. — Reuters Also in Business Federal Communications Commission Apple A divided federal appeals court European Union Coming today 10 a.m.: — From news services


In Saudi Arabia, Washington Post’s coverage of Khashoggi killing fuels calls for Amazon boycott

The Saudi government has come under intense criticism for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and some Saudi social media users have come up with a way to fight back: boycotting Amazon.com. Over the past few days, Saudi Twitter users have used hashtags such as #BoycottAmazon and #مقاطعة_امازون_وسوق_دوت_كوم to encourage their compatriots and allies to stop using Amazon as well as Souq, an online retailer bought by Amazon last year. According to Bloomberg News, the calls for a boycott topped Twitter’s trending topics in Saudi Arabia for several hours Sunday. The boycott effort appears to be linked to The Washington Post’s coverage of the killing of Khashoggi, who was a contributing columnist to the newspaper. Post owner Jeffrey P. Bezos is the founder and chief executive of Amazon. Some of the tweets justified a boycott by saying that Saudi Arabia and its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, are under attack. Khashoggi, once a Riyadh insider, had become a trenchant critic of the crown prince’s reforms in recent years and lived in Virginia in self-imposed exile. He was killed Oct. 2 after visiting the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to get a document he needed for his planned marriage. The journalist’s disappearance — and the kingdom’s belated admission that he was killed at the consulate — caused a global publicity crisis for Saudi Arabia and Mohammed. Riyadh has repeatedly denied that the crown prince had any knowledge of a plan to kill Khashoggi, but many observers find that claim unlikely. Still, many Saudis still support Mohammed: “What happened to Khashoggi is terrible and goes against Islam," one Saudi citizen in the town of Ad Dilam said to The Post last week. "Our crown prince did not do that. We trust him, and we feel the changes he has made for us.” It’s unclear how much the Amazon boycott drive represents popular opinion in Saudi Arabia. The country has one of the most active Twitter user bases in the Arab world, but analysts say the use of pro-government bots is widespread and often designed to get certain messages onto trending lists. Many of the tweets calling for a boycott of Amazon used similar if not identical language, suggesting some degree of coordination. Some users also used the hashtags to criticize the call for boycott, saying it would not make a difference. Amazon had been looking toward Saudi Arabia as an area of


5 reasons to be concerned about deploying U.S. troops along the southern border

The first few hundred U.S. troops arrived along the southern U.S. border Friday, just days after President Trump’s announcement that active duty forces would now join U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and National Guard units already there. On Oct. 29, the Pentagon announced that some 5,000 troops would head to the border — a move that includes “air and ground transportation and logistics support,” “combat engineering battalions” and “medical support units,” along with surveillance technology and expeditionary housing for CBP personnel. The U.S. government hopes, it seems, that the “show of force” will dissuade the caravan of 3,500 to 7,000 migrants marching through Central America into Mexico from attempting to cross into the United States. Critics accuse the Trump administration of “wagging the dog,” using the military to concoct a threat that will galvanize Republican and swing voters days before a highly contested election — the president himself calls the midterms a “referendum” on his performance in office. Supporters contend the military presence is necessary to defend U.S. national security and sovereignty. Americans count on an apolitical, nonpartisan military to help maintain our democracy. Here’s why this deployment raises concerns that the military is being drawn dangerously far into politics: 1. This level of deployment has no operational rationale Military forces clearly overmatch the migrants. Combining the initial projection of 5,200 fresh troops with the previously deployed 2,092 National Guardsmen renders a troop-to-asylum-seeker ratio of almost 2 to 1, and the ratio may grow larger as weary marchers peel away from the caravan. Even with its hiring problems, the Border Patrol’s firepower, logistics, mobility and communications — even without the reinforcements — far exceed the capabilities of the group of individuals and families traveling on foot, who perhaps have cellphones and clothes but little else. 2. Americans think highly of the military — and politicians know this This isn’t the first time the military’s credibility with the American public has been used to underwrite electoral goals. And the social desirability of supporting U.S. troops means that they can be used as human shields against political criticism. But debates about the operational logic of this deployment obscure the more profound effect such decisions may have on the military’s domestic political role. The military is one of the few institutions a comfortable majority of Americans still admire — military approval has not dipped below 70 percent in the past 10 years.


Hackers are using malware to find vulnerabilities in U.S. swing states. Expect cyberattacks.

military-grade defenses. Hopefully election officials could double-check paper ballots to set the record straight, but that is not always the case. Hacker reconnaissance in the U.S. swing states So what’s happening in the United States? As of October 2018, RealClearPolitics had the following 13 U.S. states listed on the political fence: Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, New Jersey, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and West Virginia. And guess what? These 13 swing states are now recording more malware detections per day than the 37 non-swing states! Below is a malware timeline for Minnesota. See the massive October spike in adware? Seven other swing states have nearly identical charts. Like computer trojans, adware often seems to be doing something useful for you — but in fact, it can hide secret and malicious functionality. Often, adware tries to acquire and sell data about you, from your geolocation to a list of what websites you visit. Our research offers strong evidence that politicians and spies are also using adware to collect information — after which they run more invasive, targeted cyber operations. Why are spikes in malware detection troubling? With malware, hackers can steal, deny or alter any type of digital information. Hackers can help politicians more easily win an election. As you can see, hackers are conducting digital reconnaissance against the U.S. swing states. With that intelligence in hand, they are likely to run influence operations targeting voters, perhaps via social media. More aggressively, they might try to deceive election officials or infrastructure with false numbers or narratives. During the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election, hackers briefly changed the final vote tally on the official election website to a ridiculously wrong number that was immediately broadcast on Russian television. One software coder associated with the incident went missing. Since then, cyberattacks on Ukraine have manipulated its electricity grid and targeted the business sector in what was the most costly cyber incident in world history. The United States should not assume that it is immune from such attacks. Back to our upcoming election. Donald Trump won the 2016 poll by a grand total of 107,000 votes in three key swing states — or about the same number of people who attend a home Michigan Wolverines football game. Thus, from a statistical perspective, not all that much is required to determine the winner of an election, especially given the surprising power of computer


A Pentagon program involving insects comes with risks — and huge potential

technology capable of being used for destructive purposes? Could the insects be turned into germ carriers that might just as easily destroy a food supply? The researchers’ concern, expressed in Science magazine, is that the insects could become “a new class of biological weapon” and violate an international treaty against them. The object of their concern is a $45 million research effort called “Insect Allies,” run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, announced in November 2016 and expected to take four years. The end goal will be to conduct large, contained greenhouse demonstrations in which maize and tomato plants are infected by viruses transported by insects such as leafhoppers, whiteflies and aphids. The hope is that viruses could be precisely tailored using sophisticated tools to deliver a specific result in the plant, far more quickly than, say, attempting to stimulate changes across generations of plant growth. DARPA has been home for decades to such blue-sky research missions, with long odds but high reward. “Insect Allies” might wind up in the agency’s dustbin but, if it works, could be of significant benefit to mankind. Without question, the European skeptics are right to raise questions about this dual-use research, meaning the program could be adapted, in theory, for malign intent. But much research in biology is dual-use by its very nature. Research facilities that produce lifesaving drugs and therapies can be used to create harmful agents and weapons. In the United States, a good amount of attention has been focused in recent years on oversight, including rules for government-funded work. (And there are legitimate concerns, such as earlier this year when researchers in Canada assembled bits of genetic material to resurrect a cousin of the virus that causes smallpox. It should not have been attempted.) Globally, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention of 1975 prohibits the research, development or deployment of germ weapons or their delivery systems, though it has rather weak enforcement mechanisms. The skeptics say on their website that they worry the DARPA program could be “easily weaponized.” That seems a stretch. No one can ever be sure that bad actors won’t attempt something foolish, but fear should not paralyze a research program of such large potential. The best antidote to these concerns is rigorous oversight, transparency and regulation, which DARPA argues it has put in place. The right course is to proceed, with caution and care.


A year without answers about Bijan Ghaisar’s death

It’s approaching one year since Bijan Ghaisar was shot and killed on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Many Americans are expressing outrage over the Saudi coverup and lies in the killing of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi — as if our government were more open and honest. Yet here we are, approaching a year since U.S. Park Police officers killed Ghaisar with no explanation. It’s true the Park Police and the FBI haven’t lied about it, but are we any better off with a government that withholds information indefinitely and accepts no responsibility? Officials need to be held accountable, not only for Ghaisar’s death but also for their failure to provide an open and honest government. Torger J. Anderson


The strangest moment from the CNN interview of Khashoggi’s sons, explained

in that. This will happen. Otherwise [the Saudi government] wouldn’t have started an internal investigation,” Salah Khashoggi, 35, said on CNN. What explains his measured comment? Experts say he may be trying to protect himself and his family from government retaliation. His father’s prominence as a critic of the Saudi leadership had caused him problems in the past: A friend of Jamal Khashoggi’s told the Associated Press that Salah, who has both U.S. and Saudi citizenship, had been banned from leaving Saudi Arabia before his father’s killing. Salah Khashoggi’s approach might also reflect a genuine faith in the Saudi government — and skepticism of the way the Turkish government is handling the investigation into the killing. In the days after Jamal Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, his first wife, Alaa Nassif, told Saudi media outlets that she didn’t know anything about his new fiancee, a Turkish national, and wondered why she was handling his social media. Nassif also expressed faith in the Saudi government. “All the Saudi dissidents have not been harmed; no one reached to them to hurt them, even when they are outside the country. This is a truth since the establishment of the country. They might have said more than what Jamal have said, and they were not harmed. There are many examples,” Nassif said in an interview with Al Arabiya English, an outlet run by the Saudi government. There may even be divides within the family about who Khashoggi was and how he should be remembered. One indication might be the way the Khashoggi brothers described their father on CNN. In the interview, Abdullah Khashoggi called his father a “rock-and-roll star as a journalist” and someone who was “pushing the system a bit.” His father, he said, was “brave.” Salah Khashoggi offered a different picture, that of a “moderate man who has common values with everyone.” He was “a man who loved his country and believed very much in it and its potential,” he said. “Jamal was never a dissident. … He believed in the transformation that [Saudi Arabia] was going through. That’s how he should be remembered.” Read more: Son of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi expresses ‘faith’ in Saudi investigation as Turkey alleges coverup Saudi campaign to abduct and silence rivals abroad goes back decades Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is ‘chief of the tribe’ in a cowed House of Saud


The Daily 202: Republican Senate gains would show that Trump accelerated a political realignment

down to the wire. -- GOP strategists say the gubernatorial race has tightened in Florida, where elections have been shaped by “a year of natural and man-made Florida-based disasters,” -- Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue sparked intense blowback after describing the stakes of the Florida gubernatorial race, where Democrat Andrew Gillum hopes to be the state’s first black leader, as “cotton-pickin' important.” -- Trump will campaign today for Ohio gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine, who is trying to walk a fine line between the endorsements of the president and one of his adversaries: current Gov. John Kasich (R). -- Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who has consistently polled ahead despite being a Republican in a deeply blue state, argued Maryland is headed in a positive direction that would continue after he is reelected. WHAT TO WATCH FOR AFTER TUESDAY: -- The Trump White House is anticipating massive turnover after the elections. “Among those most vulnerable to being dismissed are Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing [Bob Mueller’s investigation] -- Republicans’ selections of leaders for the House Judiciary and Oversight committees could illuminate how they intend to handle the Russia investigation moving forward. THE NEW WORLD ORDER: -- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has intensified the kingdom’s efforts to silence critics in a campaign that stretches back decades. -- U.S. and Israeli officials fear that fallout from the killing of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi has jeopardized Saudi Arabia’s ability to broker peace in the region. -- Khashoggi’s sons pleaded for the return of his remains. -- Touching on trade in a Shanghai speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping indicated he would not be open to making concessions when he sits down with Trump later this month. -- Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska is using his vast influence network to try to avoid the Trump administration’s latest sanctions. -- Iran pledged to resist American “psychological war” as economic sanctions against the country once again went into effect. SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ: A Post reporter noted this of Trump’s rallies: Rucker also highlighted the song choice at a Trump rally: And Rihanna was not pleased: Trump plans to campaign with Rush Limbaugh. From a CNN reporter: The president’s son will appear at a House Republicans’ final rally before Election Day: A New York Times reporter predicted a late night tomorrow: A Democratic lawyer who previously represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign said legal


Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has intensified the kingdom’s efforts to silence critics in a campaign that stretches back decades. -- U.S. and Israeli officials fear that fallout from the killing of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi has jeopardized Saudi Arabia’s ability to broker peace in the region. -- Khashoggi’s sons pleaded for the return of his remains. -- Touching on trade in a Shanghai speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping indicated he would not be open to making concessions when he sits down with Trump later this month. -- Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska is using his vast influence network to try to avoid the Trump administration’s latest sanctions. -- Iran pledged to resist American “psychological war” as economic sanctions against the country once again went into effect. SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ: A Post reporter noted this of Trump’s rallies: Rucker also highlighted the song choice at a Trump rally: And Rihanna was not pleased: Trump plans to campaign with Rush Limbaugh. From a CNN reporter: The president’s son will appear at a House Republicans’ final rally before Election Day: A New York Times reporter predicted a late night tomorrow: A Democratic lawyer who previously represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign said legal challenges would likely follow close results: In Indiana, many early voters did not cast a ballot in 2014 — a good sign for Democrats. This is Joe Donnelly’s campaign manager: The executive director of the Florida Democratic Party expressed confidence about early voting numbers: The Republican congressional candidate who lost an eye in Afghanistan reacted to SNL mocking his injury: A McClatchy reporter highlighted this from Crenshaw’s bio: From a co-host of “The View”: But a writer for the National Review offered a different take on the SNL controversy: An Arizona Senate candidate found some time away from the campaign trail: A Politico reporter tweeted a photo of a very relevant license plate: Local news is (finally) dominated by the midterms. From a Post reporter: Novelist Stephen King made a personal argument for voting out a House Republican: Mexican officials expressed concern for members of the migrant caravan, per a Post reporter: A Getty Images photographer shared this photo montage from the southern border: From a Post reporter: GOOD READS: -- “Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto leads his city through its darkest days,” by Gabriel Pogrund: DAYBOOK: Trump NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.: -- Washingtonians should expect


Sons of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi appeal for the return of his remains

government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to prod Saudi leaders to acknowledge what he says is their role in the death. The Saudi government refused to comment for weeks but, in the face of international outrage, finally conceded that Khashoggi was killed in their consulate, even as they blamed it on rogue Saudi agents. Lost in the din have been the voices of Khashoggi’s children, grieving and forced to pick through a confusion of graphic news reports as they piece together details of their father’s death. Khashoggi’s daughters did not appear in the CNN interview. “Everybody’s telling a different story. I’m trying to simplify it as much as possible. He died,” Abdullah Khashoggi said. “It’s not a normal situation and not a normal death.” “I really hope that whatever happened wasn’t painful for him, or it was quick,” he added. Salah Khashoggi, who lives in Saudi Arabia, became the public face of the family’s sorrow when a photograph of him, stone-faced, meeting Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was shared on social media and interpreted as evidence of the family’s rage at the royal family. But in fact, Salah Khashoggi said, the king had assured him that “everybody involved will be brought to justice” for the killing. “I have faith in that. This will happen,” he said. Erdogan has said that Jamal Khashoggi’s killing by Saudi agents was premeditated and that the order came from the “highest levels” of the Saudi government, although he has not specified who he thinks was responsible. Erdogan also has demanded that the Saudi government reveal the location of Khashoggi’s body. Turkey has said that a hit squad sent from Saudi Arabia strangled Khashoggi shortly after he entered the consulate to seek a document he needed for his planned marriage to his Turkish fiancee. Turkish authorities said the team dismembered Khashoggi’s body and disposed of it. Turkey has repeatedly accused Saudi authorities of trying to obstruct its investigation. On Monday, a Turkish official said that at least two members of a team that Saudi Arabia sent to investigate Khashoggi’s killing were actually there to cover it up. The official, who was not authorized to comment on the record and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the dispatch of the two men to Turkey “suggests that Khashoggi’s slaying was within the knowledge of top Saudi officials.” The official confirmed details


The U.S. must take action to stop Chinese industrial espionage

SPEAKING IN the White House Rose Garden in September 2015, Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping announced a breakthrough. The United States and China pledged that neither nation “will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information for commercial advantage.” But Mr. Xi’s promises were flimsy and short-lived. The agreement has collapsed. China is again trying to steal its way to greatness, and that calls for a resolute response. The latest sign of trouble, but hardly the only sign, came in the indictments unsealed last week by the Justice Department. The United States charged that a state-owned Chinese company attempted to steal trade secrets from Micron, a semiconductor company based in Idaho that is the only U.S. maker of “dynamic random-access memory,” or DRAM, vital memory chips for computers, mobile devices and other electronics. According to the indictment, one of Micron’s employees went to work for the Chinese company, then recruited others who brought with them 900 files that included confidential DRAM designs. The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, Alex Tse, said the haul took “some of the most advanced semiconductor technology in the world.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the stolen trade secrets were valued at $8.75 billion. China lacked DRAM technology until recently, and the Micron case is another example of China’s quest to climb the ladder of economic development by stealing overseas technology and copying, re-engineering and manufacturing it, leapfrogging what would otherwise be decades of difficult and expensive work. This is not the sort of espionage seeking state secrets that all countries undertake, but a very targeted stealing to help China’s companies profit and conquer markets. The companies also receive robust capital infusions from the state. After the 2015 Rose Garden announcement, the Chinese stealing subsided for a while, so fewer U.S. companies were hit, but then the pace accelerated again in 2017. Mr. Sessions insisted that “cheating must stop.” Mr. Obama had also insisted: “I indicated that it has to stop.” In fact, China’s industrial espionage is not a passing fancy but the pillar of a long-term drive to become a global economic, military and political power, with ambitions to rival the United States. Sadly, the hopes of the past two decades, that Beijing would become a fair competitor playing by international rules, have been dashed. It is a good first response to


Where marijuana is on the ballot Tuesday — and where it’s most likely to win

three separate medical marijuana initiatives at the polls. The measures differ on some details, like how much to tax medical pot and whether patients are allowed to grow their own plants. The one with the broadest range of endorsements from national drug policy groups as well as local newspapers is Amendment 2, which is similar to other states' medical policies: Doctors would be able to recommend marijuana for a number of specified ailments, and patients would be able to obtain the drug either through a dispensary or by growing it at home. Polling on the issue has been scant, but a survey in August showed that voters supported, in general terms, an amendment to the state constitution that would legalize medical marijuana. If two or more of the measures pass, it’s likely that the measure that receives the most votes will go into effect. Utah: Medical use Utah voters will weigh in on medical marijuana, but the eventual result is essentially a foregone conclusion. In October, supporters and opponents of the medical marijuana measure struck a compromise: The governor would convene a special session of the legislature immediately after the election to craft a more limited medical marijuana bill, regardless of the ballot item’s outcome. Backers of the ballot measure agreed to the compromise proposal because in Utah, legislators have the power to overturn statutory ballot initiatives with a majority vote. “If Proposition 2 passed without any agreement on next steps, patients may have been left waiting years to access legal medical cannabis,” said the Marijuana Policy Project’s Matthew Schweich in an October statement. “This compromise eliminates that uncertainty and ensures legislative leaders are committed to making the law work.” Other medical marijuana supporters are unhappy with the proposed compromise bill, which is more limited in scope than medical marijuana programs in other states. It doesn’t allow patients to grow their own plants, and only allows for smoked marijuana in a few circumstances. Other jurisdictions There are also a handful of miscellaneous bills being considered at the local level: Voters in a number of Ohio cities will weigh in on measures to decriminalize marijuana use, which would essentially treat minor infractions like a speeding ticket. Some Wisconsin towns, meanwhile, will hold nonbinding referenda on whether marijuana should be legalized for medical or recreational use. Activists hope the results will help persuade Wisconsin legislators to consider legalization at the state level.


In light of Khashoggi’s death, it’s time to halt business with Saudi Arabia

The Nov. 1 news article “GOP senators ask Trump to end nuclear energy talks with Saudi Arabia” reported that Republican senators are demanding that the president cease negotiations of a nuclear deal unless Saudi Arabia promises to use it only for energy in light of the alleged assassination of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. However, this is not enough. A country that has such contempt and disregard for the freedom of speech and the press that it sends assassins outside its borders after a journalist who published dissenting views can be no ally of a country that claims to defend democratic ideals and values — especially when the United States criticizes and imposes sanctions against other countries that do the same. To be consistent with our ideals, all transactions and negotiations with Saudi Arabia must cease as long as it continues these horrific actions. Prerak Thakkar


Almost two years into Trump presidency, Pentagon’s revolving door still spins

procure the company’s blood-testing system in 2012, before leaving the military in 2013 and joining the Theranos board. In another incident that was covered in depth by the Los Angeles Times, a Marine Corps general, James E. “Hoss” Cartwright, worked to extend a major Army radar system, which benefited Raytheon, before joining Raytheon’s board. In other cases, a sort of “reverse revolving door” has come into play in which defense executives have been appointed to high-profile government roles. Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan had been a senior vice president at Boeing before his appointment, something that became a point of contention during his confirmation hearing last year. POGO’s findings were unsurprising to many in Washington, where former government officials can make a healthy living leveraging their experience and connections for consulting and lobbying jobs. Loren Thompson, a defense consultant whose think tank gets funding from defense contractors, including Boeing and Lockheed Martin, said it is extremely rare for former high-level officials to become full-time lobbyists, although many may register as lobbyists so they are cleared to have discussions with lawmakers. “This report reflects the same concerns that president Eisenhower did when he coined the phrase ‘military industrial complex.' . . . He was worried about a self-serving community of people who benefit from military spending, and that, implicitly, is what POGO is addressing,” Thompson said. “But obviously senior military officers have very specialized skills, and they have many years ahead of them when they retire from military service. If you used to command a fighter wing in the military, where are you supposed to put those skills to work once you retire?” A 2008 report from the Government Accountability Office, the government’s primary auditing agency, found that the 52 largest defense companies employed 2,435 people who had been generals, admirals, military program managers or acquisitions officials. It found that 422 of them were in a position to work on projects they had overseen during their government service. Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon made the most prolific use of the Pentagon’s revolving door, the GAO found. Although most of the high-profile hires POGO identified were publicized by the hiring companies or the employees themselves, POGO’s list may be the only public attempt to identify all of them. Under a 2008 law, the Pentagon is required to maintain a database of ethics opinions issued for senior officials and officers who seek


7 new D.C. restaurants to try, featuring fried-chicken biscuits and the city’s best bagels

October’s new restaurants offer something at every price point. Yes, you can try refined Italian cuisine from a Michelin-starred chef, or sample dishes from a veteran of some of the world’s top dining destinations. You can also wait in line to sample Washington’s hottest bagels, or head to a new supermarket to dig into a menu of wings and cheesesteaks from a former “Top Chef.” Officina: The latest culinary destination at the Wharf combines an Italian restaurant, cafe, espresso bar, amaro bar and marketplace selling Italian productions, all under the auspices of Michelin-starred chef Nick Stefanelli (Masseria). The idea is that the three-level space serves different purposes throughout the day: Stop in early for coffee or drop in at lunch for a meat-stuffed panino sandwich or Caesar salad. After work, it’s the place to go for a note-perfect Negroni before picking up fresh pasta to cook at home. Upstairs, Stefanelli’s 75-seat trattoria features a menu heavy on classic Italian dishes with fresh pastas and meats butchered in-house, and an amaro library with about 100 Italian spirits on their own or in cocktails. A rooftop bar has views of the Washington Channel in good weather. 1120 Maine Ave. SW. Call Your Mother: How desperate is D.C. for a new and delicious source of bagels? Call Your Mother, which opened its first bricks-and-mortar store in Park View on Oct. 11 after wildly successful appearances at local farmers markets and brunches, attracts incredibly long lines — there have been reports of up to half-hour waits for the sweet, wood-fired bagels on Friday mornings and even longer on Saturdays. But the “Jew-ish” deli, which offers sandwiches and pastrami rice, is doing something right: It won our “Best Bagels in D.C.” throwdown. 3301 Georgia Ave. NW. [ Reverie: Johnny Spero’s résumé would impress any foodie: He has been a chef at Minibar and Komi and worked at world temples of gastronomy, including Noma and Mugaritz. Most recently, he’s prepared the whimsical bites at the Columbia Room. But outside of the short-lived Suna, which closed before Tom Sietsema’s half-star review could be published, Spero has not headed a kitchen of his own in Washington. That changed with the opening of Reverie, a small restaurant tucked down an alley in Georgetown, where Spero’s menu is a catalogue of his travels, skipping from rib-eye to kampachi to rugbrod. 3201 Cherry Hill Ln. NW. Mason Dixie Biscuits: Seven months


The Finance 202: 2018 midterms look a lot like 1970 midterms

Crystal City, Dallas, New York. WSJ: “Amazon.com Inc. has progressed to late-stage talks on its planned second headquarters with a small handful of communities including northern Virginia’s Crystal City, Dallas and New York City, people familiar with the matter said, as it nears a final decision that could reshape both the tech giant and the location it chooses. The ongoing talks with some local officials come as discussions appear to have cooled in some of the other 20 cities on Amazon’s shortlist, including Denver, Toronto, Atlanta, Nashville, Tenn., and Raleigh, N.C., according to people familiar with those situations. “Negotiations with the top candidates are likely in slightly different phases, according to the knowledgeable people. In Northern Virginia, Amazon is negotiating with government officials on incentives, while it’s also talking with JBG Smith Properties , a publicly traded real-estate investment trust, about the Crystal City real estate it owns, according to people familiar with the matter. Part of the negotiations involve nailing down the investment targets Amazon would have to meet to qualify for incentives, one of the people said. New York is still actively talking with Amazon, although it’s unclear how far along they are in the process.” (Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.) — Consulting firms stick with Saudi Arabia. “The agreement would ‘open great horizons’ by improving the skills of the kingdom’s cybersecurity experts, Saud al-Qahtani, a top adviser to the crown prince overseeing the deal, said in Saudi Arabia in a statement to the official press. It did not mention his continuing campaign to silence critics both inside the kingdom and online. Mr. Qahtani was fired last month after Saudi officials linked him to the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying he had contributed to an aggressive environment that helped lead to the killing. But while Mr. Khashoggi’s death prompted investors from around the globe to distance themselves from the Saudi government, Booz Allen and its competitors McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group have stayed close after playing critical roles in Prince Mohammed’s drive to consolidate power.” So does SoftBank — Sears seeks a lifeline. — Wall Street, business tilt giving toward Dems. WSJ's Julie Bykowicz: “Wall Street and the business community, breaking from a yearslong trend, are hedging their political bets by making more contributions to Democrats in the midterm elections, according to fundraising data compiled by the


Facing death, affirming life: Classical music’s yin and yang in one weekend

of the artistic spectrum was a program that deliberately set out to be a cornucopia of delights, and succeeded. The National Symphony Orchestra began its “Declassified” series of Friday-night concerts in 2015, hoping to lure new audiences with pop stars and shorter programs. The concerts were wildly uneven at first, but Ben Folds, the singer-songwriter who became its artistic adviser in 2017 has clearly been working with the orchestra to develop the concept. Friday night’s concert with Regina Spektor, the pianist-singer-songwriter, which admirably balanced orchestral and pop music without doing violence to either, showed that everyone’s efforts are paying off. One reason the program succeeded so well is that the Russian-born Spektor, trained as a concert pianist, so clearly loves orchestral music; she seemed nervous and star-struck and starry-eyed about appearing onstage with the NSO, and her love was infectious. She picked one of the pieces on the program, the Dance of the Knights from Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet,” and told the audience, “To me this piece shows how amazingly the orchestra can rock your soul,” and the orchestra proceeded to demonstrate what she meant when James Gaffigan, the conductor, then plunged the players into the huge, menacing, aching chords at the beginning of the selection. Another reason it succeeded is that the NSO, rather than offering music that pandered to the audience, played selections from its current program — including the first movement of Shostakovich’s 2nd piano concerto, with the soloist, Simon Trpceski, showing a lot more humor than he had the preceding night. But the audience got plenty of Spektor, too: She sang seven numbers, including “Dear Theodosia” from “Hamilton” in a duet with Folds that crossed several different genre boundaries: two pop stars singing a song from a hip-hop musical with a symphony orchestra. These two evenings were obviously conceived for different audiences and different goals. But whatever your tastes, it is affirming to see two strong concerts making such different and such excellent cases for themselves, their goals and even the field at large. The Corcoran New Music Festival continues with performances by the percussion-piano quartet Yarn/Wire and student musicians, including a new work, “The Winter Journey,” on Nov. 9. Correction: An earlier version of this story said “The Winter Journey” would be performed Tuesday and Saturday nights. The show is Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. anne.midgette@washpost.com


Ross emphasizes the new and the forgotten with Alexandria Symphony

James Ross is already making a mark as the new music director of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. Known for innovative programming with the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra and the National Orchestral Institute, Ross is infusing new energy into the ensemble for its 75th season. His latest program, heard on Saturday night at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall, had a first half devoted entirely to American composers and also put a spotlight on music by women. The marquee event was the world premiere of a new Cello Concerto by Washington composer Jessica Krash. Written for a small orchestra of limited strings and single woodwinds, horn and trumpet, the piece is a vivid series of fantasy landscapes limned with canny economy. Bluesy turns and hints of Latin rhythms dot the texture, with especially wistful melodic writing in the slow movement. Soloist Tanya Anisimova’s cello was miked, a decision that may have been partially responsible for intonation disparities between her and the orchestra. Her subtle playing explored many delicate sounds, even at the conclusion of the final movement, where the piece seemed poised to ramp up to a boisterous finale, only to dissolve into airy silence again. Ross paired the new work with pieces by Leonard Bernstein, a composer to whom Krash owes a significant stylistic debt, and whose centenary year is finally coming to an end. In the “Overture to ‘West Side Story’ ” and especially the “Three Dance Episodes from ‘On the Town,’ ” the orchestra played with verve and a willingness to get dirty, if not always with absolute precision. The concert concluded with a moody rendition of Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony, known as the “Scottish” because the composer sketched some of its themes while on a walking tour of Scotland. In a fun gesture to lovers of the Romantic landscape of Ossian and Walter Scott, the ASO hosted a group of red-tartaned bagpipers, whose playing outside before the concert guided this newcomer, unfamiliar with the venue, to the right location. The wave-tossed fortes featured the strongest playing, especially from the five horns, while more exposed runs in winds and strings lacked clarity. Ross prefaced the piece by speaking about Mendelssohn’s older sister, Fanny, and how the world of classical music excluded women such as her for so long. He then invited ASO pianist Sophie Cook to perform Fanny Mendelssohn’s “Notturno in G Minor” as a prelude to the


Saudi campaign to abduct and silence rivals abroad goes back decades

ISTANBUL — Faisal al Jarba fled his native Saudi Arabia late last year as the danger drew near — after his patron, a powerful Saudi prince, was arrested and after a friend died in suspicious circumstances while in government custody. Jarba, a leading sheikh in a large tribe, traveled to the Jordanian capital, Amman, joining relatives there. But that was not nearly far enough. Jordanian security officers surrounded his house one evening in early June and took him away for questioning, assuring his family he would be back soon. Within days, however, he was driven to the border with Saudi Arabia and handed over to the Saudi authorities, according to two people familiar with the details of Jarba’s forced repatriation, which has not previously been reported. There have been no charges filed against Jarba, 45, and in the five months since he was captured, his family has received no proof that he is still alive, the people said. The killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month by a team of Saudi agents dispatched from Riyadh has prompted fresh scrutiny of the kingdom’s pursuit of Saudi nationals abroad, from ordinary dissidents to defectors from the tight ranks of the royal family. The effort to silence Saudi critics abroad stretches back decades and over the tenure of several monarchs. But Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, has pursued the practice with an especially ruthless zeal since gaining his position last year, analysts said, even making the return of dissenters abroad a formal policy of the state, according to a Saudi official, who insisted such returns were to be negotiated rather than coerced. To repatriate its critics, the Saudi government has tried to lure them back or enlisted friendly regional governments to arrest them or even carried out brazen kidnappings in Europe. Saudi nationals have vanished from hotel rooms, been snatched from cars or had planes they were flying on diverted. One Saudi dissident prince said in a court filing that he was injected in the neck and spirited away on a private jet from Geneva to Saudi Arabia. Years later, after he managed to leave the kingdom, he disappeared again and has not been heard from since. “We know they can kill you; they can destroy your family or use them against you,” said one Saudi women’s rights activist who applied for political asylum in the


The future of the Middle East depends on justice for Jamal Khashoggi

THE MOST important question in the case of Jamal Khashoggi is whether Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, will be held accountable for what his regime acknowledges was a premeditated act of murder. Much of the available evidence points to the prince. We cannot find a Middle East expert who believes the official story that the 15-member assassination team sent to Istanbul, including five probable members of the prince’s security detail, was a rogue operation. Yet the regime is engaged in a determined stonewalling operation to protect the 33-year-old crown prince, who stands to inherit the throne from his father and become the absolute ruler of one of the world’s largest oil producers, potentially for decades. He has the support of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi — another dictator who has killed peaceful opponents — and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Post reporting, Mr. Sissi and Mr. Netanyahu have lobbied the White House not to punish Mohammed bin Salman. On the other side of the discussion is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is understandably outraged that Saudi Arabia would have used its consulate in Istanbul to slaughter a Post contributing columnist who was engaged to marry a Turkish citizen. In a Post op-ed posted online Friday , Mr. Erdogan rightly says that had the murder happened in Washington, U.S. officials would insist on getting “to the bottom” of what happened. Yet the Trump administration appears to be cooperating with Riyadh in protecting Mohammed bin Salman. It has not announced its conclusions about the murder, even though Turkish authorities shared their evidence — including an audio recording of Mr. Khashoggi’s final moments — with CIA Director Gina Haspel. It has taken no punitive action, other than suspending travel privileges for the low-level suspects the Saudis have rounded up. Like the Saudi regime, the White House and State Department have gone silent about the Khashoggi case — in the evident hope that demands for justice will fade. Like his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts, Mr. Erdogan may have political reasons for his strong stance. His government is competing with that of Saudi Arabia for regional leadership. He is a supporter of Islamist political movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, that the Saudi and Egyptian regimes are trying to annihilate. The Post reported that Mohammed bin Salman falsely smeared Mr. Khashoggi as a Muslim Brotherhood militant in a call to


Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Saudi Arabia still has many questions to answer about Jamal Khashoggi’s killing

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the president of Turkey. The story is all too familiar: Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and a family man, entered Saudi Arabia’s Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 for marriage formalities. No one – not even his fiancee, who was waiting outside the compound — has ever seen him again. Over the course of the past month, Turkey has moved heaven and earth to shed light on all aspects of this case. As a result of our efforts, the world has learned that Khashoggi was killed in cold blood by a death squad, and it has been established that his murder was premeditated. Yet there are other, no less significant questions whose answers will contribute to our understanding of this deplorable act. Where is Khashoggi’s body? Who is the “local collaborator” to whom Saudi officials claimed to have handed over Khashoggi’s remains? Who gave the order to kill this kind soul? Unfortunately, the Saudi authorities have refused to answer those questions. We know the perpetrators are among the 18 suspects detained in Saudi Arabia. We also know those individuals came to carry out their orders: Kill Khashoggi and leave. Finally, we know the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government. Some seem to hope this “problem” will go away in time. But we will keep asking those questions, which are crucial to the criminal investigation in Turkey, but also to Khashoggi’s family and loved ones. A month after his killing, we still do not know where his body is. At the very least, he deserves a proper burial in line with Islamic customs. We owe it to his family and friends, including his former colleagues at The Post, to give them an opportunity to say their goodbyes and pay their respects to this honorable man. To ensure that the world will keep asking the same questions, we have shared the evidence with our friends and allies, including the United States. As we continue to look for answers, I would like to stress that Turkey and Saudi Arabia enjoy friendly relations. I do not believe for a second that King Salman, the custodian of the holy mosques, ordered the hit on Khashoggi. Therefore, I have no reason to believe that his murder reflected Saudi Arabia’s official policy. In this sense, it would be wrong to view the Khashoggi slaying as a