Jamal Khashoggi - Wikipedia

Saudi journalist

Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (Arabic: جمال خاشقجي ‎ jamāl ḵāšugji, born 13 October 1958) is a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist,[2] author and the former general manager and editor-in-chief of Al Arab News Channel.[3] He also served as editor for Saudi newspaper Al Watan, turning it into a platform for Saudi progressives.[4]

Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017,[5] and has since written newspaper articles critical of his home country. Khashoggi is a high-profile critic of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and the nation's de facto ruler Mohammad bin Salman.[2] He has also criticised Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[6] He is currently missing and allegations have been made that he was murdered and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey sometime after 2 October 2018.

Early life and education [ edit ]

Khashoggi was born in Madinah in 1958.[3] He received elementary and secondary education in Saudi Arabia. He obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration from Indiana State University in 1982.[3][7][8]

Career [ edit ]

Jamal Khashoggi began his career as a regional manager for Tihama Bookstores from 1983 to 1984.[9] Later, Khashoggi worked as a correspondent for the Saudi Gazette and an assistant manager for Okaz from 1985 to 1987.[9] He continued his career as a reporter for various daily and weekly Arab newspapers from 1987 to 1990, including Al Sharq Al Awsat, Al Majalla and Al Muslimoon.[3][9] He became managing editor and acting editor-in-chief of Al Madina in 1991 and his term lasted until 1999.[9]

From 1991 to 1999, he was a foreign correspondent in such countries as Afghanistan, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and in the Middle East.[3] It is also claimed that he served with both Saudi Intelligence Agency and possibly the United States in Afghanistan during this period.[10] He then was appointed a deputy editor-in-chief of Arab News, the leading English newspaper of Saudi Arabia and served in the post from 1999 to 2003.[11]

Khashoggi became the editor-in-chief of Al Watan for a short period, less than two months, in 2003.[3][12] In fact, his tenure as editor-in-chief lasted just for 52 days.[13][11] He was fired in May 2003 by the Saudi ministry of information after several commentaries published in the paper about the potent influence of the religious establishment in Saudi Arabia.[14]

After this event, he went to London in voluntary exile. There he joined the Al Faisal's team as an adviser.[15] Then, he served as a media aide to Prince Turki Al Faisal, while the latter was Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States.[16]

In April 2007, Khashoggi began to work as editor-in-chief in Al Watan for a second time.[11] A column by poet Ibrahim al-Almaee challenging the basic Salafi premises was published in Al Watan in May 2010. Then, Khashoggi had to resign again on 17 May 2010.[17]Al Watan announced that Khashoggi resigned as editor-in-chief "to focus on his personal projects". However, it is thought that he was forced to resign due to official displeasure with articles published in the paper that were critical of the Kingdom's harsh Islamic rules.[17]

After his second resignation from Al Watan in 2010, Khashoggi was appointed by Al-Waleed bin Talal as director of the Al Arab News Channel in Bahrain.[18] He is also a political commentator for Saudi and international channels, including MBC, BBC, Al Jazeera and Dubai TV.[9]

Speaking to the BBC’s Newshour, Khashoggi criticized Israel's settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories, saying: "There was no international pressure on the Israelis and therefore the Israelis got away with building settlements, demolishing homes."[19]

In December 2016, The Independent, citing a report from Middle East Eye, said Khashoggi had been banned by Saudi Arabian authorities from publishing or appearing on television "for criticising US President-elect Donald Trump".[20]

Interviews with Osama bin Laden [ edit ]

Khashoggi had followed Osama bin Laden's career since the 1980s and had interviewed him several times. Khashoggi knew bin Laden during his formative years as a radical Islamist and interviewed him in Afghanistan in 1987 during the fight against Soviet troops and pro-Soviet regime.[4] He also met bin Laden in Tora Bora and lastly in Sudan in 1995.[21] It is reported that Khashoggi once tried to persuade bin Laden to quit violence.[22]

Disappearance [ edit ]

Khashoggi entered Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on 2 October to obtain a document he needed to get married but never came out.[23] On 3 October, the Saudi government said he had left the consulate,[24][25][26] the Turkish government said he was still inside, and his fiancée and friends said he was still missing.[27]

According to numerous anonymous police sources, the Turkish police believe that Khashoggi was brutally tortured and later killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul[28][29] by a 15-member team brought in from Saudi Arabia for the operation.[30][31] One anonymous police source claimed that the dead body was chopped to pieces and quietly moved out of the consulate and all of this was "videotaped to prove the mission had been accomplished and the tape was taken out of the country".[29]

Turkish authorities have claimed that security camera footage was removed from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and that Turkish staff were abruptly told to take a holiday on the day Khashoggi disappeared while inside the building.[32]

While Turkish officials pledged to release evidence on October 7 to support claims that the journalist was killed,[31] they did not deliver, and officials who had offered glimpses into the investigation for the past week were no longer prepared to talk.[32] Similarly while Yasin Aktay, an adviser to the Turkish president, initially said he believed Khashoggi had been killed in the consulate,[29] on Oct 10 he claimed “the Saudi state is not blamed here”, something the Guardian journalist sees as Turkey trying not to harm lucrative trade ties and a delicate regional relationship with Saudi Arabia.[32]

On October 10, al-Waqt news quoted informed sources as saying that Mohammad bin Salman had assigned Ahmad Asiri, the deputy head of the Al-Mukhabarat Al-A'amah[33] and the former spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, with the mission to execute Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Another military officer with lots of experience in dealing with dissidents was the second candidate for the mission.[34]

[ edit ]

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman claimed Khashoggi left the consulate shortly after the visit.[35] The English language Arab News on 10 October 2018 reported that the Saudi Ambassador to the US "condemns ‘malicious leaks and grim rumors’ surrounding Khashoggi disappearance" and that "the reports that suggest that Jamal Khashoggi went missing in the Consulate in Istanbul or that the Kingdom’s authorities have detained him or killed him are absolutely false, and baseless".[36]

Turkish president Erdoğan demanded that Saudi government provide proof for their claims that Khashoggi left the consulate alive, something that Turkish police CCTV didn’t capture.[37]

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Saudi Arabia "to support a thorough investigation of Mr. Khashoggi's disappearance and to be transparent about the results of that investigation."[38] President Trump expressed concern about the fate of Khashoggi.[39] US Senator Chris Murphy wrote that if the reports of Khashoggi's murder are true, "it should represent a fundamental break" in Saudi Arabia–United States relations.[40]

See also [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

  1. ^ "Chris Murphy on Twitter". Twitter . Retrieved 2018-10-08 .
  2. ^ a b "Jamal Khashoggi: Turkey says journalist was murdered in Saudi consulate". BBC News. 7 October 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Speakers". International Public Relations Association - Gulf Chapter (IPRA-GC). 2012. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012 . Retrieved 10 May 2012 .
  4. ^ a b Hendley, Paul (17 May 2010). "Saudi newspaper head resigns after run-in with conservatives". Al Hdhod . Retrieved 11 October 2018 .
  5. ^ "Opinion - Saudi Arabia wasn't always this repressive. Now it's unbearable". Washington Post . Retrieved 7 October 2018 .
  6. ^ "Turkey says journalist Khashoggi 'killed at Saudi consulate ' ". France 24. 7 October 2018.
  7. ^ "Khashoggi, Jamal". JRank Organization . Retrieved 16 May 2012 .
  8. ^ "Jamal Khashoggi". SO.ME . Retrieved 31 May 2012 .
  9. ^ a b c d e "Jamal Khashoggi". World Economic Forum . Retrieved 21 July 2012 .
  10. ^ "Saudi Al Watan Editor Sacked for the Second Time". Saudi Information Agency. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012 . Retrieved 31 May 2012 .
  11. ^ a b c "Q & A with Al Watan's Jamal Khashoggi". Asharq Alawsat. Jeddah. 25 April 2007 . Retrieved 5 April 2013 .
  12. ^ "Saudi editor-in-chief fired following criticism of Ibn Taymiyya, spiritual father of Wahhabism". MEMRI. 9 July 2003 . Retrieved 19 May 2012 .
  13. ^ Murphy, Caryle (11 January 2011). "Tactical Delivery". The Majalla . Retrieved 25 June 2012 .
  14. ^ Blanford, Nicholas (5 June 2003). "Reformist impulse in Saudi Arabia suffers setback". The Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved 1 March 2013 .
  15. ^ Soubra Barrage, Rada (2007). "The domestic challenges facing Saudi Arabia" (PDF) . Ecommons. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 October 2013 . Retrieved 8 May 2012 .
  16. ^ Wright, Lawrence (11 September 2006). "The master plan" (PDF) . The New Yorker . Retrieved 8 April 2012 .
  17. ^ a b "Saudi editor Jamal Khashoggi resigns from AlWatan". BBC. 17 May 2010 . Retrieved 1 March 2013 .
  18. ^ "Jamal Khashoggi, director of the Al Arab News Channel in Bahrain". France24. 20 April 2012 . Retrieved 10 May 2012 .
  19. ^ "Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi tells BBC: 'The Oslo Accords are dead ' ". Middle East Monitor. 1 October 2018.
  20. ^ Osborne, Samuel. "Saudi Arabia bans journalist for criticising Donald Trump". The Independent . Retrieved 16 February 2017 .
  21. ^ Susanne Koelbl (14 June 2011). "Last Bastion: Saudi Arabia's Silent Battle to Halt History". Der Spiegel. Riyadh . Retrieved 26 August 2013 .
  22. ^ "Head of Saudi's most daring newspaper resigns". Al Arabiya. 16 May 2010. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017 . Retrieved 30 April 2012 .
  23. ^ "Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappears after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Reuters. 7 October 2018.
  24. ^ "News snippet". Saudi Press Agency. 4 October 2018.
  25. ^ "Jamal Khashoggi: Washington Post blanks out missing Saudi writer's column". BBC. 5 October 2018.
  26. ^ Ingber, Sasha (4 October 2018). "Saudi Critic Vanishes After Visiting Consulate, Prompting Fear And Confusion". NPR.
  27. ^ Gall, Carlotta (3 October 2018). "What Happened to Jamal Khashoggi? Conflicting Reports Deepen a Mystery". The New York Times.
  28. ^ Coskun, Orhan (6 October 2018). "Exclusive: Turkish police believe Saudi journalist Khashoggi was killed in consulate - sources". Reuters.
  29. ^ a b c "Turkish police suspect Saudi journalist Khashoggi was killed at consulate". Middle East Eye. 6 October 2018.
  30. ^ Fahim, Kareem (6 October 2018). "Turkey concludes Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi killed by 'murder' team, sources say". The Washington Post.
  31. ^ a b "Saudi journalist 'killed inside consulate' – Turkish sources". The Guardian. 6 October 2018.
  32. ^ a b c theguardian.com 9. October 2018: Khashoggi case: CCTV disappears from Saudi consulate in Turkey
  33. ^ "Gen. Asiri named deputy head of General Intelligence; Ibrahim Al-Omar is new SAGIA chairman". Saudi Gazette. 26 April 2017 . Retrieved 13 October 2017 .
  34. ^ "Arab Source: Khashoggi Murdered by Ex-Spokesman of Saudi-Led Coalition in War on Yemen". Fars News Agency . Retrieved 2018-10-10 .
  35. ^ "Saudi Crown Prince Discusses Trump, Aramco, Arrests: Transcript". www.bloomberg.com . Retrieved 10 October 2018 .
  36. ^ "Saudi Arabia's US ambassador condemns 'malicious leaks and grim rumors' surrounding Khashoggi disappearance". Arab News . Retrieved 10 October 2018 .
  37. ^ Gul Tuysuz; Sheena McKenzie (9 October 2018). "Turkey's President: Saudis should prove missing journalist left consulate". CNN.
  38. ^ Borger, Julian (9 October 2018). "Jamal Khashoggi: US calls on Saudi Arabia to be 'transparent' about missing journalist". The Guardian.
  39. ^ politico.com 9 October 2018: ‘I know nothing’: Trump’s stance toward missing Saudi journalist sparks concern
  40. ^ "After Six Days, Trump 'Concerned' Over Saudi Journalist Disappearance in Turkey". Haaretz. 9 October 2018.

External links [ edit ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Khashoggi