House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties

by Craig Unger (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2004

  $24.18

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.25

  This is a PB of the acclaimed House of Bush House of Saud . Expanded with new material and a new Afterword by Craig Unger, this book reveals new evidence of the controversial Saudi-Bush relationship and its effect on terrorism. In this updated edition, Craig Unger probes with documents and intelligence sources into the religious extremism of Saudi Arabia under its particular brand of Wahhabi Islam espoused by the royal House of Saud. He shows that the seeds for the 'age of terrorism' were planted nearly 30 years ago in the Kingdom, fanned through the long-lived business and governmental connections between the House of Saud and House of Bush. It is a relationship that is seemingly at times difficult to distinguish from favouritism. Unger shows how as alongside the relationship, the flame of terrorism was kindled as a by-product through the growth of a complex financial network, at one stage comprising the fraudulent bank of BCCI (currently the cause Bank of England litigation). Unger shows that to this day (even immediately after 9/11) the Bush Administration has been curiously reluctant to stem the financial life-blood of terrorism by clamping down on Saudi Arabia. Despite its rhetoric on being tough, he shows that the Bush Administration has been fighting a war of mirrors with the press rather than organise effective curbs on terrorist financing. Equally, he shows how Saudia Arabia is only half-heartedly dealing with the internal problems it has because of the tensions between its autocratic rule and its fundamentalist state religion that condones Saudi punishments such as beheading and cutting off of hands for petty crimes.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $3.25

  Craig Unger begins his House of Bush House of Saud, a massive seller in the US likened to All the President's Men, with an explosive question: how is it that two days after the attack on the World Trade Centre, when U.S. air traffic was tightly restricted, 140 Saudis, many immediate kin to Osama Bin Laden, were permitted to leave the country without being questioned by U.S. intelligence? The answer lies in a hidden relationship that began in the 1970s, when the oil-rich House of Saud began courting American politicians in a bid for military protection, influence, and investment opportunity. With the Bush family, the Saudis hit a gusher - direct access to presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. To trace the amazing weave of Saud-Bush connections, Unger interviewed three former directors of the CIA, top Saudi and Israeli intelligence officials, and more than one hundred other sources. His access to major players is unparalleled and often exclusive - including executives at the Carlyle Group, the giant investment firm where the House of Bush and the House of Saud each has a major stake.