Report: Crown prince ordered operation to lure missing journalist back to Saudi Arabia

People demanding to know where Jamal Khashoggi is.

(Image credit: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 11 October 2018

U.S. intelligence intercepted Saudi Arabian officials discussing a plan ordered by the crown prince to lure journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the United States back to Saudi Arabia, where he would be detained, U.S. officials told The Washington Post on Wednesday.

Khashoggi went missing last week after he went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up a document he needed to get married. Turkish officials are adamant that Khashoggi, a columnist for the Post, was killed inside the consulate by a Saudi hit squad. Saudi Arabia has denied any wrongdoing and says he left the consulate on his own.

Khashoggi, who lived in Virginia as a U.S. resident applying for citizenship, was critical of his homeland, but friends say he did not oppose all of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's policies. Friends told the Post that several senior Saudi officials close to the crown prince contacted Khashoggi and told him they wanted him to take a job in the government. He was skeptical, and did not believe they'd offer him the protection they were promising.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox