(WASHINGTON, D.C.)--Today the House passed a bipartisan amendment to the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) seeking accountability for the targeted assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) cosponsored the amendment, which was originally introduced by Congressman Tom Malinowksi (NJ-7).

The amendment requires the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to provide Congress and the American people an answer to a simple question: Who was responsible for ordering, planning, carrying out, and covering up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi? The provision would then sanction the individuals listed by the DNI by stripping them of eligibility to visit the United States.  Finally, the amendment requires a report from the Secretary of State on the broader human rights situation in Saudi Arabia.

Khashoggi was a resident of the United States who was lured by the Saudi government to an embassy on the soil of a NATO country, Turkey, and brutally killed.  It has been widely reported that the US intelligence community has concluded that the crime could not have been carried out without the assent of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.  Yet thus far, the only action the US government has taken to advance accountability has been to sanction lower ranking individuals that the Saudi government has identified as scapegoats.

“This amendment requires the State Department to do what it has said is the administration’s policy, and that is to hold accountable everybody who is responsible for the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi,” said Congressman Malinowski. “It says to the Saudi government that they can have a close and enduring relationship with the United States, but they cannot take advantage of that relationship to get away with murder.”

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