-Jamal Khashoggi is one of Saudi Arabia's
most prominent journalists.
He's been a journalist for 15 years
but has been very well-known to Saudis
for about the last 30 years.
-I first met Jamal about 15 years ago.
I've been trying to think of the exact date
and place, and I can't.
One of my favorite memories of Jamal is January 2011.
The Arab Spring is beginning to ignite,
and he was just electric.
It was a moment that, in a sense,
he'd been waiting for his whole adult life.
-But then, in 2017, he decided
that the increasing repression was too much.
-Why are you a "self-exile"?
Explain that to our viewers.
-Simply because I don't want to be arrested.
-I found his e-mail through a mutual friend
and reached out to him to see
if he wanted to write about the crackdowns in Saudi Arabia.
His op-ed was basically talking about he fled,
and it just sent shock waves through the Arab world
and I think us at the Post.
We at the Post were like, "Whoa".
And I just said, "Look, we got to bring him on board.
We got to recruit him as a global opinions columnist".
-What I'd love people to understand about Jamal
was what a gentle, thoughtful person he was.
-Very nice, very calm, very gentle.
But a very active, active mind.
-I don't think that Jamal Khashoggi ever really wanted
to be a lightening rod
for criticism of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
-I'm not asking for democracy.
I'm asking for people to be allowed to speak.
-Yes. -I'm asking for the minimum.
-He wrote again and again in The Washington Post
about the good things that he thought MBS --
as we call him -- was doing, but he wouldn't compromise
with the bad ways that MBS was making these reforms.
-He wrote about the women being able to finally drive,
and it was a great piece,
but he told me, you know, that he felt sad.
He felt sad that he couldn't be there to see that,
and he said that it feels like not being invited to a party
that you worked so hard to plan.
-The idea that he would be seen as an enemy of the kingdom,
a public antagonist really bothered him.
He wasn't that.
-His wife at the time told that what he was doing was too much,
and she left him.
-I quoted something he wrote in the Post
when he first started with us as an opinions columnist,
and he ended this little segment by saying simply four words --
"We Saudis deserve better".
And I think that's the essence of what Jamal really was saying.
-So, I think that's what hurts about it the most --
he was trying to shed light
and trying to get people to understand his country.
That Tuesday, I started getting a flurry of e-mails
and WhatsApps from mutual friends of ours
pointing us to an Arabic-language website.
It was quotes from his fiancée.
She said that she went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
He went in at 1:00 PM or so and then never came out.
-As an opinion columnist, you know,
I'm not really a reporter, but I'm talking to everybody
that I know who has any connection
with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and with Turkey.
-But it does look like that perhaps what he was saying
was too much for someone in power,
and he may have paid the price for that.
-The United States has a responsibility.
Jamal was living here in the Washington area.
He had applied for permanent residence.
Jamal was a contributor to our newspaper.
He's part of our family.
-As far as the Post, you know, we're not gonna let this go.
We shouldn't let this go.
And his words aren't gone.
They're not going away.