Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia

401 Pages·2005·19.12 MB·English

by  Thomas W. Lippman

INSIDE THE
MIRAGE
ALSO BY THOMAS W. LIPPMAN
Understanding Islam
Egypt After Nasser
Madeleine Albright and
the New American Diplomacy
I N S I DE THE
M I R A GE
America's Fragile Partnership
with Saudi Arabia
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may
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Copyright © 2004 by Thomas W. Lippman
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lippman, Thomas W.
Inside the mirage : America's fragile partnership with Saudi Arabia /Thomas W.
Lippman.— 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8133-4052-7 (alk. paper)
1. United States—Relations—Saudi Arabia. 2. Saudi Arabia—Relations—United States.
3. Persian Gulf War, 1991. 4. September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001—Influence. I. Title.
E183.8.S25L572004
303.48'2538073—dc22
2003017526
Text set in 12-pt AGaramond
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National
Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vn
A Note on Arabic Words and Names ix
Prologue i
1 The Pioneers 7
2 Into the Wilderness 39
3 Little America 55
4 Arabs and Attitudes 71
5 Funny Money 97
6 The Little Screen in
7 Come Fly With Me 123
8 A Ford in Their Past 137
9 The American Way 155
10 Down on the Farm 179
11 Christians and Jews 201
12 Go Directly to Jail 227
13 The Cultural Divide 247
14 From Swords to Missiles 273
15 Desert Storms 299
16 After September 11 325
Notes 349
Bibliography 371
Index 375
V
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ANY AUTHOR OF A WORK OF nonflction needs help from many peo-
ple. I am profoundly grateful to the many scores of Americans and
Saudis who gave generously of their time, their recollections, their
documents, and their advice. In particular, I owe debts that cannot be
repaid to Rick Weintraub, Jonathan Green, Brian Hannon, Elizabeth
Brown, Bobbye Pratt, Bob Norberg, Bill Nash, David Mack, Leonard
Garment, Daniel Wolf, Medlej Al-Medlej, Susanne Lendman, Saud
Al-Suwaileh, Elizabeth Colton, David Hamod, Dave Walker, Nimah
Ismail Nawwab, and Nicholas Scheetz. The staffs of the special collec-
tions department of the Lauinger Library at Georgetown University
and of the Middle East Institute in Washington responded generously
and courteously to every request, and the U.S.—Saudi Arabian Business
Council provided crucial assistance. I thank them all.
Vll
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A NOTE ON
ARABIC WORDS
AND NAMES
THERE is NO UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED form of transliteration of Arabic
words and names into English. I have used the versions commonly
found in American newspapers and magazines. No attempt has been
made to reproduce the diacritical marks, glottal stops, long vowelings,
and unique consonants of the original, except where they are part of the
standard transliteration. In quotations of writings by others, I have re-
tained the transliterations used by them. Thus Muhammad may some-
times appear as Mohammed, Jeddah as Jidda or Jiddah, Faisal as Feysal.
ix