U.S. officials believe Saudi crown prince approved operation to ‘capture or kill’ journalist, says newly released document

WASHINGTON (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s crown prince approved an operation to kill or capture a U.S.-based journalist inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. That’s according to a newly declassified U.S. intelligence report released Friday. The report could escalate pressure on the Biden administration to hold the kingdom accountable for a murder that drew bipartisan and international outrage. The central conclusion of the report was widely expected given that intelligence officials were said to have reached it soon after the brutal October 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s authoritarian consolidation of power. Still, the public assignment of responsibility amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of the ambitious 35-year-old crown prince.