Pompeo Criticizes Jamal Khashoggi as an 'Activist'

[applegrove]

Last edited Mon Jan 23, 2023, 07:02 PM - Edit history (2)

Pompeo Criticizes Jamal Khashoggi as an ‘Activist’

January 23, 2023 at 2:14 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 61 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2023/01/23/pompeo-criticizes-jamal-khashoggi-as-an-activistr/

"SNIP........

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sharply criticizes murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in his new book, questioning his journalism credentials and lambasting what he calls the media’s sympathetic coverage of his brutal killing in Saudi Arabia, NBC News reports.

Writes Pompeo: “He didn’t deserve to die, but we need to be clear about who he was — and too many in the media were not.”

.......SNIP"

Applegrove: then why make the distinction if it was a human rights travesty. He was a journalist ***hole. This furthers the authoritarian practice if killing enemies abroad. Not statesmanlike Pompeo. Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy. And you're trying to scare people.

[brush]

1. Whoa! Somebody's on the Saudi payroll.

[Quakerfriend]

3. Yup! He's made trip after trip to SA-

including just before Biden’s swearing in….
very suspicious.

[Irish_Dem]

11. I wonder what the going price is for selling out democracy?

[gratuitous]

2. Mr. First-in-his-class-at-West-Point strikes again

And strangely enough, once again comes down on the side of authoritarianism instead of the Constitution.

[Ocelot II]

4. I don't care who Khashoggi was working for - even if it had been Fox News

or some sleazy grocery store checkout line tabloid (but I repeat myself), the Saudis murdered him in cold blood and it was heinous, regardless. Why is Pompeo criticizing a guy who was the victim of such a terrible crime? Is it because he hates the "liberal" Washington Post? Or is he sucking up to the Saudis for a fat paycheck? Or both?

[moondust]

15. Both. n/t

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. It actually happened at the KSA embassy in Turkey, but I suppose that's superfluous

Also, right, this is important, because as we know RWNJ media (Faux, OAN, etc) NEVER leave out important facts in THEIR stories

I actually read plenty of 'media' accounts that covered his (fairly mild) anti-KSA activism.

Fuck off Mike.

[Hortensis]

6. So we know what Pompeo feels can be justified for "activists,"

journalists included though, just call them activists. Especially those who objected to his theocratic state.

I read Mr. Khashoggi's columns in the Washington Post, not that it matters.

[kysrsoze]

7. I'm surprised he could get Prince Bonesaw's balls out of his mouth long enough to say that.

[Casady1]

8. Pompeo is an activist

let's 86 him with a bonesaw.

[moniss]

9. Such an example of poor journalism

and lack of an editor. Taegan Goddard needs to go back to square one. What a haphazard job. The report he wrote says that Kashoggi was killed in Saudi Arabia. He was not killed in Saudi Arabia he was killed in Istanbul, Turkey in the Saudi embassy. Yes I know about embassies and being sovereign but the accurate description of where this happened is a major part of the Kashoggi story.

[patphil]

10. Pompeo is criticizing the media's coverage of Khashoggi as a victim,

and, while saying that he didn't deserve to die, suggesting that he was somehow complicit in his own death.
And with that he blows off the whole idea of Saudi Arabia being responsible for his brutal murder, with a "he had it coming" position.
It's like defending a rapist for the way a woman dresses, or defending a black man being murdered at a traffic stop because he was black and violating a traffic law.

Pompeo is one of these hideous, brutal right-wing republicans who think they have the right to frame the rhetoric no matter what the situation. He's way deep in what goes for the back pocket of the Saudi royal family.

[Mr.Bill]

12. An activist?

You mean like just about every host on Fox News?

[maxsolomon]

13. He was an Opinion writer at WaPo, not a "Journalist" per se.

He was ALSO a dissident who'd been an Editor and Journalist in SA and was aligned with the crown during that time.

None of that makes his murder less of a crime.

[applegrove]

14. Pompeo is just trying to put all activists in the US under a pressure point.

He's trying to scare people.

[panader0]

16. So "activists" deserve to be sawed into pieces? Huh Mike?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

17. Strong statement by the @washingtonpost 's CEO, challenging Pompeo's description of Jamal Khashoggi

Link to tweet

[onenote]

18. Khashoggi was more of a journalist and less of an activist than Hannity or Carlson.