Princes of Darkness: The Saudi Assault on the West (Hardcover)

by Laurent Murawiec (Author), George Holoch (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Originally published in French by Albin Michel Publishers in October 2003, Princes of Darkness is a highly critical account of Saudi Arabia and, more specifically, its royal family, the Al-Sauds, and its deceitful approach to international affairs and the governance of its own people. The author demonstrates that the regime practices a multi-faceted apartheid toward inferior races and species: foreigners, Shiites, Christians, Jews, and women. It is a country that you can find yourself in jail for an ill-timed ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Torture is widely practiced: whipping, stoning, amputation, decapitation. There are fifty thousand mosques—one for every hundred male adults—and fifty thousand imams who direct prayers, schoolbooks, the press, radio and television, all official organizations controlled down to the slightest detail by the regime. The preacher’s sermons are full of hatred, incitation to loathe the West, calls for murder. All this in the name of Islam. The religion they profess, Wahhabism, is a strange mix of paganism, provincial narrow-mindedness and rhetoric borrowed from Islam. And oil finances the family’s ambitions. The Al-Sauds have used the enormous power and wealth that came from oil to buy consciences, political parties, celebrities, mercenaries, and countries—including the United States.

Murawiec proves that the "reward" to the United States, who’s loyalties and blind faith have been purchased by the royal family, is not just oil but terrorism. Americans can no longer ignore the countless links between the Saudi elite and international terror—that so many analysts and observers had established before and after September 11th—should have been perceived, revealed, attacked, and unraveled by all available means.

Princes of Darkness answers the critical questions: What has to be done about Saudi Arabia? Should we take the ‘Saudi’ out of Arabia? And if so, how? And how do we hold America’s political elite accountable for its decades-old alliance with these terrorizing princes of darkness.

About the Author
Laurent Murawiec lives in the Washington, D.C. area. He is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. Previously, Murawiec was a senior international policy analyst with the RAND Corporation and an adviser to the French Ministry of Defense. He is the author of several books.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742542785
• ISBN-13: 978-0742542785
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 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.com Sales Rank: #724,064 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 55 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)

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.

9 of 9 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

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

42 of 53 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 50 REVIEWER)

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.