Respond to Khashoggi’s Murder by Punishing Both the Saudi and Turkish Islamists

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Turkey’s president disclosed this weekend what was presumably, until recently, a closely held state secret: Thanks to Turkish eavesdropping inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Recep Erdogan has shared with our government and others evidence of what he claims was the liquidation there of a Saudi Islamist, Jamal Khashoggi.

Erdogan’s timing strongly suggests he wants this week’s “lame-duck” congressional session to advance Turkey’s interests by punishing its longtime rival for leadership of Sunni Islam: the House of Saud.

America’s strategic interests would not be served, however, by such a one-sided response.  If anything, our equities are far more closely aligned at the moment with the Saudis, than with Turkey under Erdogan.

We should instead punish both by imposing appropriate sanctions on those responsible for Khashoggi’s murder and by designating Erdogan’s jihadist proxy, the Muslim Brotherhood, as the terrorist organization it is.

This is Frank Gaffney.