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Jamal Khashoggi

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The Resume

    (October 13, 1958-October 2, 2018)
    Born in Medina, Saudi Arabia
    Nephew of arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi
    Saudi journalist
    Editor of the newspaper Al Watan
    General manager and editor in chief of the Al-Arab News Channel
    Went into exile (2017)
    Correspondent for the Washington Post
    Assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul

Why he might be annoying:

    He was married and divorced three times.
    He joined the theocratic Muslim Brotherhood in college.
    The New York Times noted, ‘Although he later stopped attending meetings of the Brotherhood, he remained conversant in its conservative, Islamist and often anti-Western rhetoric, which he could deploy or hide depending on whom he was seeking to befriend.’
    He wrote that he ‘collapsed crying’ after hearing about Osama bin Laden’s death.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He wrote that Saudi Arabia ‘must find a way where we can accommodate secularism and Islam.’
    He wrote, ‘What the Arab world needs most is free expression.’
    He said he mourned the Osama bin Laden who had been part of the anti-Soviet mujahedin, not the bin Laden who became a terrorist: .’ You were beautiful and brave in those beautiful days in Afghanistan, before you surrendered to hatred and passion.’
    He was regularly harassed online by Saudi-backed Twitter trolls.
    He went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents needed for his upcoming fourth marriage and was never seen again (October 2, 2018).
    The Saudi government initially said that he had left the consulate alive and that they had no idea what had happened to him.
    The official story then became that he had started a quarrel at the consulate that escalated into a fatal fistfight (October 18, 2018).
    A day later, when it became clear nobody was buying the fistfight cover story, the Saudi Foreign Minister admitted Khashoggi had been murdered, while calling it a ‘rogue operation’ that had not been authorized by the government. (*Except Donald Trump, who called the explanation ‘credible.’)
    According to the CIA, the assassination had been ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
    According to Turkish intelligence, his body was dismembered with a bone saw while he was still alive.
    Conservatives wanting to justify the Trump administration’s non-response to his murder launched a posthumous smear campaign against him. (As William Kristol put it, ‘Trump wants to take a soft line [on punishing Saudi Arabia], so Trump supporters are finding excuses for him to take it. One of those excuses is attacking the person who was murdered.’)

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 26 Votes: 11.54% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 16 Votes: 68.75% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 94 Votes: 42.55% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 94 Votes: 60.64% Annoying