Kingdom of Silence (2020) - full transcript

Today
the United Nations released

a report on the assassination

of Washington Post journalist
Jamal Khashoggi,

and I must warn you this report

is the most horrifying thing

that I've ever had to read
from this chair.

- It says...
- On Tuesday,

Jamal Khashoggi walked
into this Saudi consulate...

...and seemed to vanish.

There is an anxiety

that he could have been
spirited out of the country.



The Saudi government
still offering

conflicting narratives...

Jamal worked
directly for the royal family

in different capacities.

He was a loyal Saudi,

but how he defined that loyalty

over time changed...

speaking Arabic

...as did the kingdom itself.

Turkish officials have
audio and video recordings

that prove the journalist was...

...strangled
as soon as he entered

the Saudi consulate.

...killed during a fistfight.



...asphyxiated
with a plastic bag.

Khashoggi was
tortured, murdered...

Jamal enjoyed access
to princely protection,

but that protection depended
upon the princes themselves

having influence.

He was already in danger,

but this was
exponentially more dangerous.

The Saudi monarchy
operates like the Mafia,

and you don't cross
the godfather.

This lays out in forensic detail

how they planned to murder
him, to dismember him.

- ...fingers cut off...
- ...joints separated...

You could hear them laughing.

We were always doing all this
work for something bigger,

for country, for king.

Anybody that tells you
that they know

every aspect of Jamal's life,
they are 100% lying to you.

...calling
for the administration

to punish Saudi Arabia.

There's not a smoking
gun; there's a smoking saw.

This is the worst moment

in U.S.-Saudi relations
since 9/11.

I mean,
the moral of the story is...

the moral of the story
is that there is no moral.

There is no morality.

I mean, what is
the morality of this?

I wouldn't be able
to give you an answer.

There are reports the CIA

now has high confidence

the murder was ordered
by the Saudi crown prince...

The United States
is condoning the murder

of a U.S. resident...

Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't.

They did not know...

Why kill Jamal Khashoggi?

Okay, go ahead.

Okay, great.

Are you-are you looking
off camera?

Yeah, he's looking off camera.

Okay, thanks. Great.

How do I describe you?

Like, what kind of title
should I give you?

I'm a Saudi journalist, uh,

self-exiled in Washington.

I write for The Washington Post.

Okay, and why?
Why did you self-exile?

How breathtakingly fast

you can fall out of favor.

It is all quite shocking.

Saudi Arabia is the only
home we know or want,

yet we are the enemy.

How did all this change?

I was a teenager in the 1970s

and grew up in the markets
around the Prophet's Mosque.

As a Saudi journalist
starting my career,

I witnessed phenomenal
growth and expansion.

Scholars and the people were
brimming with expectations.

And the United States

was our most important
trading partner,

importer of Saudi oil

and our main source of weapons.

The Saudi-American relationship

started as a commercial
relationship.

The Saudis were a reservoir
of global energy.

I was a foreign service
officer for 30 years.

Basically, everybody
from Jimmy Carter

to, uh, Barack Obama.

There's really nobody...

And I say that perhaps

somewhat forcefully,
but it's true,

that there is no other American

with my level of experience.

The American government
really had no relations

with Saudi Arabia until
what's today Chevron

went there and began
to drill for oil.

Administration
after administration,

in the '50s, '60s, '70s,
'80s, '90s,

wanted to make sure that
the government, uh, in Riyadh,

uh, was going to be, uh,
one that was closely aligned

with the United States.

I was working
at the CIA in Saudi Arabia

in the early 1980s.

It was soon after King Fahd
rose to the throne.

And during that period

there was a significant infusion

of military support to
the fledging Saudi military.

We were very concerned
about making sure

the Saudi monarchy
was going to be stable.

Saudi Arabia is divided

into the royals
and the nonroyals,

and the royals own everything.

You know, it's named
after their family.

The whole kingdom
is Saudi Arabia,

ruled by the sons
of King Abdulaziz

for a hundred years.

You can get totally lost

in the Kremlinology
of the Saudi royal family.

But it's a family,
and they govern by consensus.

There are spats
and there are factions,

but until recently,

decisions would be made
by consensus.

And in the category
of nonroyals,

Jamal Khashoggi
carried a lot of influence.

I don't think there was
any place in Saudi Arabia

that was closed to him.

It wasn't just
that he was powerful.

People liked him.

Jamal had
an interesting analysis

of the problems of Saudi Arabia.

We talked
about the schizophrenia

that so many Saudis
had expressed to me.

It's undemocratic.
It's intolerant.

It is one step
below a theocracy.

From the beginning
of our relationship,

America's had this tie
to this distinctly

non-American entity

and has enabled it,
up to this day, to survive.

Speaking Arabic

To call them authoritarian

is true in an absolute sense,

but really, most administrations

who deal with Saudi Arabia
over time

become aware of the fact
that Saudi Arabia

is a valuable friend,
a valuable ally,

and to throw that
under the bus is a bad idea.

Saudi Arabia
was a part of the world

that we didn't care about,
except for the oil.

They can believe
what they want to believe

as long as they keep pumping.

But that totally changed

when the Soviets
invaded Afghanistan

in December '79.

Afghanistan was
the major Islamic cause

in Saudi Arabia in the '80s.

Americans did not want to appear

as if they are in direct war
with the Soviet Union,

so we in Saudi Arabia
and Pakistan

were doing a cover-up
in the operation,

which was an open secret.

Everybody knew about it,

this Saudi-American-Pakistani
campaign

to drive the Soviet Union
out of Afghanistan.

I do not deny
that I had sympathy

toward the Afghan cause,

because, uh, I myself come out
from Islamic circles,

and I still believe
it was a just cause.

And Saudi Arabia should be
appreciated for that.

And it was a big story, which,
uh, kind of, uh, made my name

in the field of journalism.

Chanting in Arabic

The Arab News,

Afghanistan, May 4, 1988.

A report by Jamal Khashoggi.

Muslims are one nation.

Despite geographical barriers

and differences
in color and language,

they consider
themselves brothers.

As many as 1,000 Arab youths
are here in Afghanistan.

They are actively involved
in the war.

Most come
from Saudi Arabia, Egypt,

Algeria, Morocco.

The assistant to the commander

of the northern Panjshir base
is an Algerian

named Abdullah Anas.

So you have
to cross seven mountains

to come from Pakistan.

Jamal Khashoggi, I remember,

we come across with him.

You are talking about a journey

where, uh, could have,
uh, avalanche, snow.

You could face air strikes.

You could, uh, face ambushes
from the Soviets.

But on top of being scared,

you are more excited

because you feel this is a gift

you are gifted by Allah,

that you are part
of the mujahideen,

you are, uh, um...

finally, you are, uh,
making the history

with these heroes and these,
uh-uh, brave people.

So all this makes you
forget that threat,

forget the-the fear,
forget, uh, everything.

Speaking Arabic

Jamal went to Afghanistan

to be a war correspondent.

He did not have much
of a reputation then,

but there was
this little group of Arabs

led by Osama bin Laden,

who was, at that point,
practically unknown.

It was a propitious moment
in Jamal's career.

They got to be friends.

He was somewhat blinded

by the charisma

and-and the-the sense of history

that surrounded this young man.

Speaking Arabic

I met Osama the first time

at the end of '87,

and that's where I took
the first picture of him ever

to be printed in any media.

He was the leader or,
as he used to be called,

the emir of the Arab
mujahideen in Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden

became Saudi Arabia's
first celebrity,

a category that didn't exist
in Saudi Arabia

until that time,
and I think, to some extent,

Jamal helped him
become that person.

Jamal and I,

I mean, I was actually
an opinion page writer,

so we would meet
every once in a while,

uh, along with other colleagues.

Jamal was one of those
important sources,

a treasure, I would say.

He was sitting on this
crossroad of relationship

between Saudi Arabia
and the United States

fighting the Soviet Union
in Afghanistan.

But of course, we would take
a lot of what he said

with grain of salt
because he was, at the time,

associated with
the Saudi establishment.

There weren't many
Saudi or other journalists

who had access to bin Laden
or to those groups.

These were different times.

The United States
and Saudi Arabia

celebrated radical Islam

as long as radical Islam

was directly against communism.

I started working
on Osama bin Laden

for the National Security
Division here in New York.

I read Arabic media,

and I knew of Jamal Khashoggi,

and I knew about his...
you know, his-his writings

and his relationship
with the Saudi government.

The Saudis had a lot to gain

from promoting Osama bin Laden,

and Jamal was part
of that effort.

Afghan jihad made
Osama bin Laden.

But the Saudis were not
doing their own thing

in Afghanistan.

It was a part
of the U.S.'s strategy.

We gave them Stinger missiles,
for heaven's sake.

The Saudis were working
very closely

with the United States.

They used to come and visit
Ronald Reagan

in the White House.

We had recruitment offices
here in the United States.

This is when
the Saudi interests,

our interests,
Osama bin Laden's interests

were all the same:

defeat the Soviets
in Afghanistan.

On behalf
of the American people,

I salute Chairman Khalis,

his delegation,

and the people
of Afghanistan themselves.

You are a nation of heroes.
God bless you.

During
the Reagan administration,

I was the Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State

for Intelligence,

and we were very much focused
on the war in Afghanistan

on a day-to-day basis, uh,

calculating how many Russian
helicopters had been shot down.

They applauded.

The soldiers actually applauded.

We followed the progress

of the mujahideen

in combating the Soviet troops,

and these were really
mountain people,

Afghan tribal leaders.

And the only thing we really
had in common with them

was, we both wanted
to defeat the Soviets.

We had nothing else in common.

For the U.S.,

spreading this kind
of radical Islam

was not seen in those days
as a threat.

It was just a tool.

Thank you very much.

No one ever really
thought about the aftermath.

The retreat
of Soviet military power

from Afghanistan is complete.

Fear and uncertainty
were mixed with joy today

as the commander
of Soviet troops

followed the last of his men
across the border,

leaving the communist
Afghan regime alone

to face victorious
resistance fighters.

Those days, those years,

it's the heaven of my life.

I will never regret those days.

The mujahideen came to Kabul
in one caravan.

I remember-still remember
seeing Jamal Khashoggi,

"Oh, brother Abdullah."

Jamal also was excited

because this is the moment
he was waiting for, uh,

like the hundreds of Arabs.

I approved of the war

against the Soviet Union,

but in 1990 and on,
it was not the same.

Al-Qaeda was established
around that time,

and I covered Osama bin Laden

when he was, uh, part
of, uh, a campaign

which I agreed,

but I saw him change.

Afghanistan had become so ugly.

Abdullah Anas, a friend,
he said to me once

that he did not like it
very much.

It was full of divisions,

full of envy
and poisonous ideas.

I think he was right.

This happiness slowly,
slowly started to-to transfer

to a nightmare,

to a funeral,

and then the rockets started
coming from everywhere.

So all that dream, gone.

Replaced by civil war.

If we had
just left Afghanistan alone,

in 20/20 hindsight,

I think things might have been
better, uh, in the long run.

Both within CIA

as well as in
the Saudi government,

there was a sense
of accomplishment.

There were certainly missteps
that had consequences,

uh, negative consequences,
whatever,

but, uh, that's history.

I collapsed crying a while ago.

Why did 15 of our young men
take part in the attacks?

What can we tell
these boys' mothers?

Will we repeat the lie that
they were martyred for Islam?

I collapsed crying a while ago,

heartbroken for you, Osama.

You were beautiful and brave

in those beautiful days
in Afghanistan

before you surrendered
to hatred and rage.

What happened
in the last ten years?

We must ensure that our children

can never be influenced
by extremist ideas,

like those 15 Saudis

who were misled
into hijacking four planes

that fine September day,

piloting them and us

straight into the jaws of hell.

A lot of us felt rage,

rage against our own government

that we were part of.

Fifteen of the hijackers
were Saudis,

and the warnings were clear,

but they were ignored
at the highest levels,

uh, repeatedly,

and the price was enormous.

Our next witness
is Mr. Richard Clarke,

who served as a former
National Coordinator

for Counterterrorism at
the National Security Council.

I think
the Saudi government knew

that they were at risk
of the American people

and the American Congress
and the American media

going after them, uh, for
having supported, uh, al-Qaeda.

To the loved ones
of the victims of 9/11,

to them who are here
in the room,

to those who are watching
on television,

your government failed you.

Those entrusted with
protecting you failed you.

And I failed you.

I worked two years
for the Democratic

Vice Chairman
of the 9/11 Commission,

and one of the areas
of research that I did for him

was Saudi Arabia, and...

and, um, you know,

as someone who witnessed 9/11,
who's a New Yorker,

it wasn't just the reality

that 15 of the 19 hijackers
were Saudi

but also that a lot
of the financing for al-Qaeda

came from wealthy
Saudi individuals.

You gotta remember
that the 3,000 dead Americans

were not the result of anything

that the Saudi government did.

You could argue
that by supporting

the mujahideen
in the first place,

they had encouraged
this idea of jihad,

and I think
that's-that's fair enough.

So had we.

I don't know
if Jamal had regrets

about his past life.

He did evolve away from things.

Jamal looked at bin Laden
with stars in his eyes

when he was young, and then
he became disillusioned.

He began to hate what
bin Laden had become and...

you know, and what he had done
to Saudi society and to Islam.

So he became a Saudi defender

and a supporter
of the royal family.

Speaking Arabic

speaking Arabic

Jamal was a loyal Saudi.

And I think how he defined
that loyalty over time

clearly evolved and changed,

as did the kingdom itself.

He may have seen it
as the least bad option.

I met Jamal when I was working

at the Middle East Institute.

He was like a big teddy bear.

There was just a genuineness.

Always a smile,
even in the worst of times.

He, in many ways,
was like a big brother to me.

That was our relationship.

Speaking Arabic

At the time,
he worked for the al-Faisals,

who were seen as sort of
the intelligentsia

of the royal family.

The Saudis
were rather reluctant partners

after 9/11,

but Turki al-Faisal
was well-known

for believing strongly
in the importance

of a U.S.-Saudi relationship.

He was my counterpart
in Saudi Arabia in the '90s.

King Fahd was ill and infirm

and not in day-to-day charge
of the government,

and so Turki was determined
to make sure

that that relationship
between Riyadh and Washington

was going to not just
remain strong

but in fact be strengthened.

There are those
who would have you believe

that the current wave
of terrorism

springs from and is or has been

supported by Saudi Arabia.

That is absolutely not true.

After 9/11, Prince Turki

became Saudi ambassador
to London.

Jamal was somebody
who had a good reputation

in the international media,
and I think Turki thought

that Jamal's voice
would be a useful one

in trying to battle

this very broad misimpression

of Saudi Arabia as a whole.

I went to London
and I met with Turki,

and I spent a lot of time
with Jamal there.

He seemed to be enjoying London.

When you are the spokesperson
for a senior prince,

you're untouchable.

Jamal was useful to Turki

because he had credibility
among reporters, like me.

Jamal and I worked very closely,

first in London and then in D.C.

He was older than me,

and so the joke
within the embassy

and within our friends

was that I would call him
Uncle J.

We became quite close.

Mornings would start at 7:30.

We'd be the first one
at the embassy.

After work, we would
usually go have teas.

And in a way, work never
ended at the embassy.

He was always the nice guy
and I was the bad guy.

I was always giving
a hard time to the press,

and it was crisis
after crisis after crisis.

On the contrary, the Saudis
actually have done

a lot behind the scenes,

but more importantly,

you talked about
the American media.

They've been the-they've been
the people

that have been
raising the issue.

The U.S. administration,
the Bush administration

has not at all.

It was very raw.

America was very upset.

We spent a lot of our time
defending the Saudi position

vis-à-vis the attacks of 9/11.

The U.S. cannot go
accusing people

of financing, uh, terrorism
by merely...

by merely
unfounded intelligence reports.

You had a Bush administration

that was still very close
to Saudi Arabia.

Somebody asked me the other day,

was I pleased with the actions
of Saudi Arabia?

I am.

And that was important,

because without that,
the U.S.-Saudi relationship

could not have continued.

It's up to us
to bankrupt the terrorists

and those who finance them
so they will never again

have the resources
to commit such atrocities

against the American people

as we experienced
on September 11th.

The 9/11 families believe,

and we've alleged formally
in a complaint

filed in federal court,

that members
of the Saudi government

conspired with al-Qaeda

for more than a decade
in funding them,

financing them,
providing logistical support,

and other means and methods
to keep them going.

What we hear
from American officials,

they are happy
with the cooperation.

They are happy
with the information

they are getting
from the Saudis.

They are getting
plenty of information

about the case
of the 15 hijackers.

How did money move to bin Laden?

Did it move through Saudi banks?

Were there wealthy
Saudi individuals

who were funding him?

There was a lot of cooperation

that we wanted
out of the Saudi government

that we did not get.

Our own government
withheld a lot of material

to prevent us
from embarrassing the Saudis.

There's obviously a lot
of political influence

the Saudis still enjoy
in Washington, D.C.,

and they made their best efforts

to prevent this lawsuit from
ever seeing the light of day.

I don't call
Saudi Arabia an ally.

I never called
Saudi Arabia an ally.

They always look to cover up
what they don't want

the outside world to know

about events and activities

and networks inside the kingdom.

You have to remember,
this was a government

that was very sympathetic
to the Saudi royal family.

And the Bush family had ties
going back for decades.

I think the Bush
administration's

number one goal
after 9/11 was Iraq.

They sat down
the first week after 9/11

and said, "Shall we go
into Afghanistan first?

Or shall we go into Iraq first?"

I felt like a man from Mars,

and I said to them,
"Invading Iraq after 9/11

would be like
if Franklin Roosevelt,

after Pearl Harbor, had said,

'Let's invade Mexico.'"

I didn't understand how these
very rational senior people

had lost their mind,

and I don't think
the Bush administration

could have fought the Iraq War
without Saudi support.

I think Saudi Arabia

became even more indispensable

for the United States.

Jamal Khashoggi
and Turki al-Faisal,

they were champions
of Saudi-American relations.

Never defended it.
Never justified it.

They were champions of it.

Jamal was the only Arab I met

who was a supporter of the war.

By the time
the U.S. invaded Iraq,

he struck me as a neocon.

He was all in favor of it.

Speaking Arabic

He was nationalistic.

He felt very much
involved in it,

and so, you know,
it's times change,

but a lot of people
don't know that side of Jamal.

Jamal took it very personally.

Some of the papers,
including The New York Times,

insist on calling him
a dissident.

Jamal was...

You've arrested reformers

by the hundreds
and the thousands.

No, no, no, reformers,
they were never

arrested by the, uh...

Peaceful demonstrators
who went into the street,

there were many hundreds
of them arrested in Riyadh...

The demonstrators...
those demonstrators

were ans-they were answering
a call of an al-Qaeda activist.

They were answering the call
of Sa'ad Al-Faqih.

They were not
peaceful demonstrators.

They were holding
Korans above their head,

and they were
peaceful demonstrators.

- They were unarmed.
- But again,

there were no shooting;
they were released.

There was shooting.

They shot rubber bullets
over their heads.

The-uh, nobody was killed.

Uh, they were all released.

We don't have
this situation where we...

where people demonstrate
in the streets and chaos.

No, we don't have
any-any of that.

Saudi Arabia is very stable.

A country
as proud as Saudi Arabia

doesn't take easily
to outside advice.

Yet just because 15 Saudis

committed the biggest
terrorist atrocity in history,

some Americans are now calling

for the imposition
of a foreign culture

on our Muslim society.

That is why we have
to fight back.

Last November,
Prince Turki al-Faisal

won a legal battle
against the families

of September 11th victims.

This was good news.

The Bush administration

still considers Saudi Arabia
a friend.

But we do not know
what the future holds.

Jamal's 30 years in Arab media

reflect Saudi relations
with the United States

and Arab public opinion.

He championed the cause
for American-Saudi cooperation

against the Soviet Union
in Afghanistan.

After 9/11, they worked
with the United States

against Saddam Hussein of Iraq

and supported
the U.S. war on terror.

At each and every junction

in modern Saudi history

and modern U.S.-Saudi relations,

Jamal was there
at that crossroad,

either reporting,
explaining, or spinning.

But he was taken by surprise
by the Arab Spring.

Chanting in Arabic

The Arab Spring
was indeed a revolution

that shook Saudi Arabia.

It was like an earthquake.

In the past, you could always
count on the United States.

But when it came
to the Arab Spring,

they could not find help
in Washington.

Chanting in Arabic

That was unprecedented,

that was unthinkable,
and it was so sudden.

Chanting in Arabic

speaking Arabic

speaking Arabic

It felt like coming home.

Seeing young Arabs

take to the streets

to realize that dream

for self-determination,

for liberty, freedom,

bread, social justice

was my dream coming true,

and I couldn't
not take part in it.

Chanting in Arabic

When the Arab Spring kicked off,

that was kind of our first
open disagreement.

He was for what happened
in other countries,

and I was against it.

It called it
"the so-called Arab Spring,"

because what does that mean
for other countries

of which Saudi Arabia
is an ally and a supporter?

At the time of the Arab Spring,

King Abdullah was viewed
as being somewhat skeptical

of that U.S.-Saudi relationship.

He didn't support everything
that the United States did

in the region,
and I think there were people

who came in with
the Obama administration

who had, oh, I think,
a rather jaundiced view,

uh, of Saudi Arabia.

There were problems
with the fact

that these governments

kind of couldn't keep a lid
on things anymore.

I was in a group of advisors

who were urging President Obama

to try to support
a transition to democracy.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

wanted to talk to Obama,

and I remember
in that phone call

King Abdullah was absolutely
livid about this,

and his basic line was,

everybody in that square

is either a terrorist
or an Iranian agent.

Which was just
patently not true.

And President Obama
called Mubarak and told him,

"Look, I think
you need to step down.

I don't think these protests
are going to stop."

shouting in Arabic

We were
at the presidential palace.

We told the army generals

that after this prayer,

we were going to break through
and storm the palace.

We said, "If you open fire
on the front line,

there's 50,000 people behind us.

We're getting in regardless."

I remember crying my eyes out
because I felt like

this could be my last prayer,

that if they opened fire,
you know, this was worth it.

We hear the
announcement on the P.A.

speaking Arabic

chanting in Arabic

It was the best of Egypt.

And it was the best of
the Arab world at that time,

best 18 days of our generation.

It was...

one hell of a time.

Egyptians did not need anyone

to teach them how to be free.

I saw them take to it

like a human instinct.

At the time, I was living
a new love story

and a new marriage.

Egypt was also living
its love story with freedom.

It was the happiest time
for both of us.

Jamal was a big romantic.

In every sense, a romantic.

You get swept up in it.

Jamal loved strong,
intelligent women,

and at the start
of the Arab Spring,

he'd married a really
wonderful woman, Dr. Alaa.

And there is a certain romance
to revolutions,

to the idea
that you can throw off

the restrictions

that seemed impossible to shake

and that you could think
and discuss ideas

that were forbidden before,

and that... that oxygen,
I think, is intoxicating.

Jamal was very open
about how happy he was

that Mubarak had gone down.

But he made a lot of enemies

because of his writing
and his tweets,

and I kept telling Jamal, "Stop.

You know, stop."

We had a lot of arguments
about it.

King Abdullah kept
getting angry at him,

told him, you know,
"What you're writing,

you know, relax."

There was a sense
of a lot of worry.

I would say the relationship
Saudi Arabia had with America

started being very testy.

The Saudis believed,

uh, that we let Mubarak down,

um, that he had been

a very loyal ally for 30 years,

that he had done what we
asked him to do many times,

and that at the first sign
of trouble,

uh, we threw him under the bus.

Chanting in Arabic

Saudi Arabia was paying
people to protest.

Chanting in Arabic

And ultimately, this results

in the Egyptian military
overthrowing

a democratically elected
government

with the backing
of Saudi Arabia.

They funded it.

They drove the media strategy
behind it.

Saudi Arabia
and others were concerned

that the Arab Spring
was going to,

uh, go out of control.

Nobody wanted that.

United States didn't want that.
Saudi Arabia didn't want that.

It was reported that Egypt's

first democratically
elected president

was no longer allowed
to leave the country

and that the army was deploying

not just here
but on the streets.

President Obama, at this point,

is kind of worn down by this,

and we never followed through
on a policy

that really prioritized
democracy promotion.

Not only was that
kind of the death knell

of the Arab Spring,
but it was also kind of,

to me, like a pretty cynical,

you know, hypocritical thing.

No, it's not cynical.

See, these are naive... I don't...

I mean, I hate to tell
Mr. Rhodes,

but these are-these are-
these are superficial, naive,

and ra-rather fatuous arguments.

Uh, they may sell books.

I hope he does sell
a lot of books,

but, um...

...those-those... you know,
the role of the Saudis

in global oil markets,

the role of Saudi Arabia
in countering,

uh, Islamic terrorism,

you know, do you really want
a Saudi Arabia

that looks like, um, you know,

what's happening
in Beirut or Syria

or Baghdad or Tehran today?

Is that really what you want?

When the military coup happened,

there were tens of thousands
of people

that came out to protest.

Chanting in Arabic

The military and security forces

surrounded Rabaa Square.

Chanting in Arabic

They were coming in
like it was an armed group

that they were coming
to basically ambush.

There were people falling,

people by your side.

A bullet could hit you
at any time.

Shots fired
from every direction.

Cars exploding.

And then I get hit.

People start rushing at me,

and they carry me
into a makeshift hospital.

Everybody there was dying.

Speaking Arabic

There was this, like,
distinct smell

of gunpowder and blood.

I remember just laying there.

I closed my eyes.

And that moment, I...

I felt so helpless,

so hopeless, I just...

Rabaa was the day
that the Arab Spring...

that was the nail in the coffin.

It was almost certainly

the single bloodiest day
of events

since the start
of the Arab Spring.

Egyptian officials say
that 525 people were killed,

though opponents say
the true number

could be four times as many.

There was the temptation
to support the revolutions.

I believe it is
the right thing to do.

But in my writing, I do my best

to just be a journalist

and not become a revolutionary.

The Arab Spring was crushed.

It was destroyed.

And what the Arab Spring
stood for in large part

was freedom of expression,

and that had a profound
influence on Jamal's thinking.

Suddenly he saw
that freedom of expression

was the key to reform
in the Arab world

and especially in Saudi Arabia.

That's where Al-Arab came from.

Jamal saw the opportunity
to create a middle road,

you know, his own channel,

free of government censorship,

but not attacking
the royal family all the time,

and he was aided
by one particular

royal family member,

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal.

And at first, it seemed
like there might be room

for an independent voice
in the kingdom.

Speaking Arabic

Jamal always had
a very good relationship

with Prince Waleed.

You know, the infamous
investor, Mr. Citibank,

that made a lot of money.

So, you know, he's a very
well-known individual

on the international scene

and has always been
an outspoken member

of the Saudi royal family,

but at the same time, again,
very much like Jamal,

always very much
within the construct

of the loyalty to the king

and to his country and so forth.

Speaking Arabic

Jamal was so hopeful
about Al-Arab.

He was trying to hire
the best and brightest.

Anyone who worked
in Arab media knew of him,

and even if you didn't agree

with his positions over time,

it's hard not to admire Jamal.

Stand by, camera one.
Stand by, sound.

Cue.

Al-Arab news channel

was gonna have
the best of everything.

Even the owner,
Prince Waleed bin Talal,

even he was aiming to be,

if not number one, number two

as-as-as-as a start.

Jamal was very confident

of the vision of the station

and that he had the backing
of the royal family.

We were all ready to launch on
the first of February, 2015,

and everybody had that energy.

You know, when the...
when you launch a station,

there's always this...
an energy that comes with it.

For Jamal,
there was so much hope.

Al-Arab was his last
great passion project.

Speaking Arabic

In six, five,

four, three, two, one.

Go,.

Speaking Arabic

I turned around,
and I said, "Jamal, we did it.

You can relax now."

speaking Arabic

I had my show
at eleven o'clock at night.

I went back home,
thinking, "Okay,

tomorrow we have to get up;
tomorrow's the next day.

We have to start again."

I had my phone ringing.

I look at the phone,
I said, "Shit."

Gentlemen came to the station,

to the master control room,
and they said

we need to stop the broadcast.

They are really
asking us to shut down.

We can't have anything
on the air.

They ask to broadcast
just black.

And, uh, that was it.

Just three days
before the shutdown,

a new king took the throne.

Was that transition the issue?

Um...

yep.

That-that was it. That was it.

King Abdullah dies,

and the new king is Salman,
and no one really expects

there to be any profound change.

But within the first 60 days,

things began to change
pretty quickly.

The king,
first thing he did was,

he made his son
the defense minister,

and he began
to pretty radically change

the way the Saudi government
was structured.

King Salman
wanted to cut the wings

of anyone else
in the royal family

and keep everything inside
his own immediate family,

especially his son.

Mohammed bin Salman
was not even 30 years old.

He was basically
an unknown commodity,

so there was something fishy

about the whole thing
from the start.

Chanting in Arabic

Many people, myself included,

recognized that this
was potentially

a very dangerous
and difficult transition.

I tend to think
that Saudi Arabia

is more stable most of the time

than most people do,

but even I certainly recognized

that this was a real
potential problem.

You had this sense of foreboding

of, what's gonna happen here?

We were concerned.

King Salman's
first act of censorship

was shutting down Al-Arab.

And Jamal, I think,

was caught short by it.

And it's notable
that the enforcer

of this first act of censorship

was a man named Saud al-Qahtani.

Saud al-Qahtani
came into the royal court

as a media secretary,

and then his relationship
evolved there

and he basically
starting attacking,

organizing campaigns against
columnists, journalists,

what have you.

But more will come out
on Saud al-Qahtani's role

in the future,
because he ended up being

quite influential.

Al-Qahtani would tell
the editors

what they can write
and what they cannot write,

telling them,
"Put this on the front page.

Put this on the front,"
and Jamal,

he was very uncomfortable
with it.

I mean, you're a journalist.

Imagine if every two minutes,
someone's sending you

a message from the White House
telling you, you know,

"Don't write this. Write this.

Put this on the front.
You can't take this"...

I mean, this is
what was happening.

It was 2016,
and MBS had really started

getting his hands
onto the press.

And there was a group in Yemen

who have always been
antagonists of Saudi Arabia.

And so MBS, as defense minister,

basically decides
to go into Yemen

and take these-these guys on.

Speaking Arabic

The Saudi invasion of Yemen

would never happen without MBS.

MBS was using
the invasion of Yemen

as a means
of consolidating power,

as a means of getting
the armed forces

really under him.

To Yemen now,
breaking overnight,

Yemen erupting,
and Saudi Arabia,

backed by a ten-nation
coalition,

launching air strikes.

The U.S. is providing

logistical and intelligence
support.

The war in Yemen was essential

to the rise
of Mohammed bin Salman.

And they thought
that they can go to Yemen

couple of month, finish the war,

declare victory,

and then he will be the person

who is liked, loved, admired

in the Sunni Muslim world.

Speaking Arabic

speaking Arabic

speaking Arabic

Tens of thousands
of people have been killed.

They've bombed hospitals,

UN facilities, refugee camps.

Fifty thousand children
have starved to death.

America has assisted
in this genocide.

Not only have we supplied
the weapons,

we refueled the bombers
and the fighter planes.

We trained them.

In the Arab world, it's known as

the Saudi-American War on Yemen.

The war in Yemen

was a real humanitarian
catastrophe.

There had been other issues
that we were aware of.

Saudi Arabia had detained
a number of bloggers

and journalists.

They'd also had
a mass execution of Shia,

including some prominent
Shia clerics.

Speaking Arabic

shouting in Arabic

Our last trip
was in April of 2016.

Thank you very much,
Your Majesty.

President Obama
started to urge King Salman

to release
some of these bloggers

and journalists,
and with that...

Mr. President...

...MBS stands up

and begins to lecture
President Obama, saying,

"You don't understand
the Saudi justice system.

Maybe we can get you a briefing
on the Saudi justice system

and how it works."

This was a very aggressive
presentation,

and I've-I've never seen
anything like this.

I mean, it's very unusual
for anybody

other than the president's
interlocutor to talk at all.

It's certainly unusual
for them to stand up

and kind of lecture the
president of the United States.

Thank you for your hospitality.

Our view was, they're clearly

waiting for whoever's next.

It is my high honor
to introduce to you

the president of the United
States of America,

Donald Trump.

I'm with you,
the American people.

So Jamal put out
a series of tweets

being critical of Trump,

and then we got a warning.

There was an official
statement put out

by the foreign ministry
where they basically said

that Jamal and I
didn't represent

the Saudi government, pft,

which is, okay, fine,

but that, I took as, you know,

things are different now.

You know, there's
new guys in town.

Uh, it's time to be quiet.

Speaking Arabic

Saud al-Qahtani called him.

Told him, "You can't write.
You can't speak.

You can't tweet.
You can't do anything."

And I said,
"Let's just stop this.

There's no point in continuing.

Clearly, we've become
persona non grata."

Jamal was very upset about it.

He had a big name.
He was like, "What do I do?"

What will you do?

Like, will you be able
to go back to Saudi Arabia?

In principle, I can,

uh, but when I, uh, see how
many of my colleagues ended,

either, uh, jailed
or banned from travel, uh,

I-I-I...

uh, I think otherwise.

Speaking Arabic

Jamal messaged me
from a new U.S. number.

He dropped off some bags
to hold at my apartment.

It's hard for me
to talk about Jamal

leaving Saudi Arabia because...

it pained him

literally until the end.

Alaa was so upset with him,

and she had choices to make

because she had a travel ban

placed on her.

And it was impossible
to reconcile

because there was
no way out of this.

As long as she
was married to him,

there was no other option.

The thing that I hope
that Alaa knows

is how much he loved her

and regretted the end
of their marriage.

Jamal and I
were talking on the phone,

and he was very lonely.

You could see
that he was-he was...

he had made a huge sacrifice
in his personal life.

Unfortunately,
many think the people

of the Arab world
are not ready yet

for that luxury of choosing
their own leader,

and that's what we are
lacking until today.

Can I just jump in, one thing?

We shouldn't pass too quickly
over some of these reforms

being very important to
the future of that country...

But it was surprising to me

that we had such different takes

on Mohammed bin Salman.

I saw him as a reformer.

Let me introduce the vision

behind something
of a revolution.

Please welcome to the stage,
ladies and gentlemen,

His Royal Highness

Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

I found it to be utterly bizarre

that at a time when this guy

is clearly cracking down
on dissent,

is, you know,
involved in this kind of

rash war in Yemen
that is killing people

and precipitating famine,

that he's getting great press
in the United States.

Begin with Saudi Aramco,
a strong public debut

after raising a record
25.6 billion in the IPO.

But of course,
the U.S. business community

was drooling over, you know,
an Aramco public offering

that could be worth
trillions of dollars.

Mohammed bin Salman
was vetted in Washington,

New York City, Hollywood,

Silicon Valley.

Every major aspect

of American power

rolled out the red carpet
for this guy.

Mohammed bin Salman
is a trillionaire,

and that's all these people saw.

Jamal Khashoggi's voice
was important,

because it was one of the only
dissenting voices.

I still see him as a reformer,

but he is gathering
all power within his hand,

and it would be much better
for him

to allow a breathing space
for critic,

for Saudi intellectuals,
Saudi writers,

Saudi media to debate.

Uh, we've become
very good friends

over a fairly short
period of time,

and we are bringing back
hundreds of billions of dollars

into the United States...

Trump recognized a kinship.

They're rich
and entitled people.

They found common ground.

And the kingdom saw him
as a benefactor,

a kind of stooge they could use.

...million dollars,
that's peanuts for you.

Thank you, Mr. President.

And so Mohammed bin Salman

became Trump's man,

Trump's man in the Middle East.

Trump's first trip as president

is to Saudi Arabia,
which is totally bizarre.

I mean, uh, every U.S. president

goes to Canada or Mexico.

To go to Saudi Arabia
on your first trip...

...this-this is insane.

And when I saw
that famous picture

of Trump and Sisi
and King Salman

with, like, the orb,
I mean, it...

...that said it all.

You know, Egypt's General Sisi

is a brutal dictator,

and King Salman killed

the promise of the Arab Spring.

So clearly, Trump was for sale.

I mean, the Saudi ambassadors
are going around here

telling everybody
that they've got

Jared and Ivanka
in their pocket.

Chanting in Arabic

Whatever MBS's wish list was,

Trump was saying yes to.

So it was pretty clear
that there's

going to come
a point of reckoning.

Speaking Arabic

The massive purge of princes

and one of the world's
best-known billionaires

all arrested by a man
who would be a king,

a man emboldened
by President Trump.

On November 4, 2017,

these raids took place
all over Saudi Arabia.

Many of the most prominent
businessmen,

intellectuals were rounded up,
hundreds of them,

and put in the Ritz-Carlton
in Riyadh.

And they were held for weeks,

interrogated, tortured.

Many of them were hospitalized.

One guy, his neck was broken.

His body was covered
with electrical burns.

He was a general.

They were shaken down
by Mohammed bin Salman's man,

Saud al-Qahtani.

That was a coup.

Saudi Arabia
had different factions

inside the royal family.

Each one of these factions
have connections

to economic elite,
to business elite.

You have
the religious establishment.

But Mohammed bin Salman decided

that there's only one faction

in the house of Saud,
and it's him.

The ripple effect from Al-Waleed

being arrested was tremendous.

Stock prices moved.

It was seismic.

Prince Al-Waleed
is an important investor,

the most well-known member
of the royal family

outside the kingdom,

very firmly within
the center of power.

Prince Al-Waleed
had been Jamal's patron.

And suddenly, you see on TV
that he is powerless.

This is my Diet Pepsi.

He is praising his kidnapper

and telling everybody

that he's been treated
very well.

And all these rumors
really upset me.

- Okay.
- I mean, because now,

they-they went so far.

All lies.

You know, I've been always, uh,

all the time here,
at this hotel,

and, um,
everything has been fine.

When I talked to Jamal last,

he said he got out just in time.

He would no doubt have been
in the Ritz-Carlton,

maybe in far worse
circumstances.

Speaking Arabic

Jamal was very sad.

He lost hope.

I said, "No, take it easy.

You're free now.

You can express your opinion.

You have a freedom,

because not to say your opinion

about what's happening,
that will kill you."

I know Jamal for ten years.

And we become closer and closer.

I have a habit
to wake him up every day

seven o'clock in the morning
because he was lonely.

He was isolated.

This went for a while

until the middle of 2017,

he sent to me a message.

He said, "Hanan,
come and stay with me.

Come, and they won't see you."

I was very happy.

He's the man I wished,

but I didn't have a courage
to express it before

because he was married.

First time I managed
to come and see him,

it was to celebrate
his birthday in March.

Well, it was his half-birthday
party in March,

and he was dating

a really wonderful woman.

It was always fun
to have Jamal happy.

When we got married,

it was the most beautiful
day in my life,

and I will never forget.

I think I'm in a dream.

But he was very loyal
to the Kingdom of Saudi,

so he was feeling very bad
because he lost his hope.

He decide he have
to express himself.

Fall of 2017,

Jamal was in self-imposed exile.

We met,

and he gave me
the biggest bear hug.

It was really, really warm,
and then he started crying.

He said, "I left my country.

I left my family behind
for freedom,

just to be free.

And no one knows what that
feels like more than you."

I learned later

that his first
Washington Post article

was published that hour.

"Saudi Arabia wasn't always

this repressive,"
by Jamal Khashoggi.

We spend endless hours
on the phone

trying to understand
the wave of arrests.

Are we going to be the core
of the Saudi diaspora?

Al-Hayat canceled my column.

The government
banned me from Twitter.

I spent six months silent,

reflecting on
the stark choices before me.

Years ago, when several
friends were arrested,

I said nothing.

I have made
a different choice now.

I have left my home,

my family, and my job,

and I am raising my voice.

He wrote that first piece.

Next day, his ex-wife calls me,

says, "Look what he just did."

Which, I was like, "But, Jamal,
we just talked.

What's going on?"

Clearly, something
had gone very wrong.

He had kept this very secret.

That shocked a lot of us,

and when it came
to Saudi Arabia,

I always believed
that his loyalty was strong

to his country and to his king.

I felt that I had been betrayed.

Jamal expressed his opinion

from Washington,
the seat of power,

writing in the voice of empire,

The Washington Post.

That could not be tolerated.

He started writing
this, saying these things,

and then all these weird people

started getting to know him.

You know, uh, started to,
you know, hang around with him,

tweet things about him.

It became very bizarre.

Mr. Khashoggi
was publishing articles

that were critical
of the Saudi regime,

and so we called him
to request a meeting.

Jamal Khashoggi
knew a lot of information

about al-Qaeda
and Saudi support for al-Qaeda.

So we wanted to talk to him.

The meeting
with our investigator

was the morning of October 26th

in the Virginia area.

This was a preliminary meeting.

It became clear
that Mr. Khashoggi

had a lot to say.

The morning
that he's going to meet

with the investigator,
he gets a call from his son

in Saudi Arabia saying
that their travel permits

had been taken away.

So essentially,
the Saudi authorities

know that he's meeting
with this investigator,

and his children
are being held hostage.

The first thing
Mr. Khashoggi indicated

was the recent news
about his son's

inability to travel,
which upset him.

I used to be
a federal prosecutor,

and we had informants
that elected to testify

against their coconspirators.

If Jamal Khashoggi
had been an insider,

and he was, and had information

that could be helpful to us

and was willing to meet
with us and discuss it,

that is a serious threat
to the Saudi government.

The question is, to what extent

was the Saudi government
and the royal family

entangled with al-Qaeda?

Well, they were.

Going back before al-Qaeda,

they were funding
the mujahideen,

and King Salman
was the principal bundler

of all these contributions
to the mujahideen

and then later to al-Qaeda.

Jamal would have known
about that.

Jamal worked with Prince Turki,

who had been the head
of intelligence,

and he facilitated
these meetings

with bin Laden in Afghanistan.

And who knows
what bin Laden told him?

I mean, is there a person
in the whole world

that knows more
about this relationship

than Jamal Khashoggi?

I don't think so.

The Saudis claimed
that they enjoyed immunity

even if all our allegations
were true.

They hired lobbyists
in Washington,

and Saud al-Qahtani's name
appears on some of the forms.

His official title
had something to do

with media and public relations,

but the easiest way
to describe him

is-is MBS's henchman.

Qahtani, on behalf
of the crown prince,

hired the lobbyists

specifically
to kill this lawsuit.

Jamal Khashoggi agreed
to a follow-up meeting.

He agreed to come to our
office here in New York.

What he would say and what he
would be willing to disclose,

we'll never know.

Saud al-Qahtani
unleashed hell on Jamal...

The trolls, the bots,
whatever they are,

the turning of friends
and former colleagues...

All of that.

He was threatened
and intimidated all the time.

Of course it was orchestrated.

And Jamal knew that.

It was November of 2017.

We were on our way
to grab dinner,

and he says, "Guess what.

Saud al-Qahtani
sent me a DM on Twitter.

Yeah, he wants to talk."

And you can hear the fear
in his voice.

He answers the call,
puts it on speaker.

Saud al-Qahtani starts off,

says, "I am calling on behalf
of His Royal Highness

Mohammed bin Salman.

He's watching.
He follows your work."

So Jamal, he says,

"Please send my warmest regards

to His Royal Highness

and convey to him

that when there are
positive reforms happening,

we will most definitely
welcome them.

When there are transgressions,
we will be critical."

This was a moment
that I realized

this is a noble man;
this is a courageous man.

This man was very serious

about the evolution
that he was making.

If you hear Jamal was faithful

to the Kingdom of Saudi,
this is the truth.

He used to defend them.

But he think his duty
is to advise,

to say his opinion

before things lead
to a bad stage.

Jamal had asked me
to be on the lookout,

kind of play matchmaker.

And I tried; I tried
connecting him to someone.

He was very, very lonely.

He had just gotten a divorce.

I didn't know about Hanan.

After we got married,

Jamal want to spend
as much time together.

He doesn't want anyone
to take him away from me,

and that's why
we don't even like

to go and spend long time out.

We want to be just together
away from people.

If you interview
anybody that tells you

that they know every aspect
of Jamal's life,

they are 100% lying to you.

Jamal chose what information

he shared with each person.

This will be broadcasted
in a few days,

not, uh, right away, right?

It'll be, um...

It'll go on air, uh,
Tuesday night, actually,

the night that, um,
MBS is in Washington.

- All right.
- It will be after...

after MBS has met, uh, Trump.

All right.

He knew what the stakes were,

and knowing all of those stakes

and then still deciding
to go ahead

and speak freely

was very courageous of him.

And why did you self-exile?

I just felt, uh,
whatever narrow space I had

was getting narrower,
and I just thought

it was better for me to leave.

And, uh, actually,
right after I left, uh,

arrests began to happen.

Many of my acquaintances,
friends, colleagues

were rounded up, and, uh-uh,

I-I always regret
being away from home,

but when, uh-uh, I see
what happened to them,

I-I think I did
the right choice, uh,

even though it is very hurtful
to be away from home.

My way of consoling him was,

"Don't worry.

There's a lot of people
like you.

There's an entire community
of folks in exile.

And so you'll find comfort
in that community."

But he didn't find
that community

out here in Washington.

Speaking Arabic

June 5, 2018,

in this age of error,

an Arab intellectual
rushes to praise the prisons,

to write against the Spring.

Another burns
the last of his history

and his forbidden books.

He says, "We are not ready

for democracy and freedom."

It anguishes me to speak
with other Saudi friends

in Istanbul
who are also in self-exile.

I expect that I will
still wake up every morning

and ponder the choice
I have made

to speak my mind.

We are being asked
to abandon any hope

of political freedoms.

This is a Faustian bargain
that I will not make.

We are the kingdom of silence
no longer.

Jamal in this time,
he was in Istanbul.

Istanbul, it's very open city

for different Arabic background,

and there is a lot
of activity there.

He always go,
and he have friends there.

I called him
when he was in Istanbul,

and he said, "By the way,
I might be doing

three weeks in Istanbul,
three weeks in D.C."

So then I was like, "Oh, it
looks like you found someone."

And then he was like,
"Yeah, I did.

I really like her.

We're gonna get married soon.

I'll tell you all about it
when I get back."

I didn't know about Hatice.

I knew about Hanan.

But I-I didn't know
they had gotten married.

So I'll say this.

I think if you understand
the loneliness of that man

in that last year...

...I think things
that you can judge

so easily from outside...

...become a bit more nuanced.

Last call between me and Jamal,

he called to wish me
happy birthday.

My birthday is 30 September,

which is two days
before he disappear.

He messaged from Istanbul.

He said to me, "What if I just
go away to a desert island

for a couple weeks,
couple years?"

You know, he would-he would
come to me and say things like

he was doubting his resolve,
and he knew how I would react.

You know, a slap to the head.

"Jamal."

I remember saying these words,

'cause they will
forever haunt me.

I said, "You are in a war,

and you can't give up.

You can't disappear."

Those are the last words

I said to him,

and I had no idea

what I was even talking about.

So on the 28th of September,

uh, Jamal Khashoggi
and his fiancée, Hatice,

go to the consulate to get

an administrative piece
of paper for their marriage.

They tell him to come back

on the second of October
and that on that day,

they'll have the document
that he needs.

So the Turkish authorities
had somehow bugged

the Saudi consulate,

and almost immediately,
there are phone calls

between the consulate
in Istanbul

and, uh, Riyadh.

And in the first call,

it's a security attaché

who speaks to an intelligence
officer, Mutreb.

Mutreb explained
that Mr. Jamal Khashoggi

is indeed someone
that is being "sought"

and that they should proceed

with some kind
of, uh-of mission.

This special operation

involved 15 people.

Saud al-Qahtani met the team

before they left for Turkey

on the Saudi government's
private plane.

And Mutreb was leading the team,

and like every other member
of the kill team,

he's a member
of the Saudi intelligence.

Mutreb in particular

had accompanied the crown price

on some of this missions,

and he was someone
who worked closely

with Saud al-Qahtani.

Yes, it was Maher.

Maher was a, uh...
was an intelligence officer

that worked at the Saudi embassy

in, uh, London at that time.

He was there when we were there,

and, uh, I introduced them
at one of our

afternoon teas together.

We were colleagues
more than anything,

you know, and from time
to time, Maher would join us.

To be fair, he was a nice guy.

Jamal Khashoggi
enters the consulate at 1:14.

He is directed to the office
of the consul.

He enters and finds
many people in that room,

and so you can hear surprise

because Mutreb

and Jamal Khashoggi
knew each other.

So when Jamal entered
the consul office

and saw Mutreb,
he did express some surprise,

but he welcomes Mutreb
in fairly warm terms.

The conversation
turns very quickly.

Mutreb is saying, "Don't
make it difficult for us."

And you can hear the fear

in the voice of Jamal Khashoggi.

Speaking Arabic

The doctor himself
explained to Mutreb

that it will be easy
to dismember the body.

Joints will be separated.
It should not be a problem.

At 3 p.m.,

CCTV captured people

leaving the consulate
with plastic bags

with the remain
of Mr. Khashoggi.

The body parts were carried out

in several bags and handed over

to other individuals
who carried them

into the car.

And at 3:50, those same camera

record a member of the kill team

leaving the consulate
accompanied by someone else.

This man puts on
Jamal Khashoggi's clothes,

puts a fake beard.

Could not put on the shoes.

They didn't fit.

And it was the shoes
that prompted

the intelligence, uh, services

when they reviewed all the CCTV

to say that's not Jamal.

But this is meant to pretend

that Khashoggi
left the consulate,

and we do not know

where Jamal remains are.

Speaking Arabic

chanting in Arabic

chanting in Arabic

Knowing what I know
about Saudi Arabia,

there is no way
that that horrific act

was carried out
without the blessing

and direction from the very top
of the Saudi government.

There's just no way.

Senators
from both sides of the aisle

are receiving the CIA briefing
they have been demanding.

There's not a smoking gun.
There's a smoking saw.

You have to be willfully blind

not to come to the conclusion

that this was orchestrated
and organized

by people in-under
the command of MBS.

Mr. President,
why are you siding

with the Saudis over your own
intelligence community?

Because
it's America first to me.

It's all about America first.

We're not gonna give up
hundreds of billions of dollars

in orders and let Russia, China,

and everybody else have them.

It's all about, for me,
very simple,

it's America first.

Saudi Arabia can't exist

without the United States.

Their security guarantor
for decades

has been the United States.

The U.S. was in some way
responsible

for this man's death,

because the sense of impunity

we give Mohammed bin Salman

with this red carpet
treatment that he got

and the embrace from Trump

and nobody really pushing back,

I think he thought he could
get away with anything,

and he was right.

And it's just
disgusting to see him

kind of grinning and
shaking hands with this guy

who just chopped up
another human being.

Good afternoon, everyone.

This hearing
for the Subcommittee

on Africa, Global Health,
Global Human Rights,

and International Organizations
will come to order.

I note that a quorum is present.

We have both
political and economic reasons

to maintain a relationship
with Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia
is a strategic ally,

and I do think that outweighs
the death of one person.

Yes, it does.

So there's
a paid political commercial

for Mohammed bin Salman,
but, uh, you know,

I-I believe that,
so any event, there you go.

I thought that needed
to be said.

Ms. Cengiz.

Speaking Arabic

Oh, Jamal.

Speaking Arabic

The best justice
for him is a young person

reading his writing,

knowing about him...

...being sure that those
that want him to be forgotten,

that they will not win.

Well, you know,
Jamal was a friend and, uh...

...America and the kingdom

have a toxic relationship,

and it poisons not only
our own societies,

but it's spread
all over the world.

The chaos, the wars...

America's had
a big hand in that.

And Jamal's been
in the middle of that

from his earliest days.

He embodied, in some ways,
that relationship.

But this contradiction

became so nakedly obvious,
you had to choose.

Which side are you on?

The revolution is over.

Its most important values...

Freedom, dignity,
and the right to life...

Have fallen by the wayside.

The majority is unmoved
by the sight of the dead

when they belong
to the other side.

Divisions have even emerged

between the detained,
the refugee, the cynic,

and the dead that were never
celebrated as martyrs.

I can imagine a young man
returning home,

exhausted and bloodied.

He weeps for his dead brethren.

Before going to bed
after Thursday's dawn prayers,

the young man
murmurs to himself,

"The revolution
is not over yet."

The will of the people
is still the law.

A new generation
must take the lead

and look to the future,
not the past.

One of the most beautiful
things I have ever heard

is the call of the Prophet.

In the beginning,
it is a call to freedom.

That dream of freedom
is alive in us,

ready to emerge again

with the first sounds
of emancipation.