The American House of Saud; The Secret Petrodollar Connection

New York: Franklin Watts, 1985. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/fair. 24 cm, 450 pages, notes, index, several tears in DJ. Inscribed and signed by the author. Steven Emerson (born June 6, 1954) is an American journalist, author, and pundit on national security, terrorism, and Islamic extremism. Emerson is the author of six books, and co-author of two more. Emerson has testified before Congressional committees on such topics including Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. An investigation of Saudi Arabia's influence over and manipulation of America foreign and domestic policy, the Congress, and public opinion. Emerson has been a Senate subcommittee aide. This book is an expansion from a 1982 series in The New Republic. Did the subcommittee suppress a report on technical problems in the Saudi Arabian off fields? Did the State Department rig a report on Saudi Arabia--remove references to instability and corruption--to get the AWACs sale through Congress? Based on a review posted on-line: The work addresses the various ways--secret and not-so-secret--that Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil-producing countries have sought to influence US foreign policy: i.e., to advance Arab interests. Emerson makes points of some substance: 1) whereas pro-Israeli sentiment has operated largely through Congress (based, to Emerson, on public sympathy), pro-Arab sentiment has operated chiefly through the Executive, and out of sight if not covertly; 2) the Arab nations, unlike other foreign countries lobbying for their interests in the US, treat politics and trade as one--from the well-known blacklisting of firms doing business with Israel to the Death of a Princess furor, when companies with lucrative Saudi connections succeeded in keeping the program off Public TV.