Jamal Khashoggi, one of Saudi Arabia's most prominent journalists, hasn't been seen or heard from since he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018. He has been living in self-imposed exile in Virginia after leaving Saudi Arabia last year. Turkish officials have said he was killed inside the consulate, a claim the Saudi government has vehemently denied.Khashoggi, 59, has been a leading critic of Saudi Arabia's current leadership, sharing his views via platforms including opinion columns in the Washington Post that began a year ago and were translated into Arabic. His journalism career has included stints in Afghanistan, where he met and followed the rise of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the 1980s. He was deputy editor-in-chief of the Saudi newspaper Arab News at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., which made him a valuable source for foreign journalists seeking to understand what drove some Muslims into such actions. In the 2000s, he was twice fired from his post as editor-in-chief of the Saudi Al-Watan daily newspaper, which under his leadership ran stories, editorials and cartoons critical of extremists and the way in which the country enforced its religious values. (Saudi newspapers are privately owned but government-guided, and the government approves and can fire top leadership).
