U.S. blames crown prince in grisly killing of journalist

WASHINGTON — Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia approved the plan for operatives to assassinate journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, according to a previously classified intelligence report released Friday by the Biden administration.

Much of the evidence the CIA used to draw the conclusion remains classified, including recordings of Khashoggi’s Oct. 2, 2018, killing and dismemberment at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul that were obtained by Turkish intelligence. But the report does outline who carried out the killing, describes what Crown Prince Mohammed knew about the operation, and lays out how the CIA concluded that he ordered it and bears responsibility for Khashoggi’s death.

The release of the report also signaled that President Biden, unlike his predecessor, would not set aside the killing of Khashoggi and that his administration intended to attempt to isolate the crown prince, although it will avoid any measures that would threaten ties to the kingdom. Administration officials said their goal was a recalibration, not a rupture, of the relationship.

The report’s disclosure was the first time the U.S. intelligence community has made its conclusions public, and the declassified document is a powerful rebuke of Crown Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and a close ally of the Trump administration, whose continued support of him after Khashoggi’s killing prompted international outrage.

“We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” said the report, issued by Biden’s director of national intelligence, Avril Haines.

The fourpage report reiterated the CIA’s conclusion from the fall of 2018 that Crown Prince Mohammed ordered the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and legal permanent resident of Virginia who was critical of the Saudi government.

The Biden administration also announced penalties against Saudi officials. But the administration stopped short of sanctioning Crown Prince Mohammed himself, an attempt to not completely break relations with Saudi Arabia, which remains an important U.S. partner in the Middle East.