The Mystery Behind the Death of Jamal Khashoggi

What happened with the incident is, you know, the film is kind of the untold story behind the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. You know, the Washington Post journalist walks into a Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 and is murdered. I mean, just the most horrific, ghastly murder. He walks into the consulate. They basically strangle him, start embalming him as he's alive and kill him. They were embalming him while he was alive? Yes. Because they wanted the blood to coagulate because they then dismembered him and cut him into pieces to get him out of the consulate. And, you know, and this was ordered by Mohammed bin Salman, you know, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. And that's proven that he ordered it? Well, yeah, I think we had to go and say, do we believe the CIA? Do we believe British intelligence, French intelligence? Do we believe Turkish intelligence? Turkey, there was a listening device in the consulate. We don't know how the consulate was bugged, but it was bugged. And so the entire audio of Khashoggi's murder and even the planning of his murder was captured by the Turks. And I obtained the transcript as part of making this film. And there were independent investigations conducted, Agnes Kalamard of the UN, of course, the Turks, CIA, and all of them concluded with a very, very high level of confidence that MBS ordered the murder. And if you understand how Saudi Arabia works, right, I mean, this is considered an absolute monarchy. This is an authoritarian regime, right? And you have probably 90 percent, you know, and I'm making up this statistic, but something of the entire wealth of a country controlled by one family. So the idea that you could send 15 people on private jets owned by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia traveling on diplomatic passports, people in the kill team. One of the guys was Mutreb, who was Mohammed bin Salman's, you know, personal security, head of security. Other guy was Altubaji, who is the state forensic examiner and coroner who came with a bone saw. Another guy, Al-Asiri, is one of the top ranking generals. And the list goes on and on. And so the idea that you could have this carried out without the approval of the crown prince would be staggering to believe. I mean, it's next to impossible because who else would order this crime? And especially when you're dealing with it with an absolute monarchy, anybody who did this without that sort of permission, right? I mean, here that's this is, you know, Saudi Arabia carried out 800 beheadings last year. So talk about off with your head. I mean, everywhere I go, they might not recognize me. But then if I say, hey, what are you doing? I go, oh, yeah, did you see Icarus? I mean, everywhere I go in the world, they all saw it. Like, I can't even find people that haven't seen it at this point. I mean, it feels like the whole planet watched it. And that is the extraordinary power of Netflix, that when they put out a film, it releases into like 197 countries across like 50 languages, all at the same time. The entire world has access to it. And the entire world should have access to this film. But they're not going to have access to this film because there are business interests at stake. They're an investment interest at stake. And that is really disappointing. And so I'm shocked that that I believe with great wealth and with great power comes great responsibility. And if these business titans that have these huge companies lose their moral compass, lose their direction to basically say, OK, this might not be the very best thing for our business or our subscriber growth. But God damn it, people should see this. Wow, we got to do something about it. Wow, there are people losing their lives and sitting in jails and maybe are distributing this film can change that. Maybe are letting our hundreds of millions of subscribers see this can actually bring about positive change for humanity. And they don't do that. That's really it's it's it's soul crushing. I I got a message and I hope Hiteshia is not going to be mad at me. She is fiance sent me a message. Two. Two, two days ago. And she said, hi, dear Brian, I've read all the reviews of the film and I'm very encouraged. They seem to like the film and they have a really good idea about it. The main three points they mentioned is that you're brave, that Omar struggles and my position is fighting for human rights. I'm glad. I'm proud of you every day. You made history. You did an incredible job. Believe me. All is well now. I'm getting better every day. This trauma has created a new Hiteshia, I think. I understand that every day. I'm not the same person two years as I was two years before. I got a lot and I learned a lot and I made some good friends. The most important one is you and your team. Thor. That's Thor Halvorson, the president of the Human Rights Foundation, who financed the film and Jake Swantko. He is my cinematographer. My life changed and my opinion also changed and my daily life also changed. The one thing that did not change is my love and my heart. It's still full of love for humanity and Jamal's soul. I believe that if we change life, it will be with love and with love for our values. That's extraordinary to me to see that his fiancée two years on has such that incredible positive outlook in the world. I'm so honored to receive that message. At the same time, I know that for the world to actually learn of her story and her fight for Jamal's life and for justice, it's going to be a struggle because of the business interests of these major platforms that come ahead of seeking any sort of accountability for human rights abuses. And the potential to make the world a better place. And the potential to make the world a better place, but it might not align with their goals for subscriber growth in that region of the world. Or it might not coincide with possible future investments or investments or shareholder value. And that's unfortunate. It's unfortunate if the richest man on planet Earth, or now the second, I guess, Jeff Bezos is more concerned with his bottom line than he is concerned about seeking justice and accountability for a man who worked for him, who was murdered while working for his newspaper. And that he and his company could have stepped forward to see to it that the world truly had access to this. And that's it for this episode of the Joe Rogan Experience.