In September 2017, U.S. intelligence receives more intercepts confirming MBS’s intentions with respect to Khashoggi, by now a Washington Post journalist. According to the New York Times, an intercepted MBS conversation from September includes MBS telling a top aide, Turki Aldakhil, that he will use “a bullet” on Khashoggi if the journalist does not, according to the Times report, “return to the kingdom and end his criticism of the Saudi government.”
