In a new memoir, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mocked the international reaction to the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and dismissed him as an “activist” — not a journalist.
The media helped spread “fake outrage” over the incident, Pompeo wrote in the book, which was published Tuesday.
Pompeo was serving under President Donald Trump in October 2018 when Saudi Arabian agents killed Khashoggi and dismembered his body at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The columnist is a well-known critic of the government of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
But for Pompeo, the public reaction to Khashoggi’s murder has been extremely callous.
“He didn’t deserve to die, but we need to be clear about who he is – and too many in the media don’t,” Pompeo wrote in “Don’t Give An Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,” according to NBC News.
The news media “beat the story hard because Khashoggi was a ‘journalist,'” he said, according to the Guardian.
“To be clear, Khashoggi is a journalist until I and many other public figures are journalists. Sometimes our writings are published, but we also do other things. The media made Khashoggi the Bob Woodward of Saudi Arabia who was martyred because he courageously criticized the Saudi royal family through articles opinion in the Washington Post,” he wrote, referring to the famous Watergate reporter.
Pompeo said the killings – which he called “shocking, unacceptable, horrific and despicable” – were not “surprising” because he “has seen enough of the Middle East to know that this kind of cruelty is very routine in that part of the world.”
He continued to cast doubt on Khashoggi’s loyalty, citing a New York Times report on his ties to the Islamic Brotherhood and al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden as a young journalist working in the Middle East.
Reached for comment by NBC News, Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, denied that he was part of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“I confirm for you,” she said.
“Whatever he is [Pompeo] mention about my husband, he doesn’t know my wife. He should be silent and shut up the lies about my wife,” he told the outlet. He described Khashoggi’s views as thoughtful and nuanced, and he noted that he always condemned the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Fred Ryan, publisher and CEO of The Washington Post, stabbed Pompeo because of the deceased columnist’s characterization, called it “shocking and disappointing” to see the book “so denigrate the life and work” of Khashoggi.
“The only offense is to expose corruption and oppression among those in power – the work that good journalists around the world do every day. Jamal is dedicated to the values of freedom of speech and a free press and maintains the highest professional standards. For this dedication , they paid the ultimate price,” Ryan said.
Separately, a book critic for the Post said that reading Pompeo’s book “is like being locked in a room and forced to listen to it for 20 hours.” [Fox News host] Tucker Carlson is playing it again at the highest volume.
Amid Khashoggi’s disappearance, Trump sent Pompeo to the Saudi Arabian capital to reaffirm US support for Crown Prince Mohammed and the country.