Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love is a memoir by former United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It was published on January 24, 2023 by Broadside Books.
Pompeo claims that the media was trying to "fracture" Saudi Arabia–United States relations. He connects this to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, saying the "progressive Left hates MBS, in spite of the fact that he is leading the greatest cultural reform in the Kingdom’s history." [1] He describes Jamal Khashoggi, who was assassinated in 2018, as not a "journalist" (putting the word in air quotes) but a political activist. Khashoggi's murder sparked outrage in multiple countries. [2]
A chapter is also dedicated to the execution of the planning and operation to kill Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Pompeo wrote that he had raised the proposal to kill Soleimani to President Donald Trump. [3]
In the book, he praises Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Benjamin Netanyahu and Jair Bolsonaro. [4] He adds that he is "troubled by the evil that has befallen [Zelenskyy's] country" of Ukraine, a year into the 2022 Russian invasion. He says he is "encouraged" that Zelenskyy had evolved from a comedian "into a kind of General Patton". [4] He criticizes Pope Francis and the Catholic Church over relations with China, as well as the reformist Pope John XXIII and liberation theology movement of the 1970s. [4]
Pompeo also accuses the "left" of exploiting the January 6 Capitol attack but does not mention Trump's personal involvement in the event. With regards to Nikki Haley, he describes her former tenure as United States Ambassador to the United Nations as "a job that is far less important than people think". [4]
Adnan Khashoggi was a Saudi businessman and arms dealer known for his lavish business deals and lifestyle. He was estimated to have had a peak net worth of around US$4 billion in the early 1980s.
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist for Middle East Eye and The Washington Post, and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States began in 1933 when full diplomatic relations were established. These relations were formalized under the 1951 Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement. Despite the differences between the two countries—an Islamic absolute monarchy versus a secular constitutional republic—the two countries have been allies ever since. The U.S. provides military protection to the Kingdom in exchange for a reliable oil supply, pricing of oil in U.S. dollars, and support for American foreign policy.
Qasem Soleimani was an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). From 1998 until his assassination by the United States in 2020, he was the commander of the Quds Force, an IRGC division primarily responsible for extraterritorial and clandestine military operations, and played a key role in the Syrian Civil War through securing Russian intervention. He was described as "the single most powerful operative in the Middle East" and a "genius of asymmetric warfare." Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen said Soleimani's strategies had "personally tightened a noose around Israel's neck."
Russia–Saudi Arabia relations are the bilateral relations between the Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The two countries are referred to as the two petroleum superpowers and account for about a quarter of the world's crude oil production between them.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey relations have long fluctuated between cooperation and alliance to enmity and distrust. Since the 19th century, the two nations have always had a complicated relationship. While Turkey and Saudi Arabia are major economic partners, the two have a tense political relationship, deemed from the historic enmity.
Michael Richard Pompeo is an American politician who served in the administration of Donald Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 2017 to 2018 and as the 70th United States secretary of state from 2018 to 2021. He also served in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017.
Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, commonly known by his initials as MBS or MbS, is the heir apparent to the Saudi throne. He is currently Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. He is the seventh son of King Salman of Saudi Arabia and grandson of the nation's founder, King Abdulaziz.
Jamal Ja'far Muhammad Ali Al Ibrahim, known by the kunyaAbu Mahdi al-Muhandis was an Iraqi commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). At the time of his death, he was deputy chief of the PMF and regarded as one of Iraq's most powerful men.
Major General Ahmad Hassan Mohammad Asiri is a Saudi Arabian officer. He is a close confidant and adviser to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and the former deputy head of the Al-Mukhabarat Al-A'amah and the former spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. He served as spokesman from the beginning of the Saudi intervention until 27 July 2017, when he was replaced by Colonel Turki bin Saleh al-Malki.
The Public Investment Fund is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. It is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with total estimated assets of US$925 billion. It was created in 1971 for the purpose of investing funds on behalf of the Government of Saudi Arabia. The wealth fund is controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler since 2015.
Johnnie Moore is an American evangelical leader and businessman who founded the Kairos Company, a public relations firm. Moore is a commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and president of Congress of Christian Leaders.
Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud is a Saudi Arabian diplomat, and politician who serves as the Saudi Arabian minister of defense. He was appointed defense minister on 27 September 2022. He is the tenth child and ninth son of King Salman and a younger brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist, was killed by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi operatives. His body was dismembered and disposed of in some way that was never publicly revealed. The consulate had been secretly bugged by the Turkish government and Khashoggi's final moments were captured in audio recordings, transcripts of which were subsequently made public.
Saud bin Abdullah al-Qahtani is a Saudi Arabian consultant and former royal court advisor. Prior to his dismissal in late 2018, he worked as an advisor to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident, journalist for The Washington Post and former general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel, occurred on 2 October 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and was denounced by the majority of the international community.
On 3 January 2020, Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general, was killed by an American drone strike near Baghdad International Airport, Iraq, while travelling to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
The killing of Iranian Major General and Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in Iraq by the United States brought strong reactions from around the world.
On 8 January 2020, in a military operation code named Operation Martyr Soleimani, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched over 12 ballistic missiles at the al-Asad Airbase in Al Anbar Governorate, western Iraq, as well as another airbase in Erbil, in response to the assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani by a United States drone strike.
The Dissident is a 2020 American documentary film directed and produced by Bryan Fogel. It follows the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia's effort to control international dissent.