The administration of United States President Joe Biden will today release a declassified intelligence report that concludes that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018.
The expected revelation based on work of the Central Intelligence Agency would merely confirm what a United Nations investigator concluded in damning revelations in 2019 that the Khashoggi murder and dismemberment in an Istanbul Saudi Consulate was a state-sponsored killing.
The release of the intel report will mark a new chapter in relations between Washington and Riyadh after the administration of President Donald Trump largely tried to shield the Crown Prince from any accountability for a murder that was widely condemned by others.
“We remain committed to releasing, through the DNI (Director of National Intelligence) of course, an unclassified report that we expect to happen soon. I don’t have an updated timeline for you on that. I know there were also reports on a proposed call. We also expect that to happen soon. We’re still in the process of scheduling when that will happen,” says White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki.
The 59-year-old Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who had been critical of the Saudi government at the time of his death, was killed by a team of Saudi intelligence officers with close ties to the Crown Prince, his body dismembered in Turkey and his remains never found.
The Saudi government first denied involvement but eight men were later convicted at trial .
Five got the death penalty that was later commuted to 20 years in prison after they were reportedly forgiven by the Khashoggi family:
A 2019 report by the independent UN expert on extrajudicial killings laid blame firmly on the State of Saudi Arabia but could not find evidence on whose order the killing took place.
“The first important message I think my report highlights is the fact that the execution of Mr. Khashoggi was the responsibility of the state of Saudi Arabia. The focus has been on who ordered the killing. I do not have evidence regarding who ordered the killing.
What I do have is evidence suggesting that the responsibilities of high-level officials may be engaged, and therefore is requiring further investigation, in particular of the Crown Prince, for a variety of reasons. The first one is that the people directly implicated in the murder reported to him,” says UN Special Rapporteur, Agnes Callamard.
President Biden was expected to speak with Saudi King Salman before the release of the report as the US posture towards the Kingdom shifts as Psaki explains below.
“When I talked about recalibration, I was referring of course to the counterpart, because that’s kind of how the question was posed. But, you know, we always look, the president is taking a fresh approach to how he engages with foreign leaders around the world and different from the prior administration.
And that means he will not hold back and he will speak out when there are concerns he has about human rights abuses, about the lack of freedom of speech or the lack of freedom of media and expression, or any concerns he has. At the same time, we have a long relationship with Saudi Arabia. They are being attacked in the region. And that is certainly an area where we continue to work with them on,” says Psaki.
The declassified report is expected to complicate relations with a key Middle Eastern ally with expectations that CIA conclusions will point a finger directly at the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.
