Saudi murder of journalist is depravity

Jamal Kashoggi, an exiled Saudi Arabian journalist, is murdered during a visit to the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2, 2018, on orders from Saudi despot Mohammed Bin Salman. The murder should be investigated, a UN special commission said in June, 2019.

Joel Simon, director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, wrote:

Journalists over the past two decades have encountered some terrible fates. American reporters Daniel Pearl, James Foley and Steven Sotloff were abducted and beheaded by Islamist terrorists. Investigative reporters Anna Politkovskaya from Russia, Javier Valdez from Mexico and Daphne Caruana Galizia from Malta were all victims of targeted assassination.

But if what is alleged about the disappearance on Oct. 2 of Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi is true — that he was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, then murdered and dismembered by a team dispatched by the Saudi royal court — it would be in a category of depravity all its own.

What makes Khashoggi’s alleged murder so chilling is its sheer brazenness. 

There is much we don’t know. Even if the intent was merely to abduct Khashoggi and not to kill him, how is it possible that Saudi Arabia — a vital U.S. ally that claims to be a responsible actor on the global stage — could consider such an action? Perhaps the reason is that those who use violence and repression to censor the media rarely face significant consequences, Simon said,