Intel report on Jamal Khashoggi killing fingers Saudi crown prince for ordering murder: report
An American intelligence report on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi reportedly says Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 dismemberment murder.
The declassified report says the powerful Saudi leader, known as MBS, approved and likely ordered the murder of Khashoggi, who regularly criticized him in his Washington Post column, Reuters reported, quoting four sources familiar with the report.
The damning report is expected to be released Thursday after years of wrangling.
A classified version of the report was briefed to Congress in late 2018, but former President Donald Trump refused to make the declassified version public, fearing it could damage ties with the Saudi royal family.
Khashoggi, 59, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, where he was tortured and killed by a team of trained killers with close ties to MBS, the de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom.
His dismembered remains have never been found.
Several members of the hit squad were convicted in a secretive Saudi trial that shielded MBS’s role in the murder.
The former Republican president pushed back against calls to impose any penalty on the Saudis for the brazen state-sponsored murder, saying that Saudi Arabia is a key ally and buyer of U.S. arms exports.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also boasted of his close friendship with MBS, which may have also helped the Saudi ruler avoid accountability.
President Biden plans to call MBS’s father, Saudi King Salman, as early as Wednesday evening to discuss ties between the two countries.
Biden has vowed to reset relations after four years of Trump’s transactional diplomacy. The new president has said he will push the royal family to improve Saudi’s abysmal human rights and women’s rights record.
He also wants to end the devastating war in neighboring Yemen, which has become a proxy fight between Riyadh and its regional arch-enemy Iran.
