A book investigating links between rich Saudis and US politicians has been suppressed by the giant publishing firm Random House because, it says, of growing "libel tourism" by wealthy foreigners, and exorbitant legal "success fees."
Libel lawyers are stifling free speech, the deputy chairman of Random House, Simon Masters, said last Wednesday.
The UK publication of House of Bush, House of Saud, by the American writer Craig Unger, has been cancelled because Secker and Warburg, a Random House subsidiary, says it can no longer afford such risks.
The book focuses in part on the activities of a Jeddah-based Saudi billionaire, Khalid bin Mahfouz, who has been engaged in a war of words in the US, where there have been public accusations by officials linking him and others to funding received by Osama bin Laden.
Unger collates links between Bin Mahfouz and Islamist fundamentalists. But the new dimension of his research is that he also analyses the Texas business links between the Bush circle and the families of Bin Mahfouz and other rich Saudis.
Unger's thesis is that the eagerness of US politicians to tap into Saudi money over the years may have compromised Bush's determination to fight terrorism: "Never before has an American president been so closely tied to a foreign power that harbors and supports our country's mortal enemies."
How far Unger's thesis is credible is something that the US reading public will be able to decide for themselves. The book is becoming a bestseller in US election year. In Britain, however, the deputy chairman of Random House denied that the decision to suppress it was "pusillanimity or unnecessary self-censorship".
Masters said UK libel laws were ludicrous and had been made worse by a recent judgment won by a wealthy Saudi wrongly accused of terrorist funding links, in which the defense of public interest had been thrown out.
"Forum shopping'' by wealthy foreigners attracted to Britain's draconian libel laws was made worse, he said, by "the willingness of some law firms to take cases on a no-win no-fee basis. The firms who take on such clients will if successful, present hugely inflated bills, the costs of which can be awarded against the defendant in addition to any damages".
He called this system disgraceful. A libel fight was immensely time-consuming and potentially hugely expensive -- "vastly more than the publisher could hope to earn from the book''.
The UK libel system, he said is "stifling legitimate freedom of speech".
Mahfouz's UK lawyers, Kendall Freeman, said on Wednesday that their client "has had no choice in the past but to issue libel proceedings to protect his reputation in this country.''
They added: "We do not comment on the particular fee arrangements we have with our clients.''
Bin Mahfouz, who inherited his vast wealth from his banker father, has issued a sheaf of UK libel writs to successfully obtain retractions and damages for them. He says that he and his family abhor terrorism, and were horrified by the Sept. 11 attacks.
The links with Texas politicians began in the 1970s, according to Unger. He says a businessman, Jim Bath, acted as local partner both for Bin Mahfouz, and his close friend Salem bin Laden.
Both young men were heirs to family fortunes. Bin Laden was also the eldest brother of Osama bin Laden, who was many years later to turn into the world's most reviled terrorist.
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