JUDY WOODRUFF: In early
October, 2018, Washington
Post columnist and Saudi
national Jamal Khashoggi
walked into Saudi Arabia's
consulate in Istanbul,
Turkey, in pursuit of
documents for his impending
marriage.
He did not know he was the one
being pursued. His brutal murder
there became a global story.
He was perhaps the most
high-profile critic of
his homeland's monarchy.
Now a new film charts his
life, his grisly death, his
legacy, and where Saudi Arabia
is right now.
Here's Nick Schifrin.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Jamal Khashoggi's
murder snuffed out a critic
of today's Saudi government.
Two years later, his allies are
trying to ensure his silenced
voice can still be heard.
A new film shows a
complex man who never
completed his final act.
Lawrence Wright is a writer
and the executive producer
of "Kingdom of Silence."
LAWRENCE WRIGHT, Executive
Producer, "Kingdom of
Silence": I see Jamal's
life in three acts,
just like a classical drama.
NICK SCHIFRIN: That first act
was in Afghanistan, covering the
U.S.-backed Mujahideen fighting
the Soviet Union. Khashoggi
helped make the leading Arab
anti-Russian fighter famous.
JAMAL KHASHOGGI, The Washington
Post: I do not deny that I
had sympathy toward Afghan
cause, because I myself come
out from Islamic circles. And
it was a big story, which kind
of made my name in the
field of journalism.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But after 9/11,
Khashoggi turned against bin
Laden's manipulated version of
Islam. Khashoggi wrote
this, as read by an actor:
ACTOR: "We must ensure that our
children can never be influenced
by extremist ideas, like
those 15 Saudis who were misled
into piloting them and all
of us into the jaws of hell."
NICK SCHIFRIN: Khashoggi
joined the Saudi government and
championed U.S.-Saudi relations,
including the war in Iraq, but
then his third act. The Arab
Spring birthed his belief in
freedom of speech as the
key to regional reform.
He started a news channel
called Al Arab designed
to give Saudis access to
uncensored information.
But the new Saudi King Salman,
and his son, Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS,
rejected Al Arab and
free media as a threat.
Khashoggi had to flee
Saudi Arabia. He watched
as MBS persecuted his
critics and tolerated
no dissent.
Saudi activist Yahya Assiri
spoke at a recent Project on
Middle East Democracy event.
YAHYA ASSIRI, Saudi
Activist; If you go, for
example, to challenge
the regime, to criticize
the regime, they will
take you to prison.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Khashoggi became
an MBS critic in the pages of
The Washington Post and wrote
this:
ACTOR: "Saudi Arabia wasn't
always this repressive.
I have left my home,
my family, and my job.
And I am raising my voice."
NICK SCHIFRIN: That cost him
his life. He walked into the
Saudi consulate in Istanbul
and was murdered by Saudi
agents close to MBS. One even
put on Khashoggi's clothes and
walked out of the
consulate to try and
deceive the CCTV cameras.
SARAH LEAH WHITSON, Democracy
for the Arab World Now: This
kind of grotesque barbarism,
having some guy trot out his
clothes, it was just too much.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Sarah
Leah Whitson is a human
rights advocate, and
was a longtime friend
of Khashoggi's. Last week,
she relaunched an organization
that Khashoggi created.
NARRATOR: DAWN, Democracy
for the Arab World Now.
SARAH LEAH WHITSON: The only
solution that will bring lasting
peace and ability, security,
prosperity, but also dignity,
to the people of the region
was democracy and human rights.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Initially, MBS
was considered a reformer. On a
2018 U.S. tour, he met Silicon
Valley executives, the
U.N. secretary-general,
and President Trump.
DONALD TRUMP, President of
the United States: We have
become very good friends.
NICK SCHIFRIN: For the Trump
administration, MBS has helped
lead an anti-Iran alliance
and bought American weapons,
including for the Saudi-backed
war in Yemen that has killed
tens of thousands of civilians.
Back home, MBS has ushered in
dramatic reforms, trying to curb
the conservative clergy's power
and allowing women to attend
movies and sporting events.
LAWRENCE WRIGHT: Jamal believed
that MBS offering some freedom,
some reforms, and taking away
others. The one that he was
taking away was perhaps the most
valuable, which was the ability
to speak, to have an opinion.
NICK SCHIFRIN: DAWN is designed
to document those restrictions
and call out governments
who support Arab autocrats.
SARAH LEAH WHITSON: We need
to focus very specifically on
the way in which the American
people, the American citizenry
are enabling and promoting a
dictatorship and tyranny in
the Middle East.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The Saudi
government said it punished
Khashoggi's murderers.
But human rights organizations
say Saudi senior officials and
the man the CIA assessed likely
ordered the murder walked free.
LAWRENCE WRIGHT: I hoped that
there would be some kind of
accountability, but there's
not. At the governmental
level, there's just not.
SARAH LEAH WHITSON: While
judicial justice evaded us,
MBS has paid a huge price, and
in the court of public opinion,
he has been found guilty.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Last month, a
group of Saudis in exile formed
the country's first opposition
party. The group hopes
to institute democracy
as a form of government
in the kingdom. That's
not expected anytime soon,
but Wright believes Saudi's
ruling family faces reckoning.
LAWRENCE WRIGHT: People are
beginning to wonder, do we
really need these people?
I think, at that point,
Saudi Arabia's going to
face a terrible crisis,
and it would have
done better if Jamal had been
here to help show them the way.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Khashoggi didn't
live to see that final act,
but his death helped guarantee
that the conversation he
started in life will continue.
For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm Nick Schifrin.