House of Bush, House of Saud

Tracing the oil trail to 9/11..

The president was briefed Aug. 8 on intelligence indicating that terrorists planned an attack on U.S. soil. Soon afterward, Bush took the longest presidential vacation in 32 years - a monthlong retreat at his Crawford ranch.

So what was the administration focusing on at this time? It was repairing a Saudi-American split over some comments Bush had made criticizing Palestine. Bush immediately reversed his position, but his reward didn't even survive Sept. 11, when the world's goodwill toward America was at its highest.

Saudi officials refused to freeze bank accounts, Unger writes. They refused to allow Americans to use their soil during the invasion of Afghanistan. And Unger borrows this from Gerald Posner's "Why America Slept": Prince Ahmed bin Sultan, a member of the Saudi royal family, reportedly knew about the attacks before Sept. 11.

The world's two most powerful families and their pursuit and attainment of world power through oil money.

Newsbreaking and controversial -- an award-winning investigative journalist uncovers the thirty-year relationship between the Bush family and the House of Saud and explains its impact on American foreign policy, business, and national security.

House of Bush, House of Saud begins with a politically explosive question: How is it that two days after 9/11, when U.S. air traffic was tightly restricted, 140 Saudis, many immediate kin to Osama Bin Laden, were permitted to leave the country without being questioned by U.S. intelligence?

The answer lies in a hidden relationship that began in the 1970s, when the oil-rich House of Saud began courting American politicians in a bid for military protection, influence, and investment opportunity. With the Bush family, the Saudis hit a gusher -- direct access to presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. To trace the amazing weave of Saud-Bush connections, Unger interviewed three former directors of the CIA, top Saudi and Israeli intelligence officials, and more than one hundred other sources.His access to major players is unparalleled and often exclusive -- including executives at the Carlyle Group, the giant investment firm where the House of Bush and the House of Saud each has a major stake.

This deeply sourced account has already been cited by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, and sets 9/11, the two Gulf Wars, and the ongoing Middle East crisis in a new context: What really happened when America's most powerful political family became seduced by its Saudi counterparts?

"Even If Only Partly True -It Makes a Mockery of US Democracy"