The New Republic
Freeh Fall by Michael Crowley
A former FBI director and his princely benefactor.
Post Date Wednesday, May 06, 2009
During his tenure as FBI director, Louis J. Freeh struggled to raise a family of eight on a government salary. By the time he stepped down in 2001, his house was heavily mortgaged and he could be seen flying in coach class. Since leaving the Bureau, however, Freeh has earned a handsome salary. He first spent several years as a top lawyer for the credit-card giant mbna before opening his own firm in 2007, Freeh Group International, which bills itself as "a global consulting enterprise," specializing in advising a "select" group of (mostly undisclosed) clients on the niceties of international accounting and anti-corruption laws.
In the grand scheme of post-government careers, this might not seem so extraordinary were it not for one remarkable member of Freeh's "select" clients: Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States. Currently accused of illegally siphoning as much as $2 billion from a Saudi-British arms deal, Bandar has hired Freeh as his lawyer.
The two are an unlikely pair. Freeh is a character from the Untouchables--an altar boy from New Jersey. Bandar is a large-living billionaire and an ex- fighter pilot. He is also a Washington legend: a friend to multiple presidents, CIA directors, and media giants, as well as a renowned broker of Middle Eastern realpolitik. Bandar's adult life has been about moving in the shadows. Freeh's has been about shining a light into the shadows. The story of how the G-man and the prince came to be friends and then business associates is a story about terrorism, politics, money--and hidden Washington machinations.
Our heartwarming tale of friendship begins in terror. On June 25, 1996, a truck bomb exploded outside the Khobar Towers complex housing U.S. military personnel in Saudi Arabia. The attack killed 19 U.S. soldiers and wounded 372. Dispatching hundreds of his agents to Saudi Arabia, Freeh took an almost fanatical personal stake in the case, meeting for hours with the families of the slain soldiers near a scale model of the devastated building, complete with faux bomb crater. "The meetings lasted three days, and I was there for every moment of them and every meal: morning, noon and night," Freeh recalled in his 2005 memoir, My FBI.
But Freeh quickly grew frustrated with the Saudis' refusal to grant his men full access to several arrested suspects, and arranged a meeting with Bandar, the one Saudi official he knew, albeit faintly. From the start, Freeh was keen to develop a relationship. "I had come alone," he wrote, "because I felt the more the prince and I could put matters on a personal footing, the greater progress we would make, now and in the future." Bandar pledged to cooperate.
And Freeh left the meeting a little smitten. His memoir introduces the ambassador-prince as a man "who lives at the crest of diplomatic and political society," and "practically has his own key to the Oval Office." His parties were "legendary" and his political analysis "excellent." A friendship soon blossomed. Bandar would drop by Freeh's office, where he alone was permitted to smoke cigars. Freeh, in turn, would visit Bandar at his McLean, Virginia compound, which featured a 38-room home and a 12-bedroom dormitory for staff. On visits to the kingdom, Freeh would dine with the royals. At one dinner in Riyadh, Freeh recalls how "the elegant Saudi ambassador"--that would be Bandar-- "reached his well-manicured hand into a roast baby camel's rump, drew out a fistful of meat, and deposited it on my plate--a great honor."
more...
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=702491d9-814e-4aad-9d9d-62031bfa31ec
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