Intelligence Matters

This book details how George Bush has placed Saudi oil in front of our national security. The White House blocked investigations of two Saudi officials who funded and housed two of the 9/11 hijackers, allowed them to leave the US and insisted 28 pages in the 9/11 commission report e "classified". Bush misled America with false claims to attack Iraq and then allowed the Pentagon to disregard international torture laws. This is a recruiting poster for budding terrorists. Why has Bush avoided challenging Saudi Arabia and Pakistan's aid to Al Queda? Why has he prioritized "nation building" over avenging 9/11 and hunting Bin Laden? No answers justify his disregard for our security. This book tells us what the white house doesn't want us to know.

Similar to an anonymous CIA officer's account of intelligence lapses in "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror", this book is a sizzler almost told as a morality tale with sadly no ending to echo the moral the author espouses. Senator Bob Graham (D-Florida), former 2004 Presidential hopeful, has joined the growing ranks who have written well-timed books to reflect their disgust and confusion over the constant deceptions that seem to entangle the Bush administration in its bid for re-election. Graham has much in common with Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia), who similarly derides the current administration in his recent book, "Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency". That book places more focus on the President's complete disregard for the U.S. Constitution and uses historical references to back up his claims. However, Graham, joined by former Gore speechwriter Jeff Nussbaum, has a more immediate target in mind, the allegedly close and protective relationship between the Bush family and the Saudi government. The consequences of this connection, according to Graham, have now resulted in over one thousand casualties in Iraq. In particular, he assails the Bush administration for the charade that is the Iraqi war, for failing to address the real war on terrorism and for ignoring a Saudi-funded al-Qaeda network that remains largely intact here in the U.S. Damning charges but ones he meticulously backs up in this book. This Bush-Saudi connection is the same subject that Michael Moore emphasizes during the middle portion of "Fahrenheit 9/11". In both cases, it is difficult to deny that much of what he does claim is at minimum strangely coincidental and at worst immoral. Whereas Moore is mainly flippant in his approach, Graham is quite sober and provides a perspective commensurate with a conscience-stricken political insider tasked almost impossibly with investigating the full impact of the terrorist threat. After all, he was the co-chair of the joint House-Senate panel investigating 9/11 prior to the formation of the broader commission that resulted in the phenomenal "9/11 Commission Report". Interestingly, that book claims no connection exists between the Saudis and the 9/11 terrorists. Graham, however, provides compelling evidence that proves otherwise, in particular, the funding of two of the 9/11 hijackers by the Saudi government and the abrupt movement of forces from the bin Laden manhunt in Afghanistan to the more nebulous political landscape of Iraq, a move that surprised even General Tommy Franks. The most intriguing and explosive charge in the book is the U.S.-based support network for al-Qaeda, as the war with Iraq has provided a helpful distraction to the detection of these individuals. Even members of the 9/11 Commission acknowledge that Graham may be right when he says the FBI never fully unraveled a support network that helped the hijackers. This book, coupled with "Imperial Hubris", gives a

I spent an entire night reading this one. It simply boggles the imagination. I can't think of another sitting senator who's ever written such a book. Graham, who has served on the Senate Intelligence Committee for 10 years and chaired it for 18 months, contends that there's a Saudi Arabian connection to 9/11 that the Bush whitehouse is deliberately concealing. Just one of many examples: it seems that a retired Saudi professor in California was enlisted by the FBI as a paid informant to keep tabs on Saudis in his area. Two of the 9/11 hijackers boarded with him. But when the Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenaed the FBI for information relayed by the professor, the White House ordered the FBI to refuse to give the info on the grounds of 'national security.' From beginning to end, the White House has blocked public information about the Saudi connection to terrorism. Graham documents this bizarre resistance, and speculates that the reasons for it are complex. At least two factors play heavily: the national alliance with Saudi Arabia since WWII, and the oil dependency upon which that relation is built; and the Bush dynasty's personal relationship with the Saudi ruling family. A chilling account of official misinformation. If even half of what Senator Graham says is correct, the country we now live in is different from the country we lived in four years ago.

Just as the 9/11 Report flew off the shelves into the hands of civic-minded Americans, so will Intelligence Matters. Sen. Bob Graham has always been respected for his expertise in the Senate in foreign affairs, and like John McCain continually eschews partisan politics. As he prepares to retire he shares a candid and sobering look at what happened with 9/11, including the Bush administration's cover-up regarding Saudi Arabia. To honor the legacy of all of those who died at the hands of Saudi terrorists, honest, patriotic Americans everywhere should read this book and know the truth before they vote on Nov. 2.