Activists put up ‘Khashoggi Way’ sign on DC street outside Saudi Embassy

Activists put up a “Khashoggi Way” sign on the street outside the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to honor slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The activists put up the sign after the D.C. Council said it would not immediately consider a proposal that would ceremonially rename the street for Khashoggi.

Michael Fuhr, a photographer for WUSA9, shared a photo of the sign on Tuesday:

New Hampshire Ave unofficially renamed #Khashoggi Way outside of #Saudi Embassy in NW DC ⁦@wusa9⁩ pic.twitter.com/jI1bIjblkL

— Michael Fuhr (@michaelfuhrWUSA) December 4, 2018

Claude Taylor, chair of Mad Dog PAC, an anti-Trump political action committee, told DCist that he put the sign up after the D.C. Council opted not to consider legislation renaming the portion of New Hampshire Avenue NW in the next session.

“I just assumed that it will take some period of time for the processes of local government to work their magic,” Taylor said. “I thought I would save them the effort and just put the sign up.”{mosads}

Taylor added that his group bought a dozen of the signs and plans to put them up in other notable locations around the city.

A local neighborhood advisory group unanimously passed a resolution last month to rename the street in front of the Saudi Embassy in honor of Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October.

However, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson decided not to consider the measure, citing a law that prevents public spaces from being named in honor of any person who is alive or has been dead for less than two years.

Reports emerged in November that the CIA has concluded with a “high degree of certainty” that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s killing in the Saudi Consulate in Turkey on Oct. 2.

Trump administration officials have publicly pushed back on those reports. After the Senate briefing last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that there is no “direct reporting” connecting Crown Prince Mohammed to the killing, while Defense Secretary James Mattis said there is no “smoking gun.”

Several senators ripped the crown prince after exiting a briefing with CIA Director Gina Haspel on Tuesday, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) saying, “There’s not a smoking gun, there’s a smoking saw.”

Washington renamed the street in front of the Russian Embassy earlier this year after Boris Nemtsov, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin slain near the Kremlin three years ago. Moscow has denied any involvement in his killing.