Pompeo to the rescue

Mike Pompeo is doing what secretaries of state have to do which is to save the president from embarrassment, confusion, disaster and potential breakdowns in key relationships with close allies, all of which are acutely relevant in the case of the disappearance and probable murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Trump had a phone chat with King Salman who denied all knowledge of any nefarious activities by any of his people (henchmen) and was as keen as the US president to discover what had happened. Far be it for me to cast any doubt on the Saudi king's denial. He, after all, has as good as handed over control of the kingdom to his chosen heir apparent, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and may not be in touch with day-to-day decisions and orders by the rest of the government. But there are a lot of denials these days and it's difficult to guage whether a denial is a genuine heartfelt denial, a convenient denial, a denial with fingers crossed, a half-truth or a downright fib. Vladimir Putin has denied intervening in the US presidential election and denied any Russian military intelligence involvement in the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal and his daughter etc etc. Well we know what to think of those denials. Trump denies everything all the time or just says allegations against him, whatever they are, are fake news. Bashar Assad has denied ever using chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war. I could go on but this is the era when denials come before anything else. Even when the evidence is shoved in the face, out come the denials. So whether King Salman knows anything about the disappearance of Khashoggi or not, the fact is he has denied Saudi involvement in the suspected killing, even though Turkish police have revealed the arrival of 15 Saudis at Istanbul the day before the vanishing, drove to the Saudi consulate where Khashoggi was visiting to get some documents signed to confirm his divorce, and returned to Saudi Arabia the day after the disappearance. And Khashoggi has not been seen since. Thus Mike Pompeo enters the stage. Trump doesn't know what to do. He wants to show respect to King Salman, he can't accuse him of lying. So he calls for Pompeo to whizz over to Riyadh to see the king and get things straightened out. Meanwhile as Pompeo packs his bag, Trump is going around saying the murder could have been carried out by rogue agents. This is always an easy one. So if official Saudi government assassins can't be fingered they must be rogue agents instead, murdering without the knowledge or approval of their government. Pompeo somehow has to come back from Riyadh with a slightly better explanation than that. I'm assuming he will also have a session with the Crown Prince!!