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By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US intelligence officials are expected to publish a public report on the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a US Democratic senator said on Monday after the CIA announced that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Hussein had been killed. Salman had personally ordered the assassination.
The reported discovery was the most definitive link ever established with the direct involvement of the de facto Saudi ruler and contradicted claims by the Saudi government that he was not.
In a statement to Reuters, Ron Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called on US spy chiefs to "go out and provide the American people and Congress with a public assessment of the person who has ordered the murder ".
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist based in the Washington Post and a critic of the Saudi government, was murdered on October 2 at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, where he went to collect the necessary documents for a planned marriage.
After offering contradictory explanations about Khashoggi's disappearance, Riyadh said last week that Khashoggi was killed and his body dismembered when "negotiations" to convince him to return to Saudi Arabia failed. The prosecutor said that he would seek the death penalty for five suspects.
The case has complicated the efforts of US President Donald Trump to maintain ties with a major American ally in the region and his support for the Crown Prince. Trump said Sunday that he did not want to listen to an audio recording of Khashoggi's murder, despite pressure to punish Saudi Arabia for the murder.
Trump said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday" that he would not listen to the recording "because it is a cassette that suffers, it is a terrible tape. .. I do not want to hear the tape. "
The CIA, relying mainly on circumstantial evidence and the conclusion of its experts that the Crown Prince closely controlled the Saudi government, informed Congress of his decision that the prince would have ordered the assassination of Khashoggi, said Reuters sources close to the case.
The meeting in Congress was at the base of a flood of leaks in the media reporting that the agency had concluded that the crown prince had ordered the murder. But Congress has not received a written report from the agency in this regard, said a source.
The CIA's assessment is corroborated by last week's dismissal by the Saudi government of two senior Saudi security officials who, according to US officials, were involved in the assassination.
Turkish authorities disclosed details of what they said were audio recordings of Khashoggi's murder inside the consulate.
Some US officials, including CIA director Gina Haspel, now have access to the recordings, sources said.
Officials said the Trump administration could issue a more formal statement Tuesday on what US agencies are aware of Khashoggi's murder and the perpetrators of Khashoggi's murder.
Meanwhile, despite the general outcry over the murder, the Crown Prince is considering attending a G20 summit in Argentina in late November. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih, quoted by Al Arabiya television, was quoted as saying that it was part of a trip abroad.
At the United Nations, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, did not request the opening of an American investigation into Khashoggi's death when he met with US Secretary General Antonio Guterres, a spokesman for the US government, although they discussed the case.
(Report by Mark Hosenball, Lisa Lambert in Washington, additional Michelle Nichols report to the United Nations, edited by Kevin Drawbaugh and Grant McCool)
