Three names removed from Khashoggi intelligence report shortly after publication

The declassified CIA report was taken down from the website of the Office of the Director of Nation Intelligence just hours after its publication, CNN reported.

It was replaced with a second version of the document that omitted the names of three Saudi nationals earlier listed among those allegedly involved in the 2018 killing of Khashoggi.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told CNN that the names had been "erroneously" included in the original publication.

Yet the three names are of interest because they are of individuals not previously mentioned in reports about Khashoggi's killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

One of the individuals omitted from the second version of the report is Abdulla Mohammed Alhoeriny, reportedly the brother of a Saudi intelligence chief.

General Abdulaziz bin Mohammed al-Howraini is in charge of the Presidency of State Security, a security body that oversees counterterrorism and domestic intelligence services.

Alhoeriny, as his name was spelled in the US report, is described in Saudi media reports as the assistant chief of state security for counterterrorism.

The other two named in the first version of the report were Yasir Khalid Alsalem and Ibrahim al-Salim. It is not immediately clear who those men are and whether they are related.

The three men are not among the 18 people sanctioned by Washington over the Khashoggi murder.

The second version of the report lists only the sanctioned individuals as suspects who US intelligence has "high confidence" were involved in the killing.

In addition to the sanctions, the State Department announced on Friday it would ban 76 unnamed Saudi nationals from traveling to the US. It is unclear whether any of the three are on that list.

Saudi Arabia has rejected the CIA report, which found crown prince and de-facto leader Mohammed bin Salman had approved the killing.

Riyadh maintains that the murder was perpetrated by a team of rogue agents.

The Biden administration has faced criticism for avoiding imposing sanctions on bin Salman.

The State Department is due to "provide more details and elaborate" on the adinistration's "recalibration of relations" with Saudi Arabia later on Monday. No new sanctions are expected.

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