David Bell

The brutal murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Now, Jamal, if you haven't heard much about this guy, he came from almost as rarefied a social circle as Mohammed bin Salman himself.

His grandfather, a doctor, had treated MBS's grandfather, the king.

He was a close relative to billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who was involved in like 80% of the shady deals that took place in the 1990s.

Jamal got involved in the Muslim Brotherhood while in college, and he worked as a journalist for an English-language paper out of Jeddah once he graduated.

He winds up on the ground floor of reporting on the Mujahideen's resistance to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Khashoggi arguably crossed the line from reporter to participant during at least one part of the conflict.

He became a well-known figure within the world of Islamic militancy and secured an invitation to talk with another influential Saudi militant, Osama bin Laden, right?

So this is a journalist who's reporting on this jihad against the Soviets.

He at least at one point crosses from being a journalist to being a combatant.

And as a result, he has a lot of clout with these other militants.

And so he gets to hang out with bin Laden.

Now, ultimately, Khashoggi winds up disillusioned by the failure of the revolution in Afghanistan.

He had been a guy who had hoped we'll create something better than what had existed before if we can get the Soviets out.

And instead, we get the Taliban.

And Khashoggi is not delusional.

He can see the Taliban is bad.

And so he comes home being like, well, that didn't fucking work.

Right?

Yeah.