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HOUSE OF BUSH, HOUSE OF SAUD -- THE SECRET RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE WORLD'S TWO MOST POWERFUL DYNASTIES |
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book would not have been possible without the help of many people who assisted me every step of the way. At Scribner, I was fortunate to have an extraordinary editor, Colin Harrison, who was attentive to every aspect of the book from the breadth of its narrative scope to its finest details. His editorial judgment is superb and it has been a privilege to work with him. I am also grateful to Susan Moldow and Nan Graham, who were wonderfully supportive throughout the writing of this book and who oversaw a terrific team of people who treated the book with the highest level of professionalism. They include John Fulbrook, Erich Hobbing, Sarah Knight, Roz Lippel, Cynthia Mann, John McGhee, and Allison Murray. My thanks also go to Elisa Rivlin, for her comprehensive legal review, and to Pat Eisemann, who devoted herself to the book's publicity. My agent, Elizabeth Sheinkman of the Elaine Markson Agency, was one of the first people to recognize the possibilities of this book. She was always there with wise advice. Daniel Benaim, my research assistant, and Cynthia Carris, my photo edtor, both performed with grace and professionalism under deadline pressure. I am especially grateful to Daniel for his help in compiling the amount of money transferred from the House of Saud to the House of Bush. My thanks also go to James Hamilton for the author's photo. This book was backed by a grant from the Florence and John Schumann Foundation. I am grateful to Bill Moyers, the president of the foundation, and Lynn Welhorsky, its vice president, for their generous support and encouragement. The grant was administered by the Nation Institute. My thanks there go to Victor Navasky, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, and Taya Grobow.
In the past, I have written about George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush for the New Yorker, Esquire, and Vanity Fair magazines. The New Yorker article, "In the Loop," was an investigative piece on George H. W. Bush's role in Iran-contra and Iraqgate that I co-wrote with investigative reporter Murray Waas in 1992. Murray did an excellent job of reporting for the piece and I thank him for his permission to adapt parts of it for this book. In addition, part of the book appeared in Vanity Fair in October 2003. I am indebted to Graydon Carter and Michael Hogan there for publishing the piece. In the course of my earlier work on the Bushes and additional reporting for this book I interviewed, by phone or in person, three directors of the Central Intelligence Agency: Stansfield Turner, the late William Colby, and James Woolsey; and Saudi Arabia's minister of intelligence, Prince Turki bin Faisal. I would also like to thank Michael Anton at the White House for his time and for showing me exactly how the Bush administration deals with the press. In addition, there are many people in and out of government who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, including several members of the National Security Council staff in the administration of George W. Bush and high-level officials at the FBI. I am particularly indebted to them. Others I'd like to acknowledge are Nail Al-Jubeir at the Saudi embassy, Don Albosta, Frank Anderson, David Armstrong, Gerry Auerbach, Robert Baer, James Bath, Dan Benjamin, Terry Bennett, Tom Blanton at the National Security Archive, Jack Blum, Richard Clarke, Casey Cooper, Dan D' Aniello, Alan Gerson, Dan Grossi, Armond Habiby, Dee Howard, Youssef Ibrahim, John Iannarelli, Thomas Kinton, Don Leavitt, Terry Lenzner, Charles Lewis, John Loftus, John L. Martin, Adil Najam, Nawaf Obaid, Bob Parry, Manuel Perez, Gerald Posner, Richard Rechter, Oliver "Buck" Revell, David Rubenstein, Cherif Sedky, Joe Trento, Dale Watson, Will Wechsler, Jonathan Winer, and James Zogby. Chris Ullman at the Carlyle Group was always gracious and responsive, belying the reputation for secrecy that the firm has acquired. Helpful as such sources have been, this book relies extensively on declassified government documents, congressional investigations, and news accounts from thousands of newspapers and journals from all over the world. It would have been impossible to research this book without the Internet and I am especially grateful to people and institutions who have built the Internet research tools that enabled me to search through such vast amounts of material so quickly. Specifically, my thanks go to Gary Sick and Columbia University's Gulf/2000, an Internet group that afforded me e-mail and telephone access to hundreds of scholars, diplomats, and policy makers who specialize in the Middle East. Gulf/2000's vast Internet archives of clippings were of great value and the thousands of e-mails they sent out enabled me to be privy to a dialog with hundreds of specialists in the field. The Center for Cooperative Research (www.cooperativeresearch.org/) is another valuable Internet tool. Because I made a practice of citing original sources, it does not appear in my notes nearly as often as it might. However, its timelines about 9/11 and related issues often helped me find exactly what I was looking for. I highly recommend it to anyone doing research on 9/11 and I encourage its support. The National Security Archives (www.gwu.edul-nsarchiv) has also performed a valuable public service through years of filing Freedom of Information Act requests to declassify secret documents, many of which it has posted on the Internet. These documents were useful to me again and again and are often cited in my notes. I also recommend the web site of the Federation of American Scientists (www.fas.org), which makes many government documents readily accessible, including the 1992 Senate investigation into the BCCI scandal. Understanding that Byzantine affair was vital to putting together a template for the events in this book. E-mail groups I joined that I found useful include Truthout (www.truthout.org) and the Weekly Spin (www.prwatch.org). I should add that the notes offer a far more complete list of people and published sources that have contributed to the book. Wherever possible I have tried to include web addresses for those interested in further information. Many friends and colleagues helped either by contributing in one way or another to the book itself or through much-needed moral support. They include John Anderson, Sidney Blumenthal, Peter Carey, Joe Conason, Martin Kilian, Don Leavitt, Robin and Susan Madden, Pazit Ravina, John "Print the Legend" Strahinich, and Lynne Faljian Taylor. My friends Len Belzer and Emily Squires generously provided their friendship and a house in the country for weekend R and R. And finally, my gratitude goes to my family my mother, Barbara; my father, Roger; Chris, Shanti, and Thomas; and Jimmy, Marie-Claude, Adam, and Matthew.
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