Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9453

House of Bush, House of Saud.

Craig Unger's book has gotten more airplay since the tidal wave of media attention sparked by Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 movie. It is usually mentioned as a book that explores Bush's close relationship with the Saudi Royal family and is represented as almost a smear attempt. I've vacillated on whether to buy it or not and finally picked up last week as part of a big batch of books I bought.

I finished it yesterday and was very impressed. It is fairly non-partisan throughout, although there are a few places where the author does stretch a little bit (calling Bush the "Arabian Candidate" following his relations with American Muslims in the 2000 relationship was a bit much, I thought). These are few and far between though and do not represent the overall tone of the book.

The whole "House Of Bush/Saud" notion is a bit forced and contrived and actually a bit off target for the scope of the book. It is actually more about the Saudis and their attempts to create contacts in power in American government. Their course takes them through Texas beginning in the 1970s and they do connect up with George H. W. Bush early on. Undoubtedly the relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have been enhanced by the relationship between GHWB and particular Saudi family/ gov't (they are the same) members but it is less about Houses and more a history of what happened over the last 30 years.

It's an interesting story of how influential relationships are forged and maintained and there are plenty of nuggets of information that will surprise people. The book isn't intended to be a non-critical history but it does play fair. Part of the fairness comes from Unger's clear representation of his dissatisfaction with the current President's behavior and Unger's belief that the history of relations between Saudi Arabia and powerful people in US government who are also close to the Bush family has affected Bush's behavior following 9/11, which was an attack by Saudi Arabians more than anyone else.

Unger's book is detailed in exploring the relationships between Saudi Arabia and American government. Leaving George W. Bush out of it (he actually doesn't even come into it until the end anyway), the book deserves to be read just so people can see how our government (and Saudi Arabia's) work. Amazing, really.

Unger presents a balanced view to his general arguments. There are many immediate footnotes (at the bottom of the page, not hidden at the end of the book, so you can read them right away) that provide qualifications and counterpoints. If the FBI disputes reported facts, he mentions it. One particularly damning relationship for GWB was with a Florida Muslim leader who helped GWB win 88% of the Floridian Muslim vote but ended up being arrested for his leadership and fundraising ties to pro-Palestinian terrorists groups. This man is also on record at Muslim rallies calling on the death of Jews (he once said something akin to he'd kill a Jew for $500). Unger grants a footnote to this guy's lawyer who reports that the man regrets saying things that feel good in the heat of the moment at a rally but in retrospect aren't such good things to say. Other times Unger notes that allegations and trials have not been confirmed or convicted. He doesn't just talk about the information that helps his theme. It comes across very balanced in spite of the few exceptions I mentioned early on.

It is an easy to read book. There are a lot of Arab names but Unger does a good job of reminding us who was who throughout the story. There is a lot of good information provided and most of it is historical and unrelated (directly at least) to the sitting president. Even ardent conservatives and enemies of the left who think this is just a muckraking book of lies ought to give it a gander. They won't agree with everything but the overall trend presented is rather disturbing even outside of current events. It is about 270 pages but it reads easily.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 11769

Bush chose the first (to my knowledge) Arab-American cabinet member.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: b0ulder
Posts: 5126

This and Imperial Hubris are two political books I've been interested in for a little while. I'll probably get Imperial Hubris before this one though. I've read a lot of reviews of it and there are references to other books, like Foucault's Pendulum that are said to be better, even though they are fictional.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9453

Amazon tells me that Imperial Hubris just shipped, but it got sent to my office and I'm not going back there until the end of September. But the same author wrote another book pre-9/11 about the threat of OBL et al entitled Through Our Enemies Eyes that I've sitting right here.

You should also check out Chalmer's Johnson's Blowback. He has a new one, The Sorrows of Empire, that I have but haven't read yet. Another book I have, I forget the author, that I'm looking forward to is GHost Wars.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9453

Can someone move this to the book forum? I:ve been posting my book reviews there but no one seems to notice them so I put this one here but still no one seems to notice (actually I think no one cares ). But it belongs there, if you could. Cheers.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: b0ulder
Posts: 5126

People care, they're just too ignorant to respond. I wish ignorant wasn't as offensive a word as it seems. It's a valid term.

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Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Den
Posts: 10974

I wish you would have told more of the book's conclusions instead of convincing us how credible it is.
Let's say from now on, if you review a book, we'll imply it's a decent writer and you can tell us stuff we don't know, which is more fun and respondable.

We're not going to read it, that's for sure.

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Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Harm's Way
Posts: 557

quote:

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Originally posted by Nutrimentia
Can someone move this to the book forum? I:ve been posting my book reviews there but no one seems to notice them so I put this one here but still no one seems to notice (actually I think no one cares ). But it belongs there, if you could. Cheers.

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Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Harm's Way
Posts: 557

Regarding teh 9/11 terrorists from Saudi Arabia, I wonder if a bunch of fanatical christian hicks from alabama crashed a plane into a building in Germany because their church group hates Germany, I wonder if the Germans would regard it as an attack by the state of Alabama?

Logic sucks for some people.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9453

Your logic is lacking as well there, bagboy. You're partially correct in that the threat isn't from nation states as much as from a dispersed ideology, but the mistake is failing to recognize that one nation state does serve as the physical heart of the ideological movment as well as provides state support for a parent ideology that isn't terroristic per se but is xenophobic enough to greatly aid in the transition of many followers.

I'll post more on comments regarding my review later.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

Hey, I read the book forum, and all your reviews Nute.

I rather like the book forum being a slower paced place, it keeps things hanging out longer, and since I'm not likely to run out and buy a book, read it in a night just so I can respond while the thread is still on the front page and I'm thinking about it, it's a good thing.

-m

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9453

I meant to write a book review, not a report. There is too much stuff to summarize, really. Either its short blurb about how the book highlights the relationship between Saudi Arabia and American politicians (presidents Bushes in particular) or its the whole book. It is easy to read and follow, so it wouldn't take too much time for someone to finish.

I hoped to convey that the book wasn't just a partisan attack on the president. I'm disappointed that it was sold as such and continues to be reported as such because I'm sure that many pro-Bush, moderate conservatives would be interested in the story. Those who don't think there is a problem with buying influence to the politically powerful would probably wonder what the big deal is, but most people, I suspect, would be surprised to see how it can be done. That is jsut a general belief about money and power and our government. Of course there aer the added issues of it being a foreign government that has us by the short and curlies on energy and over a barrel with terrorism.

The United States is the biggest supporter of the patron organization that protects the United States' greatest enemy. The relationship between that patron organization deserves attention. I don't think that any summary of the specifics is going to do justice to the story and might give the wrong impression that one understands the contents of the book. Since it can appear to be a partisan attack and thus dismissed by some, I wanted to clear the air and let people know that they wouldn't be wasting their time or money by reading the book. I think it deserves wider readership.

One specific incident in the book that I also mentioned in my review of Clarke's Against All Enemies came after the arrest of Zabaydi. It's recounted based on discussion with Clarke and the details aren't very different. US authorities try to good cop/bad cop with a pair of "Saudi Arabian" agents there to scare Zabaydi into playing nice with the US. Instead he is all confident and relaxed and tells them to call a number that would take care of everything that ended up belonging to Prince Ahmed bin Salman (think I wrote the wrong name in my review of Clarke's book). Once Zabaydi figured out that they weren't really Saudi Agents he was talking to, he stopped talking and recanted his story. Ahmed bin Salman died of a heart attack in his sleep in Saudi Arabia not too long after, as well as did two other young Saudi Arabians whose numbers had been provided by Zabaydi from memory.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentuck...rby/8564704.htm is a plea by bin Salman's brother to clear his brother's name. Clarke isn't mentioned here, probably because his book wasn't out at the time.

Unger's book gets a lot of attention for the time he spends taling about the escape of Saudis and Bin Ladens out of the country following 9/11. This issue has been gone over since then but its pretty clear that someone pulled some strings to get those flights going and that the FBI didn't interview the passengers to the degree that they should have. Some people have tried to put the onus on Clarke for letting them go but he just followed the procedures and said that it was the FBI's call. When the FBI said let them go, he let them. From the picture of Saudi money invested in George Bush and his friends, I can't help but agree that assertions that if Gore was President the Saudis wouln't have been able to leave so easily are plausible.

Finally (I have a bad habit of using terminal transitions multiple times), I want to thank everyone who reads my reviews. Seriosuly, thank you. And I still want this moved to the book forum. Thanks.

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Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Den
Posts: 10974

No, thank you.

So, was there a conspiracy or not, according to Unger? Did somebody ask FBI what the deal was?

And generally, how about USA got rid of FBI?

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
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Unger doesn't claim its a conspiracy as much as the results of close personal contacts between the Sauds and US personnel. As for the planes, the FBI says they didn't know what was going on. There were some agents within who were complaining about it but clearance to release them came through too quickly for anything to be done otherwise. Considering that once commercial flights started flying but personal aircraft were still grounded, someone had to pull some strings to get the private Saudi flights airspace. No one has figured out who or owned up to it yet though.

I think we just need to slice and dice management personnal and structure. I don't know exactly what needs to be done but we've seen that the FBI agents in the field do good work but they are hobbled by upper management.

And we can't get rid of the FBI because of our state/federal system. We need a Federal law arm for federal and cross-jurisdicition crimes. It might worth considering spinning off their counterterrorism duties though and having FBI agents (as well as police, CIA, NSA, Interpol, etc) forward everything to an inter-agency special division dedicated to terrorism.

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