Six months after Saudi-American journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in Istanbul on October 2 at the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia, the international debates over the incident remain on the agenda.
Some of the names of the Saudi Arabian team, who played a role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, were claimed to have been trained in the United States. Allegedly, the training was given under the US plan to modernize Saudi intelligence.
"Some members of the Saudi Rapid Intervention Group that was sent to Istanbul received training in the United States, according to U.S. and Saudi sources. The CIA has cautioned other government agencies that some of this special-operations training might have been conducted by Tier 1 Group, an Arkansas-based company, under a State Department license. The training occurred before the Khashoggi incident, as part of ongoing liaison with the Saudis, and it hasn’t been resumed," David Ignatius, a columnist at Washington Post wrote.
Ignatius noted that the training was not sustained after Khashoggi murder. Similarly, the US plan to modernize Saudi intelligence was also put on hold. This project, which was awaiting approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was being carried out by Culpeper National Security Solutions, which is a part of DynCorp.
The article also emphasized that Michael Morell, former director of the CIA, known as Culpeper's chairman in 2017, withdrew from the project a few days after the murder.
