The CIA accuses Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Salman of approving the Khashoggi murder
Two years after the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the office of the director of the intelligence agency has finally released to the public its official report on his killing, which is mainly based on the previous CIA investigation.
As expected, it goes straight to the pinnacle of responsibility: " We assess that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammad bin Salman has approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi ", is stated in the report of only four pages, almost completely legible.
“We believe Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammad bin Salman has approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. We base this assessment on the Crown Prince's control over decision-making in the Kingdom since 2017, 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 the use of violent measures to put to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi “. A clear statement of who is responsible
Furthermore, the US intelligence report indicates that all the security details that carried out the assassination are closely associated with the Royal Court. But more specifically at least seven were among the details of MbS's "elite" personal security, putting them in direct communication with the crown prince and de facto ruler of the kingdom.
The details of the Intel report:
The team also included seven members of Muhammad bin Salman's personal protection elite, known as the Rapid Intervention Force (RIF). The RIF, a subset of the Saudi Royal Guard, exists to defend the Crown Prince, is accountable only to him and had directly participated in previous dissident suppression operations in the Kingdom and abroad under the direction of the Crown Prince. We believe that the members of the RIF would not have participated in the operation against Khashoggi without the approval of Muhammad bin Salman “.
A damning line in the above points out that members of the RIF team respond "only to him" and to no other security officer in the kingdom or intelligence apparatus.
Additionally, the report, mostly authored by the CIA, cites their knowledge of previously planned operations against Khashoggi for violence as evidence.
Why did this report come out now? The Trump presidency had very positive relations with the Saudi leaders, while the Biden presidency has considerably cooled this aspect, for example by deleting the Yemeni rebels from the list of terrorist organizations and reviewing military supplies to Riyadh. At this point there is a risk of open war between the Saudi monarchy and Washington. A break that hasn't been seen for decades.
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The article The CIA accuses Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Salman of having approved the Khashoggi murder comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-cia-accusa-il-principe-saudita-muhammad-bin-salman-di-aver-approvato-lomicidio-khashoggi/ on Fri, 26 Feb 2021 21:20:17 +0000.