THE SAUDIS CONTINUE to generate what for them is unwanted news. The urgency for Americans is to place the news in context, and toward that end there is no better guide than Stephen Schwartz, author of the new book “The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Saud from Tradition to Terror.”

Consider, for example, the story about Princess Haifa al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States. Starting in 1998, the princess gave thousands of dollars to a Jordanian woman living in San Diego whom she said had asked for help with medical bills. The woman endorsed the checks to her husband, a Saudi national, who then gave some of the money to another Saudi living in the area. That man, Omar Ahmed al-Bayoumi, helped two new arrivals to San Diego, also Saudis, rent an apartment. Both were September 11 hijackers. Al-Bayoumi has since left the United States and is thought to be living in Saudi Arabia.