According to a CIA assessment, 59-year-old Jamal Khashoggi was killed in October 2018 by a hit squad whose mission was approved by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. However, Riyadh claims it was a rogue operation and that it has already punished the offenders.
A new podcast raises questions about slain Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and his relationship with a close family friend – al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden – with whom he traveled to Afghanistan in the 1980s. Was bin Laden simply a gateway to a career-launching story, or a brother-in-arms on behalf of Islamic fundamentalism?
“His fault began with his acquaintance with the Egyptian [Islamic] Jihad group, Peshawar, and we used to call them the infidels,” Khashoggi lamented. “Sheikh Abdullah Azzam was an impenetrable dam in the face of Osama and others with advice and gentleness.”
According to the latest episode of Yahoo News' “Conspiracyland” podcast, friends of Khashoggi have described a conflicted man who was at times unsure about condemning bin Laden's terrorist activities in later years, as the two largely shared the same political goals: establishment of an Islamic state.
‘A Beautiful Thing to Me'
Bin Laden had traveled to the Central Asian country as early as 1980 for the US-backed insurgent war against the socialist Afghan government and its Soviet allies, called into the country in 1979 to save its collapsing authority as soldiers…
