Customer Reviews

Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Saudi-U.S. Connection

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book did a good job of raising some of the nagging questions that, curiously, have not been closed by the 2-3 comprehensive 9/11 inquiries that have been performed. I wish it had gone more in depth as to history, culture, and future prospects for Saudi Arabia as well, as well as Saudi's influence in the region.

This book does not seem as well researched, as factual as Posner's previous books. It certainly does have some facts we don't often see, and for someone who knows little about Saudi Arabia this might be of value. However the overall description of the Saudi government leads one to think they are 99% thugs and thieves -- e.g. the way the monarch induces Saudi royal family to "earn" rather than just accept welfare, is to set them up to receive bribes! There certainly are repetitive examples of over-the-top spending and behavior by high ranking members of the Saudi Royal Family. Is the message class envy, or something more important here?

Early in the book I got the feeling that Posner was too personally involved in the news here, for example some of the . Certainly the anti-Jew and anti-Israel world view attributed to the Wahabbi thinking, is shocking and could imaginably lead to another Jewish Holocaust if they got what the Wahabbis wanted. I don't even know for certain whether Posner is Jewish, but get the impression he cares too emotionally about this book's subject, to write a 1st rate book here.

This book focuses on Saudi Arabia, but to address the world's Arab problems, anti-Semitism problems, and oil problems would require we look at the other parts of the Arab world as well. This book instead shows the threats posed by Wahabbi Islam, and the corruption that is brought about by unearned oil wealth, from a land that was seized by warfare in the first place.

Each of the chapters seems to me to be a half proved argument, there is just something a little flimsy about the sources by journalistic standards. I'm glad I read this book but feel there must be other books to read, before I get any kind of balanced picture of Saudi Arabia or the Arab world. Each of Posner's other books that I have read, is better than this one.

Posner begins by relating the outcome of capturing Abu Zubeydah, the highest-ranking al-Qaeda operative captured so far by the United States. The U.S. arranged to mislead their captive into thinking that he had been turned over to Saudi's. Zubeydah's reaction was one of relief, and he quickly spit out the phone #s of two Saudi royals, stating that "they would take care of the situation." Unsure what to make of this, the U.S. then informed Zubeydah that the phone #s were no good. He then provided several other Saudi names and that of the Chief of Pakistan's Air Force, adding that the Pakistani and one of the Saudis knew of 9/11 in advance.

Both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan denied Zubeydah's claims, as expected. However, three months later, all those named started dying under suspicious circumstances.

Posner then briefly summarizes how the Sauds came to power after WWI, defeating the Ottomans (prior ruling tribe) and others. He then goes on to cover how Saudi Arabia is much more religiously conservative than other branches of Islam, though it has relaxed somewhat in recent years. Nonetheless, one is horrified to read how 15 girls recently died in a fire at their school because authorities would not let them out without "proper" headgear.

Other sources have clearly identified hatred of Israel as a major motivator in the Islamic world. This is somewhat understandable in response to Israel's takeover of Palestinian land and subsequent mistreatment of those citizens. Posner, however, also points out that the Sauds had this hatred before WWI!

Posner also details how Saudi Arabia threatened to nationalize its oil industry in the early 1970s unless businesses lobbied for it. Shortly thereafter, Egypt attacked Israel, Nixon decided to resupply Israel, and the U.S. oil embargo followed. Eventually the embargo was lifted, but prices increased ten-fold, and the Saudis used their new wealth for conspicuous consumption and to engender support among other nations for a resolution condemning Israel.

At this point the "good news" is that eventually the Saudi's began to use their vast wealth to build public infrastructure; the "bad news" is that it was accompanied by lots of corruption.

King Faisal was assassinated in '75 by the nephew of a prince he had ordered killed while protesting (religious reasons) opening a TV station. Posner points out that the nephew had spent years in the U.s. - thus, it was concluded that the West had corrupted him, and general dislike of the U.S. again increased.

America's prolonged military presence on Saudi soil (considered a major affront to Islam) during the first Gulf War helped motivate Bin Laden. (President Clinton compounded the problem by allowing women to be stationed at the base.) At about this time, Saudis worried about others trying to take over their oil fields (President Carter had an official plan drawn up to do so) established a "scorched earth" policy - Semtex explosive was placed in key locations, and it is also rumored that mini "dirty-bombs" were additionally positioned.

As for the current war of terror - Posner points out that much terror-funding comes from the Sauds, and they have failed to cooperated with U.S. banking officials trying to stop the flow.

Overall - a very informative and alarming book.

Saudi Arabia is officially an ally of the United States. It very often is the OPEC member that adds on to the oil supply , and so keeps the price down. It has huge holdings of US financial instruments. It has especially good personal connections with many of American leaders, among whom are the Bush family. It has been considered an ally of the United States since the time of President Franklin Roosevelt.
However Saudi Arabia is also the home of Wahabi Islam. This radical xenophobic form of Islam is the principal ideology of Islamic terrorism. Saudi Arabia 's school - system preaches violent anti- Americanism. Eleven of the fifteen terrorists of 9/11 were Saudis. The largest contingent of foreign terrorists operating against the Iraqi regime, and US forces in Iraq are Saudis. The Saudis through Islamic charitable organizations ( as Posner makes clear in this book) are major funders of terror in the world.
Thus the US- Saudi connection is an important, problematic, and questionable one.
Posner in this research adds evidence regarding the negative role Saudi Arabia plays in the whole struggle against Terror, and in the US effort to push toward Democracy in the Middle East. He provides evidence showing how Saudi influence has penetrated and corrupted law-enforcement and political agencies in the United States.
This book even adds the somewhat unlikely and not fully proved story of the Saudis having in fear of a US invastion and takeover attempt completely mining their oil- fields.
Aside from the questionable character of this story Posner does present a well- documented picture of Saudi double- dealing toward the United States.
It too points out how the Saudi connection has prevented the US from going all out in the war on terror. For to do this the US would have to also confront and transform the Saudi regime itself.
Whoever reads this book and studies the present US- Saudi connection will leave it having considerable worries about the present course of US foreign policy, and in fact the future of Western democracy in an energy hungry world.
A vital work for understanding one of the great threats to American democracy today.

I know very little about Saudi Arabia. Yet, on page 34, I knew right away that the incident where the 15 girls died in a fire at their school because the religious police prevented firemen and others from saving the girls because they were not properly covered, the author had the wrong date. He stated that this happened on March 14, 2000. It actually happened on March 15, 2002 and you can still find an article on the incident at the BBC website (and elsewhere). I knew this because I was not paying attention to Saudi Arabia in 2000. I definitely was paying attention in March of 2002 (only 6 months after 9/11/2001) and I remember the incident well. Well, that is okay because out of 191 pages of text (I am not including the index, etc in this page count), it would be easy to make a mistake. The problem is that this mistake was made on page 34. I wondered through the rest of the book what other mistakes were made.

In spite of this error of date of the fire at the school (admittedly a minor error unless it was one of your own children who died), I will say that the book is an intriguing one (but also dangerous). I feel that it is a dangerous book because of how the author presents the Saudis. I feel the author is irresponsible in how he frames Saudi-US relations and the Saudis. After readng this book, one would be tempted to want to end all US relation with the Saudis and to begin to see all Saudis with suspicion and in the most negative light. The truth is, whether we like it or not, the US and Saudi Arabia do have a very long relationship and just as the US is not completely without possibility for betterment, neither are the Saudis. Not all Saudis are terrorists! However, if you read this book and believed everything in it, you would certainly be prone to think that not a single Saudi is worth any degree of trust or partnership.

Part of what makes the book such a page turner is that it reads like a horror story. For instance, on pages 125-134 he describes radiation dispersal devices. He provides a technical description of how the rulers of Saudi Arabia might have engineered the possibility within their oil fields for the destruction of their own land so that it would be completely useless for decades and decades due to radiation. RDD is part of a possible and theoretical scorched earth Saudi policy should the House of Saud ever fall.

Other topics explored in the book include the history of the Saud royal family, Arab and Jewish lobbying and influence on American policy, buying of arms by the Saudis, the massive buying of America (did you know the second largest shareholder of the Fox channel is a Saudi prince? indeed this same prince owns a portion of the company that is presenting the very same web page that you are now reading (I verified this on the prince's website), as well as corruption, extravagance, and excessive spending of and by the royal family, and of course terrorism.

Unlike Thomas Lippman who actually spent decades living in, exploring, and writing of Saudi Arabia in books such as the "Inside the Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia"), I don't remember reading a single word by Posner where the Saudis were shown in any kind of favorable, moderate, or humane light. Lastly, the book describes Posner as having undertaken a 2 year investigation. Again, if you read authors such as Lippman, you will hear people who have decades - even lifetimes - with the culture.

So read this book if you really want to be frightened, if it doesn't bother you that a whole people of a nation is painted in a negative light, if it doesn't matter that the author is one of the least experienced authors of his subject matter, and lastly, that at least part of the book is pure speculation (although the author freely and openly makes that disclosure).

One can only hope that the Saudi royal family has not booby trapped the oil reserves. But why wouldn't they exercise this option? It seems entirely reasonable to me. Saudi Arabia's military could never defeat a serious invasion. How else will they be able to dissuade others from violently overthrowing the present Saudi power structure? And yes, I wish that Gerald Posner could offer more than an anonymous source to back up the central revelation of Secrets of the Kingdom. He is, however, a highly respected historian and journalist who is careful not to jeopardize his credibility. As mater of fact, the very value of this book revolves around one's trust of the author's integrity and ability not to be conned by those he is interviewing. I'm betting that Posner is trustworthy. Would the Israelis attempt to deceive us about the intentions of the Saudis? This line of reasoning fails to make any sense. What does Israel gain by persuading the United States that Saudi Arabia's oil production could be rendered useless in virtually a few minutes?

The House of Saud has manipulated both major political parties. Many of our former diplomatic professionals and academics obtain lucrative employment with Saudi funded groups. They do little to risk upsetting their employers. From a de facto perspective---these Americans are often more loyal to the Saudis then they are to their own country. This sad predicament has left us essentially ignorant concerning what is actually going in the Kingdom. Which of the Saudi princes are in charge? Is it the secular moderate faction or those inclined towards Whabbism? At best, we may only be able to take an educated guess. Gerald Posner adds a few more pieces to the puzzle. This alone makes Secrets of the Kingdom worth reading.

Gerald Posner opens up a whole new aspect of geo-politics that, when I heard myself summarizing to those around me, sounded like a bad Clancy screenplay- except this is true.
Extremely enlightening, scary and timely. A super read.