current events

I read this book with some trepidation, even as I was going through the fairly persuasive text. Sure, the Bush family had close ties with the Saudis - but is that really a bad thing? Isn't that how power works, and don't we have to have some of our leaders tied in to other world leaders? On that point, I found some of Unger's implications to be (perhaps) colored by a cynical bent toward the Republicans, though as a previous reviewer pointed out, he does not blow smoke where there is no fire.

Still, after all that, I thought the book nothing more than a good background piece to fill in some of the details on our complicated involvement in the Middle East. I dismissed Unger's warnings of potentially more nefarious dealings between the families, even considering that all of those pages about Saudi Arabia's role in 9-11 were blacked out (by an administration that uses "classified" as a tool to control information).

Then comes Woodward's book, detailing a secret meeting between the President and Prince Bandar, where the President showed Bandar the war plans for Iraq! Where Donald Rumsfeld told this Prince of a kingdom that can hardly be described as trustworthy to US interests that, regarding whether or not we would actually invade Iraq, he could "take it to the bank"! Where Bandar and Bush apparently discussed maniputaing oil prices for the sake of Bush's political gain!

I know that some of the details or interpretations of Woodward's account are in dispute, but even the administration does not argue the point that Bandar was privately brought in and shown those plans before Bush's State of the Union Address, where he assured Congress that he was working hard for a peacful solution (obviously an outright lie - the decision had already been made to invade). Is it not amazing that a Saudi Prince was put more in the loop on a US invasion than our own Senate and House leaders?

In context of this stunning revelation, read Craig Unger's book and you will be very worried about where this country is heading. In context of this stunning revelation, a 3 or 4 star review from this reader jumped to the full 5. All the pieces are falling together, from Clarke to Unger to O'Neill to Woodward's incredibly balanced account, and the picture presented by the completed puzzle will not show favorably on the secretive Bush Administration.

The reader from NY who gave this book one star obviously did not bother to read the entire book before he wrote his review.
Had he bothered, he would have seen that Perle, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were accurately portrayed in this book as PNAC hawks whose goal is global US hegemony. They were not involved in the Bush-Baker-Saudi financial linkages. This book is extremely well documented and footnoted. Its resources are impeccable and where there is doubt, the author duly notes it. It is an indictment of decades of Saudi influence over the Bush family and should be read by anyone interested in Richard Clarke's 'Against All Enemies'. These two books compliment each other very well and together present a complete, albeit very disturbing, picture of the real events behind 9/11.

where farhenheit 9/11 got a lot of stuff from. real easy read, easy to understand, PLENTY of info that will shock you.