Princes of Darkness: The Saudi Assault on the West [Hardcover]

Laurent Murawiec (Author), George Holoch (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2005

The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot soldiers, from ideologist to cheerleader.
-BRIEFING BY LAURENT MURAWIEC TO THE DEFENSE POLICY BOARD OF THE PENTAGON, JULY 10, 2002

Princes of Darkness is a highly provocative and critical exposé of Saudi Arabia. This timely book brands the political and religious elite inside that country as enemies of the western world. From the Wahhabi brand of Islam, which Laurent Murawiec calls "a strange mix of paganism, provincial insularity, and of a rhetoric borrowed from Islam," to the powerful and corrupt Saudi royal family, to the multinational entities that support terrorism, the author takes the reader inside a world where enemies of the U.S. and the west are being cast as allies. He persuasively demonstrates that the Saudi leadership is as responsible for the spread of terror as any other radical Islamic nation. By extension, there is also profound criticism of the U.S. foreign policy-starting with the post-World War II period-that has supported the royal family instead of condemning it as an evil empire and of containing it. In the end, the most profound and far-reaching questions are addressed. What is to be done about Saudi Arabia? Should we take the "Saudi" out of Arabia? And if so, how?

Editorial Reviews

Review

Princes of Darkness is an account of the ruling family of Saudi Arabia, its procedures, privileges, and abuses of the power and the oil wealth accruing by accident. Politicizing its brand of Islam and responsible for much of the current terrorist violence, Saudi Arabia has long been a danger to itself and others all over the world. Laurent Murawiec throws a bright light on a society that has to reform out of all recognition for the sake of peace and justice, but seemingly has neither the will nor the capacity to do so. (David Pryce-Jones )

A brilliant, powerful, no punches pulled account of how our Saudi 'friends,' wallowing in corruption, have used their vast oil wealth to encourage and finance the extremism that now threatens the western world. The Saudis and their friends in Washington will hate this book. Officials who have to contend with the train wreck of Saudi policies will say privately: 'it's about time!' (Richard Perle )

In his now-legendary Pentagon briefing in July 2002, Laurent Murawiec took a major step to break the Washington taboo about speaking the truth about Saudi Arabia. Now, in this insightful and well-written study of the kingdom, he amply documents his argument, concluding with the dramatic recommendation that we 'take Saudi out of Arabia.' (Pipes, Daniel )

Try a thought experiment: that Ferdinand and Isabella's Spain of five centuries ago exists today and is fabulously wealthy from oil--and that Torquemada and his followers are given billions of dollars a year to bring the world under the Spanish Inquisition's sway. We would face a dangerous and determined spread of malignant hatred and cruelty masquerading as religion. As Laurent Murawiec persuasively demonstrates, so we do. (R. James Woolsey )

Princes of Darkness is not the usual journalistic exposé of the House of Saud and its long history with the United States. Laurent Murawiec is instead a philosopher, and his explorations read more like a moral treatise on the corrupting effects of money, power, and high status on a tribal society that has evolved little from its Bedouin days despite its untold billions-and its strange, and ultimately depressing, relationship with the American elite. While nominal partners, the Saudi Royals are hardly friends, and, as Murawiec repeatedly demonstrates, more often enemies of all that the liberal West stands for. (Hanson, Victor Davis )

"Murawiec raises serious issues here." (F. Gregory Gause III Washington Post )

About the Author

Laurent Murawiec is a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C. He was a senior international policy analyst with the RAND Corporation until 2002. He was a foreign correspondent in Germany and Central Europe, co-founder of GeoPol Services S.A., a Geneva, Switzerland, consulting company, and an adviser to the French Ministry of Defense. He has taught the history of central economic planning at the prestigious Ecole des Hautes Etudes en sciences sociales in Paris and military analysis and cultural anthropology at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. His books include War in the 21st Century and The Spirit of Nations: Cultures and Geopolitics.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 1St Edition edition (September 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742542785
• ISBN-13: 978-0742542785
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,227,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant unmasking of the destructive Saudi policies, November 24, 2005

By 

Anne-Elisabeth Moutet (Paris, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Princes of Darkness: The Saudi Assault on the West (Hardcover)

In this compulsively readable book, Laurent Murawiec tells us why the Al-Saud family are little more than "Talibans with oil and a good P.R. company." Using striking examples and documented references, he zooms onto facts that have long been known to experts, but are not enough widespread. For instance, the late King Faisal used to give his every visitor a copy of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Senior Saudi clerics regularly issue fatwas that call for the killing of Americans in Iraq. 70% of the jihadis captured in Iraq are Saudis. Saudi madrasas and publishing houses produce school books and other literature that preach slaughtering Westerns as a noble Islamic act. Etc, etc.

Murawiec is angry, but he gives us plenty of good reasons to be. He believes, however, that the free pass the Saudis have been given by the West is about to be revoked, by measures such as the Saudi Accountability Act of 2005, for instance. "Monitor their every outrage, scrutinize their policy, put their actions under the microscope. Look at international jihad, its funding, its logistics, its propagandists, its religious leaders and cheerleaders, the media, the recruiters, etc. Look at the Saudi element in each and every one of those aspects. Pin it down, publicize it, make a permanent stink out of it..."

A good and useful book.

42 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wahhabi war on the West again exposed, October 9, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Princes of Darkness: The Saudi Assault on the West (Hardcover)

This book is in a sense of confirmation of and elaboration of the thesis that the present Saudi Arabian regime is a corrupt, anti- Western, religiously fanatic one which suppresses its own people and threatens the fundamental interests of the world's democracies. This thesis has been developed by among others, Dore Gold, in 'Hatred's Kingdom' ,Gerald Posner in "Secrets of the Kingdom" and John R. Bradley in 'Saudi Arabia Exposed".
Murawiec a career diplomat has however special insight into the processes of diplomatic corruption especially within the State Department. He cites the present ruler of Saudi Arabia Prince Abdallah's remark that ' taking care of career diplomats when they finish the service' is the best introduction and incentive to new diplomats as to how to act in regard to Saudi Arabia. Murawiec thus points to the tremendous amount of corruption done by Saudi money within the realm of the U.S. government.
He is a strong advocate of a new policy toward Saudi in which the US would get tough with the Monarchy. It would insist on end to anti- Western and US propaganda in the schools, an end to the training of ' fighters' many of whom make their way into Iraq to attack American soldiers. It would insist on true reforms within the Saudi regime, and an end to its vast support network for Terror throughout the world.
Murawiec believes the Saudis control over the oil market has led to a great increase in the poverty of the poorest nations. While he does not advocate, what might seem , the most logical step for stablizing world oil markets, the takeover of Saudi oil by a US led democratic coalition he does insist that the present situation is one which threatens to lead disaster to the world - economy as a whole.
This is a timely wake- up text about a corrupt Middle Eastern regime which unfortunately has been corrupting US diplomacy and foreign policy for decades.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Factual, if passionately biased, analysis of Saudi Arabia, February 19, 2006

By 

George Murray "Handyman" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Princes of Darkness: The Saudi Assault on the West (Hardcover)

Mr. Murawiec's book is a detailed account of Saudi practices and policies. He names names; provides dates; and gives a blow by blow analysis of why the House of Saud, the ruling oligarchy of Saudi Arabia is an avowed enemy of the West and of the United States of America.
One can sense the frustration that Mr.Murawiec feels at the duplicity and outright evil machinations of the Saudis. This often comes out in a rather sneering tone in this book, which undermines the passionately real data that he gives over. It is one thing to castigate the al-Saud regime for financing and manipulating the terrorism of radical Islam all over the world, it is another thing to add the figurative "And I spit on you," that Mr. Murawiec often implies.
Nonetheless, this book is a complete and detailed list of the House of Saud's damning sins and manipulations. I would suggest that these other equally resourceful books should accompany any reader's analysis of Saudi Arabian history; goals; and political policies:
Hatred's Kingdom : How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism - by Dore Gold
The Age of Sacred Terror : Radical Islam's War Against America - by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon
And (really - it's a decent, factual book that pulls no punches yet does not villify Saudi Arabia),
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Saudi Arabia by Colin Wells