The Washington Post’s headline describing former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as a “religious scholar” is a false, “sick” narrative and should be viewed as “appalling,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday on “Fox & Friends.”
Pompeo said the newspaper’s timing and choice of words were completely out of line and called for those responsible to apologize.
“I think it’s appalling and sick … that they’ve frankly not apologized for taking this man who was the head of the terrorist organization that beheaded people… who led a caliphate that threatened large pieces of the Middle East and indeed, presented risks to the United States and America,” Pompeo said.
“The fact that a national newspaper would describe this person as an “austere scholar” in their headline — in the immediate aftermath of the achievements of President Trump and the administration, is truly appalling,” Pompeo continued.
Al-Baghdadi, who took over as the head of ISIS after his predecessor Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was killed in 2010, detonated a suicide vest as U.S. special forces closed in. Troops were sent to attack a compound in northern Syria where al-Baghdadi was located, according to a U.S. defense official.