Bob Graham on Jamal Khashoggi and U.S.-Saudi Relations

BOB GRAHAM: Christiane, I won’t suggest what the forms of the sanctions to be. They’re a wide range of those. But what we should not do is what we’ve done for the last couple of decades relative to 9/11, and that is, we should not ignore and play an assertive role in covering up for the role of the Saudis or any other nation state which might be involved. You question my use of the word murder. I certainly don’t have any facts in that matter. But responsible journalist from the United States and elsewhere have used that word. And given the — what we do know, almost two weeks of disappearance with no taint of where this man might be, it appears that something serious has happened and someone — some — or some nation state should be held accountable.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Now, Senator Graham, you keep mentioning 9/11 because, of course, you were heavily involved in the aftermath of that and trying to get to the absolute bottom of it and hold those responsible, accountable. As we remember, 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi. But to this day, there’s not been, as far as I know, any evidence that the Saudi state, the Saudi kingdom, actually sponsored it. I want to ask you why you believe or what do you believe about that?

GRAHAM: Christiane, I would modify what you just said to say that the people of the United States and of the world have not been given the information which exist, which shows the very strong linkage between Saudi Arabia and the incidents of 9/11. I personally, what I know, would say with no hesitation that 9/11 would not have occurred without the complicity of Saudi Arabia. And it may well be that without that complicity, the murder of the journalist would not have occurred.

AMANPOUR: Why do you say that? Based on what? Since you — you’re very, very, you know, strongly, you know, sticking to that and you did look at all or whatever evidence was available during the 9/11 commission hearings.

GRAHAM: Well, the answer is, I cannot go into the fullness of what I know because that would be a violation of our intelligence standards. But I will say that there is ample evidence which the government of the United States has in its possession and which it should make available to the public.