Pompeo says Saudi royals didn't want to discuss facts of the Khashoggi case and he doesn't either
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the Saudi royal family on Tuesday to discuss the disappearance and alleged murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi.
- But afterward he refused to talk to the press about the facts of the case.
- Pompeo wouldn't say whether Khashoggi is alive or dead, and said the Saudis didn't want to talk about it either.
- Pompeo said the Saudis would investigate and hold themselves accountable, but Saudi's royal family is notoriously opaque.
- It's not clear whether the public will ever get any evidence of what happened beyond Saudi Arabia's word.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the Saudi royal family on Tuesday to discuss the disappearance and alleged murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi, and outright refused to comment on the facts of the case to the press.
Pompeo, like President Donald Trump, has put faith in the Saudi royal family to investigate themselves regarding Khashoggi's disappearance.
While Pompeo said the Saudis would conduct a "thorough" investigation and hold any guilty parties completely accountable, he flat out shut down any conversation of the facts of the case.
Asked point blank if Khashoggi, who has not been seen since entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, was alive or dead, Pompeo said: "I don't want to talk about any of the facts. They [the Saudis] didn't either."
Turkish officials spoke to several media outlets on Tuesday, claiming to have audio tapes that capture Saudi officials as having taken part in the gruesome murder of Khashoggi that involved torture.
The Daily Beast reported that Saudi officials plan to pin Khashoggi's death on an unnamed Saudi two-star general citing two anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
The royal family of Saudi Arabia has absolute rule over the kingdom, controls every investigation and has a tight grip on the media.
So far there is no guarantee that the world will get any proof of Saudi Arabia's account of Khashoggi's death, beyond being asked to take the kingdom's word for it.