Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden by Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquie and Lucy Rounds.
Editorial Reviews
Los Angeles Times
"The book opens with a scoop ... and an indictment of the hypocrisy of western governments."
U.S. Representative Ron Paul calling for an investigation of charges made in the book on the House floor
"The charges made by [Brisard and Dasqui�] deserve close scrutiny."
Joseph Trento, author of The Secret History of the CIA
"[T]he most important explanation of the secret history of how the U.S. came to be attacked and who was responsible."
Book Description
An international bestseller, banned in Switzerland by the bin Laden family, FORBIDDEN TRUTH: U.S. -Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin Laden by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie shows how U.S. national security in Afghanistan was disastrously compromised by corporate oil interests and Saudi Arabia.
Author Brisard wrote the first intelligence report on the bin Laden financial networks which was used to close down fraudulent Islamic charities that funded terrorism, a report that President Jacques Chirac handed to George Bush on his visit to the US in the wake of 9/11.
Forbidden Truth reveals that French intelligence gave the FBI clear and unambiguous information that the so-called 20th hijacker, Zacarias Massaoui, was tied to Al Qaeda, a story Brisard broke to Salon magazine before Special Agent Coleen Rowley came out publicly to say the FBI stifled the investigation.
John O�Neill the former head of the FBI�s antiterrorism division � who perished in the World Trade Center on September 11� told Jean-Charles Brisard in July 2001, "All of the answers, all of the clues allowing us to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organization, can be found in Saudi Arabia."
The result of three years of investigation by a leading French intelligence expert and investigative journalist, Forbidden Truth is the untold story of the Clinton and Bush administration's attempts to stabilize Afghanistan so that U.S. energy companies could build a pipeline. In particular, it details the secret and hazardous diplomacy between the Bush administration and the Taliban between February and August 2001 � a story still untold in the U.S. media � talks that ultimately led the US to make threats via Pakistani intermediaries to the Taliban in July 2001 that they were going to bomb Afghanistan if the Taliban didn't comply.
Reader Reviews
"The Forbidden Truth" tells you what really happened, July 11, 2002
Reviewer: John J Emerson (see more about me) from Portland, OR United States
First of all, this is the GOOD French book on 9/11. (The OTHER French book on 9/11 you hear people talking about is the same old conspiracy theory stuff. Dasquie and Brisard are well-respected professionals and completely mainstream.
When 9/11 took place the American response was dominated by rage and disbelief: how could anyone ever do something like that to us? Suggestions that we figure out why it happened were automatically slapped down, as if even asking the question would give legitimacy to the attackers.
It's quite normal to have inquiries whenever a disaster takes place, so someone must have had something to hide. This book tells you who they were and what it was.
The United States was negotiating with the Taliban right into September of 2001. What was at issue was an oil pipeline across Afghanistan, and the options we offered them were two: cooperate with us on the pipeline, or war. When negotiations broke down, Osama Bin Laden (a U.S. ally only a decade earlier in the anti-Soviet war, and a major force in Afghanistan)struck first. Once we were at war with the Taliban, they became unspeakably evil; but as long as it seemed that they might be willing to play ball, we had no problem with them.
The role of Saudi Arabia in this story is a second major theme. Most of the hijackers were Saudis and the funding came from Saudi Arabia and the neighboring Gulf States. Furthermore, some of Bin Laden's support, contrary to what we have been told, came from very high levels in Saudi society. Saudi Arabia has long been a major source of funds for Muslim extremists globally, and the see-no-evil complicity in this of the U.S. government and the oil industry cannot be denied. While this book in no way claims that the CIA (much less the Mossad) had a hand in the 9/11 attacks, it makes it clear that excessively indulgent attitudes to the Saudis at very high levels of the US government led to extreme negligence and made the terrorists' job much easier.
Saudi Arabia is not on the list of ten or more terrorist nations which we plan to attack. After reading this book, you will ask why not.
3 of 5 stars interesting, but no smoking gun, August 2, 2002
Reviewer: A reader from Washington D.C.
I bought this book anticipating a smoking gun connection between the 9/11 attacks and the Bush administration, and was somewhat disappointed when i didnt get one, but the book is fascinating nonetheless. it details a series of negotiations between the Bush administration (and the Clinton administration) with the Taliban in the hopes of stabilizing the government of Afghanistan enough to allow the construction of oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea across Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. fascinating that the American media has utterly neglected to make this connection in all of the post-9/11 reporting, and even today refers to this book only in a patronizing, "conspiracy theory" manner.
The book also addresses another matter that the U.S. media has touched on, but not explored in the detail it deserves: the role of the Saudi Arabian government in its widespread funding of international Islamic organizations with dubious intent. "forbidden truth" raises legitimate questions about what is really going on in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. government's dealings with that nation.
I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the recent history of the Middle East and the "war" on terrorism. it presents a very-well reported historical account of the role of oil in U.S. foreign policy, which is especially enlightening considering the pending U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Two complaints about the book: numerous typos and careless editing suggest this book was rushed to press; and it includes about 80 pages of appendices, including many supporting documents
that are difficult to discern.
nonetheless, read "forbidden truth" for another perspective on the "war" on terrorism.
5 of 5 stars A seminal piece of research on that tragic day in September, July 26, 2002
Reviewer: A reader from Washington, DC United States
Finally translated, this best-selling French book will provide Americans with an in-depth analysis of how our "friends" in Saudi Arabia have been the primary financiers of Islamic terrorism, reveals the last testimony of the FBI's top counter terrorism agent, and exposes the secret negotiations between the U.S. government and the Taliban and the Pakastanis in the months that led up to attacks on 9/11. Forbidden Truth represents three years of research by respected French intelligence experts, and it will fundamentally alter the public's perception of 9/11. I'll be blunt: this book is a political hand grenade that will make you inexplicably angry at the hypocrisy of our government and how the current administration entered into bellicose and dangerous negotiations with a rogue regime despite their continued harboring of an international terrorist.
Forbidden Truth methodically documents the names, dates and places of all the U.S. diplomats and those involved in pursuing high-risk Caspian Sea Pipeline negotiations with representatives of the Taliban regime and Pakistani government. These secret negotiations began on February 5, 2001 and collapsed on August 2, 2001 with the U.S. threatening the Taliban with a "military option." Meanwhile, despite FBI field agents like Rowley, Williams and others who were diligently "connecting the dots" on the 9/11 plot, both of the FBI's special units, the Radical Fundamentalist Unit and the UBL Unit in the FBI's Washington D.C. Head Quarters had become virtual "black holes" for investigations regarding Islamic terrorism. Unlike the preceding years, all FBI FISA warrant requests regarding investigations of terrorist suspects like the case of Moussaoui, the infamous "20th hijacker", were categorically denied by the DOJ during this crucial period. This was neither by accident nor the result of the so-called "intelligence bureaucracy"; it was the result of a tragic intelligence policy at the behest of the Bush administration.
This book opens with an interview of John P. O'Neill, the former FBI deputy Director of counter terrorism who complained bitterly that the FBI had become "even more politically engaged" after George W. Bush's inauguration, and the frustrations that he expressed in late July 2001 helps explain these seemingly disparate events. Based on the collaborating evidence and testimony provided by FBI agents and other intelligence sources it appears that the Bush administration implemented a high-level intelligence blocks with respect to investigations of Islamic terrorism in early 2001. Why did this administration block FBI Agents such as O'Neill and others from pursuing bin Laden? Answer: Saudi Arabia, their Taliban friends, and U.S. corporate oil interests. According to the authors, John O'Neill had become so frustrated under the Bush administration and the State Department's unprecedented blocks of his investigations regarding Osama bin Laden that he resigned from the FBI in August 2001. He became the chief of security of the WTC, and in an ironic and tragic turn of fate he died at the WTC on 9/11. Forbidden Truth is dedicated to this patriot, and serves as his last testimony.
Americans will soon realize that 9/11 was not an intelligence failure per se as claimed by this administration and subsequently reported by the media, but rather represents a foreign policy failure of truly epic proportions. This book exposes why the Bush administration strongly opposes the creation of a National Commission. Nonetheless, this administration will not be able to refute the damning research revealed in this book, nor will they be able withstand the inevitable scrutiny of history. Read this book only if you want to learn about the inability of both the Clinton and current Bush administrations to call Saudi Arabia to task for their continued funding of militant Islamic terrorism, the ugly truth about last year's secret and bellicose negotiations over pipelines, the State Department's flawed foreign policy towards the Taliban, and the fatal intelligence decisions regarding FBI investigations that ultimately facilitated the horrific tragedy that occurred on September 11, 2001.