Product Description
If Olaya Street Could Talk is a portrait of Saudi Arabia and its people, encompassing a 25-year period during the era of its dynamic transformation from being one of the poorer countries in the world to becoming a state with a modern physical and economic infrastructure. It is also a story about the western expatriates who worked and lived in the country--from the "free and easy 70's"--to the period when they became specific targets for execution by certain religious fundamentalists. The book addresses western perceptions of the country and how those perceptions were formed, from TE Lawrence and Wilfred Thesiger to NY Times columnists Thomas Friedman, Maureen Dowd and David Brooks. The book's fundamental purpose is to examine the issue which dominates today's headlines: the "Islamic-Western cultural divide" and places this concept within the context of American issues, such as the experience with the black-white cultural divide as well as America's last significant conflict, the Vietnam War. It is in parts a travelogue, a sociological examination, a historical documentary, a love story, health care development and political commentary. The author is one of few Americans to have lived in the country during this period of time who had access to Saudis at all levels of society and freely traveled throughout a large portion of the country. No other book, in English or Arabic, covers this period of Saudi Arabia's transformation to a modern nation, the period from 1978 to 2003. The motivation for writing the book was to render a realistic image of the people of Saudi Arabia, as well as to examine some of the basis for the American misperceptions of this country and region, in the hope that it will inspire others to take steps towards ending the current policy of war without end. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (33)

Fascinating account of 20+ years of adventure and work in Saudi Arabia
Jones begins IF OLAYA STREET COULD TALK with the lyrics from "If Beale Street Could Talk", which Wikipedia identifies as "a 1916 song by the American composer and lyricist W.C. Handy [that] refers to Beale Street in Memphis,... a place closely associated with the development of the blues." Handy's lyrics capture a complex world with gaudy wealth amid poverty, honesty amid treachery, and an undertone of violence that somehow retains an emotional hold. The lyrics repeat the line, "I'd rather be there than any place I know."

This is an apt beginning for Jones, who developed a complex view of Saudi Arabia in his 20+ years of work at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. This view does recognize a rise in religious intolerance and heavy-handed policing, particularly as America responds to 9/11 and then prepares to invade Iraq. Even so, his view is refreshingly nuanced, unlike the stereotypical views of Saudi Arabia that appear in Western media.

Interestingly, Jones uses the backstories of two well-known newspaper columns about Saudi Arabia to show how best-selling American journalists reinforce these stereotypes. In one column, Thomas Friedman says workers at the KFSH were gleeful following 9/11. Backstory: This is a misrepresentation of what Jones, a source for this story, told him. Meanwhile, who can forget Maureen Dowd writing about lingerie in Riyadh? Backstory: In writing this story, she missed a chance to meet with Saudi women and explore their status in depth. In contrast, the book jacket of IOSCT has the comment: "The motivation for writing this book was to render a realistic image of the people of Saudi Arabia, as well as to examine some of the basis for the American misperceptions..."

Jones develops several major intertwined narratives in this book. Certainly, the most prominent is a travelogue with Jones, a camper and adventure vacationer, visiting all of Saudi Arabia except Makkah and Madinah. In this mode, Jones offers first-rate travel writing, tying his camping adventures in this surprisingly diverse region to information about its landscape, various tribes, and recent political history. A leitmotif in this writing is Jones's handling of emirs and local police, who seldom see westerners. These often wonder why anyone would want to camp in the desert and assume Westerners are connected to the CIA. But Jones turns this situation to his advantage, since there are no travel visas and his is usually the only tourist group in an area. As a result, the Jones party camps wherever it wants and then enjoys the nighttime sky in a light-free zone.

In its second narrative, IOSCT is a memoir of management with Jones, a hospital administrator, showing how bureaucracy in Saudi Arabia is similar to, but different from, bureaucracies everywhere. In telling this story, Jones shows how the KFSH gradually developed bureaucratic checks and balances that restrained megalomania and politics and enabled the hospital to deliver fine health care. Unfortunately, religious fanaticism does eventually enter the hospital, isolating its Western employees.

Underlying these two principal narratives are many stories of cross-cultural interaction. Perhaps the most interesting describes Jones's 15-minutes-of-fame appearance on "Tash ma Tash", a satirical show on Saudi TV that he compares to "The Daily Show". In making his appearance, Jones interacts with entertainers in Saudi Arabia that understand and express foibles within the kingdom. In telling this story, he explores the feelings of average Saudis for their country. And, he identifies a normalcy within Saudi society that is otherwise hidden by religious fanaticism, a heavy-handed government, and American stereotyping.

Jones is certainly concerned about the Islamic-Western cultural divide. Ominously, he is also concerned that these cultural differences are being hyped by extremists on both sides who consider "war without end" the solution. To explore this theme, Jones devotes two of his 26 chapters in IOSCT to Viet Nam, where he served as a medical corpsman and then returned in the mid-1990s. In these chapters, he points out that what justifies policy in one era quickly dates in the next. But what does remain is a commitment to unending war, which a cynical portrayal of the Islamic-Western cultural divide perpetuates.

IF OLAYA STREET COULD TALK is a skillfully and carefully written book with an excellent glossary and several useful maps. The book is always interesting and entertaining and is highly recommended.

More Holiday Photo Album than a Portrait
While I enjoyed the book for what it was -- a set of personal and occasionally insightful recollections and ruminations on the author's time in Saudi Arabia -- it does not live up to the description, which makes broader claims for its purpose and scope.The book is not in my view a "portrait of Saudi Arabia and its people...over 25 years," which sounds as though the reader will be treated to a comprehensive analysis of this complex country, its culture and history. The author's perspective is distinctly personal and deals extensively with his experiences as an American expat working in a Riyadh hospital and devotes much of the narrative to accounts of camping trips in various areas of Saudi Arabia. Any portrait that emerges from such an approach is of necessity impressionistic and limited. For the same reason, neither does the book deliver on its purpose to fundamentally "examine the issue which dominates today's headlines: the "Islamic-Western cultural divide."This is an intelligent and entertaining travelogue which stumbles when it aspires to be more -- for example, veering off course into ruminations on the author's Vietnam experiences. If you are looking for coffee klatch conversation about Saudi Arabia, there is plenty of material here. But if you were looking for a comprehensive portrait of the country, its people, and the reasons for its issues with the West, you will need to look elsewhere.

Book
My wife bought this book for two reasons. First, we lived in Saudi Arabia for 8 1/2 years and are very familiar with Olaya Street. Second, we are very good personal friends of the author! While much of what is in the book brings back memories, he delves into the politics of the Kingdom such that this is not a book of light reading and has more appeal to those who have lived there than would be the case with the general public.

A Reverse Sandwich
As we know, most sandwiches have large pieces of bread on either end, with a few slices of meat in the middle. The bread is there to fill you up, while the meat provides the protein. In If Olaya Street Could Talk, John Paul Jones serves up a reverse of the traditional sandwich recipe. The few slices of tantalizing red meat are on either end, while the vast middle is layered with mounds of yummy Middle Eastern bread.

Unfortunately for me, the meat used in this sandwich would have been better served thirty years ago. To wit, he uses the opening pages of his book to trash the U.S.'s involvement in the Vietnam War. He makes it very clear that he was an unwilling "conscript" for thirteen months during the hot and heavy days of 1968-69, as the U.S., first, under the lead of JFK, and then Lyndon Johnson, bullied its way into Southeast Asia to pick on a bunch of peace-loving communists who were simply minding their own business (just as they were in Laos, Cambodia, North Korea, China, The Soviet Union, all of Eastern Europe, several Central American countries, Cuba, Angola, Grenada, Mongolia, Mozambique, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, The PR of The Congo, and Benin, during the surrounding decades.) We should have done the same! Everybody join in: "All we are saying, is give PEACE a chance!"

And then again at the very end of his book he makes it clear to all Americans, as well as the enemies of America, that he is opposed to our involvement in this current conflict, the so-called "War on Terror" (Also known as "The War Against the Great Satan", or "The War Against the Infidels" by the Islamofascists.) Like Vietnam, GWOT has become another unjust engagement on our part. However, unlike the great Kennedy and Johnson, this war was being honchoed by the "insufferable" Donald Rumsfeld.

Those are the two meatiest and shortest parts of this book. The rest of the pita in the middle is truly enjoyable to read (most of the time - see below)

The overwhelming majority of this volume is a cathartic and somewhat melancholic look back at the twenty five years Jones spent living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; the friendships forged, the cultural annoyances experienced, the lessons learned, and the many good times shared. He takes us on a guided tour of his life, starting as a young cultural trailblazer, right up to his more lofty status as an older and wiser repatriated American. While his wife and kids are mentioned only occasionally, his love for them comes through loud and clear. No doubt their lives are all the richer for tagging along with this guy!

Still, even in the "memoir" sections of his book, he can't help but jab his finger in the eye of any authority figure he disagrees with - be they Saudi, American, or otherwise. I'm not calling him a "conspiracy theorist", but the fact that he finds a way to squeeze in over a dozen references to the CIA - in his own life story - makes me wonder about his fascination with skullduggery (And he sees it everywhere the U.S. operates.) Jones must believe in the admonition of a certain insufferable man who once said, "There are known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns." It seems that Mr. Jones knows all of the "unknown unknowns", and they have something to do with the CIA!

One more criticism I can't pass up; one that I believe summarizes his world view, he wrote, "Underwater, as in geopolitics, if you leave dangerous things alone, more often than not, they will leave you alone." Really? By this line of reasoning, the physical "instigator" always "had it coming". Did we provoke Japan into attacking us, and thus drawing us into WWII, as some argue, or did they provoke us? Same for the "War on Terror"? Who provoked whom? (Don't answer if you're an American Leftist, a Euro-socialist, or a Jew-hating Muslim. Your answer is a "known known".) Furthermore, he doesn't spell out exactly what makes the other "dangerous". For example, is building nuclear weapons while repeatedly vowing to wipe another nearby country off the map dangerous, or provocative? Or, is taking out that nation's ability to "wipe you off the map" the first provocation? He doesn't tell us how far down the line of "perceived provocations" we can go to determine who really "had it coming". Nor does he explain what happens underwater, as in geopolitics, when you are weak.

Despite my political differences with John Paul Jones, I really did enjoy this book. He clearly has plenty of insights into a part of the world that few in this country do.As someone who has spent a good portion of my life living overseas as well, I can identify with his experiences; sometimes bluntly, other times, warmly, or even humorously, but always wonderfully retold.I would describe his writing style as "Bill Bryson meets Bill Press". If you want to learn, and laugh, and disagree, and empathize - buy this book!

Very informative and unbiased
This a great book that is full of information about places and times that even some Saudis don't even know! I've never been to many of the places that John has been to. We as Saudis take the civilization we have for granted forgetting that in the past even Olaya Street, was a piece of desert.

This is a great step toward a better understanding between the U.S & the Arab world. ... Read more

Product Description
Saudi Arabia, homeland of Osama bin Laden and many 9/11 hijackers, is widely considered to be the heartland of radical Islamism. For decades, the conservative and oil-rich kingdom contributed recruits, ideologues and money to jihadi groups worldwide. Yet Islamism within Saudi Arabia itself remains poorly understood. Why has Saudi Arabia produced so many militants? Has the Saudi government supported violent groups? How strong is al-Qaida's foothold in the kingdom and does it threaten the regime? Why did Bin Laden not launch a campaign there until 2003? This book presents the first ever history of Saudi jihadism based on extensive fieldwork in the kingdom and primary sources in Arabic. It offers a powerful explanation for the rise of Islamist militancy in Saudi Arabia and sheds crucial new light on the history of the global jihadist movement. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A real scholarly work on an important topic!
First, let med start by saying that this is a real scholarly work. Almost every page has lots of comprehensive footnotes. What impresses me the most, is all the primary (and secondary) sources Hegghammer has used in this book: Interviews with and biographies on ex-jihadists, prisoners from Guantanamo, families of active jihadists etc. (about 500 in all if I remember correctly). This makes Hegghammers arguments very convincing.

The book divides the time from 1979 into three periods. The first period ends in the mid-1990s and covers the rise of what Hegghammer calls "classical jihadism", that is the type of jihad conducted in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, in defense of muslim territories. Other examples are Checnya and Bosnia. The second period lasts from the mid-1990s until 9/11 2001, and covers the rise of al-Qaida and global jihadism, a much more controversial doctrine than classical jihadism. The third period covers al-Qaidas operations in Saudi Arabia, after they were ousted from Afghanistan. For each period Hegghammer has a chapter on the political environment, a chapter on the leaders and the organisations (e.g. al-Qaida), and a chapter on the jihadist recruits themselves.

To me, the most interesting parts of the book were the ones that covered the rise of jihadism. This gives rise to some general lessons, and also to some thoughts on how to win the war on terror. Hegghammer argues convincingly that doing something about symbols of muslim suffering is more important than political reform at home, at least in dealing with al-Qaida. Of course, this may not be the case with all islamists, and he makes some interesting comparisons between Egyptian and Saudi Arabian islamists.

For someone more interested in Saudi Arabia itself (than me), the parts covering al-Qaidas operations in Saudi Arabia may be just as interesting, and rest assured that Hegghammer has covered this in detail. ... Read more

Product Description

Oil and water, and the science and technology used to harness them, have long been at the heart of political authority in Saudi Arabia. Oil’s abundance, and the fantastic wealth it generated, has been a keystone in the political primacy of the kingdom’s ruling family. The other bedrock element was water, whose importance was measured by its dearth. Over much of the twentieth century, it was through efforts to control and manage oil and water that the modern state of Saudi Arabia emerged.

The central government’s power over water, space, and people expanded steadily over time, enabled by increasing oil revenues. The operations of the Arabian American Oil Company proved critical to expansion and to achieving power over the environment. Political authority in Saudi Arabia took shape through global networks of oil, science, and expertise. And, where oil and water were central to the forging of Saudi authoritarianism, they were also instrumental in shaping politics on the ground. Nowhere was the impact more profound than in the oil-rich Eastern Province, where the politics of oil and water led to a yearning for national belonging and to calls for revolution.

Saudi Arabia is traditionally viewed through the lenses of Islam, tribe, and the economics of oil. Desert Kingdom now provides an alternative history of environmental power and the making of the modern Saudi state. It demonstrates how vital the exploitation of nature and the roles of science and global experts were to the consolidation of political authority in the desert.

Product Description
Combating Terrorism describes the efforts made by the government of Saudi Arabia to combat terrorism with specific reference to the innovative three-pronged Saudi strategy that has been successfully implemented in the Saudi Arabia Kingdom. Asseri traces the problems around defining terrorism, highlighting the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter, and goes on to a functional definition. He also discusses terrorism in practice and highlights its purposes and goals, defines it in its historical perspective, and concludes with terrorism practiced in the name of religion.

The Islamic perspective on terrorism is examined, and Combating Terrorism outlines the abhorrence that Islam has for terrorist practices, the real meaning of jihad and the Islamic tradition of peaceful co-existence. Asseri elaborates on the root causes of terrorism with specific stress on the grievances of Muslims throughout the world. He then explains how the three-pronged Saudi strategy is practiced within its domestic, regional, and international dimensions.

Combating Terrorism also offers some case studies on the Saudi strategy and contains some concluding remarks with regard to pursuit of a world free of terror. ... Read more

Product Description
Few books on Saudi Arabia deal with primary sources in examining internal Saudi dissent. In contrast, Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent relies on field work and the analysis of more than 100 taped sermons by Saudi Islamic activists, examining their personal backgrounds, their rhetoric, and their strategies. Mamoun Fandy traces the evolution of Islamic opposition in Saudi Arabia, focusing on the Gulf War and its aftermath and scrutinizing the works of Safar al Hawali and Salman al-Auda. He also documents the history of the Shi`a Reform Movement and its leader, Sheik Hassan al-Safar, of Mohammed al-Mas`ari and his Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights, of Sa'd al-Faqih and the Movement of Islamic Reform in Arabia, and finally the radical Usama bin Laden and his organization. By analyzing the Saudi opposition’s use of modern technologies of communication and discussing the ways in which supposedly fundamentalist thinkers have been influenced by global debates and events, this book contributes significantly to the theoretical debate on domination and resistance in the current age of globalization and postmodernity.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great. Accurate. Insightful.
This was an incredible book. I stumbled across it mistakenly when doing research on the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism for my Conflict in World Politics class last term.

Fandy aptly disentangles and eradicates many of the commonly perpetuated myths of Islamic Fundamentalism and the entire "terrorist" movement, now. [For instance, it's said, time and time again -- both explictly and inadvertently -- that a major incentive to terrorists has been grounded in "failed" or "missed" prosperity, when in all reality, the majority of the 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, a country inherently overflowing with opulence and prosperity because of its abundance in natural resources: oil.]

The "terrorist" agents of 9/11 were well-educated, well-off young men with full lives ahead of them. The ring leaders of much of contemporary Islamic Fundamentalism are more often than not Western-educated, well-off, seasoned, wealthy men with doctorates.

We're not dealing with a group of scorned poor people. The real driving force behind Islamic Fundamentalism has less to do with money and more to do with morale and issues of cultural validity, not to mention issues of perceived power, and so on...

I can go on and on, but all in all, it was a really good book. Fandy does not -- or at least I don't believe so -- seek out to write a "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tells Them" book. Not at all...it's much more scholarly, though when he lays down the bare facts...you begin to see how lots of popular political rhetoric is little more than rubbish for the under-educated masses.

Scholarly, watertight
I read this book for a class on contemporary politics of the Middle East. Fandy's analysis of religious dissent in Saudi Arabia is in-depth and based on numerous primary sources. Instead of posing the regime as inexorably evil (or virtuous!), the author brings to bear some remarkable insights to explain how the House of Saud has attained a remarkable ascendancy over a region where familialism and kinship are ingrained into society.

While the lay reader could get sidetracked by some esoteric political science terms (e.g. the author should have defined 'the political economy of signs'), overall the style of writing is clear and reasonably paced. My only major disappointment was the tight focus on RELIGIOUS opposition by figures such as Al-Auda and Bin Laden - royal dissent was not mentioned.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Saudi Arabia.

as heard on Fresh Air (NPR) 9/27/01
The author of this book is one of the wisest voices around with an extremely broad and thoughtful perspective on the forces behind and surrounding the tragedy of September 11. While the book is not as related to the incident as his interview, his knowledge and feeling for how and why these groups act is second to none.

Cutting-edge scholarship
Dr. Mamoun Fandy offers a new and challenging view of the contemporary scene in Saudi Arabia,where protest groups are using various modern means in their attempt to subvert the current Sa'ud regime. Fandy brings up newideas that have not before been discussed, and offers a fresh examinationof the phenomenon of protest movements in the Middle East.Suchcutting-edge scholarship is a welcome departure from the dated and uselessbody of material offered up by the old-school dinosaurs of Middle Easternpolitical science (M. Hudson, etc.). ... Read more

Product Description
Shining much-needed light on areas the 9/11 Commission preferred to keep dark, Intelligence Matters chronicles the efforts of a historic joint House-Senate inquiry to get to the bottom of our intelligence failures on that infamous day in 2001. Originally published in 2004 amid the media circus surrounding The 9/11 Commission Report, it told more than a riveting tale--it also provided an unflinching exposé of failure, incompetence, and deceit at the highest levels of our government.

The Joint Inquiry, co-chaired by Senator Bob Graham (D-Florida), was the first and arguably most effective government body to investigate the horrendous 2001 attacks. Indeed, it helped compel a reluctant George W. Bush to establish the 9/11 Commission. But while both investigations sharply criticized the failures of our nation's intelligence establishment, only Graham's dared to challenge the Bush administration on a number of troubling points--especially the apparent complicity of Saudi officials in the events of 9/11, the subsequent protection provided by President Bush for a large number of Saudis (including members of the bin Laden family), and the run-up to the Iraq War, which Graham voted against.

The original work combined a compelling narrative of 9/11 with an insightful eyewitness chronicle of the Joint Inquiry's investigation, conclusions, and recommendations. Sharply critiquing the failures at the CIA, FBI, and the White House and detailing at least twelve occasions when the 9/11 plot could have been stopped, it concluded with a clear plan for overhauling our intelligence and national security establishment. For this paperback edition, Graham has added a substantial new preface and postscript that lucidly examine how effectively the nation has responded--or failed to respond--to the Joint Inquiry's recommendations.

This edition restores Intelligence Matters to its rightful place as one of the key texts on the subject of 9/11 and provides a grim reminder of the challenges that remain for us in the war on terror. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (32)

Part of the problem not the solution
There are plenty of books that deal with the failures on the intelligence community and there also plenty of books on the shortsightedness of U.S. policy on terrorism/ international relations, and plenty that do both. This is one of those as told by a Senator who served on senate Intelligence Committee (chair actually), in non technical language.

The senator both highlights the events and the players leading up to sept 11 hijackings as well as exposing the inefficiencies, negligence, and apathy in the government. All this was very enlightening.

But like a typical bureaucrat the senator actually believes that more government is the solution to fix the government inefficiencies he in fact realizes. All that means is that more of the politicians and bureaucrat's friends and families will have jobs within the govt.

What's striking is the fact that throughout the book the senator is unaware that the CIA's job is to support the President's foreign policy (sometimes though they will formulate policy to guide a president in the direction THEY wish to go). Also, he is unaware that despite whatever laws congress may pass, federal agencies follow the policies and direction of their own organizational heads. Evidence of this can be found on pages 160-166 (Page 226 also has good "no" from FBI head) when the FBI despite a subpoena, refused to produce their Arab informant (whose name had already been leaked to the media and whose testimony would be behind closed doors). There is also plenty of Tenet and other agencies stonewalling the senate's investigation into 9/11, performing bait and switches; and even the senator's discovery that the President ordered a "cover-up" of the events leading to 9/11.

In fact the senator and his committee are guilty of the same obsessive and irrational need for secrecy and privileging of information that he condemns the U.S. intelligence community for. Along with the shameful performance of the U.S. intelligence committee I learned that the U.S. would have been subjected to several more terrorist acts in the 1990's, if it wasn't for several other foreign nations' intelligence organizations skill and serendipity.

I would one star this book but it is an important candid look into a person who was in a position to "do something". For those readers who always demand a solution from negatives reviewers' fine, use the Mossad organizational model, especially their playbook when it comes to intelligence ops and counter terrorism.

FOR THE RECORD:
I would like to clear up all this rubbish about support of the Taliban began after Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which occurred 24 December 1979. President Carter's Natl. Security Adv. Zbigniew Brzezinski has went on record in 2004 saying that the support for the Islamic fundamentalists began on 3 July 1979, when Carter signed a directive to do so. Brzezinski further adds in the interview that the those groups (Islamic holy warriors,the "Mujahideen" i.e. Taliban, Bosnian Army's Muslim brigades, etc) were to be seen as a weapon of policy and the State Dept was supporting them while officially condemning simultaneously.

I would like to spend more time reviewing this book but that would be an exercise in redundancy, which should have been the book's actual title.

Hinting at the truth
The author of this book is a longtime Democrat who has held office in both state and federal office.During the W. Bush administrations, he sat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.This book chronicles his work on that committee related to investigating the 9-11 attacks, with some information regarding the run-up to the 2nd Gulf War.The book tells a chronological tale, starting with the beginning of bin Laden's attacks on the West, climaxing with the day of 9-11 itself, and then spending several chapters on his ensuing work investigating what happened.Note that the author was not part of the 9-11 Commission, and this book does NOT go into the details of the report.

A lot of the book recounts his interactions with the FBI, CIA, and how members of both these organizations hindered his work.The book also brings up multiple instances in which the Bush White House worked to inhibit any and all investigations into what happened on 9-11, and any possible links to Saudi Arabia.Being authored by a US Senator, the book takes a conservative, cautious tone in its critic of the Bush administration.Unfortunately, even though the author suggests that the Bush administration covered up links between the 9-11 attacks and Saudi Arabia, he does not delve into reasons why.As such, this book is a good read, if only to get a 2nd opinion of the 9-11 attacks from an alternate "official" source, aka a US senator.There are other, more insightful and more provokative works though.

Half Truth's by Mr. Graham
Why write a book and leave out the most important details? The Pakistan
ISI Chief wired $100,000 to Atta just prior to 9/11 and this same ISI Chief was meeting with Graham and others at the Whitehouse for a meeting on the morning of 9/11.Graham has NOT denied this, but does not include this in his book unfortunately.

When will you readers take all the 'suspicious' and 'ridiculous' and purely unbelievable intel failures and combine them with all the obstructions of justice and all the obstructions of FBI investigations,the obstruction of terrorists interviews,and the 200+ ignored warnings and then take a look at NON Conspiracy theorists, CIT (Citizens Investigation Team) findings of the official Gov't/Commission story being a lie with their evidence layed clearly down for all to see along with Pilotsfor911truth.org's flight date recording decoding (obtained via a lawsuit and the FOIAct) that shows the plane that headed toward the Pentagon as being on the opposite side and then completing a "flyover" with a lying C-130 pilot and false data trying to show that the C-130 shadowed the plane all the way into the Pentagon and then the C-130 flew away. Well, folks, evidence and research done by these great people reveal that the C-130 was no where near the Pentagon and that the plane that several witnesses saw fly away or do a "flyover" was indeed the plane everyone thought was flight 77. Lt. Col. O'Brien was coerced by elements at the highest level of gov't to act as a decoy to cover for the flyover.

Watch EYE OF THE STORM:LlOYD ENGLAND AND HIS TAXI CAB to find out how the downed light poles on the nonexistant southpath were staged.

In other words, no plane nor a missile hit the Pentagon. Nothing hit it. It was all rigged explosives and there is overwhelming evidence to support this.

Do proper research on the history of false flag events,PNAC,etc and throw in all the lies that Bush,Cheney,Rummy,and Condi threw at your naive brains and you come up with something a 3 y/o child can figure out.

patriotsquestion911.com
PilotsFor911Truth.org
firefightersfor911truth.org
911scholars.org
www.ae911truth.org
www.v911t.org

Insightful but still missing key info...
I just finished reading Bob Graham's "Intelligence Matters" and I thought it was ok.My main motivation for reading his book had to do with the Joint Inquiry 9/11 revelations.Of all of the intelligence failures that were discussed, two stood out.

First, two of the 9/11 hijackers (Nawaf al-Hazmi & Khalid al-Mihdhar) had a close relationship with an FBI informant (Abdussattar Shaikh) in San Diego.In fact, al-Hazmi rented a room in Shaikh's house for some time.

Second, both al-Hazmi & al-Mihdhar received financial support from Saudi operative al-Bayoumi.Al-Bayoumi's money came from two sources, a Saudi gov contractor (Ercan) and a member of the Saudi royal family (Princess Haifa al-Faisal).

Disappointingly, Graham does not mention the $100,000 that Pakistani ISI Chief (General Mahmoud Ahmad) allegedly wired (by way of Ahmad Umar Sheikh) to lead hijacker Mohammad Atta just before 9/11 even though Graham was meeting with General Ahmad on 9/11.Shockingly, General Ahmad resigned from his position as head of the ISI on October 8, less than a month after 9/11.In fact, it was reported by the 'Times of India' that US authorities had sought his removal.Again, Graham's Joint Inquiry fails to mention any Pakistani ISI connection to the money trail.A year and a half later, in it's paragraph titled "The Funding of the 9/11 Plot", the 9/11 Commission would conclude that "we have seen no evidence that any foreign government - or foreign government official - supplied any funding."Interestingly, in the updated (2008) postscript, Graham does not mention the 9/11 Commission's omission of the Joint Inquiry Saudi Arabia money trail discoveries in the final 9/11 Commission Report.

Ultimately, the big "so what?" for Americans is the follow-on FBI, White House, and 9/11 Commission cover up of this information.Graham does document part of the FBI and White House cover up of the Joint Inquiry findings related to hijacker funding supplied by Saudi Arabia.

The truth about 9/11 is that we do not know the truth about 9/11, period.Although Graham's book does reveal some very important information about 9/11 as I mentioned above, he omits the Pakistani ISI money trail.Hence the 3 out of 5 star rating.

There were no "Intelligence Failures"
I just happened to run into Bob Graham today in western Maryland.He wouldn't answer my question-- "Just what were you and the Pakistani Intelligence Chief talking about in DC on the day of 9/11 and for another week thereafter?"Remember that General Ahmad was the guy who supposedly wired $100,000 to the so-called lead high jacker Mohammad Atta just before 9/11.You remember, the guy whose passport they "just happened" to find intact amid the smoldering wreckage of the World Trade Center.


When I mentioned to Graham that a Boeing 737 airliner traveling at 400 mpg cannot physically get any closer than 60 or 70 ft above the ground because of the tremendous up-draft, and that the U.S. government wants us to believe that a Boeing 737 literally skimmed the surface of the earth for a half mile at 400 mph before smashing into the Pentagon at ground level-- Graham just sat there looking in another direction and did not comment.


This guy is just another propagandist trying to steer people away from the truth of a joint U.S. and Israeli Intelligence black operation, and toward the "safe" and "feel good" conclusion of "Intelligence failures" relating loosely to the Saudis.Hey folks, the Saudis don't control U.S. corporate media and this massive disinformation campaign--the CIA and the ADL (the U.S. arm of Israeli Intelligence) control U.S. corporate media.


There are plenty of other books available which will give you an ACCURATE picture of what happened before, on , and after 9/11.To name just a few: "The Road to 9/11" by Peter Dale Scott; "Crossing the Rubicon" by Michael C. Ruppert; "War and Globalisation: The Truth Behind September 11" by Michel Chossudovsky; and "The War on Freedom" by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed.


This Bob Graham guy is just another member of the top 1% American fascist class.It's like a big organized crime syndicate.The Democrats are the Gambino family and the Republicans are the Genovese family and the real brains behind the syndicate are in Israel. ... Read more

Product Description
What happened in the Middle East's oil-rich powerhouse- while we weren't looking

Saudi Arabia is a country defined by paradox. It is a modern state driven by contemporary technology and possessed of vast oil deposits, yet its powerful religious establishment would have its customs and practices rolled back a thousand years to match those of the prophet Muhammad.

With Inside the Kingdom, journalist and bestselling author Robert Lacey has given us one of the most penetrating and insightful looks at Saudi Arabia ever produced. While living for years among the nation's princes and paupers, its clerics and progressives, Lacey endeavored to find out how the consequences of the 1970s oil boom produced a society at war with itself. Filled with stories that trace a path through the Persian Gulf War and the events of 9/11 to the oilmarket convulsions of today, Inside the Kingdom gives us a modern history of the Saudis in their own words, revealing a people attempting to reconcile life under religious law with the demands of a rapidly changing world. Their struggle will have powerful reverberations around the globe, and this rich work provides a penetrating look at a country no one can afford to ignore. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

good and factual
This book was informative, and unbiased.It gives the reader an almost fly on the wall picture of inside Saudi Arabia.

knowing an unknown
It is an excellent attempt to discover the hidden layers of Saudi's government, culture and society. The author has done a great job of introducing the difficult tribal and religious concepts in a very simple and understandable language.
This book clearly shows why we need to know dangerous fundamentalism from its origin in Saudi in order to be able to defeat it. I think this is a great source for anybody who is interested in the history of Middle east and why this very spot in the world has become such a mess in last few decades.

well-written research of an unfortunately narrow scope
i would give the book itself, as it is, 5 stars, had it not been entitled and promoted the way it is

the title 'inside the kingdom', at least to me, somehow implies that we are about to be briefed in on special insights that come from someone who intimately knows the country and its people as an insider, or, in the case of saudi arabia, at least a semi-insider

on the front flap, the text reads 'with inside the kingdom, bestselling author robert lacey gives readers a remarkable portrait in full of this most enigmatic of lands', so that also helped to build up expectations that, eventually, did not materialize whatsoever

the book is little more than an extremely meticulously researched list of political events of the last 30 or so years, more or less in chronological order, and focussing almost exclusively on the royal al-saud family and their halo circle, and their significant political enemies within and outside saudi arabia

so far so good, and if that's what you are after, you will get it in excellence (in fact, the subtitle does narrow down the scope of the book), but do not expect real insider's knowledge. the book, for the best part of it, may have been written in a library anywhere in the world with good research facilities. the book is also very materialistic in the sense that it focusses on material events and, sometimes quite annoyingly, in such painstaking detail that i got the impression that digging up details had become to the author an end and not a means. you will learn little about the national psyche, culture (apart from its aspects in religion), youth (apart from some easily diagnosable issues such as unemployment) and in general, the saudi people as such do not feature very much, issues the discussion of which would help the reader to relate to and understand the focal issues of the book. there is no memorable discussions of the arab or saudi mind, attitudes, thinking patterns in general. even if the author very often quotes individuals regarding specific issues, the focus of the book is definitely on political events and not people

the statements on the back cover, like 'provide[s] an insightful and intimate portrait of a country' or 'sweeping, beautiful writing', are also lacking substance, in my opinion. i would not think the author even made as much as an attempt at 'sweeping, beautiful writing'

this book would be very satisfactory if it had not been misrepresented and had a different title, something that truly expresses the nature of the book. it could be an excellent source of reference, and it contains tons of interesting data. it is a very thoroughly researched and well (although not remotely 'beautifully') written piece, and it would surely deserve 5 stars had it been sold for what it is. unfortunately, what it is sold for, it is not

(i have been living in saudi arabia for several years now and thus feel somewhat qualified to contribute this book review)

recommended
Possibly the most informative book on Saudi Arabia out there right now that is not out of date.There are other good books, but Lacey's book subsumes many of their best features and, published late in 2009, is as up-to-date as anything on the market.If nothing else, this superannuates Sandra Mackey's "The Saudis," Lacey's own "The Kingdom" (1982), and a few others.Certainly if you're going to only read one book about Saudi Arabia, it should be this one.Lacey has years of experience as a writer and it definitely shows when you're reading this:the thing is well-balanced and never boring.

Kind of interesting, too, that he was even permitted to write it.As he informs you early in the book, his first book about Saudi Arabia ended up being banned in the Kingdom -- mainly because of what the royal family must have perceived as "dirt" about them:we Westerners would probably disagree that it was "dirt," but there you go.Lacey wonders whether this outing will also be banned in the Kingdom.(I can tell you this:yup.)

What I mean, though, is:I thought that once you wrote a book that got banned, you were forever after persona non grata in the Kingdom.Apparently not!Lacey managed not only to get back in the Kingdom, but to come back as an effin' journalist!Holy cow!He must have some friends in high places.

Does this mean Lacey has been co-opted and cannot be trusted?I was initially leaning towards this opinion, but after concluding this volume have to be more reasonable.Obviously if Lacey were to haul off and start detailing a laundry list of charges against the Saudis or their government, he'd certainly never get back in.On the other hand, if he were to whitewash everything, nobody would read his books.Ergo there is much that is left understated in the book.Understated, but not unsaid.At no point, for example, does Lacey try to make it seem like a tiny minority of extremists have hijacked a peaceful religion, etc.At no point does Lacey (unlike that screwball Quisling, Mark Weston, in his Prophets and Princes: Saudi Arabia from Muhammad to the Present) exempt the royal family from criticism or the culture that is Saudi Arabia from human rights considerations.I'm just saying that one needs to read this book with careful attention to glean what the author's positions must amount to.

So: a fine job, at least the best job that could have been done under the circumstances.Lacey's interviews range from liberals, to (former) jihadis, to royals, to disgruntled women's rights activists.It's quite the snapshot of modern Saudi Arabia:I don't know that you could get a more complete picture from any other single source.And Lacey does not shy away from discussions of news items that his Saudi hosts would probably have preferred he elided:the "girl of Qatif," the Meccan girls' school fire, the dual shocks of 1979, etc.

Not that by any of this praise I mean to say this is the best book I've read about Saudi Arabia.That would still have to be Yaroslave Trofimov's The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam's Holiest Shrine, the basic outline of which Lacey borrows here while discussing that event.

Good analysis, to be read as a novel, with several anecdotes
I enjoyed this book. Very easy to be read, also by non English mother tongue readers. I was looking a book which could give an insight on current Saudi life and politics and it gave it.
For the issues that I have already known, I found them correctly described.
An important book for people who want to know more about last years Saudi Arabia.
Congratulations to Mr.Lacey. ... Read more

Product Description
With the continuing importance of Saudi Arabia in regional and world politics, the current and future effectiveness of the Saudi military carries increased significance. Despite recent strains in relations with the U.S., particularly in light of the role Saudis played in the events of September 11, 2001, the Kingdom remains America's key Arab ally. Cordesman studies the challenges faced by the Saudis from both their allies and their potential enemies to assess Saudi Arabia's ability to forge a better approach to collective security in the Gulf and to create more stable long-term security arrangements with the U.S. and other Western Powers. This assessment of Saudi Arabia's strategic position includes a full-scale analysis of Saudi military forces, defense expenditures, arms imports, military modernization, readiness and war fighting capability. It examines both the cooperation and tension with other Southern Gulf States. It explores the implications of the conventional military build-up and creeping proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Gulf and the resulting changes in Saudi Arabia's security position. All of these factors have critical implications for stability within the Kingdom, within the Gulf, as well as in the broader global context. ... Read more

Product Description
In Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats, the most thorough treatment of the political economy of Saudi Arabia to date, Steffen Hertog uncovers an untold history of how the elite rivalries and whims of half a century ago have shaped today's Saudi state and are reflected in its policies.

Starting in the late 1990s, Saudi Arabia embarked on an ambitious reform campaign to remedy its long-term economic stagnation. The results have been puzzling for both area specialists and political economists: Saudi institutions have not failed across the board, as theorists of the 'rentier state' would predict, nor have they achieved the all-encompassing modernization the regime has touted. Instead, the kingdom has witnessed a bewildering mélange of thorough failures and surprising successes.

Hertog argues that it is traits peculiar to the Saudi state that make sense of its uneven capacities. Oil rents since World War II have shaped Saudi state institutions in ways that are far from uniform. Oil money has given regime elites unusual leeway for various institutional experiments in different parts of the state: in some cases creating massive rent-seeking networks deeply interwoven with local society; in others large but passive bureaucracies; in yet others insulated islands of remarkable efficiency. This process has fragmented the Saudi state into an uncoordinated set of vertically divided fiefdoms. Case studies of foreign investment reform, labor market nationalization and WTO accession reveal how this oil-funded apparatus enables swift and successful policy-making in some policy areas, but produces coordination and regulation failures in others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Unravelling a complex structure called Saudi Arabia
Book Review by M.R. Raghu, CFA, Head of Research, Markaz, Kuwait
The book is a great bird's eye view of Saudi bureaucracy. Saudi Arabia is a state that cannot be easily understood by a layman. In some cases, actions can be very swift and decisive and in some other cases very long procrastination is usually the norm. The book serves a great deal to understand the background of the Kingdom from a political science point of view especially when the author notes that Saudi Arabia is probably one of the most poorly documented state in the world relative to its size.The book classically describes the growth of the Kingdom through the creation of new institutions, the parallel existence of radically different bureaucratic fiefdoms, strict centralization, clientelism, and diluted implementation of broader-based policies.
Background
Whenever the Kingdom encountered a problem it created a new institutional island to subvert the process. These Institutional islands have been largely separated from games of brokerage according to the author. SAMA, SABIC, Saudi Aramco, Saudi Ports Authority, etc are great examples.Aramco is probably one of the worlds' best NOC's and one can clearly see the factors at play here.
Parallel to the creation of these islands, fiefdoms with more historical depth, such as Interior, Defense, or the religiously controlled judiciary, enjoyeddeep roots and were difficult to coerce into submission.
Another interesting background is the growth of religious ulama with extensive administrative powers more as a quid pro quo for modernization and development. However, this has imposed a huge cost on Saudi development. According to the author, such a cost can only be borne thanks to the rentier state structure of Saudi Arabia.
The book also notes that the great Saudi achievements of the boom period were projects: airports, industrial cities, roads, hospitals, schools, housing, water and electricity provision, and so on. However, thisgovernment capital spending, which had reached about half of the national budget, declined even below the replacement requirements of Saudi infrastructure over time due to demographic growth where up to 200,000 graduates entering the Saudi job market each year, and estimates of newly available jobs in the early 2000s were as low as 20,000. This heralded the birth of bureaucracy in order to accommodate the labor market entrants.
Bureaucracy Style
Saudi bureaucracy was basically created to accommodate citizens entering the labor market. Given the lack of accountability and clear understanding of the bureaucracy as a distributive mechanism, inactivity was rampant and difficult to punish. Where required "Segmented and hierarchical system of parallel instructions that has provided stable and protected spaces for efficient bureaucracies accountable only to the top"."When royal attention is drawn to a problem, this often results in a sudden rush of activity among their bureaucratic clients, which however tends to be short-lived due to limits of the royal attention span and the bureaucracy's general penchant for inactivity". Bureaucracy was seen more as a power center that enjoys obstructing and saying no than enabling.Poor planning ensured that employees were unequally distributed with some overstaffed and others crying for help. Lack of coordination was so rampant that "in Saudi cities, it often came to "battles of the bulldozers" rival government agencies giving contracts for the development of the same areas. Refusing to coordinate their plans even after the fact, it was sometimes their respective foreign contractors who fleshed out a compromise among themselves"
Case studies
In pursuit of reforms, the book walks through three main areas viz., saudization, foreign investment and WTO and the impact of bureaucracy on all of these.
"When the General Investment Authority was created in 2000 as another "special administrative body" to take care of foreign investors, the regulatory turf was already so clearly divided among the Ministries of Commerce, Industry, Interior, and so on that the new organization found it hard to find anything to regulate at all".
Key conclusion
The growth, development and existence of Saudi bureaucracy can be very unique. "The state still acts paternally, practicing top-down consultation with client groups rather than negotiation with an equal partner. Considering the importance of business for national development, the regionally unrivalled capacities of Saudi business, and the diminishedresources of the bureaucracy, this seems a carryover from the time of state-led development".
Clearly that is the message.
... Read more

Product Description

"Many illuminating essays."
—The Economist

"A welcome and breathtaking burst of new knowledge. There is no volume today that contains so much useful material."
—Joshua Teitelbaum, author of The Rise and Fall of the Hashemite Kingdom of Arabia

Saudi Arabia in the Balance brings together today's leading scholars in the field to investigate the domestic, regional, and international affairs of a Kingdom whose policies have so far eluded the outside world. With the passing of King Fahd and the installation of King Abdullah, a contemporary understanding of Saudi Arabia is essential as the Kingdom enters a new era of leadership and particularly when many Saudis themselves are increasingly debating, and actively shaping, the future direction of domestic and foreign affairs.

Each of the essays, framed in the aftermath of 9/11 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, offers a systematic perspective into the country's political and economic realities as well as the tension between its regional and global roles. Important topics covered include U.S. and Saudi relations; Saudi oil policy; the Islamist threat to the monarchy regime; educational opportunities; the domestic rise of liberal opposition; economic reform; the role of the royal family; and the country's foreign relations in a changing international world.

Contributors: Paul Aarts, Madawi Al-Rasheed, Rachel Bronson,Iris Glosemeyer, Steffen Hertog, Yossi Kostiner, Stéphane Lacroix, Giacomo Luciani, Monica Malik, Roel Meijer, Tim Niblock, Gerd Nonneman, Michaela Prokop,Abdulaziz Sager, Guido Steinberg

Product Description
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia remained a critical country to Western security interests in the Persian Gulf.Washington, for one, has invested much in the Kingdom and, consequently, who governed there-and how that person responded to domestic pressures-was critical.This study assesses the coming leadership changes in the kingdom.It identifies individuals with greatest leadership potential; examines their political, social, and religious perceptions, including views of the US; and evaluates the criteria for their survival as a ruling family.In other words, it clarifies for key leaders, what the "Will to Power" [the desire to rule irrespective of whether or not a state of legitimacy exists] is.In doing so, the study-that is based on dozens of interviews-posits how succession is likely to develop during the next few years, under the leadership of the Al Saud. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Essential Reading...
Kechichian asserts that the very appearance of his book indicates the Saudi family has "reached a very high level of political maturity," but reading the book makes this statement sound more like flattery than scholarly analysis.1 The vast size of the Saud family and its complete domination of the state named after them combine to make the rest of the world disappear from the intra-family wrangling over the succession. Reading about the Saudi succession question means entering the claustrophobic precincts of 36 sons of the state's founder (25 of whom survive), plus the 260 or so grandsons (the distaff side plays no public role). It is probably fair to say that never in the history of monarchy has a ruling dynasty included so many actors and so many complications. For example, one important factor in a man's standing is the ties his mother had to an important tribe; others are the number of his full brothers and his success in placing his sons in key positions. Another complexity arises from generational overlap - the youngest of the sons (born in 1947) is younger than the oldest of the great-grand-sons (born 1946), leading to a situation where "the pool of potentially active princes contains elements of four generations that are of roughly similar ages." From all this come a unique bouquet of family alliances and intrigues.

Getting down to specifics: the Heir Apparent, `Abdullah, controls the National Guard but "remains relatively weak" because of his somewhat isolated position within the family. With success, he has worked to make up for this by reaching out to the populace in an effort to become the "people's king"; nice try, says Kechichian, but "support within the family remains far more important." King Fahd's codification of the succession in 1992 amounted to a "bombshell" whose implications are still being worked out. The son to watch is Salman second youngest (b. 1936) of the bloc of full brothers known as the "Sudayri Seven." Of the grandsons, ten have a bright political future. Perhaps Kechichian's most important conclusion, one which this reviewer fully endorses, is that the Saud family is "far more secure than generally assumed."
1 Kechichian builds on what he calls the "enlightened" 1994 study by Simon Henderson, After King Fahd: Succession in Saudi Arabia (reviewed in MEQ, Dec. 1994. p. 81). ... Read more

Product Description

Since its launch in 2006, SaudiDebate.com has become the foremost independent, English-language Web site to address issues facing contemporary Saudi Arabians. Adhering to a nonpartisan stance, the site fosters open debate between distinguished contributors from across the Arab world, quickly making it the chosen destination for perspectives on Arabia and the wider Arab Middle East.

The Kingdom brings together for the first time a targeted selection of these writings, providing readers with much-needed context for the role of Saudi Arabia in the world today. Contributors include such established figures as Madawi Al-Rasheed, Khalid Al-Dakhil, Badriyyah Al-Bishr, Saad Sowayan, and Mona Eltahawy. Chapter topics range from reformism under King Abdullah to Saudi Arabia's position as a regional power broker, speaking to the breadth of issues that currently preoccupy Saudis and other Arab intellectuals.

This collection particularly illuminates the struggle to build a modern society with respect to religious, cultural, and historical traditions. Divided into four sections, the volume specifically tackles domestic politics in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's role in regional affairs, studies of Saudi society, and Saudi cultural and religious life.

Product Description
A deaf-mute woman waiting for her brother to pick her up in front of shop window is arrested by two members of the Saudi "morality police" (mutawas) on suspicion of prostitution. They report their allegation to the governor of Riyadh, who accepts it without question and passes sentence. The next Friday she is stoned to death in public.

A German woman married to a Saudi man makes the mistake of taking a taxi downtown without a male escort. For her "crime" she is arrested, raped, and thrown into prison. Later her German-Saudi baby son is taken away and she is deported to Cyprus without passport and money.

A Syrian truck driver is accused of stealing the truck he is driving. As a consequence, both of his hands are amputated.

Are these incredible but true incidents merely aberrations, the result of a few power-crazed officials acting outrageously outside the reach of a generally law-abiding society?

Unfortunately, they are all too common in the theocratic police state that is contemporary Saudi Arabia. As author Sami Alrabaa vividly recounts in this shocking expose, in the wealthy Saudi oil kingdom there is no such thing as secular law or modern courts. Instead, Saudi princes create the laws, based on Sharia, Islamic law derived from the Koran and Hadith, and the muttawas act as judges, enforcers, and executioners.

Alrabaa lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for many years. A fluent speaker of Arabic, he was told about the many appalling incidents reported in this book by victims and their friends and relatives. He cross-checked all the accounts here given through multiple interviews. Amazingly, in some cases, the actual victimizers themselves openly, often with condescending and smug contempt, corroborated the events.

This revealing portrait of intolerance and social oppression presents an image that foreign reporters never see in the carefully controlled Saudi kingdom. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Unbelievable....Because It's Probably Fiction
I feel duped after reading this book. Most people know about the horrors that go on in Saudi Arabia against women, foreigners, and anyone without important connections. There's no question that the regime is hypocritical and brutal and it doesn't bother me that Saudi is portrayed this way. My issue with this book is that 1) Instead of it being solely critical of Saudi Arabia, it's a veiled criticism of Islam in general 2)It's riddled with inaccuracies that really put its authenticity into question.

For example, the author tells a story about a man who has 8 wives yet elsewhere in the book he states that the limit legally is 4 wives so no man in Saudi could possibly have 8 wives. Another inconsistency is when a German character repeats a conversation between a Saudi man and his sister, but then goes on to say that she didn't hear the conversation and even if she did, she wouldn't have understood because she didn't speak Arabic. How could she repeat the conversation if she neither heard it or was able to understand it?? Another inaccuracy is where the author states that in Islam all Muslims go to heaven automatically, and that God only forgives Muslims. That is completely untrue. Instead of making it clear that a lot of what goes on in Saudi is cultural rather than religious, the author makes it seem as if Islam condones and encourages it all.

The author admits that names and situations have been changed to "protect" the innocent. I wouldn't be surprised if the names were changed because these incidents never happened and were just made up for sensationalist effect. Googling the author produced results that he is an ex Muslim and it was very apparent in this book that he had an axe to grind against the religion. All over the book he inserts anti-Islamic rhetoric that is not based in any type of fact, but is merely his opinion. I was looking for a straight forward account of the way things are in Saudi, but this book is not it. I was very disappointed and would not recommend it. I was insulted because I felt like the author wrote the book for western readers who he thought would just gobble up any anti-Islam and anti-Arab sentiment unquestioningly.

Veiled atrocities
Excellent , informative, and an eyeopener on the way it is in Saudi Arabia. It is a must read book. ... Read more

Product Description

Overturning previous interpretations that see the territorial expansion of the Saudi state between 1915 and 1926 as the result of an aggressive Wahhabi ideology carried out by a politically ambitious Ibn Saud, this book explores the links between Saudi territorial expansion and British Imperial policy.

Depicting this expansion as the outcome of the implementation of Britain’s imperial policy to achieve specific regional military and political objectives in the Middle East, the author examines the Anglo-Saudi legal arrangement which fully integrated Saudi foreign policy into the framework of Britain’s imperial policy system in order to serve specific British military and political objectives in the Middle East concerning primarily, but not exclusively, the occupation of Palestine. The personality of Ibn Saud and his religious ideology of Wahhabism served as most effective policy instruments.The author shows how Ibn saud’s motivation was primarily defensive, preservationist and in agreement with the acquiescent nature of Wahhabism in which absolute obedience to the ruler constitutes its cardinal principle. In this context, he compares its inherently antagonistic attitude towards non-Wahhabi muslims with its fundamentally benevolent outlook towards non-Muslims, particularly western Christian powers.

Product Description

With continuing instability in Iraq, the threat of a nuclear Iran, and the ever-present reality of further terrorist attacks within its own borders, Saudi Arabia has been forced to make some hard decisions. The current structure of the Saudi security apparatus is only one pathway to improved security. Economic and demographic threats may well be the hardest hurdles to overcome. What has been accomplished since 2001 and what are the real prospects and implications of further reform? To what extent should the kingdom continue to rely on the US to protect its interests?

Cordesman and Obaid argue that it is time to put an end to client and tutorial relations. Saudi Arabia must emerge as a true partner. This will require the creation of effective Saudi forces for both defense and counterterrorism. Saudi Arabia has embarked on a process of political, economic, and social reforms that reflects a growing understanding by the governing members of the royal family, Saudi technocrats, and Saudi businessmen that Saudi Arabia must reform and diversify its economy and must create vast numbers of new jobs for its young and growing population. There is a similar understanding that economic reform must be combined with some level of political and social reform if Saudi Arabia is to remain stable in the face of change. With Gulf security, the war on terrorism, and the security of some sixty percent of the world's oil reserves at stake, the real question is how quickly Saudi Arabia can change and adapt its overall approach to security, and how successful it will be in the process.

Customer Reviews (1)

The Benchmark
This book, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is the current benchmark for analysis of Saudi Arabia's national security issues.

Cordesman and Obaid look at both the external and internal threats to Saudi Arabia, including social and economic issues. The varying military threats from Yemen, Iraq, and Iran are explored in great detail, even down to the number of tanks, artillery, helicopters, and mine-laying ships. The clear conclusion is that for the near and intermediate future, Saudi Arabia needs to keep an eye on Iran and its possible nuclear proliferation threat.

Assaying the domestic threats, the book gives a good overview of Saudi history, its current efforts to combat terror activities, the economic problems looming due to explosive population growth, the challenges confronting the country as it faces modernization and reform, and the economic and security issues surrounding its all-important petroleum industry. All are handled competently, thoroughly, and clearly.

The only downside of this book is the lack of a final copyediting. Punctuation errors abound, particularly in the first half of the book. There are simple--but serious--errors when the name of one country is mistaken for another, though context makes it clear that an error has been committed. It seems obvious, too, that this is a joint effort as one paragraph will be essentially similar to the one following it, varying only in a subordinate clause. One last run through a copyeditor would have fixed these and made reading it far easier.

Even though the book was published just two months ago, it is already out of date in several ways. King Fahd has been succeeded by King Abdullah; there has been a governmental reorganization that changes the power structure within the security services; there has been more activity on the Saudi-Iranian diplomatic front. As it stands, though, this is the best available book on Saudi Arabia's national security.

Highly recommended. ... Read more

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Saudi Arabia Diplomatic Handbook (World Business, Investment and Government Library) ... Read more

Product Description
With ongoing international dependence on the Gulf region for oil supplies, information about the roots of the bitter rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia has become increasingly important and compelling, not only for the specialist, but for everyone with an interest in Middle Eastern studies. This book examines the attitude of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from the early days of Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979-80 until the Second Gulf War - and its aftermath - in the 1990s. Iran's attempts to present itself as the role model for Muslim societies challenged Saudi Arabia's historic claim to guardianship of the Muslim faith. Tension heightened during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-8) when Saudi Arabia provided vital material support to Iraq in an effort to undermine Iran's Islamic-universalist pretensions. With the death of Ayatollah Khomeini and the election of the more liberal Ali Rafsanjani to Iran's presidency, and with Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, whereby it proved to be a greater threat to Saudi Arabia than Iran ever was, the prospect of detente between the former adversaries began to emerge.But this was soon overshadowed by the appearance of new areas of rivalry brought about by the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact. Despite their difficult history, the author argues that intermittent periods of peaceful coexistence show that the apparent discord between these two states is neither inherent nor insurmountable, but rather is due to specific circumstances which this book describes and explains with clarity and in detail. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The forces behind Middle East dynamics
The key word in the book's title is rivalry - religious, strategic, and economic - a rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia for regional leadership, and inspirational leadership of the world's Muslims. Just as an understanding of the Cold War is necessary to understand East-West foreign policies before the 1990s, an understanding of the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia is essential for understanding the historical and ongoing dynamics of the Middle East. I won't attempt to summarize the book, but much of Iranian actions can be understood quite logically in the context of this rivalry - a rivalry that existed before the 1979 revolution, and is likely to persist for a long time to come. Furthermore, a very clear picture of the motivations behind Saudi polices can be understood in the context of this rivalry. While the book doesn't cover more recent events, it doesn't need to in order to establish the principles by which future events can be most easily understood - it would be a big mistake to pass over this book based on its focus of the years between the Iranian revolution through the mid 1990s. For example, Saudi Arabia's ongoing regional support for Wahhabi madrasas (at great odds with the U.S.'s post 9-11 interests), is more easily understood in the context of countering Iranian influence. Furthermore, where Iraq under Saddam was at times a reason for Iran and Saudi Arabia to warm relations and cooperate against a common threat, the future Iraq (even a peaceful one) is likely to be a key `battleground' in their ongoing rivalry.

Iran's Rivalry with Saudi Arabia between the Gulf Wars
As the sovereign power over Mecca and Medina, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia claims special status as a protector Islam. But across the Persian Gulf, Shi'ite Iran competes with it for leadership of the Muslim world. Fürtig, a scholar at the Deutsche Orient-Institut in Hamburg, sets out to examine Saudi-Iranian rivalry in this 2006 reprint of a 2002 study.

A brief introduction outlines both rivalry and coordination between shah and Saudi king before the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Both found common ground in opposition to revolutions that had replaced monarchies with more radical regimes in Egypt and Iraq and found themselves on the same side of the Cold War. Tehran and Riyadh cooperated to defeat communism in Oman. Still, interests divulged. Saudi Arabia and Iran did not always cooperate on oil pricing policy and latent tension existed over competing visions of Riyadh's pan-Islamism and Tehran's pan-Iranism.
The 1979 Islamic Revolution redefined the Iranian-Saudi rivalry. Fürtig documents not only the Iranian government's decision to export revolution but also its specific anti-Saudi propaganda campaign. He explores Tehran's willingness to inflame Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority and incite sectarian division at the hajj, the traditional pilgrimage to Mecca. With this historical summary ends the book's utility.

Additional chapters explore Saudi support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and the subsequent Saudi-Iranian détente following the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. It is this--rather than Operation Iraqi Freedom--which Fürtig considers the second Gulf War. The time periods examined date sections on Saudi-Iranian regional competition in the Persian Gulf, Central Asia, and Afghanistan. How can Fürtig conduct any serious examination of Saudi-Iranian competition in Central Asia when he limits himself only to the first year or two of regional independence? Despite the publication date of this second edition, there has been no attempt to update the narrative. Accordingly, there is mention of neither Iranian attempts to destabilize Bahrain in 1995-96 nor the Khobar Towers bombing. By applying conclusions forward in time, without taking into account intermediary evidence, Fürtig undercuts the utility of his work.

Other faults undercut the value of Iran's Rivalry. Fürtig bases his study largely upon secondary sources, making his analysis more a consolidation of others' works than a contribution to the field. He makes very little use of Persian or Arabic sources, other than those cited in already published works. Editing is sloppy and transliteration is inconsistent. For example, the former Iraqi dictator's name is given as both Saddam Hussein and Saddam Husain. Iranian-Saudi competition and, more broadly, Sunni- Shi'ite rivalry, is increasingly relevant. It is too bad, then, that Iran's Rivalry with Saudi Arabia between the Gulf Wars does not do the subject justice.

Michael Rubin
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2007 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

After King Fahd: Succession in Saudi Arabia
The Saudi family has devised an obvious but perhaps unprecedented device for holding on to power: consider the royal family not to number just a handful of princes but in the thousands. (Of course, it helps when the king has forty or more sons.) Then have the royals staff most high-level positions in the government and the military. Inspire a family loyalty so that internal differences can be put aside in the common purpose of ruling the country. Do this and you end up with, as the joke goes, the only family-owned business with membership in the United Nations.In such a system, succession to the throne has immense importance. Henderson, a reporter for the Financial Times, does his topic justice with an original and well-researched study of the Saud line in the twilight years of King Fahd. He first establishes several principles of Saudi rule. It's not a simple matter: half-brothers, cadet lines, and generational solidarity all bear on succession. While nominally in the hand of the religious authorities (the `ulama), the family actually makes the ultimate decisions on succession.Henderson then applies these rules to today's situation and sketches five alternate scenarios. He observes that the sooner Fahd dies, the more likely he will be succeeded by Crown Prince `Abdullah; but the longer he lives, the harder it is to predict who will follow him.

Middle East Quarterly, December 1994

the secret world of saudi mafia leader
yesssssssss......we want this informations about this mafia man...because we are suffering here in saudi arabia..the people here just a slave groups of human...i give you many many thanks from them for this book ... Read more