7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018
Pence: CIA reviewing Khashoggi’s death in Turkey
By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Vice
President Mike Pence said
today that the death of Saudi
writer Jamal Khashoggi “will
not go without an American
response” and that the CIA
director was in Turkey to
review evidence in the case.
Pence declined to dis-
cuss what punitive action the
U.S. might take in response
to the death of the Washing-
ton Post columnist and critic
of the Saudi kingdom, who
died Oct. 2 at the Saudi Con-
sulate in Istanbul. Saudi Ara-
bia has said he was killed in a
fistfight at the consulate.
Turkish President Tayyip
Erdogan’s claim earlier today,
Pence said, that “this brutal
murder was premediated —
pre-planned days in advance
— flies in the face of ear-
lier assertions that have been
made by the Saudi regime.”
Asked if the U.S. would
sanction members of Saudi
Arabia’s royal family if they
were found to have been
complicit, Pence said that’s
a decision for President Don-
ald Trump. He says the pres-
ident will make a decision
that reflects the values and
national security interests
of the nation and will also
“make sure the world knows
the truth.”
Pence said whatever
U.S. response the president
decides to make will keep in
mind the importance of U.S.
relations with Saudi Arabia
— an alliance that he noted
has been in existence since
shortly after World War II.
He declined to say whether
he had seen any intelligence
that linked the Saudi crown
prince to the killing.
“I know that when the
CIA director returns, she
AP Photo/Hasan Jamali
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi speaks during a 2015 news conference in Manama, Bahrain.
will be briefing the president,
myself and our entire team on
what the Turks have assem-
bled,” Pence said about CIA
Director Gina Haspel’s trip to
Turkey.
Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin, who pulled out of
attending an investment con-
ference in Riyadh, met with
Saudi Prince Mohammed bin
Salman separately before the
forum, according to Saudi
state television.
Trump spoke Sunday with
the crown prince, who is the
son of Saudi King Salman.
“He says he is not involved
nor is the king,” Trump told
USA Today in an interview
aboard Air Force One Mon-
day en route to a political
rally in Texas. The news-
paper said Trump declined
to say whether he believed
the crown prince’s deni-
als. If their involvement was
proven, Trump said: “I would
be very upset about it. We’ll
have to see.”
Members of Congress
and former government offi-
cials have accused Riyadh of
trying to cover up the truth
behind Khashoggi’s death or
hide any evidence that the
kingdom, particularly the
crown prince, authorized it.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.,
who has been trying to coax
Trump into ending arms sales
to Saudi Arabia, said Mon-
day that it’s “laughable” to
believe the crown prince was
not involved in Khashoggi’s
death.
Trump said any U.S.
response should not involve
scrapping billions of dollars
in arms sales, which would
hurt U.S. defense industries
and eliminate U.S. jobs. “I
don’t want to lose all of that
investment that’s being made
in our country,” he said.
Whatever
the
U.S.
response, U.S. ties with its
Gulf ally have hit rough
waters. The Khashoggi affair
also has threatened to upend
the relationship of Trump’s
son-in-law Jared Kushner
with the crown prince.
The two men — both in
their 30s, both trusted aides
of older, familial leaders —
struck a bond last spring and
consulted with one another
frequently in private calls
in the months that followed.
The crown prince, who is
known in diplomatic cir-
cles as “MBS,” has drawn
some praise in the West for
his moves to modernize the
kingdom and criticism for his
government’s arrests of rivals
and critics.
Trump now plays down
the relationship, saying the
crown prince and Kushner
are “just two young guys.”
But their back-channel rela-
tionship unnerved many in
the Trump administration
and Washington foreign pol-
icy establishment who feared
that the White House was
betting too big on the crown
prince.
Kushner on Monday
fended off criticism that the
Trump administration was
giving Saudi Arabia cover.
He said administration offi-
cials have their “eyes wide
open.”
“We’re getting facts in
from multiple places and
once those facts come in, the
secretary of state will work
with our national security
team to help us determine
what we want to believe,
what we think is credible and
what we think is not credi-
ble,” Kushner told CNN.
Even Trump, however,
acknowledges that Kushner’s
work on trying to craft peace
between Israel and the Pales-
tinians has been set back by
Khashoggi’s death. “There
are a lot of setbacks. This is
a setback for that,” Trump
told The Washington Post in
a weekend phone interview.
Bruce Riedel, a former
Middle East specialist for
the CIA and National Secu-
rity Council, said the Trump
administration “desperately
wants the Istanbul affair to go
away and the MBS-Jared bro-
mance obscured.”
An administration offi-
cial who regularly deals with
Kushner pushed back against
claims that Kushner and the
crown prince are joined at
the hip. The official was not
authorized to discuss the rela-
tionship and spoke only on
condition of anonymity.
The official said Kush-
ner — like other members of
the administration, including
Trump — believes Saudi Ara-
bia should suffer some sort of
consequence, but said Kush-
ner also believes the U.S.-
Saudi relationship “shouldn’t
be blown up” because of the
Khashoggi matter.
AWARD-WINNING LOCAL JOURNALISM
WHEN AND WHERE YOU WANT IT
Subscribe today at DailyAstorian.com/subscribe
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
The area near the back of the space will be transformed into a new stage.
Theater: ‘We all want to work together’
Continued from Page 1A
Origins
Brown started the first
Pier Pressure Productions in
Astoria in 2010. The theater
was open for just a year and
had only two dark weekends
— times when nothing was
going on. Brown, now joined
by musician, actor and gen-
eral contractor Daric Moore,
wants to bring a similar bustle
to the new location, opening
the space for more than plays,
though drama will be the pri-
mary offering. They believe
the new theater will comple-
ment other venues.
“We all want to work
together in town,” Moore said.
“None of the theaters offer the
same stuff.”
They have a lot of work in
front of them.
Moore estimates the first
phase of construction to turn
the empty space — previ-
ously home to an antique store
— into a simple theater will
cost around $60,000. The sec-
ond phase, lighting, could cost
around $40,000. Moore, with
his construction background,
is leading the build-out work,
and many volunteers have
stepped up, too. Brown and
Moore plan to offer perfor-
mances throughout the differ-
ent phases.
“It’s interesting,” Brown
said. “Astoria is a blue-collar
town, but its face has changed
so much because the fish-
ing industry and the logging
industry are pretty skinny
now. So it’s became, and
probably always has been,
what I say is an ‘artist town.’
We have so many kinds of
artists.”
People who are drawn to
theater as well as those who
may have never considered
it need somewhere to try it
out, but Brown has seen a gap
emerge in theater education
through loss of funding and
community support. She and
Moore say live theater is cru-
cial for a community.
During his time working
on shows, Del Corbett, a for-
mer theater department direc-
tor at the college and one of
the creators of “Shanghaied
in Astoria,” saw people trans-
form. Actors with little or no
experience would take on
more and more difficult roles.
“They developed control
of themselves and basically,
I’d like to think, control of
their world,” he said, point-
ing to the example of one man
who was going through rehab
for alcoholism, decided to try
out for a play and nailed the
lead in one of Corbett’s more
successful productions.
“I think it’s absolutely
vital,” agreed Karen Bain,
who taught in the college’s
theater department and has
been involved in local theater
efforts. “Theater is a voice
and it can offer a lot of differ-
ent voices.”
She has been wracking her
brain about how communities
split along different social and
political lines can find com-
mon ground. Right now, she
said, people don’t seem to be
hearing each other. But theater
is all about communication,
she said, and it brings people
together.
“It’s a double whammy in
what it can do production and
performance-wise and what it
can do interpersonally,” she
said.
‘‘
I used to think that advertising was just ads (billboards,
print, radio, TV, etc.).
We funeral directors aren’t known for our PR skills since
we are generally the antithesis of self-promoters. I can deal with
the grim specter of death 24/7, but one sit-down with multi-
media sales rep. April Olsen of The Daily Astorian and I knew
I was living in a cave, and the complex world of advertising
somehow morphed into something I didn’t recognize.
I am thankful for April’s assessments, guidance and out-of-
the-box thinking that has us moving toward a more integrated
way of advertising. Simply throwing a dollar amount at
Facebook or Google showed us that we were in the
dark and limiting ourselves.
I’m extremely grateful to have someone like April who under-
stands the complexities of the advertising world, allowing me
to devote more time to the things I do best.
John R. Alcantara - Funeral Director
Hughes-Ransom Mortuary & Crematory
Odd Fellows
Brown decided to go ahead
with relaunching Pier Pres-
sure at the urging of Odd Fel-
lows Building owners Jes-
samyn West and Andrea
Mazzarella and after Moore
agreed to partner with her. The
building is also home to the
Astoria Arts and Movement
Center; the addition of a the-
ater seemed like a natural fit.
“The great thing about Pier
Pressure and Susi Brown’s
work is she’s never shied
away from doing some chal-
lenging work,” said Edward
James, who was born in Asto-
ria but went on to work pro-
fessionally in theater. He was
the artistic director of Sylvia’s
Class Act Dinner Theater in
Portland for 13 years and per-
formed at the new Pier Pres-
sure’s inaugural event.
“I have a really high regard
for this community, especially
the community of older cit-
izens,” James said. “What it
seems to me is happening in
this town right now is another
generation of people is show-
ing interest in taking over
some of the endeavors.”
REACH
NEW CUSTOMERS!
n Drive More Business
n Find New Customers
n Marketing assistance from print/digital experts
n Gain Exposure. Over 10,000 Clatsop county readers every day
Talk to our customer success team today! 503.325.3211
T H E D AI L Y A STORI AN