Rating: 
Summary: Opportunistic misinformation......
Review: I bought this book thinking many US oil companies and individuals would be explicity named and implicated in all the hoopla about how this war on terrorism is all about oil. I wanted to find the smoking gun the Bush-haters insist is out there. As I suspected there is, at best, only highly circumstantial evidence of any purposeful wrongdoing by the Bush administration. Oddly enough, many of the factual points implicate the Clinton administration in pandering to the Taliban. Note, the US was considering military action against the Taliban in 1999!! To wit, the only oil company - not even a major, let alone supermajor! - named was Unocal. How does this implicate the entire US oil industry?? The roots of these events go back the the mid-90's. Perhaps my history is weak, but I beleive Clinton was President then. If it's about oil now, it was about oil then. If this was a bestseller in France, I can understand how they are so biased. This book is terribly written given all the research that supposedly occured. The Impossible Negotiation chapter - the authors smoking gun - is a journalistic joke. The most useful part of it is the incomplete chronology of events. I give the book 4-stars because it's been so valuable in discrediting the liberal-left.
Rating:
Summary: Opportunistic misinformation......
Review: I bought this book thinking many US oil companies and individuals would be explicity named and implicated in all the hoopla about how this war on terrorism is all about oil. I wanted to find the smoking gun the Bush-haters insist is out there. As I suspected there is, at best, only highly circumstantial evidence of any purposeful wrongdoing by the Bush administration. Oddly enough, many of the factual points implicate the Clinton administration in pandering to the Taliban. Note, the US was considering military action against the Taliban in 1999!! To wit, the only oil company - not even a major, let alone supermajor! - named was Unocal. How does this implicate the entire US oil industry?? The roots of these events go back the the mid-90's. Perhaps my history is weak, but I beleive Clinton was President then. If it's about oil now, it was about oil then. If this was a bestseller in France, I can understand how they are so biased. This book is terribly written given all the research that supposedly occured. The Impossible Negotiation chapter - the authors smoking gun - is a journalistic joke. The most useful part of it is the incomplete chronology of events. I give the book 4-stars because it's been so valuable in discrediting the liberal-left.
Rating: 
Summary: More Like Forbidden Libel
Review: I found this book utterly fascinating when it came out and I have followed the contents and authors closely. Since then the authors have lost every libel action filed against them and the US has had to retract Mr. Brisard's congressional testimony. It also develops that he never did work for the United Nations despite saying so. Even though I used to think this book had the truth about 9/11 now I think it is just conspiracy theory and that's sad.
Gemma
Rating:
Summary: Michael Moore's Lost Twin?
Review: I got this book not too long ago based on some of the reviews here. Like everyone else I want to get to the bottom of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. I thought maybe this book would have the answer.
Well going through it the book does make a lot of sense. I can understand the attraction of the oil money and the involvement of politicians and other powerful figures.
But it kind of falls down when you look at the truth behind it. Some of the people in the book have taken the authors to court over what it says. And as far as I can tell the result was that the authors were wrong. Now I know it would be kind of hard to show that someone or other paid for the Twin Towers attacks and so on but you would think there would be enough to get it to hold up in court. But I am wrong about that!
So this book is kind of the twin to Fahrenheit 911. A lot of interesting stuff but you don't know if it is true or not. I tried looking at Brisard's company site and it seems to be shut down. I saw a web page that said one of the court decisions against him also included shutting down the company.
Now what I find really sad about this is that Brisard was helping the families of the 911 victims sue the terrorists. The US cannot even catch Ben Laden so it made sense to me that you could sue the Saudis and so on to get some justice. But I for one have to wonder if the court actions against Brisard are going to make it just a little harder for the families to get their fair day in court.
All in all the book is worth reading as it is pretty interesting even today but you just have to wonder how much is really true.
Rating: 
Summary: not as good as it might have been
Review: I wanted very much to like this book and be able to recommend it to others, out of my conviction that the Bush family (and other powerful US financial/political dynasties) have sold out America's true national security interests to the Saudis. There is much about 9/11 we may never know because it would be too embarrassing to Dubya and his oil cronies.Unfortunately, Forbidden Truth falls short of expectations: it was obviously written in a hurry, to capitalize on 9/11. Plus, I disagree with those reviewers who say it is well researched; looking at the footnotes, one is struck by how heavily the authors rely on a small handful of sources, primarily what appear to be Swiss banking publications (Brisard and Dasquie don't bother to explain the provenance of their sources). The evidence for some of their more damning "revelations" is exceedingly thin, and in a few cases wouldn't pass muster in a high school journalism class. The authors cite no Saudi sources whatsoever and neither appears ever to have set foot in the Middle East. Moreover, the title of the US edition of the book is very misleading: Forbidden Truth has precious little to say about the Taliban and the ongoing search for Osama bin Laden. Instead, the book quite oddly shifts emphasis to Muammar Qaddafi. Why the Libyan leader should merit an entire chapter and an Appendix in this short book is beyond me; it seems the authors got hold of an old Interpol document and felt compelled to publish it somewhere. Despite these misgivings, I gave Forbidden Truth 3 stars because it does raise a few critical points and open worthwhile avenues of investigation and research. It's not that I disbelieve Brisard and Dasquie; in fact, the Truth is probably much worse than they present it. It's the shoddiness of their presentation that I take issue with.
Rating:
Summary: Over Blown Drama
Review: If you picked this book simply because of the breathless, drama overloaded wording on the dust jacket then you may find the book a bit disappointing. This book originally came out in November of 2001 and in retrospect it might of held information that, at the time, was not widely know. Fortunately for us yet in detriment to the book, the 9 / 11 panel and the election cycle generated a tremendous amount of detail on the US / Saudi relationship and Bin Laden. So much of the "must read / never before reported" parts of the book are now as common as the cold, that the reader today is left wondering what all the fuss was about with the book. The book looks at the vast business dealings the US and Saudi's share, the failed attempts at diplomacy and business between the US and the Taliban pre 9 / 11, and the high lights version of Bin Laden's life. And given the now crowed field of books covering the same topics, this book seems a little light in the detail to me.
One issue I had with the book was that it was written by a French man. By this I am not getting on board the anti French bandwagon that has been going on for the past few years. No, what bothered me was the way the author wrote the book. I had the opportunity to work with a number of French people in Europe for a few years and most of the difficult personality traits I associated with the French came roaring back to me with this book. This might be the only book in history where the coma to period count is 3 to 1. This author never had a sentence with fewer then 20 words and if you are looking for direct fact reporting then look else ware. If there was a way to make anything more complicated and drawn out then the author grabbed at it with gusto. There is not a straight line in the book, it almost reads like a contract full of legal speak designed to confuse and annoy. What you end up with is a book that takes more work to get through then the factual pay off is worth.
Overall I was disappointed. The facts are a bit dated at this time and there is not enough broad detail to make up for it. The writing style is difficult to get through until you become accustomed to it. On the plus side there is an interesting look at the financing aspect of the Bin Laden network and the authors remained above name calling and Bush bashing. And like your average French man, the unique style and slightly Royal attitude begins to grow on you so that by the end of the book you appreciate the differences instead of being frustrated by them. If you are going to read one book on this subject I would not suggest this be it, but if you are really interested in finding out everything you can about Bin Laden then this book does offer some interesting bits on his family and their finances.
Rating:
Summary: Horrifying! But Sadly Not Surprising...
Review: In a nutshell, this book outlines how we've looked the other way regarding Islamic terror for decades because it inconvenienced oil deals. No big surprise, although you may still be shocked at the calculated cynicism and the cold-blooded capitalism. We may have bombed Afghanistan after 9/11, but you'll be shocked to learn that prior to 9/11 we actually tacitly supported the Taliban--because we wanted a stable regime there to allow for the construction of a lucrative pipeline through the country. We'd eventually sour on the Taliban as their abuses became world news, but we gave them plenty of money year after year. Other sad tales involve our continuing "friendship" with Saudi Arabia--again, based on oil money--which seems absurd considering their status as the #1 exporter of Islamic terrorism, including the majority of the 9/11 hijackers. Also interesting is how deeply the White House is staffed with big oil veterans--everybody knows about Bush and Cheney's oil gigs, but who knew Condoleeza Rice was a decade-long employee of the oil industry? This book presents a pretty sobering reality about what our priorties have been over the years--most of them have taken a back seat to big oil profits, even post 9/11. Many conservative (meaning: Bush supporters) readers will probably dismiss this book because of its stark, unflattering portrayal of our government and its principals--those of us who are a little more questioning will still be appalled at how callous our policies have become... in the name of oil profits.
Rating:
Summary: Well-researched, but no new revelations about the US
Review: In this book, Brisard and Basquie trace the web of connections that indirectly link the Bush administration with Osama Bin Laden. There is nothing surprising here -- various US oil interests wanted to build a pipeline across Afghanistan for Central Asian oil, and they viewed the Taliban as the regime most likely to stabilize the country enough to allow them to make a pipeline deal. The Bush family is also well connected with the Saudis; again, oil is the connection. What the book does very well, is to tease apart the connection between the Saudi royals who control both Saudi oil interests and Saudi banking interests (about 4000 obscenely wealthy princes) and the interests that are attempting to proselytize for the conservative Wahhabi Muslim movement. Bin Laden's family is inimately connected with these networks and they have supported him financially through many cross-linked organizations. It becomes obvious from this book how enslaved the US is to Saudi oil and that this enslavement benefits certain individuals who profit from oil (like Bush and Cheney)while making the US the agent of a culture with totally alien values. It made me long for an administration that was developing oil conservation policies and extricating us from our relationship with Saudi Arabia. The research is very careful and detailed, but the book told me a lot more about Saudi financial networks than I wanted to know.
The book also contains appendices which would have benefited from a larger typeface, including copies of the Interpol warrant for bin Laden's arrest in English, French, Arabic, and Spanish and a lot of family trees which are not awfully meaningful.
Rating:
Summary: impeccable
Review: 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:
Summary: Good, but no killer blow
Review: Some people would try to say this book shouldn't be trusted because it is written by the French, but I look at it this way, if, John O'Neill, the former head of the FBI's antiterrorism division, trusted Brisard enough to confide with him about his fears of Al Queda and the answers to them being found in Saudi Arabia and of our government, especially the current administration, of trying to block him from further investigation in that direction, then I feel I can also trust the author (besides which, much of the information in the book is being validated elsewhere). The administration tried to make France sound terrible because they voted against going to war against Iraq without more reliable information, that was a right that they had as we have in the United States. Remember, if it hadn't been for the help of the French, we wouldn't be the United States now.
Anyway, back to the book. I am going to quote a part of the forward that gives a little summary of the book, "Forbidden Truth" is the first comprehensive revelation of how the foreign policy of the President's father and the cozy relationship with the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia exploited and created an extremist army that eventually turned on its creators." "our government knew Saudi government was financing bin Laden's Al Queda through Islamic charities years before the attacks." Oil, and the power and money that it can give to certain individuals can be addictive and lead to abuses. Because of how much our country depends on oil, a lot things have been overlooked by our government and certain people who profit from it in a huge way (the lives of our citizens take the back seat for many of these people). There was a pipeline for oil dream that developed that concerned Afghanistan, but in order for our companies to be able to go through it, the country had to be stable, which different people tried to show the U.S. (some our own people) that it was, when in fact it was just the opposite. They were succeeding until the Taliban treatment of their women and their vile actions were found out. Unicol a division of Chevron, of which Condoleeza Rice was a director of for years, was the company wanting to build the pipeline. A representative from our country, who had been trying to negotiate with the Taliban to give us Osama Bin Laden and let us run a pipeline through Afghanistan reportedly told them that they could be blanketed with a carpet of money or with bombs if they didn't comply. The book details Osama bin Laden's path and describes Saudis and the events that led up to 9/11. It also shows how the same people who were involved in the previous Bush administration are still involved in this one and it shows many connections of these people to the Oil and the defense building, like the Carlyle Group. These are the people making a lot of money because of the war and stand to make a lot more, using our tax dollars and our young men and women to pay for it. I think everyone should read this book and you will get a better idea of how Al Queda developed and why it became what it is today. People from other countries know more about what is going on than we do and that seems to be the way our government wants it but we can no longer trust that we are receiving the whole truth, we need to dig deeper. You owe it to your country.
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