According to notes taken by Turkish Embassy officials who sat in on a
private trial of the suspects, the plane (above) stopped by Egypt to
pick up a dose of narcotics that later killed Khashoggi [photo credit:
Turkish police CCTV]
Isikoff’s source was notes taken by Turkish diplomats who were among
the few observers allowed into the closed Khashoggi murder trial held in
Riyadh in 2019. Although the “trial” was a sham
designed to placate the international community while enabling key
Saudi suspects to escape justice, the Turkish notes brought to light by
Isikoff included new information about the crime. Among the most
important was Saudi prosecutors’ disclosure of the Saudi plane’s landing
in Cairo to obtain the illegal narcotics used to kill the journalist.
The “Plane Finder” flight tracker app, Isikoff reported, corroborated
that the Gulfstream jet carrying the Saudi murder team had made a 3:30
am stopover in Cairo on October 2.
As the Middle East expert and human rights lawyer Sarah Leah Whitson told
Isikoff, “It’s impossible that a Saudi government plane would have
landed in Egypt without the knowledge and permission of the Egyptian
authorities. And it is impossible that anybody other than Egyptian
government officials would have coordinated with the Saudi government on
the delivery of drugs that we now know were used in the murder of Jamal
Khashoggi.”
Isikoff’s article also quoted a former top U.S. counterterrorism
official saying that the “most likely” explanation for the Cairo
stopover is that Egyptian intelligence, headed by Abbas Kamel and with
whom the Saudis have had a close working relationship, provided the
drugs used to assassinate Khashoggi.
So that is Sen. Menendez’s possible, albeit very attenuated, link to
the matter of Egypt’s potential role in the Khashoggi murder. But what
is it that he may have done illegally in this regard?
Here, there is much speculation but so far no clear evidence, at
least any yet available in the public realm. The indictment implies that
Sen. Menendez did a corrupt favour for Cairo by alerting Egyptian
officials, via Nadine, that fellow senators were planning to question
Abbas Kamel about the Cairo stopover. And it implies that the two gold
bars purchased by Wael Hana later found in the Menendezes’ home were
payment for this information.
But it does not state this directly, and there is much that we still
don’t know. For example, what did Sen. Menendez and Egyptian Official-5
discuss during their June and October 2021 meetings, and how did this
corruptly benefit Egypt? The indictment doesn’t say.
It is not inconceivable that Menendez, who has publicly condemned the Saudi government’s killing of Khashoggi and criticised
Egypt’s human rights record, raised his own concerns about the Cairo
stopover with Kamel. In fact, the indictment quotes Egyptian Official-4
texting Nadine Menendez on 21 June, 2021 that the senator “raised it
today,” although we don’t know what “it” is.
We also don’t know if the Egyptian government—which employs a
high-powered lobbying team in Washington and has many other connections
in Congress—had already learned through other channels that senators
planned to ask Abbas Kamel about Egypt’s role in the Khashoggi episode.
If so, the information in the article from Sen. Menendez that Nadine
shared with Egyptian Official-4 would not have been that valuable to
Egypt.
Nor do we know how and when the Menendezes obtained the gold bars
bought by Wael Hana and what, if any, connection they have to Sen.
Menendez’s alleged actions benefiting Egypt.
It is also worth mentioning that it would not be remarkable for a
senator—especially the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee—to meet
with Egypt’s intelligence chief. Washington and Cairo have had close
intelligence and military ties for decades, and top officials from the
two governments interact regularly in both capitals. That a prominent
senator saw Abbas Kamel twice privately in the space of a few months is
not in itself unusual in the context of U.S.-Egyptian relations.
By contrast, what does appear extremely unusual is a
senator’s wife setting up meetings for him with Egyptian officials,
communicating regularly with such officials about matters under her
husband’s purview, and serving as a conduit for him to share information
with a foreign government—all while maintaining a close association
with someone tied to that government who did significant financial
favours for her. (The indictment alleges several such actions involving
Nadine beyond those related to the Khashoggi file.)
And, to state the obvious, it is extremely unusual for a
senator to possess gold bars purchased by someone reportedly linked to a
foreign government that has billions of dollars of American military
aid and sales and other business over which that same senator has
significant influence.
Indeed, the indictment includes eyebrow-raising descriptions of many
corrupt favours for Egypt allegedly performed by Robert and Nadine
Menendez in exchange for money and gifts and of the role played by Wael
Hana. (All three have pleaded not guilty.)
In summary, the allegations about Sen. Menendez and Egypt are
disturbing, but incomplete. Presumably, U.S. prosecutors have evidence
that they did not include in the indictment. When the case goes to trial
next May, more information will come out. And Sen. Menendez has many,
many questions to answer.
But right now, as Washington digests the sordid Menendez news, it
should not lose sight of the possible Egyptian role in Khashoggi’s
murder that this indictment has resurfaced. Regardless of how the
corruption scandal unfolds, members of Congress, along with the Biden
administration and the media, must press Egypt on the reports that the
drugs used to kill Jamal Khashoggi were delivered to his Saudi killers
in Cairo. Uncovering the full truth of his assassination, no matter how
deeply uncomfortable for Washington and its Saudi and Egyptian allies,
is the least that can be done to honour his memory and make sure that
such a heinous crime is never repeated.