I'm not sure what category to place this entry under, since it's really a book review about a book that hasn't come out yet. The book is called "Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Its Soul for Saudi Crude" by Robert Baer and it's due out in June 2003. However, the main thesis is abridged into a must-read article in this month's (May 2003) Atlantic magazine called "The Fall of the House of Saud."
Baer's thesis is that an economic, and hence a social and political, implosion is imminent in Saudi Arabia. The Saud clan that rules the country is deeply corrupt and its kleptomania cannot continue as the royal family grows while petrodollars shrink. But the United States is complicit because we don't really demand reform as long as the Saudis keep the oil flowing.
Like any good piece of journalism – and this one pulled out shocking details I had never heard before – "The Fall of the House of Saud" will totally change your outlook on the U.S.-Saudi relationship. The deadly dance has been going on for far too long, and as Baer's gripping article reveals, it won't go on for much longer.
Article comments
1 - Matt Gunnison
Baer's writing seems more in line with Harper's Monthly than the Atlantic.
When did you receive your mail-delivered May 2003 issue? I think I got mine on April 3rd, but I can't be sure. I ask because I find it a little funny that the Baer article came out in such close proximity to the war-time casualty (April 4th) of Editor at Large, Michael Kelly's death by drowning (!). "The Fall..." is easily the most harmfully, if swashbucklingly, indicting piece on the Bush admin./Bush family, the Carlyle Group chief execs., and Colin Powell himself that I've ever read in the Atlantic which is a publication that usually avoids such rash, conspiratorial indulgences and is most probably subscribed to by the above mentioned and their friends. I guess the appropriate question is, "what was Kelly's role, if any in promoting Baer's book?"
I haven't read anything anywhere nor found anything online that observes the same coincidence, so thought I'd troll. Please pardon the intrusion, if it's totally out of line.
2 - Amjad Muhammad
Gentleman,
I am looking for the email address of Mr. Robert Baer (Author of "Sleeping with the Devil")
Please help...