US Intelligence Report: Mohammed bin Salman approves the assassination of Khashoggi
SANAA, Feb. 27 (YPA) – US National Intelligence announced that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is likely to have personally approved the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” said the report, provided by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The report noted that Prince Mohammed since 2017 has had “absolute control” over the kingdom’s security and intelligence organizations, “making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince’s authorization.”
The report noted that The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia considered Khashoggi a threat to the kingdom and agreed to measures that would silence him.
The intelligence assessment also named with “high confidence” 21 people who “participated in, ordered, or were otherwise complicit in or responsible for the death of Jamal Khashoggi on behalf of Muhammad bin Salman.” The report said, however, that it was unclear “whether these individuals knew in advance that the operation would result in Khashoggi’s death.”
The names included Saud al-Qahtani, formerly a close advisor to Prince Mohammed who’s been accused of directing the operation behind Khashoggi’s murder. Al-Qahtani was dismissed shortly after the killing.
E.M