Who is Jamal Khashoggi? Dissident Journalist or Saudi Loyalist?
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Khashoggi's Past
Here are some facts about Khashoggi that should give you pause.
- Reported to have been a close friend of Osama Bin Laden
- Joined Bin Laden in Afghanistan and the CIA trained Mujahideen
- Wrote several jihad propaganda books in the 1980s
- Member of the Muslim Brotherhood
- Back in KSA was media adviser to Saudi intelligence under Prince Faisal
- Supporter of Islamic rule
- Washington Post Journalist
dcclothesline.com
Let's flesh this out a little.
America's greatest villain, Osama Bin Laden, the man that supposedly masterminded the September 11th terrorist attacks and the worst terror event ever on American soil was a close and dear friend of Jamal Khashoggi. And Khashoggi ends up working for theCIAWashington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos who happens to have a $600 million contract with the CIA.
What is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and a staunch Islamist doing working for WaPo?
Yesterday, I came across an interesting analysis of Khashoggi by The Real News
Khashoggi Picked the Wrong Prince
In this Interview, As-ad Abukhalid, professor of Political Science at California State University, reacts to the way Khashoggi was/is being portrayed by western media use flowery language to describe the WaPo journalist. Words such as "truth, democracy and freedom" and "outspoken critical journalism" came as a surprise to someone who has followed Jamal's career for several decades.
He describes Khashoggi as an advocate and loyal servant of the Saudi regime who closely allied himself with several Saudi princes. Most notably, he was connected to prince Faisal (former chief of Saudi Intel) and sponsor of Osamba Bin Laden and radical Islam around the world.
According to professor Abukhalid, Khashoggi admits in an interview that he was a censor for the Saudi regime in his editorial role at Al Watan newspaper.
Khashoggi later attached himself to another Saudi prince, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and it's this alliance that got Khashoggi into trouble with the current Saudi regime. He left Saudi Arabia because he fell out with the ruling regime and not because of any opposition to the government or because he wanted democracy for the people.
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[Crown Prince MBS and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal]
Remember back in November of 2017, the acting crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) arrested and imprisoned a large number of Saudi princes including billionaire Alwaleed Bin Talal. After these events, Khashoggi offered his services as an advisor to MBS but was rejected.
As a journalist for WaPo, Khashoggi was careful not to write about the Palestinian plight but writing in Arabic he often passionately advocated for the Palestinian cause.
At the very least, a more complex picture emerges of Khashoggi then is being widely reported.
To be clear, this is in no way, shape or form meant to be an attack on Khashoggi, but it does raise some uncomfortable questions for the Washington Post and Western media who are misrepresenting Khashoggi to their audiences.
I made a post about Justice for Journalists a few days ago deploring the increasing violence towards reporters, including Jamal. Khashoggi may not be a "dissident" or a campaigner for human rights but if we are to believe the reports from Turkish Intelligence, no one deserves that fate.
I was aware of this. It seems they killed him for what he knew and not for his criticism. Ironically, keeping him alive would have left them with an ally.
The murder has opened a pandora's box of criticism against them, and I have been saying for years we need to end our relationship with the Saudis.(I am American) Their reported human rights abuses, their fascist state control and their catastrophic war in Yemen which has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people are other reasons why the United States should end their relationship. Unfortunately, Obama has led the way on extra-judicial assassinations with his heavy emphasis on expanding the drone warfare program.
The republicans were no better, launching the invasion of Iraq. The United States has two war parties. We've lost so much moral ground.
I think the investigators screwed up during torture. They wanted to keep him alive and kidnap him but uncontrolled torture led to his death. And if I were you, I would advocate for solving problems not symptoms.
Thank you for this post @v4vapid .. I hadn't had the chance to look into it, but there was something that just wasn't sitting right with me in all this. The rush of criticism towards the Saudi regime was certainly warranted, but here in the UK it was also very out of character. We hear nothing about the Yemini's and the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding over there .. and yet this has been wall to wall. Yes I'm aware he was a journalist, but equally (like you have highlighted) many journalists have been targeted recently. They appear to shout loudest when there is a deeper agenda. Interesting that the Saudi economic summit has been thrown into disarray .. and that equally (over the last few years) there has been a power struggle within the Royals and elites of the country. Then we have your inavluable information, I don't really know what to make of it .. but something is very off.
There is the possibility he wanted to go back into the Saudi fold, and that this disappearing act has all blown up and backfired out of all proportion.
There is so much to this story. I find it so difficult to believe that he was simply assassinated and chopped up in the embassy before being taken back to be disposed of. That's amateurish and Jason Bourne.
The Saudis may be a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them.
If you expand the circle of influence. He was the nephew of Adnan, the arms dealer and according to wikipedia,Dodi Fayed was his cousin.
Interesting family ties he had....
Anyway. As usual, great, balanced and researched post. I hope this is what you do for a living :-) If not it ought to be!
Best wishes to you :-)
***Edited. I forgot about the Apple watch. Very odd angle
Great comments, thanks for your take on this.
While I was searching I did come by Adnan's name but wasn't sure if they were related - a billionaire arms dealer no less.
check this passage, Adnan even sold a yacht to Trump!
This story keeps getting more outlandish by the day
It certainly does, and then you can look at links to the death of Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana in a car crash in France, Dodi's father having spent years being refused British Citizenship, another of his Uncles was the personal doctor to the King...the list goes on!
Plenty of mileage in this I think!
Thanks for the article, great research @v4vapid! Something about this story definitely smells fishy & it sure does look like Khashoggi was indeed a Saudi loyalist. Just today I stumbled upon a Middle East Eye compilation of English op-eds written by Khashoggi for them in the past 2 yrs & after reading them all, imo his Saudi loyalism shone clearly through:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/jamal-khashoggi-write-for-middle-east-eye-comment-opinion-saudi-arabia-798140829
However, I wonder if his views on Syria were also quite different when writing in Arabic rather than in English, b/c he also seemed to be fully on board with the US/Israeli Syria narrative in the pieces he wrote for MEE, defending Riyadh's support of 'moderate rebels' & pushing the extreme anti-Iran propaganda which favors the more brutal and oppressive un-elected monarchy of the Saudi kingdom over the elected government of Iran...
As more and more information comes forward about this apparent murder, hopefully we can soon get a better picture of why he was killed b/c right now it still seems like quite the mystery.
This story brings lots of questions mark for me. Usually something like this is mentioned once or twice and forgotten in the MSM, but not here. Something is going on here and this story will be used to push a future agenda im sure...
Hello my friend @v4vapid,
I'm just stopping by (as usual a day late and a dollar short) to express my appreciation for what you do here.
Much like @schattenjaeger, I tend to avoid the news, and I can't stomach the propaganda spoon-fed by most media. I'm thankful for the internet, and tremendously appreciative of your work to "pull back the curtain" a bit on stories like this.
I used to subscribe to The New American, The Spotlight, and later the American Free Press. Now in what may be my declining years, I have refocused on trying to expend my time and energy on the creation of literature, art, and beneficial or constructive products.
Nevertheless, I am grateful for articles like yours that continue to literally confirm what I know to be true: all human governments as we know them are corrupt, evil, and destructive, constantly obscuring the truth and deceiving their constituents about the evil they do.
😄😇😄
![@creatr](https://steemitimages.com/DQmWvzuqZ51DoiSjXXf8bukb7JeeVV1eAJJhGBkDiYc8ajj/creatr_ap.gif)
Thanks, that means a lot!
I think we all do our part in some ways and I'm certainly 100% in agreement with you that our time is better spent on creating rather than getting sucked into the endless soap opera media stories. Definitely think it's a much better use of your precious time. For me, I've always been a news junkie and have a keen interest in media manipulation - so I actually enjoy parsing through the information sometimes. BUT, I did says sometimes - other times can be absolutely overwhelming. Just the sheer amount of propaganda that we ingest without question is enormous and mind numbing.
Thus, it's critical to take a step back from time to time and not put your energy into following all these manufactured dramas. Heck, IF there's WAVES out there, I'll happily close the laptop and spend my time in the serenity of the ocean to recharge my soul and cleanse my mind.
Cheers, \m/
And I'm ever so glad you are!
You provide a valuable service for we who are or have become less so inclined. You help us keep our finger on the pulse of what's really happening behind the scenes, without us having to spend inordinate amounts of time digging through the news rubble to find the truth!
BTW, I hope you are aware of the upcoming BTS / BEOS "raindrops?"
Also, are you watching @distributedweb and what's happening with the new decentralized internet protocol and distributed DNS? Some really cool, promising developments...
This has definitely been one of the most interesting news stories as of late. I don't even read the news much these days since they seem to drain so much energy out of me. But I've been following this one.
As I usually tend to do, I refrained from drawing conclusions and listening to the initial hype surrounding a news story. The mob mentality usually comes up with an "official story" for every news piece, and the actual truth lies somewhere in the middle. In some cases, though, the truth is somewhere far away from the offically accepted explanation.
And he recorded the whole thing with his Apple watch? Okay, sure, but it does seem convenient to say the least.
Good share.
I don't blame you for following the latest madness, it's one crisis after another in TV land. This story is very intriguing on many levels, the geopolitical aspects, the investigation and from a human level.
You're right, it's important not to digest the official narrative as we're fed constant propaganda, it's best to keep that stuff at arms length if at all possible.
I heard they had a recording, I didn't realize he had done it with his Apple watch. Maybe he thought by recording it, it would protect him somehow?
Issues like this will always be a part of an economy where #freedom is only well understood in books. However, whether we take it or not, there is always a level of indoctrination and careful strategizing game play by a well-marked rival. Journalism in a centralized economy will always be risky or well mapped out. You spiced a research interest @v4vapid. Thank you
Turkish Secret Service has posted gruesome pics that shows what happened to Khashoggi. They are worse than rumors we all could hear. They are worse than The Last Judgment by Hieronymus Bosch…
They posted pics? By the sounds of it, I don't think I want to see that.
Posted to the certain places… I didn’t see them on the Internet, but I do not doubt they will show up. Trust me, @v4vapid, I’m not sending them here because I can’t look at that more than a second.
Smells like a false flag.
Everything is a false flag, huh? Why the hell would Saudis do that when it goes against their own interests?
Who knows what their interests are? The "Saudis" are not acting as a single entity, there (seems to be) a factional war, just like in the US & EU. At this point the arguments that it's an attempt to knock MBS of leadership track seems valid. The story has changed several times... which proves that for the most part it's a lie... the outcome remains to be seen. If you don't like the term "false flag" call it a "set up."