No US official is quoted. They only say some US official said something. And it could be that he was wrong.
Correct. The official is not quoted by name but the article says this is the something that was supposedly said to AP:
According to the AP report, a U.S. official said today that the children, being of an American mother, were also American. Saudi Arabia, however, does not recognize dual citizenship.
I wasn't trying to play semantics, honest. It's one of my least favorite games. :)