The perilous ramifications of the September 11 attacks on the United States are only now beginning to unfold. They will undoubtedly be felt for generations to come. This is one of many sad conclusions readers will draw from Craig Unger's exceptional book House of Bush House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties. As Unger claims in this incisive study, the seeds for the "Age of Terrorism" and September 11 were planted nearly 30 years ago in what, at the time, appeared to be savvy business transactions that subsequently translated into political currency and the union between the Saudi royal family and the extended political family of George H. W. Bush. On the surface, the claim may appear to be politically driven, but as Unger (a respected investigative journalist and editor) probes--with scores of documents and sources--the political tenor of the U.S. over the last 30 years, the Iran-Iraq War, the war in Afghanistan, the birth of Al Qaeda, the dubious connection between members of the Saudi Royal family and the exportation of terror, and the personal fortunes amassed by the Bush family from companies such as Harken Energy and the Carlyle Group, he exposes the "brilliantly hidden agendas and purposefully murky corporate relationships" between these astonishingly powerful families. His evidence is persuasive and reveals a devastating story of Orwellian proportions, replete with political deception, shifting allegiances, and lethal global consequences. Unger begins his book with the remarkable story of the repatriation of 140 Saudis directly following the September 11 attacks. He ends where Richard A. Clarke begins, questioning the efficacy of the war in Iraq in the battle against terrorism. We are unquestionably facing a global security crisis unlike any before. President Bush insists that we will prevail, yet as Unger so effectively concludes, "Never before has an American president been so closely tied to a foreign power that harbors and supports our country's mortal enemies." --Silvana Tropea

From Publishers Weekly
In this potentially explosive book, investigative journalist Unger, who has written for the New Yorker, Esquire and Vanity Fair, pieces together the highly unusual and close personal and financial relationships between the Bush family and the ruling family of Saudi Arabia—and questions the implications for Bush's preparedness, or possible lack thereof, for September 11. What could forge such an unlikely alliance between the leader of the free world and the leaders of a stifling Islamic theocracy? First and foremost, according to Unger, is money. He compiles figures in an appendix indicating over $1.4 billion worth of business between the Saudi royal family and businesses tied (sometimes loosely) to the House of Bush, ranging from donations to the Bush presidential library to investments with the Carlyle Group ("a well-known player in global commerce" for which George H.W. Bush has been a senior advisor and his secretary of state, James Baker, is a partner), to deals with Halliburton, of which Dick Cheney was CEO. James Baker’s law firm even defended the House of Saud in a lawsuit brought by relatives of victims of September 11. Unger also questions whether the Bush grew so complacent about the Saudis that his administration ignored then White House terrorism czar Richard Clarke’s repeated warnings and recommendations about the Saudis and al-Qaeda. Another question raised by Unger’s research is whether millions in Saudi money given to U.S. Muslim groups may have delivered a crucial block of Muslim votes to George W. Bush in 2000—and it’s questions like that will make some readers wonder whether Unger is applying a chainsaw to issues that should be dissected with a scalpel. But whether one buys Unger’s arguments or not, there’s little doubt that with this intensely researched, well-written book he has poured more flame onto the political fires of 2004.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
The Bush administration is in the dock for allegedly ignoring the threat of Islamic radicalism before Sept. 11 and then retaliating in the wrong place, Iraq. That is the complaint of Richard A. Clarke, who resigned in disgust as coordinator of counter-terrorism for the administration in February 2003, and of former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. Craig Unger repeats the charge and suggests an explanation. He says that President George W. Bush's circle and the ruling family of Saudi Arabia are way too close. Business deals with Saudis and friendship with the formidable Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, blinded Bush father and son to the deadly threat of Islamic radicalism in Saudi Arabia. Iraq is at best a "dangerous and costly diversion," he says, and at worst a trap. "Never before," Unger concludes, "has an American president been so closely tied to a foreign power that harbors and supports our country's mortal enemies."Allowing for investigative hyperbole, that's quite an indictment of the Bushes and such political and business associates as former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Vice President Cheney. The U.S.-Saudi alliance has survived against the odds since the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ibn Saud. In return for American protection from Israel and Arab radicals, the Sauds pursued an expansionary oil policy and opened their markets to U.S. business. But with one ally espousing missionary Islam and the other democracy, the relationship had to be discreet. Deep divisions over Israel were swept under the carpet. Desert Shield in 1991 and the attacks of Sept. 11 a decade later applied intolerable stresses: A Western army invaded the sanctuary of Islam, and 15 of the airline hijackers were Saudis. Discreet alliance has given way to mutual suspicion, of which Unger's book is an American symptom. Unger tells a story well and has a flair for describing the affinities (horses, aviation) between rich Saudis and rich Americans. As he portrays it, the Saudis were drawn to Texas as another oil-rich province. Khalid bin Mahfouz, the leading Saudi banker later implicated in the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), helped finance the Houston skyscraper built for James Baker's family bank in 1982. A Saudi investor bailed out Harken Energy, George W. Bush's less than stellar oil company. Saudis, led by Prince Bandar, donated millions of dollars to Bush family charities. Mahfouzes and bin Ladens bought into the Carlyle Group, the private equity firm that counted George Bush Sr. and James Baker as paid-up advisers in the 1990s. For Unger, all this is evidence at the least of a "strategy the Saudis had of investing in U.S. companies that were connected to powerful politicians." Unger claims that Saudi interests have paid not less than $1.477 billion to persons and entities in the Bush circle. Yet the largest portion, $819 million, involved contract payments to Vinnell Corp. of Fairfax, Va., which has been training the Saudi National Guard on behalf of the U.S. military since the early 1970s and was owned by Carlyle only for a period in the 1990s. Halliburton companies received contracts to develop oil fields and built process plants in Saudi Arabia long before Dick Cheney was the corporation's chief executive. Unger's best pages tell how, in the days of panic and recrimination after Sept. 11, Prince Bandar managed to spirit prominent members of the Saud and bin Laden families out of the United States on chartered aircraft. Beginning on Sept. 13, when private aviation was still restricted, some 140 Saudis, including about two dozen of the bin Ladens, were flown to Europe. "Didn't it make sense," asks Unger rhetorically, "to at least interview Osama bin Laden 's relatives?" Yet Unger's charge that Prince Ahmed bin Salman, who was evacuated from the racehorse sales at Lexington, Ky., was a bin Laden agent in the Saudi royal family is based on double hearsay. By invading Iraq, George W. Bush may have done a great service to Islamic radicalism, but the Sauds opposed the invasion as folly and are not to blame. In reality, the Sauds misread bin Ladenism as comprehensively as the United States. Because bin Laden appealed to the same fierce sectarian impulses that brought the Al Saud themselves to power, senior princes and high-ranking commoners thought they could exploit him for the Arab cause. When that failed, they tried to wish the Islamic radicals out of existence or buy them off.According to well-informed people in Saudi Arabia, everything changed on May 12, 2003, when near-simultaneous attacks on three residential compounds in Riyadh killed 34 people, including nine Americans. The militants had declared war on the House of Saud. Since that day, Prince Naif, the Saudi interior minister, has stopped denying the existence of an Islamic opposition. The Saudi security forces have been pursuing Islamic militants with a vigor that has impressed some American observers. If this is a change of Saudi heart, it doesn't square with Unger's argument, and he ignores it. Reviewed by James BuchanCopyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

From AudioFile
It's always startling to learn the inner workings of the government old boys' club, especially with such unlikely comrades as the two George Bushes and a family of billionaire Saudis. Unger presents incontrovertible evidence of the long hand-in-glove union of these two dynasties, implying rather directly that decisions made by and privileges granted by Bush father and son were and are heavily influenced by secret agreements, greed, and graft. James Naughton provides an authoritative atmosphere to the unsavory doings, lending an undertone of sincerity to the well-researched tell-all. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Book Description
Newsbreaking and controversial -- an award-winning investigative journalist uncovers the thirty-year relationship between the Bush family and the House of Saud and explains its impact on American foreign policy, business, and national security. House of Bush, House of Saud begins with a politically explosive question: How is it that two days after 9/11, 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. Like Bob Woodward's The Veil, Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud features unprecedented reportage; like Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? Unger's book offers a political counter-narrative to official explanations; this deeply sourced account has already been cited by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, and sets 9/11, the two Gulf Wars, and the ongoing Middle East crisis in a new context: What really happened when America's most powerful political family became seduced by its Saudi counterparts?

Download Description
"Newsbreaking and controversial -- an award-winning investigative journalist uncovers the thirty-year relationship between the Bush family and the House of Saud and explains its impact on American foreign policy, business, and national security. House of Bush, House of Saud begins with a politically explosive question: How is it that two days after 9/11, 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. Like Bob Woodward's The Veil, Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud features unprecedented reportage; like Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? Unger's book offers a political counter-narrative to official explanations; this deeply sourced account has already been cited by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, and sets 9/11, the two Gulf Wars, and the ongoing Middle East crisis in a new context: What really happened when America's most powerful political family became seduced by its Saudi counterparts?"

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"House of Bush, House of Saud begins with a simple question: How is it that two days after September 11, 2001, when American air traffic was all but shut down, 140 Saudi citizens, many kin to Osama bin Laden, were permitted to leave the country? Why didn't the FBI question the people on the planes? Why did a Saudi billionaire socialize in the White House with President George W. Bush on September 13, and why did Saudi Arabia - the birthplace of nearly all of the hijackers - get preferential treatment from the White House even at the World Trade Center continued to burn?" The answers to these questions - and ones far more troubling - lie in a largely hidden relationship that began in the mid-1970s, when the oil-rich House of Saud set out for America in the wake of the OPEC oil embargo and soaring oil prices. Saudi Arabia needed American military protection and a place to invest its billions of petrodollars. Like wildcatting oil drillers, the Saudis began prospecting among promising American politicians, including the Bush family. And with the Bushes, the Saudis hit a gusher - direct access to presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, as well as to Secretary of State James Baker, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Unger's best pages tell how, in the days of panic and recrimination after Sept. 11, Prince Bandar managed to spirit prominent members of the Saud and bin Laden families out of the United States on chartered aircraft. Beginning on Sept. 13, when private aviation was still restricted, some 140 Saudis, including about two dozen of the bin Ladens, were flown to Europe. "Didn't it make sense," asks Unger rhetorically, "to at least interview Osama bin Laden 's relatives?" — James Buchan

AudioFile