US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis is facing mounting public criticism amid the fallout from the slaying of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Mattis said yesterday that it was still unclear that the Saudi Prince was involved in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashiggi.
The fresh scrutiny of Mattis, comes on the heels of his implementation of a controversial military order to place troops on the US-Mexico border, a move critics slammed as a political stunt.
Republican enator Lindsey Graham blasted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for refusing to directly link Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Khashoggi's murder at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in October. Graham said, " You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized under the command of Prince Salman." He also added that while there was no 'smoking gun', there was a 'smoking saw'.
Mattis, who has been repeatedly condemning the killing insisted he had seen "no smoking gun" connecting Prince Mohammed to the Khashoggi murder.
Graham is a firebrand in US politics. Initially a fierce Trump opponent, he converted to a staunch ally, and according to experts, he could be angling for a top posting in the administration.
However, Graham was not alone in his upbraiding. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said Mattis and Pompeo have tried to "push aside" the question of Prince Mohammed's involvement and said that when the two men spoke to senators last week they had sought to mislead lawmakers.
Republican Bob Corker, who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, came to a similar conclusion, saying a jury would convict the crown prince "in less than 30 minutes."
On Wednesday, Mattis in his defence said that, "If I say something, I need the evidence".
"We are continuing to review. I am quite satisfied we will find more evidence of what happened. I just don't know what it is going to be or who will be implicated, but we will follow it as far as we can."
Mattis was also thrust into the spotlight last month in the run-up to the midterm elections, as Trump repeatedly attacked "caravans" of Central American migrants headed for the US border.
The president ordered a deployment of thousands of active-duty troops to beef up the frontier. Critics assailed the move as a costly political stunt to mobilise Trump's conservative base.
Mattis defended the decision, saying it was not political and that the soldiers on the border are mainly providing much-needed logistical support.
The deployment of approximately 5,600 troops is Mattis's largest in his nearly two years at the Pentagon, and he this week approved a request from the Department of Homeland Security to extend the mission through January 2019.
Saudi Arabia has sought to distance Prince Mohammed from the murder and has received unbending support from Trump, who sees Riyadh as a vital security partner in the Middle East and a key oil exporter and buyer of US arms.
But US lawmakers have grown increasingly leery about American support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen.
A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday introduced a resolution that, if approved, would say the Senate "has a high level of confidence" Prince Mohammed was "complicit" in Khashoggi's killing, and would assail Riyadh for its role in Yemen's humanitarian crisis.
The Senate could also vote on a separate measure next week to force the US to end its military support to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
Mattis's cautious words come at a sensitive time. He must tread a fine line with Saudi Arabia as he publicly and privately pushes Riyadh to negotiate for a peace settlement with Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Trump, when asked whether the crown price knew about the plot to kill Khashoggi has said "maybe he did and maybe he didn't".
Graham suggested Mattis and Pompeo were being vague in their intelligence assessments to please Trump.
"The reason they don't draw the conclusion that he's complicit is because the administration doesn't want to go down that road, not because there's not evidence to suggest he's complicit," Graham said.
