Saudi Arabia and Modern State Terrorism

Date: 12/14/2018 12:30:20 AM

Saudi Arabia and Modern State Terrorism

A few days after the Khashiggi disappeared, the Turkish police reported he was murdered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. amal Khashoggi is one of the most prominent Saudi and Arab journalists and political commentators of his generation, owing to a career that has spanned nearly 30 years. Born in Medina in 1958, Khashoggi was once close to the inner circles of the Saudi royal family, where he earned his reputation as a reformist by pushing the boundaries of critically questioning Saudi's regional and domestic policies.The young Khashoggi studied journalism at Indiana University in the United States and began his career as a correspondent for the English language Saudi Gazette newspaper.

From 1987 until 1990, he reported for the London-based and Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat daily. He also spent eight years writing for the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper. Khashoggi is best known for coverage of the events of Afghanistan, Algeria, Kuwait and the Middle East in the 1990s. He met and interviewed Osama bin Laden several times in the middle of the decade, before the latter went on to become the leader of the al-Qaeda group. In 1999, Khashoggi became the deputy editor for the Saudi-run newspaper Arab News, and remained in that position for four years. His next position as the editor-in-chief of the Al-Watan paper barely lasted two months before he was dismissed from the post without explanation in 2003. However, some hinted his "editorial policy" was to blame.

The journalist then became a media adviser to Prince Turki bin Faisal, who was the former head of Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Directorate and served as the Saudi ambassador to the US from 2005 until the end of 2006. Khashoggi was reinstated as the editor of Al-Watan in 2007, but was fired again in 2010, for "pushing the boundaries of debate within Saudi society" according to his personal website. In the same year, Khashoggi was appointed as general manager of the Al Arab news channel, which was owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and operated out of Manama, Bahrain. The channel shut down barely one day after its launch in February 2015, with some speculating that the hosting of a Bahraini opposition member was part of the larger editorial issue with Bahrain.

Khashoggi also served as a political commentator, appearing on a number of Saudi and Arab channels. Khashoggi, 59, went missing while on a visit to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancée. The consulate insists the writer left its premises, contradicting Turkish officials. Turkish investigators believe a prominent Saudi journalist who contributed to The Washington Post was killed in "a pre-planned murder" at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul, the Post reported on Saturday night, citing two anonymous officials. Saudi authorities called the allegation "baseless." One Turkish official also told The Associated Press that detectives' "initial assessment" was that Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the consulate, without elaborating. Khashoggi, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US for the last year, vanished on Tuesday while on a visit to the consulate. His disappearance has threatened to upend already-fraught relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and it raises new questions about the kingdom and the actions of its assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Khashoggi wrote critically about in his columns.

"If the reports of Jamal's murder are true, it is a monstrous and unfathomable act," the Post's editorial page editor Fred Hiatt said in a statement. "Jamal was — or, as we hope, is — a committed, courageous journalist. He writes out of a sense of love for his country and deep faith in human dignity and freedom." A Turkish official, requesting anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, told The Associated Press earlier on Saturday night something similar. The Post cited one anonymous official who said investigators believe a 15-member team "came from Saudi Arabia." The official added: "It was a pre-planned murder." Khashiggi's Terror is a clear sign of Diplomatic Rebellious and a clear symbol of State Terrorism.