Saudi crown prince ordered Khashoggi killing: US report
Despite publicly accusing the Crown Prince, Washington doesn’t impose sanctions on him
Washington, Feb. 27: Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation to "capture or kill" exiled journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in Turkey, according to a declassified US intelligence report released by the Biden administration on the grisly murder of the leading dissident in 2018.
Fifty-nine-year-old Khashoggi, who lived in the US as a legal permanent resident and wrote for the Washington Post, was critical of the prince’s policies and was killed by operatives linked to the crown prince in the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018.
The Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (ODNI) said in the report submitted to Congress that at the time of the Khashoggi murder, the prince probably fostered an environment in which aides were afraid that failure to complete assigned tasks might result in him firing or arresting them.
This suggests that the aides were unlikely to question the prince’s orders or undertake sensitive
actions without his consent, said the report dated February 11, a declassified portion of which was submitted to Congress on Friday.
"We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Khashoggi," it said.
Washington, Feb. 27: The United States on Friday for the first time publicly accused Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of approving the gruesome murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but stopped short of targeting the powerful heir apparent.
The prince, who is de facto ruler of the US ally and oil provider, “approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” said an intelligence report newly declassified by President Joe Biden's administration. The report said that given Prince Mohammed's influence, it was “highly unlikely” that the 2018 murder could have taken place without his green light. The killing also fit a pattern of “the crown prince's support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad.” Khashoggi, a US resident and critic of Prince Mohammed who wrote for The Washington Post, was lured to Istanbul's Saudi consulate in October 2018, then killed and cut into pieces.
The Treasury Department announced it was freezing assets and criminalizing transactions with a exintelligence official as well as the Rapid Intervention Force, an elite unit the report said “exists to defend the crown prince” and “answers only to him.” Biden said Friday that “we are going to hold (Saudi Arabia) accountable for human rights abuses. This report has been sitting there, the last administration wouldn't even release it... it is outrageous what happened.” But the US stopped short of directly targeting the 35year-old crown prince, known by his initials MBS. In honour of the slain writer, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the “Khashoggi Act” that will ban entry into the US of foreigners who threaten dissidents or harass reporters and their kin and immediately placed 76 Saudis on the blacklist.
“We have made absolutely clear that extraterritorial threats and assaults by Saudi Arabia against activists, dissidents and journalists must end. They will not be tolerated by the United States,” Blinken said in a statement.
Blinken, questioned by reporters, said “this is bigger than any one person,” explaining Biden was trying “not to rupture the relationship, but to recalibrate to be more in line with our interests and our values.” An advocacy group founded by Khashoggi, Democracy for the Arab World Now, called on the president to impose sanctions on Prince Mohammed — with a number of lawmakers from Biden's Democratic Party also pushing for more action.
“We must also ensure that there are real consequences for individuals like MBS; if not, autocrats around the world will get the message that impunity is the rule,” said Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Saudi foreign ministry in a statement denounced the “negative, false and unacceptable assessment”.