A Prince, a President, and a Hapless Journalist

Ziauddin Choudhury

For last three weeks a major news that had been in the headlines of international print and electronic
media is the mysterious disappearance of the noted Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the Saudi
Consulate in Istanbul. First suspected as a kidnapping and later speculated as murder, Saudi Royalty is
now embroiled in a scandal of mammoth proportion centering on the inexplicable disappearance of
Khashoggi.

Initially the Saudi Government denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s visit to its consulate in Istanbul,
not to talk about his detention or any kind of meeting with Saudi officials there. The government would
not comment even after the Turkish authorities expressed their concern over Khashoggi when he did
not emerge from the consulate after hours where he had gone to obtain a document. The document
was a certificate of his divorce from his previous wife that he needed to marry his Turkish fiancé.

In fact, in an ironic way Khashoggi had unwittingly set up a way for his own capture by the Saudi
government which he had angered by his writings critical of the government, in particular the current
strongman Mohammed Bin Salman, the Crown Prince. But Khashoggi was not always the critic. Although
an avid advocate of freedom of speech and freedom of press, for decades he had supported the Saudi
Government as a journalist. He even hailed Mohammed Bin Salman (known as MBS) when he
introduced reforms such as allowing women to drive, and ushered other initiatives to fight terrorism,
attract investments, etc. He had worked closely with high Saudi officials both in Saudi Arabia and USA.
He served for some time as the chief spokesman of Saudi Ambassador to USA.

But all of this fell apart when Khashoggi became skeptical about the ambitions of MBS and his interest in
real reforms of Saudi policies. He became wary of his own safety when MBS cracked down on the
dissenters of his policies and started large scale arrests. He left Saudi Arabia couple of years ago and
started living in London and Washington DC and started writing articles critical of Saudi government. In
fact, he clearly made himself a target of MBS. Tragically, he walked into his own destiny when he
entered the consulate in Istanbul that fateful day.

The drama could have ended within a day of his disappearance if actually no harm had happened to him
and the Saudi authorities had been able to produce him alive. But instead, Saudi government not only
denied that it had any hand in Khashoggi disappearance but that it had no knowledge of Khashoggi
meeting in the consulate. This denial was persistent even after the Turkish authorities clearly stated that
they suspected foul play suggesting that Khashoggi might have been murdered in the consulate. Of
course, this suggestion was vehemently refuted by the Saudi government and termed as calumnious by
the Crown Prince.

And here comes another player in the scene, President Trump of USA.

From the beginning when the media had headlined in the news the disappearance of Khashoggi,
President Trump had been asked if he could take any action. His response initially had been that this was
a Saudi internal matter as Khashoggi was a Saudi citizen. But later he would go defend his inaction
saying the Saudi Royalty had denied any knowledge about Khashoggi or his disappearance. But when
pressed why he was reluctant to be tough with the Saudis, he would simply say he was not willing to
risk US business with Saudi Arabia on this issue of a journalist’s disappearance. After all, Saudi Arabia
had billions of dollars’ worth of defense purchase from the USA. Do you want us to lose this business, he
asked? The Saudis would go other countries such as China or Russia for their purchase, he added. In
other words, Saudi Arabia could do anything wanted to do with its people, Trump would not like to
annoy them by interfering in “their affair”.

But things went fast far deeper than originally suspected. The disappearance was proved to be a most
brutal case of murder by Turkish forensic authorities. This was supported by the evidence of a team of
fifteen people arriving by plane from Saudi Arabia and entering the Istanbul consulate after an
unsuspecting Khashoggi was detained there. We do not have details of this inhuman act was carried out,
but it would appear that this star-crossed journalist was not only tortured but killed and dismembered
inside the consulate. The world may not get the full details of this horrific act, but the information is
sufficient for any country to decry this act and ask for full and complete explanation of this act from
Saudi government.

In an ideal world relationship between countries should not be based on trade alone, but each country’s
respect for human rights, values, and basic freedom for its citizens. There cannot be international police
to guard or enforce these. But a country can decide who it will deal with based on their approach to
these universal values.

We do not know if the US will change its attitude toward Saudi Arabia if and when the finger is pointed
toward it for the Khashoggi killing. It is a slur not only on Saudi Arabia but also the countries who deal
with it if appropriate and exemplary action is not taken by all to denounce this.

For the moment the Crown Prince has kept President Trump charmed by his words of denial and the
lure of his billions of dollar defense contracts. But fortunately, the US President also has to listen to his
Congress and people, many of whom are already outraged by the tragic sequence of events. For the
Saudi Crown Prince also there are likely to be other repercussions both inside his country and his allies
unless he takes actions to redeem this scandal. This may not bring the hapless journalist back to life, but
an action by US to force Saudi authorities to explain this tragedy and punish those responsible for it
would be a partial redemption for all. A strong US action on moral grounds might even deter recurrence
of such managed disappearances in the future.