THE CALIPH INTRIGUE

Farfetched melodrama, with the standard mix these days--oil, Arabs, and CIA. Senator Haverhill of California is leading a small subcommittee to investigate our oil resources management, but he's really out to expose the rampant spread of Arab financial investments in the States. His chief target: charismatic religious leader Kasmin Khelil, a descendant of Mohammed who (after having some visions in the desert) is now recognized by all Arab states as the lone Caliph of Islam and who plans to take over America--not by money alone but also through infusions of Arabic culture. Unable to get at the Caliph himself, Senator Haverhill's subcommittee goes after the Caliph's best friend, Ben Partridge, an oil broker from California who has become wealthy by handling Khelil's accounts in the States. But then Haverhill's daughter is temporarily kidnapped as a warning; Partridge's girlfriend (incidentally a Russian agent, as he well knows) is never seen again; and a subcommittee lawyer (who is also an enemy agent) is found mysteriously hung in a phony suicide. Fairly low-key and subtle for this kind of skulduggery, the violent action somewhat muted by the Caliph's cultural effusions.