received from a friend of a friend...
from the NY Times, which I couldn't bring myself to read....
****

Elite Saudis are "the Taliban in a luxurious setting" because they share their fanaticism, she says; and she says, "Don't ever think Saudis will be your friends . . . " Fascinating article.

Glenn

> -----------------------------------------------/
Saturday Profile: What's in Name? For a Saudi Insider, Everything

> February 7, 2004
> By MARLISE SIMONS

> PARIS - She has a name that in the West follows her like a
> bad odor, stopping immigration officials in their tracks,
> drawing frowns in banks and causing consternation when she
> simply introduces herself as Carmen bin Ladin. "People
> sometimes even look at me as if I'm joking," she said.
>
> Mrs. bin Ladin, who was born Carmen Dufour, to an Iranian
> mother and a Swiss father, acquired her name through love.
> It happened in 1974, when she married Yeslam bin Ladin, son
> of one of Saudi Arabia's richest men. (She uses her
> husband's spelling of the family name.) Soon after, she
> first met her new brother-in-law, Osama bin Laden.
>
> She does not claim to be an authority on her infamous
> brother-in-law, because, she said, she met "the tall man
> with a commanding presence" only a few times. But for 14
> years, she said, she was a member of one of the country's
> most secretive and powerful clans, observing its inner
> workings, its rigid social code, the quarrels among its
> members and, ultimately, its common front.
>
> She has now chronicled her Saudi life in "Inside the
> Kingdom," a book that has just been published in Europe. In
> France (Lafon), it shot straight onto the best-seller list.
> The English edition is to appear in London (Virago) in
> August.
>
> Mrs. bin Ladin, who is separated from her husband, calls
> the book an expurgated memoir because she has changed some
> royal names, withheld many details to spare the feelings of
> people she remains in touch with and, not least, she says,
> because she is still involved in a protracted divorce
> battle and a fight for her children's inheritance.
>
> But the book oozes frustration and anger and, it would
> seem, enough detail to upset much of her extended family
> and the Saudi elite. Mrs. bin Ladin tells tales about the
> envy among the clan's women and the squabbles and rivalry
> among the bin Laden brothers, about their ties with senior
> princes who grant contracts and expect kickbacks. Other
> "delicate subjects" as she calls them, in the book, include
> abortion, secret drug use and homosexual affairs among the
> bored, depressed or discarded wives of the upper crust.
>
> Despite its slow pace, the book makes a fiery case
> against what its author calls the oppression and fanaticism
> that dominates much of Saudi society. Her unabashed
> conclusion: "The Saudis are the Taliban, in luxury."
>
> Mrs. bin Ladin, a granddaughter of Persian aristocrats who
> was raised in wealth in Switzerland and Iran, comes across
> not as a warrior but as rather shy and vulnerable. She is
> in her late 40's, with heavy-lidded, warm green eyes.
> Settled on a sofa in a lakeside hotel in Geneva, not far
> from her villa, Mrs. bin Ladin smokes one ultrathin
> cigarette after another during the first of several
> interviews. Her clothes are tight, very tight, an antidote
> perhaps to the bulky black shrouds under which she had been
> forced to hide.
>
> She wrote the book to explain to her three daughters why
> she had to break with Saudi culture: she did not want to
> lose her children or see them turn into the "faceless and
> voiceless women I lived among." She wanted them to
> understand why their family rejected them, she says.
>
> As the conversation wove on, Mrs. bin Ladin revealed
> another strong motive: a kind of warning to the West
> against trusting "that self-assured, merciless culture."
>
> "I wanted to give a glimpse of how Saudi culture works on
> the inside, how their fanaticism works," she said. "They
> will not show an outsider their true face. To know them you
> have to be part of them."
>
> Repeated phone calls for comment to Mr. bin Ladin's office
> in Geneva were not returned. But his estranged wife now
> expects pressure from him, noting that this week she was
> informed of a hefty cut in her alimony, which she also uses
> to support the couple's children, Wafa, 26, Najia, 24, and
> Noor, 16.
>
> The fairy tale gone sour began in 1973 when she met Yeslam
> while he was vacationing in Geneva. The two fell in love,
> married and spent almost two years in California, where he
> studied business and she took English courses. In 1976,
> they settled in Jidda, headquarters of the mighty Binladin
> construction group.
>
> Mrs. bin Ladin's father-in-law, Muhammad bin Laden, an
> illiterate worker from Yemen who created the business, had
> already died. But Mrs. bin Ladin began to meet his
> offspring: 25 sons and 29 daughters, begotten with 22
> wives. Osama was just another brother, although more devout
> than most, Mrs. bin Ladin said. That changed in 1979, when
> the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and he joined the
> volunteers to fight Communism with the support of the Saudi
> government. "The family talked a lot about him then. They
> admired what he was doing, he became a hero," she said.
>
> She has met Osama bin Laden a few times. At their first
> encounter, Mrs. bin Ladin was at home, in Jidda, when he
> came by looking for his brother, Yeslam. As soon as her
> brother-in-law saw her, she recalled, he turned his head
> and angrily waved her away. "My face was not covered by a
> veil," she said. "He couldn't bear it and walked off."
>
> Other relatives knew how stern and ostensibly pious he was,
> she continued. Once, during an outing to a family country
> home, she said, "Osama and his wife Najwah were there."
> Their infant son, Abdallah, was practically dehydrated in
> the 100 degree heat and the baby was howling, too small to
> take water by spoon.
>
> But he could not be given water from a bottle because
> "Osama had some dogmatic idea about not allowing the baby a
> rubber teat," said Mrs. bin Ladin, who protested. "The
> child's mother, the grandmother and none of the other women
> dared to intervene."
>
> To find some respite in her stultifying world among women
> who "did nothing, read nothing, and were like pets kept by
> their husbands," she organized weekly dinner parties,
> attended by diplomats and Western and Arab businessmen.
>
> "After everyone left, the Saudis would stay behind and take
> off their masks," she said. They would gloat about their
> oil power, she said, and talk about their concerns, "not
> about human rights or democracy but about how to retain
> their power over Europe and the United States."
>
> The book dwells at length on women's lives, "like being
> under an anesthetic," she writes. Although women may not
> travel without permission from a man, those who can afford
> to, do. They fake illnesses and say they must travel abroad
> for treatment. "There exists an underground women's network
> to trade passports and permissions," she writes.
>
> Over a salad lunch, she talked of the bin Laden brothers,
> who, she said, to the outside world presented a united
> front but constantly bickered, undercut one another and
> shifted allegiances. Each brother, she said, would
> cultivate personal and business ties with members of the
> royal family.
>
> The couple moved to Geneva in 1985, she said, because she
> could no longer stand the oppression of Saudi society and
> its "decadence." "Yeslam could not bear to continue the
> struggles with Bakr," the head of the clan.
>
> In 1988, the couple separated, because, she said, "Yeslam
> was seeing other women." She said she decided not to change
> her name, "because it is also my daughters' name and
> because we have nothing to hide." The name, she said, "will
> follow us anyway."
>
> As for her crusading brother-in-law, Mrs. bin Ladin said,
> she has reason to believe he or his family still receive a
> portion of the company's enormous dividends. Osama bin
> Laden now has four wives and 16 children, she said.
>
> "I'm sure he is still alive," she said. "Knowing the family
> clan, they would make it known if he was not, to take the
> pressure off. They have to live with the stigma."