Turkey alleges assassins came for Saudi journalist in consulate

Jamal Khashoggi was a journalist critical of the Saudi regime

Today's expression: Paint a picture
Explore more: Lesson #97
October 25, 2018:

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by a team of assasins in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, according to allegations made by the Turkish government. Saudi Arabia disputes the story, saying he died in a fight. But details paint a dark picture of what happened to the journalist in exile, and the story has roiled international relations in the last few weeks. Learn how to use "paint a picture" to describe details of a story.

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The sad story of what happened to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi continues to change.

Turkey has revealed new details about the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and they are pretty disturbing.

Welcome to Plain English, episode 97 for October 25, 2018. I’m Jeff in Chicago. The producer of the show is JR; he’s in Mexico City. As always, a transcript of the program, complete with translations of key words and phrases, can be found online. Just go to PlainEnglish.com/97 to read the transcript as you listen.

And a quick reminder that Plain English listeners can get a free audiobook by signing up for a free trial at Audible. You can read the details of that offer by going to PlainEnglish.com/book. Here’s how it works. Audible is a subscription service, so for $15 a month, you get one audiobook every month. But if you just want to try it out, you can sign up for a free trial and get a free audiobook to keep forever. And if you don’t want to pay after all, just cancel within a month and you’ll get to keep your first book. They have all the Harry Potter books on there, plus a lot of new books, children’s books, all kinds of audiobooks. That won’t be for everyone, but if you’re looking for a new challenge, that could be a good option for you.

All right, with that out of the way, now let’s get going on today’s main topic.


Disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi either left his country’s consulate in Turkey alive, died inside as a result of a fistfight, or was murdered by a team of assassins from Saudi Arabia, depending on the changing and conflicting versions of the story. What’s known for sure is that Khashoggi, a journalist who was critical of Saudi Arabia, went into his country’s consulate for an administrative task, and he is no longer alive.

This has turned into an international incident. Security footage showed Khashoggi walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the capital of Turkey. There is no footage showing him coming out. For days, Saudi Arabia insisted that Khashoggi left the consulate alive, despite the fact that security footage did not show him leaving. Then, the Saudi regime abruptly changed its story, saying that the journalist died in a brawl—a fight, basically, that broke out inside the embassy.

Khashoggi went to his country’s consulate to get a marriage license that would let him marry his fiancée. It was a tremendous risk and a fatal mistake. He had become a powerful critic of the Saudi Arabian government, which does not tolerate dissent within its borders. Khashoggi had fled his native country and was a permanent resident of the United States. He had two million followers on Twitter and was one of the most visible critics of the Saudi regime in the Arab world. He was a frequent guest on American and British television.

And now he is dead. The Saudi government’s first explanation—that he left the embassy alive—was impossible based on security camera footage. Its latest explanation, that he died in a fight, seems implausible to many observers. Turkey says that a group of 15 men carrying Saudi diplomatic passports arrived in Turkey the same day that Khashoggi went into the consulate. They arrived on a private plane and their caravan of limos got to the consulate just before Khashoggi did.

Turkish officials say the men were there to torture and kill the journalist. Turkey says that the assassins dismembered Khashoggi’s body, packed it in boxes, and sped away with it in a caravan. The 15 people are now gone. That would explain why he was seen entering, not seen leaving, and why there is no trace of him inside. His body has still not been found.

There are plenty of unverified reports from newspapers and other sources coming out that paint a dark picture of what happened. Turkey’s press reported that some of the 15 men who arrived at the consulate were members of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s personal security detail. If true, that would connect this murder to Saudi Arabia’s leader. An American newspaper said one of the men was a forensic expert and brought a bone saw. Turkish officials say they have audio evidence showing Khashoggi’s body was dismembered. Documents from the United States showed that Saudi Arabia has been trying to lure Khashoggi back within its borders for some time; they finally used the marriage license as a reason to get him to come into the consulate.

If this is how it happened, it would be a daring murder of a prominent international journalist. It is a sad fact of life that some governments intimidate, imprison and even kill journalists inside their own countries; this, however, happened outside Saudi Arabia. It would also be a stain on the reputation of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. He is the one behind Saudi modernization—things like allowing women to drive, bringing movies back into the country, and other changes. But the kingdom still allows absolutely no criticism and still carries out public beheadings. And now, potentially, it carried out the murder of an international journalist outside Saudi Arabia’s own borders.

Jamal Khashoggi was 60 years old. He took a long and complicated path to where he wound up. He rose from being the assistant manager of a bookstore chain to editing some of Saudi Arabia’s largest newspapers. He was fired from two separate newspapers after allowing articles critical of Islam or the Saudi regime. After he was fired the second time, he left Saudi Arabia, fearing for his safety. Though he stayed in the Middle East for years, he eventually moved to the United States and began writing for the Washington Post and appearing on television news programs as a guest analyst. The last column he wrote for the Post was called, “What the Arab World Needs Most Is Free Expression.”


That is a nasty business. I want to say thanks to a listener, Mesut from Turkey, for suggesting this story. Mesut sent me a note on Twitter saying he discovered Plain English last month and he’s listening to every episode in order from the very beginning. Thanks Mesut for suggesting today’s topic.

I also want to say hi to Vanildo from Januaria in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. He’s connected with us on Twitter—and I invite you to do so as well. You can find us on Twitter with the user name PlainEnglishPod.

One more today. Big hello to Toño from Puebla, Mexico. Toño has a really interesting business, and that is making bows and arrows for hunting and sport. That’s a cool craft, though not one I know much about. I remember trying to use a bow and arrow at summer camp when I was a kid and not coming anywhere close to hitting my target. Probably I wasn’t using a high quality, artisanal bow from Puebla—I’ll blame the equipment, not the user!

As I was looking back at the text of the main part of the program, I noticed three expressions that we’ve already featured on previous episodes of Plain English. Did you catch any of those? They are break out, wind up, and carry out. If you’re a longtime listener and want to refresh your memory of those, or maybe you just joined us and didn’t hear them yet, I’ll tell you what episode they appeared in. And you can find that episode by going to PlainEnglish.com/ and then putting the episode number.

“Break out” appeared in episode 79 about Aretha Franklin. “Carry out” was in Episode 25 about Billy Graham. Finally, “wind up” was in “Carry out” was in Episode 30 about St. Patrick’s Day.

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Expression: Paint a picture