In Mike Pompeo’s new book, “Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,” the former Trump administration CIA Director and Secretary of State, 2024 presidential candidate, and smirking sausage questioned murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s credentials and blasted the media’s portrayal of him as a martyr.
“He didn’t deserve to die, but we need to be clear about who he was — and too many in the media were not,” Pompeo wrote.
Pompeo mocked the media’s portrayal of Khashoggi as “a Saudi Arabian Bob Woodward who was martyred for bravely criticizing the Saudi royal family through his opinion articles in the Washington Post.”
Pompeo also questioned Khashoggi’s allegiances, writing that “…Khashoggi was cozy with the terrorist-supporting Muslim Brotherhood.”
Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, said, “Jamal Kashoggi is not part of the Muslim Brotherhood. I confirm it to you.”
Khashoggi did have a relationship with Osama bin Laden as a young journalist in Aghanistan, and tweeted after OBL’s death, “You were beautiful, brave in those beautiful days in Afghanistan before you succumbed to anger and passion.”
Khashoggi’s widow said that Jamal always condemned the September 11 attacks and believed the Saudis were the losers for appearing like an “intolerant nation.”
She explained that her husband had a nuanced view of the Muslim Brotherhood, as he had closer ties to in his youth. She said he would condemn their actions in some countries and appreciate it in others. He believed that a journalist needed to be close to an ideology to speak about it.
Pompeo said in 2018 that Khashoggi’s killing “violates the norms of international law,” while still stressing a “strategic” relationship with Saudi Arabia.