The silent switch through the office of the director of national intelligence largely went unnoticed as the shout grew that the Biden government could not punish the prince in any way, although he only vaguely declared MBS responsible.
The office of the director of national intelligence did not want to explain why the names were originally on the list and what roles they had in the assassination of Khashoggi, if any.
“We posted a revised document on the site because the original mistakenly contained three names that should not have been included,” an ODNI spokesman told CNN.
A senior administration official protested Friday afternoon before the change was noted that the report did not contain any new information.
‘It [is] ‘information known to the US government and informed more than a year ago to elect committees and members of Congress,’ the official said.
Yet three of the names ODNI first listed have not been mentioned before in reports of Khashoggi’s death.
The White House referred requests for comment to the ODNI.
The first of the three names removed is Abdulla Mohammed Alhoeriny, who has not previously been linked to Khashoggi’s death.
According to someone familiar with the inner workings of Saudi intelligence, he is the brother of General Abdulaziz bin Mohammed al-Howraini, a minister responsible for the powerful presidency of state security, which oversees various intelligence and terrorism agencies . Abdulla (as spelled by ODNI) appears in Saudi reports as the deputy head of state security for terrorism.
The other two names that appeared in the unclassified intelligence report and then disappeared are Yasir Khalid Alsalem and Ibrahim al-Salim. It was not immediately clear who they were.
The three men are not among the 18 approved by the US for the murder of Khashoggi. The 18 are listed in the revised intelligence report, the file name of which appears on the ODNI website ‘v2’, which clearly indicates that this is the second version.
According to the internet archive of Wayback Machine, it appears that the initial intelligence report was online for several hours before ODNI took it down. The difference between the two lists of names was noticed on Capitol Hill and ODNI asked for clarification, an official from the House Intelligence Committee said. A spokesman for the Senate Intelligence Committee declined to comment.
The report, which was declassified by National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, judged that the Crown Prince, known as MBS, approved the operation in Istanbul to “capture or kill” Khashoggi.
The report concludes with a list of names – first 21, then 18 when it was revised – who the US intelligence had “great confidence” in the brutal murder, but did not judge whether they knew the operation would lead to his death not. .
Seventeen Saudis have already been approved by the U.S. Treasury Department for the murder. An eighteenth, a former senior intelligence official, was added Friday. The force that serves as the protective detail for MBS, known as the “Tiger Squad”, has also been approved.
The State Department also announced that 76 unnamed Saudis from the United States would be banned under a ‘Khashoggi Ban’.
The Saudi government immediately responded to Friday’s report, criticizing its conclusions.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia completely rejects the negative, false and unacceptable assessment in the report regarding the Kingdom’s leadership, noting that the report contains inaccurate information and conclusions,” the statement said.
Biden said at the weekend that more announcements regarding Saudi Arabia would come on Monday. The White House clarified its comments, saying the State Department would provide more details on the announcements already made.
“The recalibration of relations with Saudi Arabia began on January 20 and will continue. The government undertook a wide range of new actions on Friday,” a White House official said. “The president is referring to the fact that the foreign ministry will give more details on Monday and expand on the announcements, not new announcements.”