- Walid Badran
- BBC News – London
In his memoirs titled “Never Give Up, Defending the America I Love,” which dealt with his tenure as Secretary of State in the administration of former President Donald Trump, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke regarding many matters, including the killing of Saudi journalist and writer Jamal Khashoggi. Who was living in the United States, and published opinion articles in the “Washington Post” criticizing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Documents of the CIA, previously led by Pompeo, and declassified by President Joe Biden, revealed that the Saudi crown prince had ordered the disposal of Khashoggi, who was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and killed. His body has not been found.
Khashoggi’s killing sparked outrage around the world and criticism of the White House for its reluctance to criticize Saudi Arabia, especially Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is close to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and one of his senior advisers.
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Pompeo meets bin Salman in Saudi Arabia following Khashoggi’s disappearance in October 2018
“media madness”
Pompeo, in his recent memoirs, strongly defended Saudi Arabia in Khashoggi’s murder, and criticized the overreaction at home. In his memoirs, Pompeo denounced Khashoggi’s murder, but he also wrote that he was not a journalist but “an activist supporting the losing team.” He criticized what he described as “false anger” over a murder that “has made the media crazier than a vegan in an animal slaughterhouse”.
The former US Secretary of State considered that Washington’s diplomatic relationship with Saudi Arabia was tantamount to “giving the middle finger” to the US media. Pompeo visited Riyadh in October of 2018, days following Khashoggi was killed.
Pompeo wrote regarding Trump’s assignment to him to go to Saudi Arabia, saying: “In a way, I think the president felt envious that I was the one who gave the middle finger to the Washington Post and the New York Times and other bed-wetting people who have nothing to do with reality.”
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Khashoggi was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and killed. His body has not been found
In his book, Pompeo did not impugn Saudi responsibility, writing, “This horrific crime was outrageous, unacceptable, horrific, sad, despicable, vicious, brutal, and of course illegal.” But he added: “But it wasn’t surprising, not to me anyway. I’ve seen enough in the Middle East to realize that this kind of cruelty was very routine in this part of the world.”
He also questioned Khashoggi’s being a “journalist”, mocking the media that turned him into “a Saudi Bob Woodward who was cited for his brave criticism of the Saudi royal family”.
Critics
What Pompeo wrote regarding Khashoggi drew immediate condemnation. Fred Ryan, publisher and chief executive of The Washington Post, blasted Pompeo for “outrageously distorting the facts” and “spreading vile lies” regarding Khashoggi. Ryan said: “It is disgraceful that Pompeo spread despicable lies to discredit a man of courage and commitment to the principles Americans cherish in order to promote his book.”
He described what Pompeo did as “shocking and disappointing.” In a statement, he added: “Jamal devoted himself to the values of freedom of expression and a free press and was committed to the highest professional standards. He paid the price for these values with his life.”
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Hatice Cengiz wrote that Pompeo “talked without respect or humanity regarding a person who was brutally murdered.”
Ryan went on to say: “As the CIA, which Pompeo once ran, concluded that Jamal was brutally murdered on the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his only crime was exposing corruption and oppression among those in power, which is the work of journalists.” Good people around the world every day.”
In its own review of Pompeo’s memoirs, The Washington Post described Pompeo’s book as “evil, with extraordinary capacity to poison American politics.” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tim Weiner added, “Hate is what drives this book. It has more venom than a cobra can handle.”
Pompeo responded on his Twitter account, tweeting, “Americans are safer because we didn’t call Saudi Arabia a pariah state. I never let the media bully me. Just because someone works part-time at the Washington Post doesn’t make their life any better.” The importance of the lives of our soldiers in dangerous places in order to protect us all, I have never forgotten that.”
Khadija Genghis, Khashoggi’s fiancée, also expressed her “fear and anger” on her account on the social networking site Twitter. She wrote that Pompeo “talked without respect or humanity regarding someone who was brutally murdered.”
Hanan al-Eter, the widow of Khashoggi, accused the former US Secretary of State of fabricating lies regarding her late husband, who was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Al-Eter considered that Pompeo was trading the tragedy of her late husband, by talking regarding him in his book with “false information.” She said, “He does not know my husband. He should shut up and stop his lies regarding my husband. It is bad and wrong information. It is not acceptable.”
Pompeo emphasized that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a reformer who “will prove to be one of the most important leaders of his time, and a truly historical figure on the world stage.”
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Pompeo said that bin Salman is a reformer who will prove to be one of the most important leaders of his time
The former US Secretary of State said that instead of targeting the Saudi crown prince, the scrutiny should have been directed more towards Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who criticized Saudi Arabia for the crime, considering that the Turkish leader had “completely turned into an Islamic tyrant.”
other files
In his memoirs, Pompeo spoke regarding many other files, and the following are the most prominent of what he said:
- The Turkish army does not have the ability to defeat ISIS
- Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, plotted with Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, to oust Mike Pence and name her as vice president.
- Trump asked him to soften his rhetoric towards China at the beginning of the outbreak of the Corona virus, in order to avoid angering the Chinese president
- Former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi feared former Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani
- It was he who suggested the liquidation of Soleimani as a “legitimate military target” for targeting the Americans and their allies
- Trump asked French President Macron to stop trying to mediate with Iran over the nuclear deal
Critics
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticized “false information” regarding his country that former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo contained in his book.
This came in response to journalists’ questions during a joint press conference with Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai in the capital, Ankara.
The minister indicated that Pompeo wrote his book to run for the presidency or to launch a campaign to run for the presidency, adding: “I think there is serious misinformation to avoid being subject to a judicial process regarding their support for terrorism, as it is a serious crime in the United States.”
He pointed out that the book contains incorrect information that might be described in diplomatic terms as “false”, “exaggerated” and “double standards”.
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Davutoglu criticized Pompeo’s book
Cavusoglu considered that the claim that “the Turkish army does not have the ability to defeat the Islamic State organization is an example of this.”
He explained that Washington’s communication with the PKK did not begin during the era of former President Donald Trump, but rather during the era of President Barack Obama, who accepted him.
He stressed that Turkey is the only country in NATO that fought the “ISIS” organization face to face, adding that the Turkish army eliminated more than 4 thousand and 500 elements of the organization in Syria and Iraq.
Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, who is expected to compete with Pompeo for the Republican ticket in the upcoming elections, criticized what she described as “lies” to promote the book.
Pompeo’s publication of his book comes amid speculation regarding his desire to run for the presidential elections in 2024, and Pompeo had said that he was considering running for the presidency in 2024, but he had not made his decision yet, stressing that Trump’s candidacy or not would not affect his decision.
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