Saudi Babylon: Torture, Corruption and Cover-Up Inside the House of Saud
by Mark Hollingsworth, Sandy Mitchell

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Book Reviews of Saudi Babylon: Torture, Corruption and Cover-Up Inside the House of Saud

Book Review: Victim of a corrupt diplomacy
Summary: 5 Stars

Mitchell and others were tortured because the Saudis wanted westerners to look bad. The authors argue that at all levels the Saudi people are hugely sympathetic with Al Quaeda and yet the hugely corrupt Saud family government is highly interdependent with the USA and to a lesser extent the UK who buy its oil, sell it arms and smooth out any little (and large) wrinkles in geopolitics largely in its favour.

Apparently it is rather inconvenient for Messr.s Blair and Straw to get heavy with King Saud when a few of our people are being tortured, although interestingly an American, Mike Sedlak, who was detained over the same case was almost immediately released after intervention by the US embassy. What does this say about the nature of our government?

This book details the nature of relations between Saudi and the UK, dominated as it is by huge trade deals and massive kickbacks for Saudi royals who negotiate the deals. It also looks briefly at how Saudis have always been treated with kid gloves by the Americans no matter what kind of trouble they get into. Finally there is a thorough look at the House of Saud itself, how it developed through the last century and how it now balances precariously with its incredible wealth on top of an increasingly impoverished, disillusioned and often extremist society.

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