Burning Bush

Dan Danbom, Special To The News

Published March 19, 2004 at midnight

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I don't know who's going to speak at this summer's Republican convention, but I think Craig Unger will be safe to make other plans.

His House of Bush, House of Saud paints a picture of a long-standing relationship between the "House of Bush" (George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, James A. Baker III, Dick Cheney and major institutions they're tied to, including Halliburton and the Carlyle Group) and the "House of Saud" (members of the Saudi royal family, companies controlled by them and members of the Saudi merchant elite, including the bin Laden family). Unger's contention is that the relationship is beyond even a cozy, symbiotic one and, instead, is so strong and pernicious that it stained the 2000 presidential election, retarded our reaction to terrorism and influenced our decision to go to war - twice.

Unger hasn't arrived at these conclusions recklessly. He painstakingly pieces together individual actions and events to underscore his contentions.

House of Bush, House of Saud opens with a detailed account of how, at a meeting two days after the Sept. 11 attacks (despite White House claims to the contrary, "(Saudi) Prince Bandar and the president discussed letting the bin Ladens and other Saudis begin to travel even while U.S. airspace was shut down."

One of the 140 Saudis allowed to leave the United States without being seriously questioned first by authorities, Unger says, was a member of the Saudi royal family who allegedly had foreknowledge that there would be attacks on Sept. 11. Later, when the United States attacked Afghanistan, the Saudis refused to allow the United States to use Saudi territory to stage military operations and even continued to send tens of millions of dollars to support al-Qaida.

The incident serves as an example of the unique relationship the Bush administrations have had with the Saudis - a relationship that has touched the United States in ways ranging from Saudi support of the Bush Library to U.S. support of Osama bin Laden. One of Unger's themes is that the relationship has fundamentally shaped U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, including its decisions to go to war twice since 1991. What Unger has to say about those wars may be new to many.

For instance, during the Iran-Iraq war, Saudi Arabia thought the United States' sale of arms to Iran conflicted with Saudi support of Iraq, so in response, the United States was complicit in helping Saddam Hussein use poison gas on the Kurds. Most of the international community was outraged at Iraq, but readers will perhaps be distressed to learn that Colin Powell and Dick Cheney opposed an effort to impose sanctions on Iraq for the gas attacks. The United States also fed strategic military intelligence to Saddam through Vice President Bush "so that (Saddam) might kill more Iranians." Readers might also find it unsettling that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided Saddam's Iraq with biological materials, including tissue infected with bubonic plague.

But if politics make strange bedfellows, it's money that buys the bed, and this is another of Unger's themes.

Saudis were particularly generous supporters ($3.5 million) of Bush charities. They bailed out a failing Harken Energy that had on its board George W. Bush, invested $80 million into the Carlyle investment firm that had on its board George H.W. Bush, and on and on - ultimately funneling nearly $1.5 billion to the House of Bush. Unger argues that it was money well-spent. "It could safely be said," he writes, "that never before in history had a presidential candidate (George W. Bush) - much less a presidential candidate and his father, a former president - been so closely tied financially and personally to the ruling family of another foreign power. Never before had a president's personal fortunes and public policies been so deeply entwined with another nation."

The ties haven't necessarily benefited Americans. For example, he documents how the Saudis bought off terrorists in their own country: "(The Saudis) made deals with militant groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, agreeing to fund them in return for a promise not to wreak havoc on Saudi soil." He argues that Saudis supported terrorists in the United States and that they used their petrodollars to make powerful friends and influence important people.

All this may seem like the wild-eyed fantasies of a conspiracy buff, except that Unger approaches his subject dispassionately and scrupulously backs up virtually every assertion he makes. Much sloppier work has passed for legitimate journalism.

By the time he's through, the reader is left wondering just what else we don't know about how we meddle in the affairs of other, sovereign countries - and how much we allow them to meddle in ours.

We may never know all the answers, but credit Unger for at least asking the questions. House of Bush, House of Saud makes you wonder when our elected representatives will do the same.

Dan Danbom is a freelance writer living in Denver.

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