In a brand new memoir, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mocks the worldwide response to the grisly killing of Washington Put up columnist Jamal Khashoggi and dismisses him as an “activist” ― not a journalist.
The media helped unfold “fake outrage” over the incident, Pompeo writes within the e-book, which was revealed Tuesday.
Pompeo was serving underneath then-President Donald Trump in October 2018 when Saudi Arabian brokers murdered Khashoggi and dismembered his physique contained in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The columnist had been a well known critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s rule.
To Pompeo, although, the general public response to Khashoggi’s brazen assassination was extreme.
“He didn’t need to die, however we must be clear about who he was ― and too many within the media weren't,” Pompeo writes in “By no means Give an Inch: Preventing for the America I Love,” in response to NBC Information.
The information media “hammered the story additional onerous as a result of Khashoggi was a ‘journalist,’” he says, per the Guardian.
“To be clear, Khashoggi was a journalist to the extent that I and lots of different public figures are journalists. We typically get our writing revealed, however we additionally do different issues. The media made Khashoggi out to be a Saudi Arabian Bob Woodward who was martyred for bravely criticizing the Saudi royal household via his opinion articles within the Washington Put up,” he writes, referring to the well-known Watergate reporter.
Pompeo says the killing ― which he calls “outrageous, unacceptable, horrific and despicable” ― was not “shocking” to him as a result of he had “seen sufficient of the Center East to know that this type of ruthlessness was all too routine in that a part of the world.”
He goes on to forged doubt over Khashoggi’s allegiances, citing New York Occasions reporting about his ties to Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden as a younger journalist working within the Center East.
Reached for remark by NBC Information, Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, flatly denied that he had been a part of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“I verify it to you,” she stated.
“No matter he [Pompeo] mentions about my husband, he doesn’t know my husband. He must be silent and shut up the lies about my husband,” she advised the outlet. She described Khashoggi’s views as considerate and nuanced, and she or he famous that he all the time condemned the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults.
Fred Ryan, the writer and CEO of The Washington Put up, skewered Pompeo for his characterization of the deceased columnist, calling it “surprising and disappointing” to see the e-book “so outrageously misrepresent the life and work” of Khashoggi.
“His solely offense was exposing corruption and oppression amongst these in energy—work that good journalists around the globe do daily. Jamal devoted himself to the values of free speech and a free press and held himself to the very best skilled requirements. For this devotion, he paid the final word value,” Ryan stated.
Individually, a e-book critic for the Put up stated that studying Pompeo’s tome was “like being locked in a room and compelled to hear to twenty hours of [Fox News host] Tucker Carlson reruns at high quantity.”
Pompeo responded to Ryan’s criticism in a Tweet Tuesday afternoon:
Amid Khashoggi’s disappearance, Trump despatched Pompeo to the Saudi Arabian capital to reaffirm U.S. assist for Crown Prince Mohammed and the nation.
Post a Comment