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Title: Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden by Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquie, Wayne Madsen, Lucy Rounds ISBN: 1-56025-414-9 Publisher: Nation Books Pub. Date: 10 July, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.06 (17 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The ugly world of realpolitik is exposed
Comment: Brisard and Dasquie's "Forbidden Truth" is a very solid piece of research that contains more than a few surprises about the realpolitiks of the Middle East, especially as it pertains to the United States and Saudi Arabia. The book turns a number of received wisdoms on their head and should give everyone concerned about the war on terror a few things to think about.
Of course, the authors show that fossil fuels drives American policy in the region. The Clinton and Bush administrations both negotiated with the Taliban for the construction of a natural gas pipeline to be built in Afghan territory despite clear-cut evidence of the regime's human rights abuses. However, the book also makes the eye-popping suggestion that U.S. representatives may have recklessly threatened the Taliban prior to the September 11 attack, thereby provoking Al Qaeda into action.
Basically, Brisard and Dasquie explain that Saudi Arabia supports radical Islamic movements (including the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Usama Bin Laden) in order to extend its hegemony over the area. Saudi support of the Taliban, for example, helped keep Afghanistan from falling under Iranian influence. Interestingly, the authors point out that the first arrest warrant ever issued against Usama Bin Laden came not from the U.S. -- which wanted to overlook Usama's behavior in order to keep Saudi oil flowing -- but from Libya.
I must admit that all of this came as quite a surprise to me, since Saudi Arabia has always been portrayed as a staunch ally of the U.S. In fact, Brisard and Dasquie recall how U.S. oil companies helped the country develop, but they also show that the Kingdom remains dependent on religion to maintain control over its people. So the country is practically schizophrenic in its need to simultaneously maintain business ties with the U.S. and defend against the spread of Arab nationalism by covertly preaching the gospel of anti-Americanism.
The authors go into considerable detail illuminating the people, organizations and financial relationships that make the Saudi-supported terror network possible. The indictments reach the highest levels of Saudi society. In this light, it appears that Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda simply spun out of their master's control and took the anti-American cause too far.
All this should give us pause to consider why the U.S. allowed the Saudis to play such a dangerous game for so long. Also, one would think that prudence should compel the U.S. to develop an energy policy that does not depend on Middle Eastern oil. But already, Brisard and Dasquie report that talks for the pipeline have resumed since the installation of the Karzai regime in Afghanistan in May 2002.
On a technical note, the book could benefit from additional editorial work to correct a few grammatical errors (presumably due to the translation from French to English?) and several footnote mistakes. Stylistically, the author's research sometimes makes for dry reading, but that is only because the facts have been meticulously documented and presented. So although "Forbidden Truth" is at times far from entertaining, the reader is nevertheless impressed with the professionalism of the research and its air-tight conclusions. (Indeed, sensing the threat that the book poses to its business empire, the Bin Laden family succeeded in getting the book banned in Switzerland.)
"Forbidden Truth" is recommended for anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the dynamics underlying the war on terror.
Rating: 4
Summary: impeccable
Comment: Now here's a book which is well researched. Mr. Brisard and Mr. Dasquie are intelligence researchers on par with Janes, and have outlined every financial link between Saudi Arabia and its wayward children (Osama bin Laden, et al.) and elements with the current and previous administrations that they could find. It uncovers some pretty important connections between Texas oil men and Saudi bankers (and through the bankers, terrorists) and another between Hamid Karzai (the current President of Afghanistan) and UNOCAL, the main oil developer in Afghanistan before September 11th. In my opinion these are all things which should absolutely have come to light many years ago, and are of utmost importance now, because they show September 11th would not have been possible had the United States adopted a more hands off role in Central Asia, and how elements in the Bush administration are still allied with groups that support terrorism against the United States and why.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good, but no killer blow
Comment: Demonstrates many of the connections between US oil interests, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the government of Saudi Arabia. Much of the research was done by John O'Neill, formerly in charge of the FBI's counter-terrorism work, who died in the WTC on 9/11. Opens up a lot of questions on why the US government is protecting people in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan who are themselves protecting terrorists attacking the USA. However, it does not clearly demonstrate a high-level government conspiracy along the lines of the Iran-Contra cocaine smuggling scandal of the 1980s...
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Title: The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked, September 11, 2001 by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, John Leonard ISBN: 0930852400 Publisher: Tree of Life Publications Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast ISBN: 0452283914 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: 25 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta by Gore Vidal ISBN: 1560255021 Publisher: Nation Books Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed by Russell S. Bowen ISBN: 0922356807 Publisher: America West Pub Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace by Gore Vidal ISBN: 156025405X Publisher: Nation Books Pub. Date: 10 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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