RIYADH - In the hours leading up to Journalist Khushoogi killing, Saudi Arabia's crown prince sent at least 11 messages to his closest advisor who was charged with overseeing the murder, the *Wall Street Journal* said Saturday quoting a CIA assessment.
Mohammed bin Salman also told associates in August last year that if he failed to persuade Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia, “we could possibly lure him outside Saudi Arabia and make arrangements” — a communication the Central Intelligence Agency said “seems to foreshadow the Saudi operation launched against Khashoggi.”
The *Journal* said it had reviewed excerpts of the highly classified intelligence document, which relied on electronic intercepts and other clandestine information.
Khashoggi, a trenchant critic of the crown prince who relocated to Virginia and wrote OpEd for the Washington Post, was killed by Saudi operatives inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate on October 2, triggering global condemnation. -APP/AFP