Jamal Khashoggi, whose murder at the hands of his native Saudi Arabia has caused an international outcry that threatens to undermine the kingdom’s powerful young leader, knew he was a marked man.
On Friday, the final confirmation came that Khashoggi had indeed been killed by Saudi government agents.
Two years ago, as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was being praised by global bankers, investors and U.S. officials after unveiling his blueprint for an economic transformation, Khashoggi was already agitated. While the rest of the world saw “MbS” as a reformer shifting his glacial nation into the 21st century, Khashoggi looked beyond the carefully crafted image.
“We have a one-man rule, taking decisions that he issues at night without conferring with anyone -- this has never happened before in Saudi Arabia,” Khashoggi said over a fish lunch at a restaurant in Jeddah in November 2016. “People are in the dark,” he added, his words of warning juxtaposed by the tranquil turquoise waters of the Red Sea.
It was the last face-to-face interview Khashoggi granted Bloomberg News inside Saudi Arabia. In it, he made comments off the record that he would repeat openly after he left the kingdom less than a year later. Unlike his usual sunny self, Khashoggi was frightened, but also disbelieving that he would feel this kind of fear in a country that had never been as despotic as Iraq under Saddam Hussein or Libya under Moammar al-Qaddafi.
He was like a man trying to run from a destiny he knew would eventually catch up with him, though he never really thought it would cost him his life. But it did, and in horrific fashion.
Khashoggi disappeared at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 just before his 60th birthday. He was never seen again. The Turkish authorities said he was murdered inside the building.
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