16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honest and clear reporting - strongly recommended, June 21, 2005
Gerald Posner is a fine reporter who takes on issues from which others flee. Because he reports without an agenda, those who have a vested interest in a certain point of view (whether emotional or monetary) attack him in all kinds of ways. When you examine the criticisms you will see that they all fail. For example, a New York Times review of this book tries the old canard that most of what is here has been reported before. Right. So, the average reader is supposed to look up thousands of news articles and hundreds of books to get a handle on what Mr. Posner provides for us here so concisely and clearly in about 225 pages (including end notes)?
That review also admitted that Posner was breaking new ground in his reporting of the Saudi ruling powers' plan for destroying their oil wells if their power is ever challenged. When you read this book I am sure the chapter on the Petro SE (scorched earth) report will be fascinating and disturbing. While no one knows if the intelligence intercepted is real or false information the Saudi's wanted believed, it has crucial implications for the world economy if such a loss of oil production capacity were to occur.
The bottom line is that unless you are an expert on Saudi politics you do not know what is in this book and it is in your interest to know this stuff. So, I believe you will want to get a hold of this book and read it.
The title refers not to tabloid sensationalism but to the fact that the rulers of Saudi Arabia are extremely closed and operate in secrecy as opaque as their money, power, and influence can provide. Their public statements and the actions they take are for managing their image and have little to do with what they say and do behind the scenes.
The author carefully explains the very recent and somewhat strange origins of the house of Saud with its ties to Wahhabi fundamentalist Islam from its very beginnings. With the rise of importance of oil in the twentieth century, Saudi Arabia has also had a deep internal conflict. How to be involved with the Western world - viewed by them as Crusaders, no less - and still remain true to their extreme vision of a pure Islam.
On one hand, they want the power and wealth from the oil, but they want to keep the world out. They need the Western world to help them extract the oil, but they want to spread a primitive vision of Islam around the globe using the power and wealth the oil gives them. They insist on a program of education for their population that has a deeply racist view of the entire non-Muslim world, but many in the royal family live their lives outside the kingdom in deep hypocrisy (booze, women, gambling, and wasteful spending). They also depend on the wealth and power of their ties with the West to keep the family of Saud in power, yet their fostering of Islamist fundamentalism also brings unrest and challenge to the Royal Family. You can see the 6,000 Princes of Saud are a portrait self-opposition. Posner does a fine job of showing us the subtleties of all these internal contradictions.
Americans should also be concerned about what their government keeps from them to protect the House of Saud. Their investments in the United States are not only not reported by our government (by an agreement reached with our government to be treated as an exception), the Saudi's also invest through complicated and secretive chains of corporate offshore entities. Posner says that one reasonable estimate of their holdings is around $600 billion. Of course, what else are they going to do with all the dollars we and others ship them for their oil? They have to put them somewhere. Are we better off having them here or elsewhere? Still, it is disquieting that our government helps keep this information from us. We have learned by sad experience that secrecy and opaqueness seldom lead to good ends. Transparency and openness are healthy and in the interests of our citizenry. We should insist that the Saudi's acquisitions and spending in our economy be accounted for openly so the American Citizens can make proper assessments for themselves on whether they are good for us or if some other course of action should be taken.
The extent of the Saudi's support for the other side in our War on Terror is also complex. Many Saudi's do not recognize their own role in fostering 9/11. In fact, many still believe and promote the idea that America attacked itself that awful day to support the Zionists. Sure, it is a crazy notion, however, it is a notion that is believed by powerful people. We simply dismiss this to our own hurt.
In his previous book (also strongly recommended), "Why America Slept", Posner reported on the capture and interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. He opens this book with a recap of this incident and reports on the amazing coincidental deaths of all those named by Zubaydah as contacts. They died on the operating table, in plane crashes, and car accidents. Make of it what you will. However, it is clear that Islamic charities are not charities in the Western sense and that money flows from Saudi Arabia into channels that are used by those who oppose us. Not because the Saudi's are hoodwinked, but because ideologically the Saudi's are indeed in opposition to us. We have to face the fact that while we need their oil and they want our money and much else, we are not aligned in all interests, views, or purposes. Nevertheless, they have also, at times, taken heat in the Arab world doing things to help the United States, as well. While they may not be our direct enemy, they are certainly not our unqualified friends.
Posner does a superb job in presenting these complex realities. He does not pull punches, and he demonstrates how all American administrations and both political parties have participated in accommodating the Saudis. Most disturbing are the names Posner provides of prominent Americans who have profited and continue to profit from supporting Saudi interests in the US. It is disturbing because the work these paid agents are doing would not be perceived by the average American as being in America's interests. Maybe they could be persuaded if someone trusted them with the facts, however, it is treated as a public relations problem with massive lobbyist support and complicit efforts to keep the true scope of the Saudi impact on our economy secret.
I also urge you to read the footnotes. There are lists of names of prominent Saudi's donating to terrorist groups and a lot of other great information in these notes. Posner also provides a very useful bibliography for further reading.
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25 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Over a barrel, May 21, 2005
This may be one of the most important books of the year as it points out not only the bargain with the devil we make when we ally ourselves morally bankrupt countries but the larger problem of our dependence on oil and the continuing missteps we make in trying to secure that resource.
I see Posner's book as balanced and carefully researched. In my opinion as a journalist he does not seem betray any liberal or conservative bias.
Saudi Arabia was somewhat of a backwater as well as a country whose survival was in question until oil was discovered there by Americans in the 1930s.
Posner gives us background of life in Saudi Arabia before the days of oil. The picture is not a pretty one. It was a society both intolerant and brutal.
But when oil was discovered the US, originally through Aramco, a dance began with this peculiar culture.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia long has a history of being anti Jewish and later anti-Israel.
The US has been trying to perform a balancing act for decades between its support for Israel and while trying to maintain a good relationship with Saudi Arabia. In the meantime the Saudis have been waging an ideological war in both funding the Wahabis in their own country and funding projects in our own universities.
Posner points out how we have and continue to defer to the Saudis time and again.
This brings us to 9-11-01 and these post 9-11 days.
Posner exposes members of the House of Saud that had, and may still have, direct connections to al-Qaeda. He also account chilling plans the ruling family has to detonate their own oil fields with radiological devices in the event they are overthrown.
The authors does a wonderful job showing how the interests of Saudi Arabia and the US have become complicatedly entangled despite the fact that the two countries have vastly different goals.
Highly recommended.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing has Changed?, August 3, 2005
Other reviewers have commented or complained that if you know Saudi history, this book is old hat. Well, I don't know Saudi history, and this book details some almost unbelievable things. When I heard (Unabridged Audio CD) hours of descriptions of questionable human rights, monetary excesses and possible trickery in foreign policy since 1932, I somehow got the feeling that things were different now. So I was surprised to hear that apparently nothing had changed in 2002 when the Crown Prince visited Crawford, Texas.
I heard the author discuss this book on CSPAN and got the feeling that he was careful to state things in an unbiased manner. I have no way of knowing if, or how much, this book may be biased. But even if there is "an other hand", it would be hard to find an ofsetting justification for some of the duplicity, excesses and abuses described.
It is true that this book is basically a history of the Saudi Kingdom. However, its central focus appears to be a plan to protect their oil from takeover by other entities. The author leaves us to make up our own minds: Is the plan too far fetched to be believed, or is it so far fetched that we must believe it?
Also, the reader of this audio book is really good at pronouncing names.
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