Jamal Khashoggi Wasn't a "Journalist"
He was a radical Islamist who dabbled in "journalism."
Earlier today during the press conference with President Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman an ABC reporter snidely asked about Jamal Khashoggi, an activist and sometime “journalist” with a jihadi background. Here is video of the exchange.
Khashoggi’s body was never found. The CIA concluded that he was murdered while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to retrieve marriage documents. Turkish officials believe he was dismembered with a bone saw. Reporters say that MBS ordered Khashoggi’s execution. For his part, MBS stated he had no prior knowledge yet claimed responsibility anyway as it happened “on his watch.”
The problem here is the way the Islamist-apologist press has retconned Khashoggi’s history and their claim that he was just a simple journalist reporting truths and was killed for it. They’ve used it to attack everything from the Abraham Accords to the burgeoning alliance between the U.S. and the Saudis. The truth tells a more complicated story.
Khashoggi was a Hamas-sympathizing Islamist, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, friend of Osama bin Laden (he publicly mourned his death), and reported Qatari asset with ties to Iran. He supported Islamism and sharia, which conflicted with new leadership in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both of which oppose Islamism and have pushed to somewhat westernize their respective nations. He opposed the relationship forming between Saudi Arabia and the United States and was vehemently opposed to the Abraham Accords, even forming a group to fight it:
That is why we at the Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a rights group set up by Jamal Khashoggi, have publicly called on the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan to immediately withdraw from the Accords and, alongside peace treaty signatories Egypt and Jordan, end all military coordination with Israel.
Even the New York Times had trouble sugar-coating Khashoggi’s background:
“Many of Mr. Khashoggi’s friends say that throughout his career of service to the monarchy, he hid his personal leanings in favor of both electoral democracy and Muslim Brotherhood-style political Islam.”
Even Brookings acknowledges his jihadi connections. Khashoggi was an activist who occasionally did “journalism.” He was a “journalist” in the same sense that Jim Acosta is a “journalist.”
In his writing for the Washington Post Khashoggi promoted Islamism and the Muslim Brotherhood — designated as a terrorist group by the United States.
Khashoggi attacked Saudi reforms and critics of Islamism. That isn’t “journalism,” it’s advocacy. We see it all the time here from the left.
You don’t have to agree with how he met his end to accept the overwhelming evidence showing Khashoggi was a radical Islamist with jihadi connections who backed terror groups and wanted sharia law.
I’m just tired of the beltway press pretending that he was some innocent dove who only ever reported the news.