The Intelligence Agencies
Leandro Castelao

The Intelligence Agencies' "Duty to Warn"

Documents released in our FOIA lawsuit for records on the U.S. government's "duty to warn" Jamal Khashoggi

This Reading Room features all of the documents produced in Knight Institute v. CIA, a FOIA lawsuit the Knight Institute and the Committee to Protect Journalists filed in late 2018 for records showing whether U.S. intelligence agencies fulfilled their “duty to warn” reporter Jamal Khashoggi of threats to his life and liberty.

Our FOIA lawsuit sought records from the agencies most likely to learn of threats to Khashoggi: the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Department of State (DOS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Agency (NSA), and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

In response, the agencies released about 20 documents concerning Intelligence Community Directive 191, which provides that when a U.S. intelligence agency learns of an impending threat to an individual’s life or liberty, the agency must “warn the intended victim.” The CIA, FBI, NSA, and ODNI refused to confirm or deny, however, whether they possess records concerning Khashoggi and the duty to warn, and the DOS insisted that they did not.

How to use this Reading Room: The collection below can be searched by keyword, or filtered using the criteria in the left-hand column.

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