Comment: Why is Saudi Arabia perceived as an "enemy"?

Laurent Murawiec, who identified Saudi Arabia as the "kernel of evil" in the Summer of 2002 for an influential Pentagon policy review board, has a new book out. In La Guerre d'Apres (The War that Follows, Paris, 2003) - soon to be translated into English - the author provides significant detail on what is wrong with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and what should be done about it.

His frightening conclusion, that Saudi Arabia is an "enemy" of the West, should not be dismissed for two reasons. First, because it is absurd and, second, because prominent policy-makers subscribe to it.

Who is Laurent Murawiec and what is his expertise? According to the book jacket, the author is an "analyst in geo-strategy" for one of the most prominent American think tanks, the Hudson Institute.

His fame was earned when he was a political analyst at the Rand Corporation, the renowned research institution that essentially caters to the US Department of Defence. Five of his books are available at amazon.com and it is eminently important to learn what he has published to date.

A co-edited book with Michael G. Mattock titled Optimal Commercial Satellite Leasing Strategies (Rand, 2002); a second volume co-edited with David Adamson titled Demography and Security: Proceedings of a Workshop (Rand, 2001); two out of print books in French, titled L'Esprit des nations: Cultures et géopolitique, and La guerre au XXe siecle; as well as a more recent study titled Greek Rhetoric Meets Cyberspace: Toward a Theory of Information Warfare (Rand, 2002).

Based on this record, how can one establish the author's credentials as a specialist on Saudi Arabia? After a careful reading of his latest book, as well as an examination of its 292 footnotes (including several references to my own Succession in Saudi Arabia), it is impossible to determine whether Murawiec knows Arabic, has ever visited the Kingdom, or has even spoken to Saudis.

He has certainly consulted a number of references and thanks several anonymous Arab "journalists" for elucidating - presumably on what may have been obscure. The only Arabic sources he quotes are translations provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The latter, it is worth noting, specialises in providing English speaking audiences with hard to find versions of fatwas and pronouncements made by famous as well as infamous clerics, among other items.

The details included in this book are astounding, more of a fantasy tale than a genuine academic investigation, and what follows is a brief summary.

According to Murawiec, the ruling Al Saud family has hijacked Islam, used its oil-generated wealth to buy political and intellectual influence, embarked on an export policy to spread Wahhabism to a gullible Muslim world, and reached a deal with Osama bin Laden that would essentially leave the latter in place if no terrorist activities are carried out inside the Kingdom.

Of course, Murawiec does not just provide us with a litany of what is presumably wrong with the Al Saud, but recommends that everyone's goal should be to "de-Saudize Arabia." Why?

Because, he insists, the Al Saud are a source of evil, and in the cartography that he paints, one must eliminate all evil. His list is long but revolves around banning, preventing, punishing, tarnishing, confiscating, delivering ultimatums and, ultimately, dismembering the "Saudi-Wahhabi war machine." Sadly, this litany formed the basis of his famous power-point presentation to the Defence Policy Board on July 10, 2002.

Like Murawiec, I too was once employed by the Rand Corporation, even if my more academic and far less bombastic briefings were never so well received.

I never proposed that the leadership of a country like Iraq be changed, preventively or otherwise, because it allegedly developed weapons of mass destruction. Or, in the case of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, because it acquiesced to every American suggestion or recommendation.

Rather, my briefings called on awareness of fundamental changes under way, a respect for local tradition and culture and, above all, to recognize that outsiders - even those with good intentions - could do serious harm if they always insisted. Before long, my research was dubbed as being "too pro-Arab", as if that disqualified anyone from providing honest scrutiny but, I hasten to add, that was before Rand set up an office in Doha.

Murawiec started with a specific premise, that the Al Saud were embarked on an evil enterprise, even if the proposition was absurd. Simply stated, the absurdity is evident because a regime that seeks legitimacy does not do everything in its power, to de-legitimize itself.

Joseph Kéchichian, author of several books, is an expert on the Gulf and Middle East affairs.