Why Is It Again..

That we allow this?:

Prince Bandar once told associates that he is very careful to look after U.S. government officials when they return to private life. "If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office," Bandar has observed, according to a source cited in The Washington Post, "you'd be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office". Practically every deal with the Saudis eventually becomes hard to trace, lost in some desert sandstorm back near the wellheads where the money sprang from in the first place. Many of Washington's lobbyists, PR firms, and lawyers live off Saudi money. Just about every Washington think tank has taken it. So have the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Children's National Medical Center, and every presidential library built in the past thirty years.

[Emphasis added.] Sorry folks, but when you go read the article (as you absolutely must) you will find both Demos and Repubs on the graft list. But let's just spend all our time carping about Cheney shall we? Ugghhh -- the simplisme...

This is an Atlantic Monthly excerpt from Robert Baer's new book "Sleeping With The Devil". AND IT JUST GOT ADDED TO THE "Classics" LINKS OVER ON THE RIGHT.