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Summary: Finally
Review: This book is amazing. A book that finally gives us the facts about what is REALLY going on with the White House and 9/11. Thanks Mr. Unger.
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Summary: Expose in the grand AMERICAN tradition
Review: I found the book quite readable and well organized given the rather long period of time it covered. Good basic reading about the intersection of geopolitics, business, religion, and expediency.
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Summary: A page-turner and unfortunately a true story
Review: This well-researched, well-written and intriguing book will keep you on the edge of your seat. Even details that in other books would come across as dry and indecipherable are presented in a way that makes you want to devour every word faster than you can you read. The facts are here... conjecture is rarely used, and when it is, it is qualified as such. We've heard bits and pieces of this story before, but it's great to have it researched in depth, and all in one place. The author clearly put a lot of work into this book, and the result is stunning. The thing that immediately comes to mind is that Richard Clarke's story is told pretty much exactly as it appears in his own book (which came out after this one). I suppose the partisan accusers will now have to start saying that Clarke's motivation in telling the truth here was to help Unger sell books...
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Summary: Free Copies to the MidWest!
Review: This is book is so insightful, so well researched and so convincing, free copies should be made available to moderate/independent/undecided voters before the election. What Gore Vidal claims but never bothers to prove; your worst fears about the Bush administration - all are revealed in this book. Likely to become an "All the President's Men" for this political generation. It is genuinely impossible to see the world the same way after investigative reporting of this caliber and the magnitude and seriousness of what has been uncovered. One can say with full conviction that the real fifth column in the United States is the Bush family and their entourage.
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Summary: Required reading for ALL Americans
Review: This book should be required reading for ALL Americans before November. For those who voted for Bush, it's time to put down the flag and pick up this book and get to know the man you voted for before you do it again. For those who voted for Gore, you will find your worse fears of the corporate domination of our government are pale in comparison to the reality. But especially for those who didn't vote in 2000, this book is for you. The old expression, "either you do politics or politics does you" could not be more clearly illustrated. This book is not a string a left wing conspiracy theories, but a cogent, thoroughly researched and documented roadmap to the truth. While the corporate media distracts us with Michael Jackson and Laci Peterson, our government is being bought up and controlled by corporate monopolies and the very people who funded the 911 attacks. Very soon, "We, the people" will be powerless over our own democracy. We have only one day of power left and that day is November 2, 2004. If you love this country, read this book and show up to vote.
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Summary: Its amazing how much ass this book kicks
Review: There are a ton of legit footnotes in the back, the writing is excellent and of course people need to be aware of whats going on between the Bush's and Saudi Arabia
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Summary: Read the book, then take a long hot shower!
Review: As I waded through the muck described so well by Craig Unger in "House of Bush, House of Saud," I kept thinking, "must take hot shower, must take it now!" Sadly, though, after 281 pages of slimy "good ol' boys" and corruption run amok; of crony capitalism gone hog wild; of stupidity and short-sightedness (failing to foresee the "blowback" from creating an army of Muslim fanatics in Afghanistan); of immorality (providing Saddam Hussein with biological agents, including "tissue that was infested with bubonic plague"), incompetence (letting relatives of Osama bin Laden leave the country after 9/11 without even interviewing them), and mendacity (linking Saddam Hussein to 9/11, while pretending that Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with it); I concluded that a hot shower would not be nearly sufficient to cleanse the moral and political stench from my nostrils. Just the cover photo alone (not to mention the one of Don Rumsfeld shaking Saddam Hussein's hand) smells bad enough to knock a buzzard off the proverbial pile of you-know-what. Sound like a fun book? Well, no, it's not. But it IS an important and well-written book, as well as an entertaining one, in a twisted sort of way. Is "House of Bush, House of Saud" perfect? Far from it. For one thing, it's not that original -- lots of this material is already known (although Unger skillfully pulls it all together). More importantly, it's too focused on links between the Bush and Saud families for my tastes. The problem with personalizing things is that it runs the risk of missing broader issues and forces at work; in this case, America's addiction to oil and the country's long-standing relationship (starting with Franklin Roosevelt) to the corrupt, violent, oil-rich, fundamentalist, theocratic monarchy known as Saudi Arabia. I'm certainly no fan of the Bush family, but in my opinion Unger overreaches when he implies that President Bush essentially has divided loyalties -- between Saudi Arabia and America. If that's the case, then so did Jimmy Carter ("the Carter doctrine" springs to mind), Ronald Reagan (the sale of AWACS planes to Saudi Arabia in 1981), Bush #41 (his "buddy" relationship with Saudi Prince Bandar), and Bill Clinton (failing to punish the Saudis for their failure to cooperate in the Khobar Towers bombing investigation). The bottom line is that our problem is not with any particular individual or family, it's with America's insatiable appetite for Saudi oil, and our unwillingness to cut that dependency even after 9/11. Let's face it, the Saudis are not our friends, and they do not share our values. Among other problems, the Saudis have used some of the billions in oil money we've sent them over the years in order to fund Islamic fundamentalist schools ("madrasas") across the world, not to mention fundamentalist Islamic groups (including terrorists). So what the heck are we doing dealing with these people? Three words: oil, oil, oil. Given that fact, it's not exactly a big surprise that a Texas oil family like the Bushes would have close ties with the Saudi (r)oil family. The problem is not the Bush-Saudi friendship per se, but the overall thrust of U.S. foreign policy, driven by the desire for cheap oil (and other resources), regardless of the nasty regimes we have to do business with in order to get it. The answer, then, is to get off of imported oil once and for all. When that happens, the Bush-Saudi relationship will be irrelevant, while the Saudi royal family, along with its oil and influence on U.S. foreign policy, will fade like a mirage into the country's desert sands...
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Summary: Powerful, well written,amazing,scary.
Review: This is by far the best summary of the corrupt public policies of George W. Bush. The only improvement I can possibly think of would be to provide a list of all the companies doing business in Iraq under government contract and then follow the money. I agree with many of the previous reviewers, this will be the biggest scandal in American history. Excellent book !
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Summary: PEELING BACK THE VENEER
Review: I can only surmise that the copy of this book read by one of the reviewers below ('NO FACTS') must have had most of its pages missing - or that the reader is coming from a place where the definition of 'facts' is radically different from the accepted one. Craig Unger's book is chock full of facts - he has done exhaustive research, which is meticulously annotated (there are nearly a thousand notes, some of them quite lengthy). Additionally, unlike many of his Right-leaning counterparts, he actually uses information from both sides of the 'aisle' - what a concept! - which in turn leads to a straightforward look at the subject at hand. That subject is the incredibly intense and labyrinthine commingling of business, political and personal interests that tie the Bush family (and their friends and supporters) to the Saudi royal family. The ties that Unger documents so clearly go back over 30 years - and the ensuing time has done nothing to weaken them, at least up until the present. The tragic attacks of 9/11, the subsequent events and their fallout may have a different tale to tell when all is said and done. The crony capitalism and government-by-secrecy practiced by the Bush administration are laid bare here - the inside deals, the lucrative favors given and received, the about-faces in policy which have occurred when convenient, the end-justifying-the-means mentality that seems to govern everything they do. The facts laid out by Unger cannot be simply explained away as 'coincidence' - and the actions of the administration to cover up their actions and their relationship with the Saudis merely demonstrate that they have something to hide. This book does a great service to America by exposing what has gone on 'under the radar' - hopefully it will cause a lot of people to ask some vital questions. Who knows, maybe if enough people ask firmly enough, the questions will actually get answered - wouldn't that be refreshing? Why were dozens of Saudi citizens - including members of the bin Laden family - allowed to fly out of the US soon after the attacks on 9/11, when US air traffic was pretty much completely shut down? Why were the people on board these planes not at least interviewed by the FBI or other federal agencies who made such a show about protecting the 'homeland'? Why did Bush suddenly change his position on the Middle East peace process - from a stated policy of non-involvement to one espousing a 'road map for peace'? Why were so many of the high-rolling, high-contributing supporters of the Bush family given such powerful positions in his administration? Why is his administration being run with the highest level of secrecy in the modern era? Why has the administration actually WEAKENED the fights against terror by switching their focus from Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda - the actual perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks - to Saddam Hussein and Iraq, whom no less of a key player than George W. Bush now admits had 'no ties with Al-Qaeda'? While Unger's opinion on these and other matters isn't hard to discern, his journalistic ethics and methods cannot be seriously questioned. He has garnered information from a variety of sources: Democrats, Republicans and Independents, dozens of present and past government officials both in the US and Saudi Arabia, friends and business associates of the Bush and Saud families, and others who are knowledgeable and expert in these matters. The result is eye-opening, and pretty scary - decisions that have affected the lives of thousands of people, military and civilian, in the US, Iraq and other countries, have been made as if they were business decisions, all the while being touted as acting the interests of 'national security'. It's outrageous - and this well-written account is essential to understanding how this house of cards was built. The book deals with many serious, complex issues, and the result is surprisingly readable - it's also a vital tool that every American who plans to vote in November should read.
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Summary: Bush policy in Iraq is a neo wave Trojan Horse.....
Review: first bush sold america on the idea,WMDs were on the brink of falling into enemy(terrorist hands)...when they failed to materialize,policy shifted to creating a benign democracy in Iraq..the neoconservative hawks cooed like doves...forget the WMDs,they said,"is the world a better place without Saddam"..?? and of course the obvious answer...the dumbdown answer is a resounding yes...however,not at the expense of forsaking an all out hunt for bin laden,and al queda,the real enemy...a better question, is the world now safer without saddam at the helm in Iraq...a resounding no....Iraq is a worsening mess...and bush and his administration have no clue as to any face-saving exit ....because bush is "reborn"....you have the CEO of the free world behaving more like a pope than a president...offering up only hope and prayers instead of solutions to this perilous situation...everything that could go wrong in iraq has gone wrong..not because of bad luck but because of "faith based" policy....thank god,JFK was president during the cuban missle crisis...though kennedy was flawed he was astute,and understood how to wield power and diplomacy,simultaneously...bush charged into iraq because this offered up an opportunity for W.to define himself...he admits himself,"before i was just a big name without substance..."big hat no cattle".....Iraq gave bush a more grandiose stage to act out his biblical delusions than either afghanistan or catching bin laden...his original mantra...bin laden... wanted dead or alive...very catchy...but in light of his foray into iraq,most disingenuous.....unger does a remarkable job illuminating reasons the bush team always plays ball with the house of saud.....just follow the money....look into the Carlyle Group....understand the Bush attachment to Big Oil....Big Chemical....Big Business....the House of Bush is about big oil equally as much as the House of Saud...not strange bedfellows afterall....read House of Saud,before you vote....and youll further understand the Bush policy is just your garden variety trojan horse.....a slick means to get in Iraq..just camouflage..for deeper,darker motives......create democracy in Iraq,since WMDs werent found...and substitute do-gooderism for self -interestism.....
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