To cspan2 on november 19. Next, roz chast, cant we talk about something more pleasant of down with booktv at Pepperdine University to discuss her book on saudi arabia. In the book she provides an inside look at the history and culture and politics of saudi arabia, which he has covered as a reporter for 30 years. This interview is a part of booktv college series. Now joining us is Karen Elliott house. She has written a book about saudi arabia, she has reported on our country for years and years. And before we get into this on your book on saudi arabia. , how did you become publisher of the wall street journal . I went from matador, texas, population 900 to the university of texas in austin from their to the Dallas Morning News for one year covering education for their Washington Bureau and i got hired there by the wall street journal. And i was a reporter and ultimately a Foreign Editor and president of the International Operations and then publisher of the wall street journal. Host how
Guest im actually teaching a course out here in the school of Public Policy on saudi arabia, a subject about which i wrote the book, and they invited me to teach, and i have never actually taught. But it was great fun. The semester is coming to a close here pretty soon, but it was a lot of fun. Host what did you learn as a teacher there your students . Be from your students . Guest they ask things, they clearly have a, you know, a perspective i dont have since im three times their age. [laughter] so, you know, thats probably the most interesting thing, just seeing what young people are interested in and the way they look at something. Host whens the first time you went to saudi arabia . Guest 1978. When i became Diplomatic Correspondent for the wall street journal. I had never been to the middle east, and sadat had just been to jerusalem, so that was, the middle east was kind of the hottest, even more than the soviet Union Foreign policy issue. So i bought myself an excursion ticket fo
So they didnt know they were used to working with this systems in must heavier gravity how these fluid would settle down and stay settled. This is thunder concern. So buzz is there playing like a piano to get everything settled; and it worked out better than they anticipated because they told us a big lie. They said, when they first land we are going to give them fourhour rest and sleep period. And i said, you go all that way and touch down on the first place other than earth, you want to get the hell on the moon as soon as you can and grab at least a handful of dirt, and when i told neil that, he laughed and said youre absolutely right. We wanted to get out host but the sleep period was large lay planning. Guest to keep the press from speculating on, theyve got problems here and this and that and playing up these stories. Thats why they used that ruse. I did a story about what you didnt know about the map walk in 2008 or township, and we put it on msnbc. Com. Two million hits. Still a
So how the family handles that i think will be very congregated at a time when externally and internally theres a lot of pressure on them. Karen elliott house, was the Saudi Arabian role in their neighborhood . Well, they like to think its a big one, but the saudis into, i like to say they have one policy at its insurance policy, and they take it out with everyone. They prefer to try to use money to solve problems. They are, aside from iran, kind of the only other major power on the gulf, and the u. S. Obviously has had a longtime relationship with them, and saudi arabia is now the fourth largest, fourth biggest defense spender in the world after the u. S. , china and russia. It doesnt mean they are the fourth Largest Military power, but they are the fourth biggest spender. So they seek to have influence, but its more a quiet influence, in my view. They do not they did send troops into bahrain this year to try or two years ago, to try to keep a sunni minority government in power over a
A fourth defendant has been charged in connection with an apparent major Customs fraud. Customs officer Jeanette Browne is the latest person implicated in an alleged racket in which millions of dollars in government revenue were reportedly fleeced from the Customs and Excise Division. Browne was arrested on Thursday after…