Two years ago, my brother, Prince
Ahmed bin Salman, fulfilled his
lifelong dream when he won the
Kentucky Derby with his horse,
War Emblem. My brother had transcended
cultures to reach the pinnacle
of success in a sporting event
that is as quintessentially American
as the Super Bowl. Sadly, Prince
Ahmed passed away in 2002 so he
will not have the chance to compete
in the 130th Kentucky Derby.
While Prince Ahmed’s family
and friends continue to mourn
his passing, we cannot help but
feel a sense of relief that he
is not here to see how his name
has been tainted in the very country
he considered his second home.
Last fall, Random House published
a book called “Why America
Slept,” which in short order
became a bestseller. Among the many
sensational claims in the book,
author Gerald Posner, citing two
“unnamed” U.S. government
sources, made an outrageous, unsubstantiated
allegation in his book that will,
sadly, forever be a part of the
memory of Prince Ahmed.
And this past month, another book
has hit the
New York Times nonfiction
bestseller list that reiterates
the conspiracy theory first raised
by Posner. The new book, “House
of Bush, House of Saud,” by
Craig Unger, does contain a footnote
stating that Posner’s theory
is “quite controversial.”
But such a weak disclaimer, if that
is what the author intended it to
be, hardly excuses him from perpetuating
a lie.
According to Posner’s conspiracy
theory, a top Al-Qaeda operative
captured and interrogated by the
CIA supposedly implicated four members
of the Saudi royal family and a
Pakistani Air Force colonel as having
foreknowledge of the September 11
attacks and of supporting Osama
bin Laden. Posner, through his unnamed
sources, alleges that one of the
princes fingered by the operative
was none other than my brother,
Prince Ahmed.
Conspiracies thrive in the popular
imagination because they rely on
hearsay and conjecture and by connecting
a series of dots that on the surface
seem plausible. But things are not
always as they appear.
Several current U.S. government
officials have dismissed the story.
Even the former head of the CIA’s
counter-terrorism unit, Vince Cannistraro,
has publicly questioned the veracity
of Posner’s conspiratorial
claims and indicated that other,
more reliable intelligence contradicts
Posner.
Mr. Cannistraro, a respected 27-year
veteran of the agency, has suggested
that Posner was used by the government
sources that contacted him. These
sources, whom Posner has refused
to identify, may have simply been
using him to drive a wedge in an
already fragile US-Saudi relationship.
