*Imposes Visa Restrictions On 76 #Saudis After #Khashoggi
Report
![image](/2020/10/lawreport.jpg")
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
approved of an operation to capture or kill dissident journalist
Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered in 2018, according to a
declassified U.S. intelligence assessment released on Friday in a
manner choreographed to limit damage to U.S.-Saudi ties
![image](/2021/01/payne-alex.jpg")
Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote opinion columns for the
Washington Post critical of the crown prince’s policies, was killed
and dismembered by a team of operatives linked to the crown prince
in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
Riyadh has denied any involvement by the crown prince, Saudi
Arabia’s de facto ruler.
“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,” the U.S. Office of the Director of
National Intelligence said in the report posted on its website.
“We base this assessment on the Crown Prince’s control of
decisionmaking in the Kingdom, the direct involvement of a key
adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman’s protective detail in
the operation, and the Crown Prince’s support for using violent
measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi,” it
added.
In declassifying the report, U.S. President Joe Biden reversed
his predecessor Donald Trump’s refusal to release it in defiance of
a 2019 law, reflecting a new U.S. willingness to challenge the
kingdom on issues from human rights to the war in Yemen.
However, Biden is treading a fine line to preserve ties with the
kingdom as he seeks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with its
regional rival Iran and to address other challenges including
fighting Islamist extremism and advancing Arab-Israeli ties.
Washington choreographed events to soften the blow, with Biden
on Thursday speaking with the crown prince’s 85-year-old father,
King Salman, in a call in which both sides said they reaffirmed
their decades-old alliance and pledged cooperation.
But Biden’s administration is considering the cancellation of
arms deals with Saudi Arabia that pose human rights concerns while
limiting future military sales to “defensive” weapons, sources
familiar with the administration’s thinking said.
A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. focus was on
ending the conflict in Yemen even as it ensures Saudi Arabia has
everything it needs to defend its territory.
The declassified intelligence, prepared by the U.S. Office of
the Director of National Intelligence, echoed a classified version
of a report on Khashoggi’s murder that Trump shared with members of
Congress in late 2018.
Trump’s rejection of demands by lawmakers and human rights
groups to release a declassified version at the time reflected a
desire to preserve cooperation with Riyadh amid rising tensions
with Iran and to promote U.S. arms sales to the kingdom.
Biden’s new director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, has
committed to complying with a 2019 defense bill that required her
office to release within 30 days a declassified report on
Khashoggi’s murder.
The 59-year old Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist living in
self-imposed exile in Virginia who wrote opinion pieces for the
Washington Post critical of the policies of the crown prince –
known to some in the West as MbS.
He was lured on Oct. 2, 2018, to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul
with a promise of a document that he needed to marry his Turkish
fiancee. A team of operatives linked to MbS killed him there and
dismembered his body. His remains have not been found.
Riyadh initially issued conflicting stories about his
disappearance, but eventually admitted that Khashoggi was killed in
what it called a “rogue” extradition operation gone wrong.
Twenty-one men were arrested in the killing and five senior
officials, including the deputy intelligence chief, Ahmad Asiri,
and Saud al-Qahtani, a senior MbS aide, were sacked.
In January 2019, 11 people were put on trial behind closed
doors. Five were given death sentences, which were commuted to 20
years in prison after they were forgiven by Khashoggi’s family,
while three others were given jail terms.
Asiri was tried but acquitted “due to insufficient evidence,”
the prosecution said, while Qahtani was investigated but not
charged.
As part of Biden’s rebalancing of ties with Saudi Arabia, he
will only communicate with King Salman, the White House has said, a
move that may allow Washington to put some distance between itself
and the crown prince, aged 35.
That will restore protocol broken by Trump and his son-in-law
and top aide, Jared Kushner, who maintained a direct channel to the
crown prince.
MbS has consolidated power since ousting his uncle as heir to
the throne in a 2017 palace coup, seeking to win public support by
overseeing popular economic and social reforms.
But he also has had opponents and women’s rights activists
detained and pursued risky foreign gambits, some of which
backfired, like the intervention in Yemen, where a war between
Saudi and Iranian proxies has created a humanitarian crisis.
*Imposes Visa Restrictions On 76 #Saudis After #Khashoggi
Report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
approved of an operation to capture or kill dissident journalist
Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered in 2018, according to a
declassified U.S. intelligence assessment released on Friday in a
manner choreographed to limit damage to U.S.-Saudi ties
Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote opinion columns for the
Washington Post critical of the crown prince’s policies, was killed
and dismembered by a team of operatives linked to the crown prince
in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
Riyadh has denied any involvement by the crown prince, Saudi
Arabia’s de facto ruler.
“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,” the U.S. Office of the Director of
National Intelligence said in the report posted on its website.
“We base this assessment on the Crown Prince’s control of
decisionmaking in the Kingdom, the direct involvement of a key
adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman’s protective detail in
the operation, and the Crown Prince’s support for using violent
measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi,” it
added.
In declassifying the report, U.S. President Joe Biden reversed
his predecessor Donald Trump’s refusal to release it in defiance of
a 2019 law, reflecting a new U.S. willingness to challenge the
kingdom on issues from human rights to the war in Yemen.
However, Biden is treading a fine line to preserve ties with the
kingdom as he seeks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with its
regional rival Iran and to address other challenges including
fighting Islamist extremism and advancing Arab-Israeli ties.
Washington choreographed events to soften the blow, with Biden
on Thursday speaking with the crown prince’s 85-year-old father,
King Salman, in a call in which both sides said they reaffirmed
their decades-old alliance and pledged cooperation.
But Biden’s administration is considering the cancellation of
arms deals with Saudi Arabia that pose human rights concerns while
limiting future military sales to “defensive” weapons, sources
familiar with the administration’s thinking said.
A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. focus was on
ending the conflict in Yemen even as it ensures Saudi Arabia has
everything it needs to defend its territory.
The declassified intelligence, prepared by the U.S. Office of
the Director of National Intelligence, echoed a classified version
of a report on Khashoggi’s murder that Trump shared with members of
Congress in late 2018.
Trump’s rejection of demands by lawmakers and human rights
groups to release a declassified version at the time reflected a
desire to preserve cooperation with Riyadh amid rising tensions
with Iran and to promote U.S. arms sales to the kingdom.
Biden’s new director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, has
committed to complying with a 2019 defense bill that required her
office to release within 30 days a declassified report on
Khashoggi’s murder.
The 59-year old Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist living in
self-imposed exile in Virginia who wrote opinion pieces for the
Washington Post critical of the policies of the crown prince –
known to some in the West as MbS.
He was lured on Oct. 2, 2018, to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul
with a promise of a document that he needed to marry his Turkish
fiancee. A team of operatives linked to MbS killed him there and
dismembered his body. His remains have not been found.
Riyadh initially issued conflicting stories about his
disappearance, but eventually admitted that Khashoggi was killed in
what it called a “rogue” extradition operation gone wrong.
Twenty-one men were arrested in the killing and five senior
officials, including the deputy intelligence chief, Ahmad Asiri,
and Saud al-Qahtani, a senior MbS aide, were sacked.
In January 2019, 11 people were put on trial behind closed
doors. Five were given death sentences, which were commuted to 20
years in prison after they were forgiven by Khashoggi’s family,
while three others were given jail terms.
Asiri was tried but acquitted “due to insufficient evidence,”
the prosecution said, while Qahtani was investigated but not
charged.
As part of Biden’s rebalancing of ties with Saudi Arabia, he
will only communicate with King Salman, the White House has said, a
move that may allow Washington to put some distance between itself
and the crown prince, aged 35.
That will restore protocol broken by Trump and his son-in-law
and top aide, Jared Kushner, who maintained a direct channel to the
crown prince.
MbS has consolidated power since ousting his uncle as heir to
the throne in a 2017 palace coup, seeking to win public support by
overseeing popular economic and social reforms.
But he also has had opponents and women’s rights activists
detained and pursued risky foreign gambits, some of which
backfired, like the intervention in Yemen, where a war between
Saudi and Iranian proxies has created a humanitarian crisis.