Mike Pompeo defends US-Saudi relationship, derides Khashoggi as “activist,” not journalist. Pompeo’s comments are shocking and disappointing, dishonoring Khashoggi’s life and service to free speech and free press.
The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, in 2018 sparked a global uproar. In a new book, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo derides this uproar and sympathizes with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia who was found to have ordered Khashoggi’s assassination. Pompeo claims that Khashoggi was an “activist”, not a journalist, and that the media exaggerated the significance of his death. He also claims that Khashoggi was “cozy with the terrorist-supporting Muslim Brotherhood”, a charge which Khashoggi’s family and Khashoggi himself denied repeatedly.
The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi was a brutal act of violence which shocked the world. Khashoggi was visiting the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents that would allow him to marry his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, when he was killed. Prior to his death, Khashoggi had been writing columns for The Washington Post that were sharply critical of the crown prince.
In his book, Mike Pompeo sympathizes with Mohammed bin Salman and defends the United States’ relationship with Saudi Arabia. He claims that Khashoggi was an “activist”, not a journalist, and that the media exaggerated the significance of his death. He also claims that Khashoggi was “cozy with the terrorist-supporting Muslim Brotherhood”, a charge which Khashoggi’s family and Khashoggi himself denied repeatedly.
The Biden administration has determined that Mohammed, as a “sitting head of government”, is immune from a civil lawsuit filed in the United States by Khashoggi’s fiancee and a human rights organization he founded. Fred Ryan, publisher and CEO of The Washington Post, said it was “shocking and disappointing” to see Pompeo’s book “so outrageously misrepresent” Khashoggi’s life and work.
The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi has sparked global outrage and condemnation. Mike Pompeo’s book is a shocking and disappointing attempt to downplay the significance of Khashoggi’s death and to defend the United States’ relationship with Saudi Arabia. His claims that Khashoggi was an “activist”, not a journalist, and that he was “cozy with the terrorist-supporting Muslim Brotherhood” are baseless and have been denied repeatedly by Khashoggi’s family and Khashoggi himself. The Biden administration’s decision to grant Mohammed bin Salman immunity from a civil lawsuit serves as a reminder that justice for Khashoggi has yet to be served.
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