him. >> this is my mission, and i will complete it. >> they thought it was the end. and now it was the beginning. the following is a cnn special report. ♪ america's steadfast ally -- >> extraordinary friendship and relationship -- >> directly into the world trade center -- >> at times spawned america's deadliest enemies. osama bin laden. saudi. thousands of isis fighters,

saudi. these are america's friends? >> they are not our allies. >> the crown prince is a wrecking ball. >> that prince, mohammad bin salman. >> he is dangerous. >> accused of involvement in the murder -- >> outrage. >> -- of a "washington post" journalist. >> khashoggi's body was dismembered -- >> actually brought a bone saw into the consulate -- >> chopped up into small pieces -- >> but that crown prince, mbs, is changing saudi arabia. >> a new era, new age. >> this man is extremely popular. >> in one of the most repressive countries in the world, an

authoritarian, absolute monarchy. all of a sudden some simple, everyday freedoms -- >> i'm excited. >> america and the saudis have had a deal. >> just keep your pumps open, your prices low, and you can do whatever you want out back. >> we remember jamal khashoggi! >> but can america forgive a hideous crime? >> why would you bring a bone saw to an interrogation? >> in saudi arabia, almost nothing is what it seems. to find the real story here, you have to go beneath the surface. about one mile need, to be precise. there's more oil in saudi arabia

than almost anywhere else on earth. when oil was first discovered, legend has it the king said, cap the well. too much money brings trouble. then -- ♪ he got over it. ♪ money money money money oil brought with it fantastic wealth. >> they make a billion dollars a day. >> this is the prince's palace. 317 rooms. >> there are thousands of saudi princes. they blow gigantic sums all over the world. ♪ from sunup sundown >> we counted at least seven huge saudi yachts. >> oil money buys million-dollar prizes for camel races.

and expensive cars you can crash for fun. but most importantly, oil carved a country out of the desert. modern cities sprang out of the sand in just decades. there's only one other force as powerful as oil in saudi arabia. religion. saudis practice the most extreme form of islam in the world. >> article 1 says the sayingings of the prophet are the constitution of this country. >> sharia is the only law. women are rendered virtually invisible. black ghosts. >> domination. men have dominated women. there's this sense that any

mixing between men and women is fraught with the potential for evil to happen. >> women have the status of children. by law their husbands or fathers are their guardians. some clerics give men a free hand to beat women. mohammad al arifyi counsels young men on the right way to hit their wives. "lightly with the hand," he says, "and not in the face." if beating does not keep a wife in line, men can download a wife-tracking app on their phones. created by the saudi government, the app will send out a text alert if a wife heads for the airport or the border. >> testosterone is a dangerous drug. it's this view of women as both children and as chaotic sexual beings.

>> the app is called absher, arabic for "your wish is my command." this men need more than one app because they have more than one wife. there are reportedly more than 1 million saudis in polygamous marriages. there are no churches in saudi arabia. christians pray in secret. >> we have secret churches there. house churches. >> practicing christianity is against the law. so is every other religion. except islam. >> it is a tough place to be a christian. >> even tougher to be jewish. "we must kill all the jews" says the so-called religious scholar. textbooks published just last year teach the jews are cowardly, devious. another evil in saudi arabia, music. ♪

heresy. movies have been considered heresy too. if you complain publicly about any of it, any government stricture, you may be arrested. foes of the government can be tortured, even beheaded. >> saudi arabia lives a bizarre double life. fabulously rich. drenched in oil. it is at the same time handcuffed by extremist islam. the saudis are deeply conflicted. but then so are we. because their story is intertwined with ours. the closest ally of this strange desert kingdom has been america, the world's most open democracy,

where freedom of religion is enshrined in the constitution. why? "new york times" columnist thomas friedman put it suss cinctly. >> guys, here's the deal. just keep your pumps open, your prices low, and don't bother the yahugis too much, and you can do whatever you want out back. >> out back. that's where you'd find the medievalism, the extremist rhetorics, the clerics, the hatred of other religions. >> it's my view, 9/11, we got hit with the distilled essence of everything that was going on out back. >> osama bin laden and 15 of the 9/11 hijackers, all saudis. more isis soldiers come from saudi. than from anywhere else in the

middle east. for years america has been desperate for a new day in saudi arabia. >> welcome to the stage, ladies and gentlemen, his royal highness -- >> enter 33-year-old crown prince mohammad bin salman. he is unlike any saudi ruler the world has seen before. mbs effectively took over from his father, king salman, two years ago. suddenly everything in saudi arabia seemed to change. >> right away he looks like a breath of fresh air. and he's forceful. ♪ >> remember music was evil? ♪ but mariah carey performed here in january.

>> he was beginning to do something i hadn't seen from any saudi leader, ever. >> his reforms inside saudi arabia have been revolutionary. >> he says, i am not going to leave this life until i see the entire middle east in the first rank of nations. >> movies were heresy? but then the crown prince opened a movie theater. >> don't freeze. >> i never freeze. >> watching "black panther." were men and women sitting together. that's dramatic change. >> this man is extremely popular. >> here it is, ladies and gentlemen, here in front of the amc theater. >> we've just begun to actually fight the war of ideas. >> hi! >> women were finally allowed to drive. mbs stripped the dreaded religious beliefs of much of

their power. he arrested some of the crazy clerics. al a-rifi, the wife-beating advice giver, was among them. saudi arabia is changing. but even as it does, there is something else going on. >> massive purge of princes, all arrested by a man who would be king. >> mbs imprisoned hundreds of princes and wealthy businessmen at the riyadh ritz-carlton, of all places. >> we drive in under police escort -- >> it was called a crackdown on corruption. >> no one enters here now without official permission. >> what appeared to be cell phone video emerged showing a chaotic scene in one of the world's fanciest hotels. and it was a shakedown power play of all his potential rivals. >> i think it was really about control. >> there were reports of torture

and one death which the government denied. meanwhile, even as mbs gave women the right to drive, saudi police arrested the leaders of the right to drive movement. and again there are credible reports that some of the women were tortured. >> it's a new level of aggression. it's a new level of brutality that has been unprecedented. >> this is an authoritarian absolute monarchy. >> there was one world leader who loved the prince's style. donald trump. a president with no previous foreign policy experience saw saudi arabia as the linchpin of his middle east plan. >> donald trump had no ambassador in saudi arabia. he did not understand the religious dynamics. he did not understand, i don't think, the regional dynamics. >> he put his son-in-law, jared kushner, in charge of it all. >> this policy was being run on

jared kushner's whatsapp directly with mohammad bin salman. and jared kushner had no clue about the internal dynamics of saudi arabia, let alone how to manage such a young man. it was flat-out crazy stupid. >> i think it was one of the most incredible two-day meetings that i've ever seen, that anybody's ever seen. >> when mbs came to america, he was greeted like a celebrity. >> we really have a great friendship, crown prince, thank you very much. thank you for being here. >> mohammad bin salman had energy, he had ambition, he was on a charm offensive in the west. >> and he had some help charming america from donald trump's favorite publication ""the national enquirer."" a glossy issue extolling the glories of mbs appeared on supermarket checkout lines across america. >> this "we love saudi arabia, it's a magic kingdom" booklet. >> that glossy magazine was really bizarre. >> but the truth about mbs was

beginning to emerge. and it was more complicated. >> you are a young -- 29 years old when you became deputy crown prince. very impulsive. not very experienced young man who had some very dangerous, dark impulses. saddam-like impulses, we now understand. >> u.s. officials usually weigh in when allies like saudi arabia go off course. >> they need us to draw red lines. and what they've all needed always over the years was to be able to say to their cabinet or their advisers, i'd love to do that crazy thing you want me to do, i'd love to do that, my heart's with you, but the american secretary of state broke my arm. if we don't play that role, these guys will drive right over the cliff. and that's exactly what happened, fareed. >> that cliff was, of course, the murder of "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi. >> an international murder mystery pitting the u.s. against its key ally, saudi arabia.

>> it began in the dead of night. october 2nd of last year. a private saudi plane landed in istanbul. >> the turks say assassins waiting for him inside the consulate -- >> jamal khashoggi had an appointment there that day. >> he is a saudi journalist, vocal critic of brown prince mohammad bin salman. >> he is creating an environment of intimidation and fear. >> khashoggi was well connected with ties to some senior royals. he had been treated well at the consulate before. so at the appointed time, he went inside. what follows is from an audiotape described to cnn. >> within moments of his fateful steps into the consulate, khashoggi recognizes someone. >> mahereb, a former intelligence official close to the crown prince, mohammad bin salman. m matreb tells him, you are coming

back. khashoggi says, you can't do that. and then he's attacked. there are screams. his last words, "i can't breathe." then the sound of a saw. >> the reports from the turks that a bone saw was involved -- >> jamal khashoggi's body was dismembered, chopped up into small pieces -- >> a saudi autopsy expert tells the men, put on headphones and listen to music. presumably to drown out the sound of the saw. a khashoggi look-alike can be seen living the consulate. >> same clothes, same glasses and beard, everything, except the shoes. >> saudi arabia vehemently denies knowing anything about khashoggi's disappearance. >> as details began to emerge, the saudis said a fight had broken out. >> the official saudi explanation that khashoggi's death was the result of a fistfight gone bad has been deemed laughable.

>> finally the saudi government settled on one word, rogue. it was a rogue operation. >> the saudi foreign minister told fox news that this was a rogue operation. >> rogue elements may have been involved. >> they're going to say he was killed by rogue operatives. >> this rogue killer's explanation, this is absurd. >> sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers, who knows. >> the cia said it believed mbs was involved with the murder. >> mbs, the crown prince, is a wrecking ball. i think he's complicit in the murder of mr. khashoggi to the highest level possible. i think he's crazy. i think he is dangerous. >> trump appeared unconvinced. >> whether he did or whether he didn't, he denies it vehemently. >> i would really question somebody's judgment if they couldn't figure this out. >> it was an example of sometimes elements of the bureaucracy going rogue. >> the man who most often speaks

for saudi arabia in this country is ali shehabi. he runs the arabia foundation, a pro-saudi think tank. >> u.s. intelligence believes that jamal khashoggi was murdered on the instructions of the crown prince. that an elite team of people very close to the crown prince went to istanbul with the purpose of doing him harm. what do you say to that? >> look, had you wanted to kill jamal, there were so many cheaper and easier ways to do it. he was very much a friend of the royal family. he was an insider. he was a prominent person, he was a prominent player. everyone has their friends and enemies. the crown prince has denied it. and there simply isn't a piece of evidence. >> senator lindsey graham says there is a smoking gun, it's just a smoking bone saw, not a gun. the war post editorial page puts it very simply. if this was meant to be an interrogation that went rogue, why would you bring a bone saw to an interrogation? >> well, first of all, nobody has shown us that bone saw.

>> how was he dismember the? >> again, not to get gruesome, but i saw an interview on television with a doctor that said any saw could dismember a human being. >> why did they bring any saw? >> look, he was killed, and it seems like he was dismembered and the body was disposed of, so, i mean, it's a tragic, horrible event. but you cannot put the stability of a country or the strategic relationship between the united states of america and saudi arabia hostage to the unfortunate death of one individual. >> it's a question that has haunted the united states for years. does a line with saudi arabia come at too high a price? still ahead, the biggest u.s./saudi crisis. 9/11. why did bin laden hate america so much? the little-known story when we come back.

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declared war on the united states. these youths love death as you love life, he warned. these youths are steadfast at war. they will sing out that there is only killing. 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11

were from one country, saudi arabia. the man who led them, osama bin laden, was from saudi arabia. isis and other terrorist groups killing americans have been filled with recruits from saudi arabia. how did one of america's closest allies become the home of its most bitter enemies? to understand, we have to go back almost 300 years. to the 1700s. two men formed an alliance in the arraiabian desert. a cleric known as mohammad bin ahab and a warrior named mohammad bin saud, patriarch of the saudi family.

they were the isis of their time, preaching strict adherence to the koran on pain of death. their puritan call faith became known as wa habbiism. >> authorities inside saudi arabia have executed -- >> wahabism starts as a principle that i as a muslim can determine if another muslim is a good muslim. if he or she is not, i can proclaim him or her a heretic and that person is subject to the most drastic penalties, including death. >> reporter: wababism was only a minor sect of islam for much of its history. the muslim world was shaped far more by diverse societies like egypt. >> oil in commercial quantities -- >> then saudi arabia struck oil. >> 200,000 barrels a day -- >> with mouse of cash the kingdom eclipsed other muslim nations and spread its version of the faith everywhere.

>> what oil money did was finance the building of islamic centers, mosques. putting conditions that ensured that their exclusivist ideas alone would be taught in those madrassas, those islamic centers, and those mosques. >> but in 1979, wahabism turned on the kingdom itself. >> armed religious fanatics today seized the great mosque in the muslim holy city of mecca in saudi arabia and took hostages -- >> the attackers were extreme religious conservatives. they were appalled by the unholy westernization that the riches of oil had wrought. >> they broadcast their message that the saudi ruling family are drunkards, gamblers, people who have taken saudi arabia away from the true islamic faith. >> saudi forces were so ill

equipped that french commandos had to be called in to help. after two weeks, the rebels were finally captured and beheaded. >> it was a triumphant and tumultuous welcome fare the ayatollah co-makhomenei -- >> that same year an slummic revolution swept through iran. >> a tearful shah of iran left his country today -- >> ousting a monarchy. launching the rise of iran's shiite version of puritan call islam, the rival faith of the saudis. the saudi royal family panicked and gave more power to the wahabis. >> from the age of 12, she must dress in black -- >> to run the kingdom their way. >> no more. women could not appear on tv uncovered. no music in schools. they basically banned fun. >> one motorist ran out of gas while waiting in line --

>> meanwhile oil prices went through the roof. >> gas-hungry drivers were demanding answers. >> giving the saudis even more cash to spread their creed. then at the end of 1979, the soviet union invaded afghanistan. a godless superpower had taken over a muslim nation. this gave the saudis a golden opportunity. >> it was a gift from heaven to people in saudi arabia. they looked into these islamists' eyes and they said, why don't you go fight the infidels who just invaded afghanistan? >> one of the men who answered the call was osama bin laden. >> bin laden was always a true

believer. he really believed in all these ideals taught to him by wahabi schools early on in his childhood in saudi arabia. >> bin laden's father had been a construction magnate with close ties to the king. but osama bin laden gave up his life of comfort and moved to afghanistan. forming a ragtag army of foreign mercenaries from across the arab and islamic world. in the late '80s, the organization was given a name. al qaeda. in 1990, a new enemy caught bin laden's eye. >> more than 400,000 u.s. troops in "operation desert shield" -- >> half a million american troops came to saudi arabia to defend against saddam hussein. >> reports of iraqi forces overrunning the capital of kuwait -- >> saddam had taken over

neighboring kuwait and was poised to strike the kingdom. the presence of u.s. soldiers saved saudi arabia. but it infuriated the wahabis. >> this american service woman has problems dealing with saudi men here. >> who believed that no foreign army should ever be allowed into the land of the two holy mosques. bin laden urged the saudi royal family to let him fight saddam himself with his own army of mujahadin. they brushed him off. >> osama bin laden was furious. he thought that this is the unholiest thing anybody can do, bringing the infidels to the arabian peninsula. >> in 1996, with american troops still in the kingdom, osama bin laden issued a fatwa.

terrorizing you while you are carrying arms in our land is a moral obligation, he declared to the americans. >> outrage, shock, and heavy loss of life -- >> thus began the road to 9/11. >> terrorist bombs explode minutes apart -- >> bombings at u.s. embassies in east africa. >> who did it and why? >> killed hundreds and wounded over 5,000. the "uss cole" attack in yemen. >> it was a despicable and cowardly act. >> nearly sunk a destroyer, killing 17. >> both towers -- >> in 2001 -- >> -- appear to have collapsed -- >> bin laden's greatest triumph, nearly 3,000 americans obliterated. saudi arabia had created a monster. >> powerful bombs -- >> after 9/11 -- >> -- ripped through apartment buildings -- >> the monster turned against its homeland. >> the focus once again is squarely on al qaeda. >> mounting a deadly offensive

inside the kingdom. the house of saud mounted a vicious counterattack. >> it was a big increase in their cooperation with us. they began systematically to find and go after al qaeda cells in the kingdom. >> but the ideology of wahabism is still alive across the world. when isis established its schools, the textbooks that it first used came from saudi arabia. >> the narrative that you have to behead and kill anyone who doesn't believe in what you believe, the narrative you have to blow up mosques, the narrative that anyone who's not a muslim does not have any rights, not even the right to live, this is taken from

textbooks in saudi arabia. up next -- why? >> u.s. presidents have to varying degrees been willing to pander to saudi arabia. >> why does this troubled relationship endure? the liquid gold that is the bond between america and saudi arabia. oil. you still stressed about buying our first house, sweetie? yeah, i thought doing some hibachi grilling would help take my mind off it all. maybe you could relieve some stress by calling geico for help with our homeowners insurance. geico helps with homeowners insurance? they sure do.

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saudi arabia confirms that the journalist jamal khashoggi is dead -- >> every time there is a crisis between the united states and saudi arabia -- ♪ americans ask, why are we friends with these people? >> they are not our allies.

>> despotic and brutal regime -- >> some question whether there even should be a u.s./saudi alliance. >> u.s. presidents have to carrying degrees been willing to pander to saudi arabia. in doing so we've conveniently turned a blind eye to a lot of things. it's always been a very complicated relationship. >> complicated, yes. but the reason for it is simple, according to donald trump. >> if you want to see oil prices go to $150 a barrel, like by the way russia would love to see that, all you have to do is break up our relationship with saudi arabia. >> the truth is, donald trump is mostly right. saudi arabia more than any single country controls the price of oil. they have lots of it, and it's cheap for them to turn the taps on and off. >> that fear that saudi arabia, the leader of the opec alliance of oil-producing states could at any time turn off the oil that

fear always hung like a sword of damocles. >> and that fear endures even as america approaching oil independence, because riyadh still sets the global price. in fact, the saudis have usually behaved responsibly in their role as the central bankers of oil. >> oil and saudi arabia were synonymous in the 1950s and '60s and '70s and '80s. >> to understand how and why the u.s./saudi bond has endured for almost a century, we need to go back to how it began. in 1938, american oilmen offered saudi king saud $170,000 in gold to let them drill for oil. >> the arabs were suspicious of these strange newcomers. >> the king was reluctant, but the desperately poor desert country needed the money. so the search for liquid gold

began. >> the geological crews combed the blistering desert month after month, searching for places most likely to yield petroleum. >> finally, they found it. >> oil in commercial quantities had been brought in after three long, discouraging years. >> by the early 1940s, it was clear. saudi arabia was an oil bonanza. >> about 1,000 americans and 5,000 saudi arabs were employed -- >> the u.s. and the saudis formed a company to share the profits. the arab american oil company, aramco. at the same time, america was having big oil problems at home. world war ii had severely depleted domestic supplies. >> a fresh warning that our known oil reserves will be exhausted in 10 years -- >> so it was probably no accident that in 1945, president franklin roosevelt invited king saud to a meeting in the middle of the suez canal.

>> an american destroyer brings ibn saud, king of the 5 million people of saudi arabia, to a conference with president roosevelt -- >> the two leaders hit it off. it was that friendship that cemented the saudi/american oil venture. as it grew, american oil executives built an efficient, well-run little america inside saudi arabia. >> growing painfully, they reared a modern community in the desert beside the persian gulf. complete with air conditioned houses, two hospitals, and an outdoor movie theater -- >> all of it, though, was behind walls. because it represented a culture completely alien to the strict islamic practices of the saudis. >> always popular with the employees is the freshwater swimming pool where they can cool off after a round of golf, or a set of tennis. >> the saudi/american alliance

grew stronger through the years. but there was always one sticking point. america's support for israel. that difference turned into a crisis in the 1970s. >> since first light this morning -- >> during the yom kippur war, the saudis protested american aid to israel and then led an oil embargo against america. >> they will reduce oil production by 5% a month until the israelis withdraw from occupied territories. >> it plunged the united states into a recession. people had to wait for hours to fill their tanks and pay sky-high prices for gas. it was the first major crisis between the two countries. now, as we face another one, the crucial question -- who is the young prince who has elbowed his way to the top of the kingdom?

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pattern. by some estimates, the modern founder of the kingdom had 45 sons. when the one died, the next-oldest brother took his place. but nearly two years ago, king salman shook up this established ritual. after an interim choice, he installed as crown prince his 31-year-old son. >> saudi arabia has a new heir to the throne. >> a royal shakeup in the house of saud. >> maums, mbs, was an obscure young royal known to almost no one outside saudi arabia. now he is poised to succeed his ailing father and rule the kingdom for half a century if his health and the monarchy hold out. >> this is somebody with a great deal of ambition and who has the complete support and faith of

his father. >> when mbs rocketed to power, he began to shake things up almost right away. the old saudi system seemed ancient. with senior royals running ministries like earls and dukes. mbs put an end to that, replacing princes with people loyal to him and amassing power personally. we've talked about his dramatic social reforms. >> a royal decree has been issued giving women the right to drive. >> and we've talked about his harsh treatment of some of those who advocated for those reforms. >> rights groups say women activists have been subjected to torture and assault in saudi jails. >> but the reasons behind the need for change in saudi arabia are crucial. >> if mohammad bin salman the reformer didn't exist, the saudi system would have had to invent him. oil is running out. their population is going up. there is no time to waste.

they have exactly enough time to reform starting now. >> most employed saudis work for the government and are given generous subsidies. >> they can say whatever they want, at the end of the day they can't just bleed out money. >> when oil prices crashed in late 2014, the state was forced to drastically cut back on government salaries and spending. >> that's not a recipe for a kind of stable form of government. what the saudis really want to do is liberate themselves from dependance on oil. and have a kind of productive industrialized economy like the countries of the developed west. >> it is urgent because its young population is rapidly growing. >> in order to get wealthy, they just had to drill the ground instead of drilling and unlocking their people. and their energy, entrepreneurship, and creativity. >> the crown prince wants to get more saudis to work, and in the private sector, especially

women. >> and women in saudi arabia are hungry. they want opportunity. there are more women getting educated than men because they're looking for any opportunity to actually do something. >> his economic plan is called "vision 2030." >> they're looking at other ways to diversify their economy. one of the natural ones, of course, is tourism. >> just endless potential. >> he has plans for a huge luxury resort in the red sea and a $500 billion entertainment city, nyom, in the middle of the desert. it all seemed to be moving forward. but then came the murder of jamal khashoggi. mbs lost some of his key foreign investors. >> richard branson said he would freeze ties with the saudi kingdom -- >> mbs should be doing time! >> the world is angry at him. but at home -- [ cheers ] >> he continues to have real

support. one more fact that may keep mbs in power is nationalism. >> people would have a sense of belonging to the state because they are saudis, not because they are wa habbies or because they have a particular way of understanding islam. >> before mbs, saudi foreign policy had been quiet, even docile. the crown prince put it in overdrive, directed against an arch enemy, iran. >> you called the ayatollah khomenei the new hitler of the northeast. >> translator: absolutely. >> whether because they are shiite heretics or personal adversa adversaries, mbs has committed saudi arms, efforts, and prestige in battling them on all fronts. so far his foreign adventures have been a disaster. in trapping saudi arabia in a human rights catastrophe in yemen, being outmaneuvered in lebanon, and drawn into a stalemate in qatar.

mohammad bin salman is a young man in a hurry. he has thrown so many balls in the air -- foreign policy, domestic reform, economic liberalization -- all within a framework of increasing authoritarianism. >> he is at one and the same time our best hope for the kinds of reforms, of the government and the economy and the society, that we want, and most saudis want. but at the same time he is the greatest impediment right now between washington and riyadh. his presence makes it difficult for us to cooperate. >> will this balance work? or will one or more of these balls crash to the ground? i'll give you my thoughts when i return. you need insurance. but it's not really something you want to buy. it's not sexy. or delicious. or fun.

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let me begin this brief commentary on a personal note. i knew jamal khashoggi. 15 years ago when i traveled to saudi arabia to write a cover story for "newsweek," he was one of the people who briefed me, and he spent some time with me while i was in the country. >> we have with us jamal khashoggi -- >> i had a television show on pbs before i got to cnn, and i invited him on there to talk about the future of his country. >> and then next maybe women will be able to drive. >> i'm sure we'll have it also eventually. >> he was well read and thoughtful, a saudi reformer but very much a saudi patriot. i reacted to his death personally, viscerally, with a sense of horror and disgust. but also a great sadness for the loss of a friend. but i've tried to keep in mind some larger factors when

thinking about where the united states should go in its relationship with saudi arabia. the first is that washington does not have the power to choose who will rule saudi arabia. the kingdom is a strange country with three distinct features -- tribes, religion, and oil. all interacting in complex ways. the ruling family has been able to maintain power for so long because it has managed and manipulated this system effectively. and if mohammad bin salman was somehow toppled, the most likely outcome is the return of more conservative traditional elements to saudi government. there are very few jeffersonian democrats out there in the kingdom. the fact remains that mbs has done more reform in saudi arabia in the past few years than took place in the previous decades. and yet it is also true that he punishes dissent, sometimes savagely.

saudi elites will often tell visitors that they need to understand that the saudi regime, for all its flaws, is more progressive and pro-western than saudi society. the reality is saudi arabia today is not in its intellectual makeup a modern country. it can only move into modernity slowly, fitfully. the most effective path forward for washington and the world would be to insist that khashoggi's death become a turning point, to pressure saudi arabia to press forward on reform, religious, social, economic, and even political reform. you see, khashoggi's murder shows that limited piecemeal openings done under the auspices of an absolute dictatorship are not enough. saudi arabia needs to be governed by the rule of law, not the whims of one man, if it is to truly move forward. it also needs to rein in its

reckless foreign policy, for its own sake. and for the sake of a middle east that is being riven by sectarian conflict that could last for generations. most of all, it needs to work much harder to reverse the forces it has let loose in the muslim world, of reaction, backwardness, intolerance, and hate. >> the territory held by isis -- >> if washington can press the saudi government in these areas, fit can convince mohammad bin salman that the only way to redeem his reputation is to demonstrate his ability to truly transform his country, then perhaps something good can come out of the brutal murder of jamal. it will never justify it. nothing can. but it might ensure that my friend, jamal khashoggi, did not die in vain. thank you for watching. i'm fareed zakaria.

okay, gang. >> one extraordinary family. fueled by ambition. driven by duty. they've fought for power. >> george w. felt a sense of competition with my brother. and he felt that, yeah, i can do that if he can do it. >> they've made friends, as well as enemies. forged a history of america -- >> i can hear you! >> and the world. >> the president asked, how good is the intelligence on iraq a