Current Saudi Defense Minister and former Ambassador to the U.S. Khalid bin Salman (KBS) is a close advisor and brother of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). He conspired in the plot to murder of Jamal Khashoggi, advising him to complete official paperwork in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, but where a Saudi hit team ambushed and murdered Khashoggi. During KBS's time as Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. (April 2017 – February 2019), the Saudi government also recruited U.S.-based Saudi citizens to spy on, harass, and intimidate Saudi activists in the U.S. and Canada.
Conspiracy in Khashoggi Murder
KBS played a key role in the Saudi government plot to lure and murder Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and also contributed to the cover-up of the murder.
KBS, then ambassador to the U.S. in Washington D.C., lured Khashoggi to the Istanbul consulate by assuring him in a phone call in 2018 that it would be safe for him to go there to acquire documents necessary to confirm his marriage to his fiancée Hatice Cengiz. Instead, a Saudi hit team was waiting for Khashoggi at the consulate to murder and dismember him.
Prior to Khashoggi's murder, MBS had relied on his close advisor, Saud al-Qahtani, and KBS to intimidate and silence Khashoggi, including by attempting to convince Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia, blocking Khashoggi's son from traveling abroad, and offering Khashoggi hush money to end his criticism of MBS. In early 2018, Khashoggi was forced to go to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. to obtain a replacement for his passport that had mysteriously disappeared from his home in Virginia. At the Embassy, KBS met with Khashoggi and inquired about his work for the Washington Post. He then asked Khashoggi whether the latter had considered accepting an earlier offer to run a think tank on behalf of the Saudi Government and informed Khashoggi that $5 million had been allocated for the project.
KBS also played a key role in covering up Khashoggi's murder. KBS lied about directing Khashoggi to go to Istanbul in a tweet, claiming that he "certainly never suggested he [Khashoggi] go to Turkey for any reason." KBS also lied to the U.S. government, Congress, and the media, stating that the Saudi government was sincerely searching for his "friend" Khashoggi and had no idea what had happened to Khashoggi. He dismissed any claims that the Saudi government might have kidnapped or killed Khashoggi as "absolutely false and baseless." KBS discretely left the U.S. for Saudi Arabia in early 2019. Since then, he has visited the U.S. on numerous occasions, in July 2021, May 2022, and October 2023, either as Deputy Minister or Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia, for meetings with U.S. officials.
Extraterritorial Repression
During KBS's tenure as Saudi Ambassador in Washington D.C. from April 2017 to February 2019, Saudi Arabia continued to harass and intimidate Saudi dissidents and activists in the U.S., including through recruiting and using U.S.-based Saudi nationals. These include Ibrahim Alhussayen, a Saudi student in the U.S. since 2013 who spied on Khashoggi since at least 2017 and other Saudi dissidents to whom he sent threatening messages in 2019 and 2020. In addition, in November 2019, the U.S. Justice Department unveiled charges against two former Twitter employees who spied on Twitter users on behalf of the Saudi government and accessed the personal information of more than 6,000 Twitter users. As close advisor to his brother MBS and as Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., KBS should have known or would have known about the mass harassment and intimidation campaign of Saudi dissidents. He played a specific role in regard to Khashoggi's attempted silencing, murder, and cover-up. The Saudi Embassy and the country's consulates in the U.S. provide numerous services to U.S.-based Saudi citizens, including students and those working for Saudi officials or government entities.
MBS appointed his younger brother KBS as Saudi Defense Minister in September 2022, after having him serve as Deputy Defense Minister since February 2019, immediately after KBS left the U.S. in the aftermath of Khashoggi's murder. Previously, MBS had hired KBS as U.S. Ambassador in April 2017, after he had served as an advisor to the Saudi Embassy since 2016. KBS was born in Riyadh in 1988 and earned a bachelor's degree in aviation sciences from King Faisal Air Academy. He later continued his education in the U.S. after serving in the Royal Saudi Airforce.
