Princes of Darkness: The Saudi Assault on the West

The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot soldiers, from ideologist to cheerleader. -BRIEFING BY LAURENT MURAWIEC TO THE DEFENSE POLICY BOARD OF THE PENTAGON, JULY 10, 2002 Princes of Darkness is a highly provocative and critical exposé of Saudi Arabia. This timely book brands the political and religious elite inside that country as enemies of the western world. From the Wahhabi brand of Islam, which Laurent Murawiec calls "a strange mix of paganism, provincial insularity, and of a rhetoric borrowed from Islam," to the powerful and corrupt Saudi royal family, to the multinational entities that support terrorism, the author takes the reader inside a world where enemies of the U.S. and the west are being cast as allies. He persuasively demonstrates that the Saudi leadership is as responsible for the spread of terror as any other radical Islamic nation. By extension, there is also profound criticism of the U.S. foreign policy-starting with the post-World War II period-that has supported the royal family instead of condemning it as an evil empire and of containing it. In the end, the most profound and far-reaching questions are addressed. What is to be done about Saudi Arabia? Should we take the "Saudi" out of Arabia? And if so, how?