Divorced From Life

Chase Gagnon, Journalist

The death of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, has been in the news for over a month now. More evidence keeps arising as time passes and the CIA digs further to gather intelligence.  Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi Arabian journalist who visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey to collect divorce documents which would allow him to remarry. He gave his fiancee, Ms. Cengiz,  two mobile phones. She waited 10 hours until she called an advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the following weeks, not much knowledge had been gained of the situation at hand.  It is assumed that he was assassinated inside the building.  The only information that they could go off of was that there were eleven indicted and five facing the death penalty, the recordings that had arisen from the Turkish government, and the Israeli company, Pegasus, who sold spyware to the Saudis.  The CIA had come to the conclusion that “bin Salman ordered the assassination. More recently, based on leaks from the CIA, communications intercepts had detected at least 11 messages between the crown prince and the Saudi official overseeing the operation from Riyadh immediately before, during and after the gruesome murder,” Bill van Auken reported in his article on the World Socialist Website.

 

The assassination is not just another death that the public mourns, but has an effect on relations between countries and the internal politics of countries.  Mr Ames believes, “The activists will become more violent, creating a spiral into chaos.” He also said, “Trump should cut ties of the Arms Deal because it is not a good deal on our part.  The Jihadis hate us both on the Saudi and Yemen sides. The gas prices have gone up and down in the past week.” He referred to the Yemen War that provided us with no benefits in aiding the Saudis.  The Senate had proposed legislation ending aid to the Saudis in the Yemen War, which had majority support in the vote of 63-37. This legislation has to go through the House of Representatives, which has a republican majority, and President Trump, who had given a sign that he would veto the measure.  

The criminals are being prosecuted under the Saudi government.  Mr. Krieger, who teaches criminal justice and government, commented on the legality of the situation.  He believes that under U.S. law, the Israeli company, Pegasus, should be held accountable for their actions of selling spyware to the Saudi government, resulting in the death of Jamal Khashoggi.  Mrs. Mcshane shared what she thought about other journalists pursuing the dangerous duty of exposing the Saudi government. She thought that, “Fear will drive individuals away from the job. Money will drive [others] to expose the government more than the actual merit of doing so.”

A few students added their input on the aftermath of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.  Evan Antonakes, an IHS senior, thought that, “Ties shouldn’t be totally cut.” Declan O’flynn, an IHS senior,  believes, “Yes [the United States is getting too involved], but the U.S. gets involved in everything and this particular instance, it is not a bad thing. There has been an international outcry against this which is good, but again I think there needs to be a mass anti-war movement against this awful war we are funding and fueling because that is much worse than the killing of Khashoggi, which is awful too.” He concluded with his thoughts on the Israeli company, Pegasus, and their role in Khashoggi’s death.  He stated, “No, they didn’t know how they would use the spyware to do that.”

The conclusions of the murder are developing as time progresses and the CIA keep digging for evidence. Will the truth will eventually rise of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi or will the mere coverup prevail?