The State Department was called the ‘Khashoggi Ban’, and the measure issued visa restrictions on 76 Saudis and their families. The plan was initially drawn up by the Trump administration, which drew it up for fear of alienating the main ally in the Middle East. While Biden’s team was considering the idea during the transition, they found, after being in office, that officials in the State Department’s career had already worked out the plan, according to people familiar with policy development.
“The work is done,” a Trump administration official confirmed, pointing out that the plan was rejected by “consensus recommendation” after it was sent and discussed by the most senior officials in the Trump administration.
After Biden was sworn in, new officials were appointed to the State Department with “a very similar concept already in mind,” a Biden official said. They asked the career experts who carried out the plan under Trump what could be done to make it happen.
Finally, the list of 76 Saudis on the ‘Khashoggi Ban’, of which the State Department said it would not publish, was sent to Congress in February 2020 as part of a classified report of actions the department was considering under then-Secretary Mike . Pompeo, an official who saw the lists, told CNN.
“It’s pretty normal for departments and agencies to pursue previously reviewed policies when new administrations come in,” said Javed Ali, a longtime national security official who served under Trump and President Barack Obama. “This is especially the case in the first few months of any new administration.”
The visa ban on the 76 Saudis was accompanied by sanctions against one Saudi official and the Crown Prince’s personal protection team, the Rapid Intervention Force. But no direct punishment was inflicted on the Crown Prince himself, who was specifically named at the top of the long-awaited unclassified intelligence report as the murder of Khashoggi.
The goal now, the Biden government argued last week, is ‘recalibration’ with Saudi Arabia, not ‘break’.
“Any country that would dare to take part in these heinous acts should know that their officials and their immediate family members may be subject to this new policy,” a senior State Department official said in a statement. “We expect it to have a deterrent effect all over the world.”
The Trump administration did not agree and felt the visa ban would be counterproductive, the senior Trump official told CNN. The ban was considered ‘symbolic’, ineffective and is likely to drive the Saudis into Russia [and] Chinese embrace, ‘the official said.
In response to criticism that it was not far enough against MBS, the Biden government defended itself by pointing to early moves against Saudi Arabia: the end of US support for the war in Yemen, a review of arms sales and a heavier position focuses on human rights.
When Biden’s top intelligence official, Avril Haines, released the unclassified report on Khashoggi’s assassination, she made a promise to Congress to publish it. The release was required by law, which was ignored by the Trump administration.
ODNI refused to fully explain why the names were removed, except that they ‘should not have been recorded’.
Last week, ODNI sent a classified explanation for the mistake to Capitol Hill, according to an official who saw it and who said the three men were indeed connected to Khashoggi’s murder.
‘It was not an accident; the three names were on one version of the report, ‘the official said.
ODNI declined to comment on its explanation to Congress.
The error, which now appears to be a clumsy revelation of classified information, is all the more striking because Biden’s government said the report contained no new information and was submitted to Congress a year ago. Yet none of the three names were mentioned in connection with Khashoggi’s death.
One of the three men whose names have been removed, Abdulla Mohammed Alhoeriny, is a senior terrorism official whose brother is the head of Saudi Arabia’s presidency of state security. It is not known if he or the other is one of the 76 who were banned from traveling to the US.
CNN’s Vivian Salama and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.