At least some of the clandestine missions were carried out by members of the same team that killed and dismembered Khashoggi in Istanbul in October
WASHINGTON — Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia authorized a secret campaign to silence dissenters — which included the surveillance, kidnapping, detention and torture of Saudi citizens — more than a year before the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, according to U.S. officials who have read classified intelligence reports about the campaign.
One of the Saudis detained by the group, a university lecturer in linguistics who wrote a blog about women in Saudi Arabia, tried to kill herself last year after being subjected to psychological torture, according to U.S. intelligence reports and others briefed on her situation. The Saudi government insists that the killing of Khashoggi — a dissident journalist living in the United States who wrote for The Washington Post — was not an assassination ordered from Riyadh. The decision to kill him was made by the team on the spot, government officials say, and those responsible are being prosecuted. Turkey and U.S. intelligence agencies say the killing was premeditated.
Saudi Arabia has a history of going after dissidents and other Saudi citizens abroad, but the crackdown escalated sharply after Mohammed bin Salman was elevated to crown prince in 2017, a period when he was moving quickly to consolidate power. He pushed aside Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who oversaw the security services, giving the young prince sway over the intelligence agencies.
Riedel said the team’s sloppiness showed that it was used to operating freely inside the kingdom and not under the watchful eye of an adversary’s intelligence service. When Crown Prince Mohammed locked hundreds of princes, businessmen and former officials in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton in 2017 on accusations of corruption, al-Qahtani and Mutreb worked in the hotel, helping pressure detainees to sign over assets, according to associates of detainees who saw them.
Intelligence analysts concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed may have not spoken literally — that he was not ordering Khashoggi to be shot — but that he intended to silence the journalist by killing him if the circumstances required it. That crackdown became a cover for clandestine operations against Saudi dissidents, who were moved into detention in the Ritz at that time, according to U.S. officials.
The treatment was so harsh that al-Nafjan tried to commit suicide, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Saudi human-rights official dismisses inquiry into Khashoggi killing as foreign interferenceHead of the state-backed commission’s comments come as Interpol issues red notices for 20 individuals connected to the Washington Post journalist’s death
Read more »
Detained Saudi women’s rights activists appear in court to face unknown chargesThe arrests came just before Saudi Arabia began allowing women to drive, something women’s rights activists had been demanding for years
Read more »
Brent rises to $67 on cuts to Saudi, Venezuelan exportsOPEC-led supply cuts support prices; Saudi Arabia plans to deepen oil curbs in April
Read more »
Saudi women’s rights activists stand trial in criminal court for first time since detainmentThe case of around 10 women arrested last May in the weeks before a ban on women driving cars was lifted has intensified scrutiny of Riyadh’s human rights record after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
Read more »
OPEC may cancel April meeting, but hold steady on oil output‘We are not under pressure except by the market,’ Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid al-Falih says
Read more »
Trump vows to veto Senate resolution after Republicans cast defiant votes against border declarationVoting 59-41 with 12 GOP defections, the Senate hands President Donald Trump a second rebuke in as many days after Wednesday’s move to end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen
Read more »
Saudi human-rights official dismisses inquiry into Khashoggi killing as foreign interferenceHead of the state-backed commission’s comments come as Interpol issues red notices for 20 individuals connected to the Washington Post journalist’s death
Read more »