Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the US' diplomatic relationship with Saudi Arabia following the killing of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi. Pompeo flew to Riyadh days after the October 2018 killing and in his book, "Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love," he wrote, "What really made the media madder than a vegan in a slaughterhouse was our relationship with Saudi Arabia," and that "In some ways, I think the President was envious that I was the one who gave the middle finger to The Washington Post, The New York Times and other bed-wetters who didn't have a grip on reality."
The CIA later found that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of Khashoggi, who was lured into the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul, where he was strangled and dismembered.
Pompeo in his book wrote, "This grotesque butchery was outrageous, unacceptable, horrific, sad, despicable, evil, brutish and, of course, unlawful." But he also said, "I'd seen enough of the Middle East to know that this kind of ruthlessness was all too routine in that part of the world."
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Pompeo also disputed that Khashoggi was a "journalist," mocking the media for turning him into a "Saudi Arabian Bob Woodward who was martyred for bravely criticizing the Saudi royal family."
These remarks have been met with condemnation from Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who said she was "horrified and upset," and Washington Post publisher and CEO Fred Ryan, who said it was "shocking and disappointing" to see Pompeo "so outrageously misrepresent" Khashoggi.
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Pompeo insisted that Crown Prince Mohammed was a reformist who "will prove to be one of the most important leaders of his time, a truly historic figure on the world stage."
He also wrote that there should have been more scrutiny of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who criticized Saudi Arabia over the killing. Pompeo wrote that the Turkish leader "had gone full Islamist-authoritarian."
