Saudi crown prince reportedly sent 11 texts to implicated adviser during Khashoggi killing

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
(Image credit: Fethi Belaid/Getty Images)

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) sent at least 11 text messages to his "closest adviser" — who directed the team that killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul — while the murder took place, The Wall Street Journal reported early Saturday, citing a classified CIA assessment.

The CIA also reportedly found MBS told associates last year he "could possibly lure [Khashoggi] outside Saudi Arabia and make arrangements" if the dissident journalist did not change his behavior. The assessment notes this "seems to foreshadow the Saudi operation launched against Khashoggi."

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.

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

Sign up
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.