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tv   NEWSHOUR  Al Jazeera  November 29, 2018 2:00am-3:00am +03

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the cia has set in the wake of the iraq war and some other intelligence failures but they didn't get a chance to hear that from the cia director herself a lot of people here on capitol hill point the finger at the trumpet ministration and repeating what we've been hearing for weeks now is they want to know why it seems the trouble ministration is so eager to basically cover for the saudi crown prince i can tell you that's something that the democrats the house side when they take over control in january they say they're going to investigate because to a lot of democrats they say this just seems off. me for one moment cory booker's speaking can we have a listen to him unities believe that someone was involved in the death of jamal to show you their entire argument seems to rest on the effect that this resolution may have on negotiations that are happening between the duties and the saudi backed government a month from now the fact of the matter is that this resolution if it passes will help get those negotiations to the finish line so long as the united states is seen
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as an unconditional supporter of the saudis those negotiations will not succeed if the united states is seen by the these and by the saudis as a true honest broker in the negotiations the negotiations have a better chance of succeeding. was not a persuasive briefing i don't know where the votes are right now i think it's very fluid but i think it's it's it's more likely today it's more likely now than it was a few hours ago that will have the votes to survive a table in motion. to see their policies that was chris murphy senator chris murphy have got two screens in front of me here and cory booker was actually on one of the other ones speaking in the senate so a lot going on in the money let's actually just take a little pause for a moment because what we are looking at is a number of u.s. senators coming out of their meeting out of the hearing with the secretaries of state and defense they've been lining up to speak at those microphones for the
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waiting media there we've heard from the likes of senator bob menendez dick durbin and chris murphy they are all. strongly in their criticism of the u.s. reaction so far to the murder of jamal khashoggi and as patty calhoun was telling us a little bit earlier. very much. questioning the fact that the cia director gina haskell has not been part of these proceedings and i think it was dick durbin actually who said. pass but was not there they were told gina haskell was not there at the direction of the white house. is with us here in studio as we listen to all it's all coming about thick and fast and that's not the way think we need to just pause for a moment look at all is this criticism it is strong as patty and i were talking about. in the end how much comfort if i can use that word does mohamed bin salmon still take from the fact that he knows he's got donald trump civil he knows he's got the executive support in the united states even if all the senate has a piling up against him but let me just. two quick points one is the
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monitor used by the congressman was basically pursue a sieve and that one is important not to pursue it and also they used the impression of the secretaries so that is important actually the what what they were trying to focus on and what they were hearing from the two sick with it is actually is the impression of the two it's the there's nothing about facts as they are not convinced of everything they were. stopped from bernie sanders independent senators and the humanitarian crisis on earth. we have already seen eighty eighty five thousand children starve to death so the united nations tells us that millions of people. are facing starvation. ten thousand new cholera cases. every single week because there is no clean drinking water there
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in that country. and all of that was caused by the saudi led invasion of yemen. three years ago. led by a despotic dishonest dictatorship. and to my mind it is imperative today that the united states senate tell saudi arabia and tell the world that we are not going to be continually continuing to be part of that humanitarian disaster we are ending our participation in that horrific war and that we are going to do everything that we can to force the saudis and the who ts that the peace table and to provide the desperately needed humanitarian aid that yemen requires and it was there any credibility start to your mind if i. think you know it's not strictly worse not better the question it is who is the world's leading
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military power and the last i heard it was not a two bit saudi dictatorship it was the united states of america. we have got to make the decision as to what happens in the war in yemen and our role in that and that's what the vote today is about because i think you know i think we have. in my discussion with democrats we have far more support than we had last time i'm not quite sure how we're doing with republicans but i know mike lee is trying his best to make this a strong bipartisan effort thank you very much thank you. senator bernie sanders speaking there almost exclusively on the war in yemen because remember this hearing is not just about the murder of jamal khashoggi in the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia as a result it is about the u.s. involvement with saudi arabia in the war in yemen as well and its support for saudi arabia there after three well more than three years of war there must troops wary
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you and i both looked at each other they went bernie sanders he said let's quote it a despotic dishonest dictatorship no ambiguity that was strong strong words actually and this going this this shows you important fact that the division within the political elite stablish within the united states is deep actually when it comes to so the idea the ministration the white house is in a side and the congress and the other side far away there is no connectivity on how defined who's the friend and who's the enemy and i think if this kind of language continues to appear from the congressman that shows the station is facing a real problem with convincing those congressmen of the narrative about what's happened. in libya thanks bob corker from tennessee now speaking. i just tried to express as clearly as i could that we have a we have
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a problem here. we understand that saudi arabia is an ally. of sorts. and a semi important country. and we've watched innocent people be killed we've watched people die of diseases they should be designed and yet we've continued to not want to cut our nose off to spite our face by doing something that is against our national interest we also have a crown prince it's out of control a blockade and cutter the arrest of prime minister in lebanon. the killing of a journalist and whether there's a smoking gun. i don't think there's anybody in the room that doesn't believe he was responsible for it and just as secretary of pompei you know if somebody the state department kills somebody he's responsible for bad. m.b.'s is not taken ownership of the death whether he directed or drought a thank you did but whether he did or not it's is agency that killed this
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journalist and they've taken no ownership of. the late sanders bill. is amendable with fifty one votes so the first vote is only to get on and. then it can be amended. and what i've asked secretary of state pompei o. and secretary madness is. is there something that is appropriate that congress can do to send the right signal to saudi arabia a sense thus far the administration has been an unwilling to do it the response by the administration is not invalid and i think they know that the response about saudi arabia is not in balance and so the question is. will the administration try to seek that balance in the next hour or two or three. or will congress be left to a blunt object to to try. spawn itself and i would much rather see them do it and do it in the appropriate way that has not been done yet. but short of that i have
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laid in the railroad tracks to keep us from doing things that i believe are against our national interests as a relation of saudi arabia but i may now be willing to get on the lease sanders vehicle knowing it can be amended to figure out some why for us to send the appropriate message to saudi arabia that appropriately displays american values and american national interest so with that i know secretary pump fayose coming had a nice conversation with him this morning i respect him greatly as i do madness but i think. i think eighty percent of the people left the hearing this morning. not feeling like. an appropriate response has been forthcoming why if we think you're right the president's personal financial salaries here he's playing a role in his unwillingness to pin down i'm not aware of any financial interest and
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i'm not i'm not trying to in any way if arius reasoning for our lack of appropriate response but the fact is. there hasn't been an appropriate response yet and i would much rather see the administration respond appropriately then. normal legislative way that ends up not being perfect responding ourselves but i think that is what's going to happen and less they do you think again when presenting the truth. is very likely that that i will support getting on it let me say one more time that doesn't necessarily mean that i support the substance because you cannot because you can amend it with fifty one votes once you get on the lease sanders vehicle per our conversation for the parliamentarian you get not amend it with a different type of legislation that speaks to this and a little bit better manner but it will be the wild west if we get on it there was there are only one solution then and i don't know the proper goldilocks solution
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absolutely is the administration forcing saudi arabia to take ownership over what has happened with the journalist and. putting in place appropriate policies relative to what they're doing as a relation a sort of been in favor of us selling persuasion dad missiles i don't want to musing dumb bombs and killing additional civilians i've been supportive of that i don't want people killed unnecessarily but but at present there is a disconnect between u.s. policies. and values being communicated properly to the world not just to saudi arabia and as i mentioned. my friends who are respect could address that this afternoon the president could address it this afternoon or tomorrow and possibly legislation not be necessary else if i wasn't a cia director and here found out even talking to things. such as
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a pub there from tennessee again some strong language coming out there and maybe he is a republican as well in the as the head of the senate foreign relations committee i was just going to go to paddy culhane but i want to check who else we've got someone else speaking just at the moment let's welcome. that which allocates power between the three respective branches of government this is an issue that's needed republican or democratic it's neither liberal or conservative it is neither pro-war nor anti-war it's simply tells us in this particular instance that when it comes to the most important decision that we can make is lawmakers that is putting the lives of america's brave men and women in uniform on the line. the executive cannot act by himself now this is a. war of five partisan creation a democratic president has gotten us involved in a civil war in yemen we now have
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a republican president that war has continued it was started and it has continued without the involvement of the congress without the approval of the congress without a declaration of war torn up a recession for the use of military force by the congress that's not ok. when we were involved in fighting a war here as someone else's civil war half a world away. in a conflict that no one can explain that has any direct connection to the safety of the american homeland i think it's appropriate for the congress to have a warning that the war powers act provides us some procedures for asserting our power. where the president has gotten us involved in something or in this case has continued an effort started by a previous president that's what we're in focus with the sanders lee resolution and
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that's what we expect to vote on in some form or another today we received a briefing. just moments ago i didn't hear anything in that briefing that changed my mind with regard to our constitutional authority to decide whether or not we go to war. but changed my mind. with regard to whether or not this is an appropriate exercise in invoking the war powers act. quite to the contrary the fact that we heard only conclusory assertions to the contrary it makes me even more convinced that this is an appropriate exercise of power. now. with regard to mr. this is an instance in which. one man has died. and that's one man who has died compared to many many many more who have died in connection with this war. it's brought the eyes of the american
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people and turn them toward us and turn them also toward saudi arabia. it's also perhaps more importantly turn the eyes of the entire world not just on saudi arabia but on us and how we respond to this. in any event. regardless of what have may have happened with mr bush. we are fighting a war in yemen that we haven't declared but it's never been declared or authorized by congress that's not constitutional and it would be wrong for us to do nothing about it that's why i'm going to support this resolution that's why i have co-sponsored it with senator bernie sanders and it worked bernie sanders is a progressive independent who caucuses with the democrats i don't think i've ever been described with any of those words he and i disagree on many things but we agree on this and we agree on the fact that one of the things that differentiates our system of government from the system of government from which our founding fathers departed and broke off more than two centuries ago. was that our chief
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executive cannot enter into war unilaterally in federalist sixty nine teams madison explained this was an important distinction between the king and the presidency picking you see could get us england involved in a war without going to parley. that's not true in our system of government and it should never be you have to vote for this i don't know we came within six votes i believe. last time. i don't believe that we will lose many if any from those that we got a few months ago. i am certain that we will pick up some democrats and i'm certain there will also be some republican defections are you sure are given time for forcing our you on the. right there's been a lot of. others i'm sure but there shouldn't be first of all we've all sworn an oath to uphold protect and defend the constitution of the united states secondly if
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you're looking at this from the angle of just being a republican first of all that's wrong when you're facing a constitutional duty secondly even if you are looking at this solely as a partisan issue this is something you could call president obama's war he got us involved in that so i don't look at it that way i think it's a constitutional issue it's a separation of powers issue but if somebody wants to look at it purely from a republican angle that should be it. might be a first step but. i think number one the. passage of a few months allowed people to think about this a little bit more as allowed people to see the war progressing continuing to result in a lot of awful casualties including casualties of a lot of innocent civilians and children. and i think because shogi incident has also gotten a lot of people's attention and it's perhaps cause a lot of people to wonder. why we should so blindly so willingly enter into an
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alliance. with the kingdom of saudi arabia to fight. the king of saudi arabia is born in yemen. i wish it didn't have to come to that but that has gotten a lot of people's attention are you today. so. i think the important thing for the first procedural vote that might come up is to get on the floor. and . generally speaking. i prefer more debate to last and generally speaking i welcome the idea of amendment i'm aware of nothing that would preclude us from considering amendments once we brought this up and it's my belief that amendments could pass by a simple majority. like you said that i think you very much. senator mike lee is actually one of the co-sponsors of this whole process along with senator bernie
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sanders who we heard a little bit earlier if you're just joining us on al-jazeera this is continuing coverage of the aftermath i guess we would call it of a senate hearing today with regards to america's relationship with saudi arabia in light of the war in yemen and also in light of the murder of jamal khashoggi just keeping an eye we've got live cameras there as the senate has lined up there seems to be a little break so it's a good time to go to patty callahan who's on capitol hill it's just been relentless patty but the one thing we've heard from pretty much everyone has got up there that they're not convinced by what they've heard from the secretaries of defense and state. exactly and do tell me if you start to see the secretary of state come to the microphones and i'll give it back to you because that's what i'm going to be listening for it sounds like his mission here the he basically was a failure but then again anyone who's going to vote against this may not want to go to the cameras and announce that because that is an unpopular position among their colleagues so it really is going to come down to the actual vote even though it
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does seem as if everyone is pretty much in agreement the republicans the democrats are coming to the camera important to keep in mind they're the ones who've come to the camera we don't know about the ones who way so they don't have to come before the camera but i'm less interested in what senator lee had to say we didn't know where he stands he's been trying to get this passed for a while the more interesting thing to me was senator corker senator corker hugely influential in foreign politics in foreign policy he's retiring because he didn't think that he could. face a challenge from republican so he decided to quit congress still he is very influential and listen to what he said and it's a little procedural so stick with me he basically said we need to get it to the floor and once we get it to the floor we can amend it and he was sending a message to the white house then you have a couple of hours maybe as much of a day give us an idea of what would be acceptable to you we need to send a message what exactly should that message because what you've done here according
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to this senator what the white house has done it has not been enough but we are willing to give you one more try tell us what's acceptable whether it's sanctioning the crown prince whether it's we don't have all the weapons sales stopping weapon sales since president trump likes to exaggerate those figures and really pins most of his policy on the fact that saudi arabia's bought some weapons but tell us basically corker saying what we can do that's more than what you've done if not we're going to do it on our own and it's going to be a lot worse than you think it's going to be so we're going to this is going to be a critical twenty four hours we're going to see if the white house decides to basically change tack. because we heard from secretary mattis from secretary powell pale they released their statements they came in here basically daring the senate saying this is important foreign policy and basically the message from secretary powell pay was if you want israel to be secure heidi i'm going to trust to my point hey i'm going up to the microphones now. all the senators who want to hear from us we talked about u.s.
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policy. with respect to the kingdom of saudi arabia we also obviously. spoke about the highest murder of the balkan shogi and we made clear. that they're considering building a resolution on the senate floor which we think is just poorly timed. we are on the cusp of allowing the u.s. envoy martin gryphus to in december gather the parties together and hopefully get a ceasefire and even something that we have diplomatically been striving for for months and we think we're right on the cusp of the back and sort of the view of the administration secretary madison myself that passing a resolution this point undermines that it would encourage the good these sort of courage the iranians it would it would undermine the fragile agreement for everyone to go to sweden and have this discussion so we help the consider that be thoughtful in how they proceed more happy to give them further information if they should so
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choose the syrian government of secretary. why wasn't the current cia director of here briefing senators when. i was asked to be here. but since mr hughes were very frustrated normally in your home as you think that you would hear the senator's. wife even if he. was asked to be here and i'm sure she's very very certain what you want to break here is either you've seen all the intelligence or if you believe the crown prince of saudi arabia porter just really do believe i've read every piece of intel. for the last few hours i think i read it all there is a direct report connecting it to the merchant ship and that's all i can say. let's take you to if you were not accountable. i don't have anything to add. to the sequence of events in north korea but.
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i think it's. the first opportunity for them to get together. very far from coming here thinking that something. is well written well the. parties that will be there will be those who are engaged in the civil war. so they give the government. all those interested parties we hope that. they have been. providing assistance and support to the. to continue to fight well beyond what would have made any sense at all but we do have. this opportunity to. resolve the civil war and give everyone the opportunity to resolve a massive humanitarian crisis that's in yemen today they think that the difference . a few questions and a few more when he was asked directly why the current cia director gina haskell.
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remember he's the former cia director he simply said twice i was asked to be here and i am i was asked to be here and i am on capitol hill listening into all of that what do you make of it. well i think secretary powell is sending the message that so far it doesn't appear that the administration is going to change course doubling down. the senate hey if you do this the peace talks will be off the table we've already heard from senators. citizen factor that it's. we do this peace talks are much more likely to happen but again going back to the most important thing we've heard yet senator corker he has given basically reaching a hand out to the white house saying what you've done so far in saudi not enough what else can you do so that we don't have to get involved tell us what sanctions you think would be appropriate because if you don't do that then all of these senators are going to start to weigh in and they could be much harder on you then
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you want much harder on the crown prince than you want to see i'm not sure who's speaking right now i can't see it but i could hear it that somebody we need to take what i'm looking for now since we've heard from senator corker a republican it's now in the secretary of state my bedroom wall street journal he basically said anyone who is for this is the same exact people who were for the iran nuclear deal under obama that is now true some of the voices we've been hearing from are lindsey graham hugely conservative very close to the president he's actually called for regime change in saudi arabia marco rubio another very conservative voice who in the past has been fairly pro saudi arabia these are the senators that could make the difference i want to hear from them next to see exactly whether or not this briefing changed anything and again i think it's important remember everyone has come to the microphone and basically said no this is unacceptable work they do something those are people who want to announce that they're going to do something but what matters here are the people that avoided the
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cameras so the next twenty four hours are going to prove absolutely crucial critical in when it comes to the relationship between the united states and saudi arabia kind of like an election isn't it you got to watch the swing states in this case the swing senators patty let's pause for a moment with you going to bring in my guest here in the studio just to go through just been going through my notes which i've been furiously top in here now he's made a good point these are the voices who want to speak out they want to be heard they have a strong voices but still bernie sanders calls saudi arabia's regime despotic dishonest bob kolker says an ally. of sorts a semi important country to go back to what we were talking about earlier how much should this concern saudi arabia because as i said before mohammed and sam and saudi arabia know they have the executive support the presidential support in the us we are witnessing your serious conflict in washington now over so that it be it's a real conflict it is eighty it is very harsh and it is very tense between
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the congress and the president and the white house in general i think it's obvious that you know what has what to those congressmen have heard today was not convincing at all to them actually make them insist on their position on having a solution when it comes to yemen of course there are two things i mean it should be looked at one is the sort of the third of a nation of on bail there is no evidence that the prince has evolved on the killing of casualty and so then this should be i'm sure it's would be beneficial to saudi arabia to reduce the pressure on the crown a prince and this is old and the second one is actually you know the saudis will be more in a good position compared with the previous. weeks that you know they have here they
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are hearing a good voice from washington supporting them because they will take this to use it internally to incite so that it is saying look what you are hearing from different media outlets is not really. true what zeal this kind of voice is this is the secretary of state saying this this is the white house saying this is a myth is saying this so it is good for the to the mourners to the crown prince to present themselves they present themselves again to the public in saudi arabia and to their friends over the group because they have their own friends is there any pressure. hammad been summoned at the g twenty in argentina or does he just have to smile for the cameras and if it's only clearly. because you know the i think most of the leave to do is try to avoid him as much as they can because you know again the impact of media is very strong and they don't want to be close to home and any kind of discussion with him it will have a look at the visit he had to tunisia yesterday it was short you know the
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journalists no microphones it has its impact in a country like tunisia you are going to meet you know which one to lead the important it would have impact and you would see this impact on how the people there will get to have a face to face how the you know if you go to the media they will put a question is a tough a question journalist i mean let's see if he would have conference or other with other leaders it would be you know it's of time for leaders and firemen actually in . here without jazeera as we take in continuing coverage of the aftermath i guess of a senate hearing in the united states that has been going on in the morning hours of the united states in washington this live shot here is where senators have been lining up to speak to the media we are hoping maybe we would hear from secretary of defense james madison was also in that briefing there hasn't been anyone have their
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position for a good four or five minutes now so i would just keep an eye on that we did see of course secretary state mike pompei are there not long ago what we're talking about here is a hearing it's a hearing of all the senate is they had the secretaries of defense and state speaking to them about the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia on two main issues one being the murder of jamal khashoggi and was this saudi arabia involved and if so how should the united states respond and also the issue of the war in yemen and the u.s. involvement there both of these issues on the table a number of senators have come forward to the microphones and as patty callahan our correspondent was telling us a little bit earlier one of the most important of them was the prominent republican senator bob corker let's have a listen. we've watched innocent people be killed we've watched people die diseases they should be designed and yet we continue to not want to cut our nose off to spite our face by doing something that is against our national interest we also
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have a crown prince it's out of control block and cutter the iraqi prime minister in lebanon . the killing of a journalist and whether there's a smoking gun. i don't think there's anybody in the room that doesn't believe he was responsible for it and just as secretary of pompei you know if somebody the state department kills somebody he's responsible for that. m.b.'s is not taken ownership of the death whether he directed their drug thank you did but whether or not it's is agency that killed this journalist and they've taken no on or ship of that so that's bob corker senator bob corker talking mostly about the murder of jamal khashoggi he also called saudi arabia quote an ally of sorts a semi important country and on a more housekeeping no he did say remember he is a republican senator he did say he might be willing to get on board this vehicle now that is the. bill that has been co-sponsored by senate has lee and senate he may be willing to get onboard and then try to amend it basically saying to the
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white house you haven't done enough yet come back to us with something else let's see what we can do as i say the bill co-sponsored by senator bernie sanders the independent senator he spoke almost exclusively about the situation in yemen the u.s. involvement with the war there he actually called for all ties to be broken with saudi arabia if that all of that was caused by the saudi led invasion of yemen. three years ago. led by a despotic dishonest dictatorship. and to my mind it is imperative today. that the united states senate tell saudi arabia and tell the world that we are not going to be continually continuing to be part of that humanitarian disaster we are ending our participation in that horrific war and that we are going to do everything that we can. the saudis and the who.
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put the peace table and the desperately needed humanitarian aid. requires. checking in with him again now a correspondent on capitol hill listening to all of that i hope i sort of explained what was getting out there before how do you can probably explain it a lot better but. as they let's start with him at the end of his address he said we have far more support than we had last time he would say that he's a co-sponsor of the bill in fact it's going to come down to just a few very key senate is far as the numbers go. you did just perfectly kemal it is pretty hard to explain when you start getting into you know robert's rules and all that sort of nonsense but basically what the senators are saying is they're going to vote on this they think that they have the support to get this basically on the floor and then any senator they can get fifty one votes so that there's one hundred members of the senate they get fifty one votes
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then they can add in the moment so they are looking at a broad range of possible options there obviously seems to be some consensus that something needs to be done and senator sanders did as he mentioned he tried this before and i think they were about six votes short so there is growing momentum on the side of senators lee and senator sanders we've heard people who were against it before basically come out and say no cross the line we're going to do something so what are their options a couple of things they could decide that they want to personally sanction the crown prince mohammed bin solomon you heard pretty much everyone who came to the camera say that they think it is totally unbelievable that he didn't order the killing and even though the secretary of state said he's seen all the evidence he sees no smoking gun it has been reported that the cia actually in the n.s.a. intercepted a phone call he when the crown prince basically ordered the silencing of jamal khashoggi so i mean it might not be a smoking gun but it's obviously somewhat newsworthy but you know the term administration again from the beginning has really tried. to protect the crown
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prince trying to convince the senators and members of congress to keep the relationship is just simply too important that they really can't intervene and what we're seeing today from these senators at least the ones who've come to the microphone is no that's not a good enough reason after all jamal khashoggi was a journalist for the washington post he had a green card he lived in the united states and the murder was just so brazen in the way it was carried out the way the stories keep changing that has only served to increase momentum on the sides of those who want to see some punishment so again let's look at the options they could say in the crown prince they could do a sense of the senate and basically lay it at his feet say we believe he ordered the murder of a journalist they could block all arms the president would be very much against that he likes to inflate the numbers of jobs and the amount of purchases the saudi arabia makes from u.s. companies he likes to say it's millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars it isn't it's more like fifteen billion and a couple tens of thousands of jobs so the president though he's made
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a focus of saying these things matter to him they could do so they could block arms sales or they could do what this resolution initially says which is hey we didn't declare war in yemen and that's our constitutional role so u.s. military stop it now the administration's argument is that's just going to cause more deaths because the will become more reckless that it could interfere with the peace talks but we solve secretary mabus secretary pompei a walk into that room briefed the senators and so far everyone has come to the cameras basically saying yeah that didn't do it for me if anything i'm more convinced that i need to vote for this resolution so the next couple hours are going to be critical we'll see what it was suddenly said something's going to voted on today so we're going to be keeping our eye on the senate floor to see when it comes up and what exactly you talked about mike. addressing reporters there let's let's discuss some of the live but his attitude was we think this is poorly timed because the u.n. might have a breakthrough soon with the talks in sweden to win the war in yemen so this would only undermine that. and then he talked about. current cia director he's the former
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director what do you take us through that because that was an interesting little exchange. well i think about the bottom line accusation from a lot of members of the senate is that the trumpet ministration is trying to cover for the crown prince of saudi arabia so who would have the best information about exactly what the u.s. intelligence agencies know about the killing of jamal khashoggi let's not forget there is a vast about good intelligence that the u.s. does intelligence gathering the person who would know that you know housefull she went to turkey she listened to the audio tape she would know about any intercepted phone calls between the crown prince and anyone else in the world and she wasn't here and that really made senators that now dick durbin came out and said that they asked mike pale and secretary mabus why she wasn't here and he said they were told the white house said she couldn't come so when my come pay it was kind of an awkward trying to get out of answering that question he was asked why isn't she here he didn't repeat the claim that senator durbin says he made he just said hey i
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was asked i'm here acting as if he had no idea why haskell wasn't here so that i think has backfired in some way this administration because it just leaves open this vacuum and it's being filled with senators repeatedly coming out and saying you know even if we don't have the intelligence we believe the crown prince was involved. helen is our correspondent capitol hill as we sift through all these reactions coming from u.s. senators as they come out of that hearing today the microphone stand empty at the moment and a lot of reporters have create a way as well so i'm really not sure if we will hear from anyone else here but as you said it's going to be ongoing today they could possibly a bit of a vote later on today certainly some of the senate is hinting at that but also as patty said most of the all of the senators have come to the microphone of wants to be heard they want to they opposition to the u.s. position on saudi arabia to be heard but there's one hundred senators out there mushroom sorry and this is the thing that there is
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a much bigger picture in play here it all sounds very tough all the stuff and let's not mistake it's important. statements and comments are being made but one hundred senators and they've got to get over half of those on board but what we hear it to percent eighty percent of those members were not convinced of being told by the two supporters and that's an important point of course that doesn't mean those would be vote for the resolution but it seems there was there was a serious debate within the congress about what's happening i think that you know they they feel they're doing and their mind the role of congress we have been undermined when it comes to the war in yemen of course that a member the world has started without the authorization of the congress when the one block a bomber was in power and now they are actually reminding president that you know you cannot undermine us anymore especially under like what's happened to her over the i think that was some of the statement that congress wants to be on board on that water otherwise they would have it on actions and i think the message was
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a clear the you know they are giving the opportunity to the white house to have some to do something as. slight tension here but seeing as we are looking at pictures of her day there in yemen at the moment the point that secretary pompei o . made i'm just going back through my notes he says this is all poorly timed because the u.n. envoy martin griffiths is hopefully about to get a ceasefire they're going to have these talks coming up in sweden is a mysterious place putting a lot of hope into a process there which has not yielded anything is standing by here it's and clear once where the nation will take yemen. there are many question what is the role of who thieves who thinks has not been broken denies as even as a political party within yemen there is you know those who has been defined under state actors not of the super power has been identify them as an important to play
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or they are controlling government after the i would say the invasion of santa in two thousand and fifteen is a base fourteen so there is a lot of a question mark about the role of all of these the second one what is the role of so that a moment comes to the legitimate government which is basically based of the art and the question here is if if so does wanted a strong government to be based in yemen why they didn't release the government the president from earlier and sent them to either to control the country and to have a strong military there are a question mark about whether the rule you know iran been abroad by bombay or will be upset of this for iran of course in the context of rivalry with so there is a competition with saudi arabia will try to benefit because you know whatever so the idea is been abroad iran also in abroad and the same picture and saying you know because of we we want so the idea because it's actually helping us against iran and i think iranians would act ok we will not support you and them and we were
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not we were not try to push through it is to go to the negotiation and i think iranians in this they are they kind of play this card against the americans again the saudis they can play it in in yemen and trying to push these not to be engaged and as long as all these are not engaged in any. it will not succeed basically and we have many experience before proved to be right let's have a listen then to what might be saying we're discussing that the attitude towards the war in yemen might believes that the u.n. envoy martin griffiths could be on the verge of a breakthrough and as such he's trying to convince senators that now might not be a good time to distrust disrupt i'm sorry the u.s. relations we are on the cusp of the u.s. envoy martin gryphus to in december gather the parties together hopefully get a cease fire or something that we have diplomatically been striving for for months and we think we're right on the cusp of that that's what is the view of the
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administration secretary madison myself that passing a resolution this point undermines that it would encourage the good these would encourage the iranians it would it would undermine the fragile agreement for everyone to go to sweden and have this discussion we're coming up to the top of the hour here on al-jazeera we'll have the news for you from here in doha in a moment but just to recap on what we have been saying so that was well this is the live shot that we're saying at the microphones at the u.s. senate waiting to possibly hear from some more senators or the secretary of defense i think that's looking less likely as time goes by reporters preparing for their live shots there on the left of your screen but they've been coming to talk about the issue of u.s. relations with saudi arabia we heard from this man a little bit earlier he is the republican senator bob corker. importantly the head of the. foreign relations committee in the senate. and he seemed to be speaking
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about the idea of getting on board with the idea of this bill which has been brought about u.s. saudi relations but wanting to see some changes wanting to go to the white house and give the white house another chance to put in some more tougher sanctions on saudi arabia find that as they call it the goldilocks decision the not too hot not too cold just right as far as maintaining the relationship with saudi arabia but also sanctioning them over. and over yemen there was a lot of talk about who wasn't there and that. she is the cia director who is not in front of this committee today when michael came to the microphones a little bit earlier was a hassle wasn't there he simply said i was asked to be here and i am and he said that again i was asked to be here and i am gina housefull not there the woman who we are told has heard a recording related directly to the murder of jamal khashoggi which might seem to
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say does not exist there is no direct recording connecting the crown prince to the murder of. some of the main players that who are there and who they are we're going to be hearing more from them in the next hour we hope as time goes on may be that would be actually a vote in the senate today but as we pointed out before one hundred senators involved we've only heard from the ones who want to have. at this point continuing coverage here on al-jazeera the news hour in just a few moments time come on santa maria. for eighty five years we have had many proud moments around the world and in the sky and now starting from october twenty ninth church ish airlines will be taking
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off from the new aviation center of the world for a new journey. xenophobic violent and beating the drum for an ethnic civil war in the heart of europe. infiltrates one of the continent's fosters growing far right organizations. and exposes links to members of the european parliament supported by my reenlist national rugby park. generation hate. the special tupac investigation coming soon on the. weather online for you looking at wildlife and how the solutions come together to benefit all parties and that's where we're going to have long term success or if you join a sunset if you could take me around the content what would you tell me you don't have to set up your experiment for your experiment in the universe this is
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a dialogue everyone has a voice you actually raise several interesting point there that several of our community members are going to join the global conversation on al-jazeera they said what do you think of waterboarding i said i think we absolutely need it we should have it and if we can we should have people in power investigates the private companies in the us towns and logically complicit in the illegal use of torture under interrogation the sun will rise once a day and sets not if you're in the hands and. you can make the sun shine or not rendition visited. on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera.
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summary of this is the news from al-jazeera. the spot of. honest dictatorship. the us. it has condemned the white house and saudi arabia to getting a briefing from administration officials on both the war in yemen and the murder of jamal khashoggi. facing more pressure. to saudi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin solomon has arrived in argentina for the g. twenty summit and in other news ukraine warning of an all out war as russia threatens to send more anti-aircraft missiles to crimea. and i'm. bored including current champion i can call on the brink of retaining his world chaffed championship title. coming up later.
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so as you've been saying members of the trumpet ministration a finished briefing sentences on the situation in yemen relations with saudi arabia and the motor of journalist jamal khashoggi and they have warned that cutting ties with riyadh is a mistake however as we've been hearing over the past forty to forty five minutes some of the senators who were briefed did not seem convinced have a listen we've watched innocent people be killed we've watched people by diseases they should be designed and yet we've continued to not want to cut our nose off a spider doing something that is against our national interest we also have a crown prince it's out of control block and cutter the iraqi prime minister in lebanon. the killing of a journalist and whether there's a smoking gun. i don't think there's anybody in the room that doesn't believe he was responsible for it and just as sector you know if somebody the state department
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kills somebody he's responsible for that. m.b.'s is not taken ownership of the death whether he directed or drive thank you did but whether or not it's is agent. see that killed us journalists and they've taken now on our ship of. it's time to send saudi arabia a message both on its violation of human rights and the incredible humanitarian catastrophe is creating and yet i think it really became easier to do things in here because gina haskell if all of the accounts are true would have said with a high degree of confidence that in fact the crown prince of saudi arabia was involved in the murder and i was a united states permanent resident and a journalist and it is outrageous that we are willing to turn our i await from such a murder. because we have a quote unquote interest patty elena's with us on the news hour from capitol hill
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listening along to well sit at a many many times before patty it's just been coming thick and fast today but as you pointed out those senators who wanted to be heard who have spoken strongly it's perhaps not them who we need to be watching the closest. and i've seen this in the past the mistakes that people are just starting to cover the hill have maybe seen the ones who came before the cameras said out well it's a done deal they have to support their hundred members of the u.s. senate we've heard from a handful of them now they're predicting the sponsors that they might have the votes but nobody's come out and said we have the votes the most interesting thing i've heard is senator corker he is a big wig when it comes to foreign policy he's also retiring he basically came out and said the consensus is that the trump administration didn't do enough let's think about what the term for minister shinzo actually done they were wrote visas and they've sanctioned seventeen people who we believe are currently sitting in the saudi prison probably not all that worried about u.s.
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sanctions so say they're corker saying he's for passing something today this would basically say to the congress to the white house we didn't agree to a war in yemen therefore constitutionally you cannot do this so the u.s. military has to stop but will corker say it is that's not the end of it because once it's on the floor once it's passed than with fifty one votes any senator can add on an amendment and so they can change it so what he's saying to the white house is go ahead tell us what would be acceptable and if not we're going to come out and have our own sanctions and basically you're not going to like it one thing that was clear the senators the secretaries of defense and state were sent here to try and blunt the momentum from the ones who came to camera it doesn't appear that that worked the one thing that seems to really backfired is the trumpet administration according to senators told the cia director gina haskell that she could not come and testify as you just heard him say they believe that she would have testified that they have high confidence that the crown prince of saudi arabia
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muhammad and solomon directed the killing jamal khashoggi asked about that though the secretary of state who don't forget used to be the cia director not all that long ago he basically denied it kind of let's listen. to believe i've read every tell. you i think i read it all. morning and i. thought. a few questions did anybody but dodged a lot more as well so what can happen now they have laid out their argument as it is now senators have listened to the convinced or not convinced procedurally what happens. what happens is we think in this is what the senators are saying is that there's going to be a vote today and that's could be critical it doesn't mean if they vote on this that it's actually going to become a passed resolution that's when the process begins and the senators can add on them
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and so we'll see if the truck the administration wants to come forward with additional suggestions obviously they came into this hearing with the attitude of we're going to be aggressive about this we're going to say basically butt out we know we're doing that didn't work it with at least most of the senators we heard from but again we're going to have a much better idea once they actually bring this to the floor now there's no vote scheduled we were asked in the senate gallery basically what's going on they said basically keep your eye on the senate floor and then you'll know when he is going to interrupt you i'm sorry senator lindsey graham speaking now. well that's it's one so if that briefing is not given soon it is going to be hard for me to vote for any spending bill that report to the committee and director with anything coming into the world then they're going to have a hard time getting me to vote. for us to move forward. i'm not quite frankly i'm not going to be denied the ability to be briefed by the
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cia that we have oversight of lie about whether or not their assessment supports my belief that this could not have happened without m.b.'s knowing. and if the briefing reinforces the conclusion that our ready at tentatively formed then there will be no more business as usual saudi arabia. thing to do you talk about the spending bill big too big what i was talking about any key vote anything that you need me for to get out of town. and i do it until we hear from the cia i do think that the president just did it in the period because there is nothing. like lindsey graham a republican senate supporter president don't trump but absolutely outspoken on the issue of jamal khashoggi in relations with saudi arabia back to patty on capitol hill just to wrap up what we heard. from the i guess the most important thing
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saying he. if i can read my writing yes he's not going to be denied the right to be briefed by the cia the absence of gina house was huge today. this is a huge development so let me walk you through this let's think about who this is this is senator lindsey graham who's an outspoken critic of president donald trump but has since become one of his closest advisers he is often his first offender when the president does something that goes against conventional norms this is lindsey graham saying to the president nice try and here's his leverage he's basically just said basically a couple of weeks they have to pass spending bills of the government partially shut down he is basically putting that on the table he's saying to the president you know get my vote to pass these spending bills until i see gee they have here briefing members of the senate now he did it he can't block it to flatly on his own but he is sending a message to the trump administration this to doc go over well you cannot hide the
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cia director we have leverage so what have you looking for in the coming hours are other senators willing to take that step i mean this is pretty much the most dramatic step he could take and it could force the administration's hand so really a very significant development there from senator lindsey graham who usually has the president's back on everything but he has been really outspoken on this he has said it is time for the crown prince to go that he is toxic that he is out of control and basically has called for regime change in saudi arabia and now he is taking on the trumpet ministration directly over what is a priority for them basically not shutting down the government but i will see if other senators follow suit but this is what i pressed a pretty important day here capitol hill this is what i wanted to clear up just quickly with you patty to make sure i'm understanding you probably when he said spending bill this is the type of thing which if not can lead to paralysis in washington. so just paralysis the government basically partially shuts down so
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not essential employees they can't come to work they usually get paid in retrospect but they're not guaranteed that so we've seen government shutdowns before usually not when the republicans control the house the senate and the presidency so that would be really significant but it is always politically hugely unpopular when that happens it tends to have consequences no politician really wants to say yeah i shut down the government especially because i would want the cia director testify again lindsey graham is just one vote but he has basically if you want to call it that he's using the nuclear option to try and force the trump of the assertions hand so if other senators follow through that is huge but the fact that he said in the message that he will not be deterred again a pretty big development makes it much more likely that the white house will not be able to get away from heidi the cia director from the senate patty i'm glad i've got you holding my hand through all of this explaining how the senate works and how all these might play out in the next few hours thank you for all of that. so let's
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get some analysis on the street a policy joining us president of the national iranian american council he's on skype from reston virginia your overall opinion of what you've heard from the senators bearing in mind as patty said these are the ones who want to have their voice heard the outspoken ones but what they have had to say has been pretty strong it's been extremely strong and it's coming from both sides of the aisle and i think it shows. us saudi relations are not going to be business as usual any longer this is a transformative moment where the n.b.a. is or who goes and this point you just can't continue with the matter it is before . the states are going to see the democrats in the senate in the house really rally around the idea that there. was it's going to be the u.s. saudi relationship. we need it in.

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