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The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
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The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
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The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
Audiobook17 hours

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

Written by Lawrence Wright

Narrated by Alan Sklar

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright's remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States.



The Looming Tower achieves an unprecedented level of intimacy and insight by telling the story through the interweaving lives of four men: the two leaders of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri; the FBI's counterterrorism chief, John O'Neill; and the former head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turki al-Faisal.



As these lives unfold, we see revealed: the crosscurrents of modern Islam that helped to radicalize Zawahiri and bin Laden . . . the birth of al-Qaeda and its unsteady development into an organization capable of the American embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the attack on the USS Cole . . . O'Neill's heroic efforts to track al-Qaeda before 9/11, and his tragic death in the World Trade towers . . . Prince Turki's transformation from bin Laden's ally to his enemy . . . the failures of the FBI, CIA, and NSA to share intelligence that might have prevented the 9/11 attacks.



The Looming Tower broadens and deepens our knowledge of these signal events by taking us behind the scenes. Here is Sayyid Qutb, founder of the modern Islamist movement, lonely and despairing as he meets Western culture up close in 1940s America; the privileged childhoods of bin Laden and Zawahiri; family life in the al-Qaeda compounds of Sudan and Afghanistan; O'Neill's high-wire act in balancing his all-consuming career with his equally entangling personal life-he was living with three women, each of them unaware of the others' existence-and the nitty-gritty of turf battles among U.S. intelligence agencies.



Brilliantly conceived and written, The Looming Tower draws all elements of the story into a galvanizing narrative that adds immeasurably to our understanding of how we arrived at September 11, 2001. The richness of its new information, and the depth of its perceptions, can help us deal more wisely and effectively with the continuing terrorist threat.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherTantor Audio
Release dateOct 11, 2006
ISBN9781400173051
Unavailable
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
Author

Lawrence Wright

Lawrence Wright is a staff writer for The New Yorker and a fellow at the Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law. The author of six works of nonfiction, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, he lives in Austin, Texas.

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    "Wherever you are, death will find you, even in the looming tower."
    -The Qu'ran, Sura 4:78

    Hiraba (حفEرابة), the Arabic word for terror, piracy, or unlawful warfare. To be punished with the strictest penalties.

    SEE the young men in their white tunics go out, and charge from the trenches against Soviet tanks, and the suited FBI and CIA men squabble on matters of 'jurisdiction' and 'sensitive information', and self-appointed holy men and saviors meditate in caves on how to save the words of prophets, and their followers drink in action movies and dream of being holy
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I would need to read this twice to let everything really sink in; to Americans, this book presents the same problem with names that Crime and Punishment does. More so, because of all the aliases.



    It contains a quick history of al Qaeda that places it in its context of 60 years of radical Islamic fundamentalist thought, from World War II up to the days immediately after the September 11 attacks. Thoroughly researched and footnoted, this is an essential reference to understanding the nightly news.



    This book also explains, much more clearly than the 9/11 Commission Report did, exactly how the United States law enforcement and intelligence communities missed all the signs that an attack was coming. We had people in the FBI who were motivated and capable of stopping the attack, but they didn't have crucial information at a critical time -- information that the CIA had. but wouldn't share because of bureaucratic infighting and misinterpreted rules. Infuriating.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Looming Tower (2006) has won so many awards it appears to be the defacto account of the events that lead to 9/11. The sequence of events is complex and I probably won't remember much of it over time, but I did learn a little about the Islamist movement and how they see the world, a rejection of modernity, extreme reactionaries. Wright places a ton of blame with the CIA however I understand there have been more recent books that tell a different story, so who to blame (if anyone) is still being worked out. Like most people, I was moved by the story of John O’Neill, the foil of bin Laden and the martyr for America's sin of too much bureaucracy. I also have a better understanding of Ayman al-Zawari, the tortured doctor from Cairo who is still alive and operating; and Sayyid Qutb, whose manifesto, Milestones, is what motivated so many to take up arms against the west.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Well-paced, well-told story of some of the key players and events leading up to the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Excellent reporting and a great example of why journalism is the "first draft" of History. The book also confirmed my long ago notion that the entire leadership of the United States' intelligence apparatus ought to have tendered their resignations within days due to their catastrophic failures, esp. CIA director Tenet and FBI director Freeh.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a fascinating, riveting account that crosses five decades and several countries to tell the story of "the growth of Islamic Fundamentalism, the rise of Al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated" in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I first ran across this title when reading a column by a conservative, Hugh Hewitt, praising it as a "good and important book." What particularly intrigued me is that the writer, Lawrence Wright, was described as a liberal. When you have a book that crosses political divides like that, I pay attention. Looking the book up I learned it was both a popular bestseller and critically praised--a Pulitzer Prize winner. And that Wright had personally spent time in the Middle East, including "two years teaching at the American University in Cairo, Egypt." At the back of the book there are not only extensive notes and a bibliography, but a list of over five hundred people Wright personally interviewed for the book.I thought I knew this story, but this had lots of details I didn't know and drew connections and included insights that after all I've read still seemed fresh. For instance, I had never heard of Sayyid Qutb, whose manifesto, Milestones, Wright compares to Lenin's "What Is To Be Done?" in terms of its influence on Islamic Fundamentalism. Qutb was one of the founders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt we've been hearing so much about since the Arab Spring. He spent years in the United States--which he hated for its modernity, its freedom. Almost as much as he hated the newly established Israel. His definition of religious freedom? It would come when Sharia (Islamic law) was imposed worldwide because as Wright put it then "there would be no compulsion in religion because there would be only one choice: Islam." Those are threads that run and again and again through this book. Egypt also produced Ayman al-Zawari who together with Osama bin Ladin of Saudi Arabia founded Al-Qaeda. Saudi Arabia is a country with a monarchy that ties their regime to the fundamentalist Wahhabi sect and allows muttawas (religious police) to patrol the streets with the power to flog women who show a strand of hair peeking out from their head scarf. Wright claims the "vector of these two forces, one Egyptian and one Saudi" would result in Al-Qaeda. Another factor in the rise of Al-Qaeda according to Wright was the use of torture, particularly by the Egyptians. The key to torture, Wright wrote, is humiliation--a humiliation which breeds rage, radicalized the victims and filled them with a passion for revenge. And well before 9/11, America would use surrogates such as Egypt to conduct such illicit interrogations while they kept their hands clean. Wright further noted that "The usual object of terror is to draw one's opponent into repressive blunders." Bin Laden wanted the 9/11 attacks to result in the invasion of Afghanistan--he hoped it would draw us into a war that would destroy our international power--even our country--in the same way it had destroyed the Soviets. Not that it turned out the way he planed--nor do I feel we had much choice with the Taliban harboring the man responsible for thousands of American deaths. But those are sobering aspects of this tale when we consider that in invading Afghanistan and Iraq, cracking down on civil liberties at home and using torture, America has fallen precisely into the trap Bin Laden laid for us. I was also struck anew by the colossal waste of life and talent caused by groups such as Al-Qaeda--not simply from the 9/11 attacks, but all the damage it has done right in Muslim countries and toll its taken in Muslim lives. Hewitt is right--this is a good and important book anyone wanting to come to grips with Islamic Fundamentalism and terrorism and the world 9/11 created should read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an awesome book that puts 9/11 in a more personal light. It made members of both Al-Qaeda and the FBI more accessible. Wright makes the story of 9/11 read like a novel. It is gripping and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to better understand the Islamic movements as well as bureaucratic miscues that led to that tragic day.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very impressive amount of research went into this book. A really good overview of the events leading up to 9/11. It gives you an in-depth look at the many different people and organizations involved in the planning of the World Trade Center bombings, a glimpse of the many different Islamic organizations and some of their different perspectives of how they believed the Quran should be interpreted, and how some of these groups finally came together to form al-Qaeda. Over 200 interviews were conducted for this book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Listening to Fresh Air on NPR a few weeks ago, I was lucky to have caught Terry Gross interview Lawrence Wright about the HBO documentary based on his interviews with jihadis and mujaheddin he undertook in order to write "Looming Tower". Struck by the duplicity he had to overcome as an interviewer--of his emotions tied to the subject, of the difficulties in dealing with deceptive individuals--I figured this was must-read material and I wasn't disappointed.Wright begins the story of jihad with the Egyptian father of jihad, Sayyid Qutb, whose writings form the basis of many arguments leveled against a secular civilization and strives for a fundamental Islamic society. Following the thread born by the brutal repression of the Egyptian fundamentalists, Wright takes us up to the point where al-Qaeda realizes its (literal) dreams to attack American ideals by destroying the WTC and dragging the country into the quagmire of Afghanistan. It was an enlightening story that's terribly haunting by casting light on the repeated errors made by the CIA, which shielded information that could have diverted the attacks.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was very impressed with the amount of research that went into this book. If you want a really good overview of the events leading up to 9/11, this is definitely the book to read. It gives you an in-depth look at the many different people and organizations involved in the planning of the World Trade Center bombings, a glimpse of the many different Islamic organizations and some of their different perspectives of how they believed the Quran should be interpreted, and how some of these groups finally came together to form al-Qaeda. With the over 200 interviews which were conducted, you get a look at some of these different perspectives. I don't think there is any one person who can give a complete picture of the events leading to 9/11, but Lawrence Wright did a wonderful and impressive job putting this book together.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The best chronology of historical events leading up to the attack on the United States on 911. The author covers all the bases without an agenda and allows the reader to make their own conclusions. A must read for everyone. If you've read a better history of 911 send me a note.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A powerful review of the rise of Fundamentalist Islam and how that movement led to Al-Qaida and Bin Laden. It doesn't try to place the blame on one person, rather it shows how it happened..
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A well-researched journey of Al Qaeda, from the industrial beginnings of the Bin Laden clan to the fanatical religiosity that found an audience in Afghanistan.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent book on history of Osama bin Laden, the origins of al-Qaeda, and events leading to 9/11 attacks. Wright provides important details without dragging down the narrative with too many governmental and military acronyms. The book's focus switches between actions of American agencies investigating terrorism and those of al-Qaeda operatives.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I cannot find enough good things to say about Lawrence Wright's utterly gripping The Looming Tower. Wright succeeds in tracing out and making real the unreal: that is, he recounts, in a clear and compelling way, the roots, development and implementation of the 9/11 atrocity by telling the stories of the men who did it. Wright's ability to select the right amount of detail is extraordinary; this book could easily have been shallow and glib, or a laborious slog, but it is decisively neither. He also succeeds admirably in conveying how alien and pitiless the ideology that drove Osama bin Laden and his co-conspirators really is. This book should be read by every American, and indeed by everyone who wants to start to learn the truth about global terror.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I took away from this book a new picture of terrorists, finding out terrorists are generally well educated and are not always deeply religious. This is surprising. They all seem, however, to be expatriots, living away from the countries of their ancestors. What else? Bin Laden’s father was blinded by a teacher at school; after the incident, his father never returned to school and was illiterate for his entire life. O’Neill, one of the senior figures at the FBI who was in search for Bin Laden, left the agency on August 22 and reported to his new job, head of security for the Twin Towers. He was on the job on September 11 and was killed. I never quite figured out what motivated the terrorists. But most used the text of a book written many hundreds of years after the Koran as their basis for action. The Koran itself states explicitly that suicide will result in a trip to Hell. Murder in the Koran is prohibited. The terrorists, thus, are not following the Koran, but those who have interpreted and elaborated on it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this book back in 2006 soon after it was published. I recently came across the following short review of it on my PageADay calendar and decided that it was worthy of adding to my Goodreads.com page.This is possibly the one book to read about extreme Islamic terrorism. Lawrence Wright’s research is exhaustive, and he has written a gripping, character-driven narrative that completely absorbs the reader. The book has won critical raves from every quarter. Dexter Filkins wrote in The New York Times Book Review that “the portrait of John O’Neill, the driven, demon-ridden F.B.I. agent who worked so frantically to stop Osama bin Laden, only to perish in the attack on the World Trade Center, is worth the price of the book alone. ‘The Looming Tower’ is a thriller. And it’s a tragedy, too.”THE LOOMING TOWER: AL-QAEDA AND THE ROAD TO 9/11, by Lawrence Wright (Knopf, 2006)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I just finished this book for class and I must say it is an excellent read. I have never been terribly interested in studying the Middle East or learning more about those responsible for 9/11, but Lawrence made the subject interested and I couldn't put the book down. Even though I remember the exact moment I watched the Twin Towers fall, it never truly effected me consciously. The last few chapters of Wright's book made me want to cry with frustration and anger. This book definitely makes you question and despise the CIA for blocking all efforts to try and prevent 9/11. That is one thing I could critique about the book - it is very bent against the CIA, ad while it can be said that they really were responsible for a lot of important information not going where it needed to be, it's sure to infuriate those who potentially see more subjectivity than objectivity. In any event, I recommend that everyone should read this book - it's eye-opening.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright is a multi-award winning account of the people and events behind the September 11, 2001 hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The book lives up to its publicity and deserves the awards. It's one of the best pieces of recent history I've read.While thoroughly researched, The Looming Tower is written in straightforward prose that reads almost like a spy thriller--if only it were simply that. Mr. Wright has interviewed just about everyone with any connection to the terrorists and the government agents who hunted them and he has read all there is to read about them as well. The result of his research is a fascinating, page turning, in-depth account that will add to the understanding of all but the most expert readers. Take, for instance, this paragraph explaining why so many young Muslim men were willing to become martyrs:The lure of an illustrious and meaningful death was especially powerful in cases where the pleasures and rewards of life were crushed by government oppression and economic deprivation. From Iraq to Morrocco, Arab governments had stifled freedom and signally failed to create wealth at the very time when democracy and personal income were sharply climbing in virtually all other parts of the globe. Saudi Arabia, the richest of the lot, was such a notoriously unproductive country that the extraordinary abundance of petroleum had failed to generate any other significant source of income; indeed, if one subtract the oil revenue of the Gulf countries, 260 million Arabs exported less than the 5 million Finns. Radicalism usually prospers in the gap between rising expectation and declining opportunities. This is especaily true where the population is young, idle, and bored; where the art is impoverished; where entertainment--movies, theatre, music--is policed or absent altogether; and where young men are set apart from the consoling and socializing presence of women. Adult illiteracy remained the norm in many Arab countries. Unemployment was among the highest in the developing world. Anger, resentment, and humiliation spurred young Arabs to search for dramatic remedies.This situation led many young people to actively seek the "glorious death" martyrdom promised. This desire only increased after the crack-downs which followed early attacks in Egypt, such as the assassination of Anwar Sadat. The men charged and imprisoned for this crime were severely tortured by the Egyptian government which only served to radicalise them and their followers even further and led to increased growth of fundamentalist terror movements in Egypt. One of these men was Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri the leader of al-Jihad movement in Egypt and later the ideological leader of al-Queda. At one point the Egyptian government forced two young boys, both sons of members of the al-Jihad movement, to turn against their fathers and attempt to plant a bomb in the home of Dr. Zawahiri. (That this was done by photographing the boys while raping them and then threatening to show the photographs to their fathers indicts both the government of Egypt and fundamentalist Islam which would subject the boys to the death penalty for their "crime.") The plot failed and the boys were executed but Zawahiri's movement was left in shambles.Zawahiri had few resources remaining other than bin Laden's backing. He was determined to strike back quickly against the Egyptian authorities in order to redeem his reputation and keep the remnants of his organization intact. His views had undergone a powerful shift from those of the young man who spurned revolution because it was too bloody. He now believed that only violence changed history. In striking the enemy, he would create a new reality. His strategy was to force the Egyptian regime to become even more repressive, to make the people hate it. In this he succeeded. But the Egyptian people did not turn to him or to his movement. They only became more miserable, more disenchanted, frightened, and despairing. In the game Zawahiri had begun, however, revenge was essential, it was the game itself.And the focus of the attacks shifted from the government to people in general. The goal soon became to kills as many as possible with no real regard to who the victems were. It is no coincidence that many of the 9/11 hijackers came from Egypt. Mr. Wright does an excellent job of clearly explaining the roots of al-Qaeda, beginning with revolutionary intellectual movements in Egypt in the 1950's. Mr. Wright presents a comprehensive biography of the key players in al-Qaeda, namely Zawahiri and bin Laden. Whle Mr. Wright makes no effort to paint these men as monsters, as the book progresses they become them, at least as far as I'm concerned. The form of Islam that they embrace is so extreme one wonders how anyone could be attracted to it. Then they themselves begin to make it even more extreme by finding in it the justification for killing innocent people including families and children, even fellow Muslims. I was reminded of the justifications Christians came up with during the 4th crusade to make it acceptable for them to attack and kill other Christians. There is, unfortunately, nothing new under the sun.While most of The Looming Tower is about the development of al-Qaeda and bin Laden, Mr. Wright does present the law enforcement side of the story. The F.B.I and the C.I.A. were both very late to the party. Fundamentalist Islamic terrorists didn't make it onto the radar screens of either group until rather late in the game and not enough people at either agency took al-Qaeda seriously enough until September 12, 2001. One man who did was John O'Neill at the F.B.I. Mr. O'Neill and a handful of other agents doggedly pursued anti-terror investigations only to be thwarted by the C.I.A. which withheld information they wanted kept secret as a means of gaining further intelligence. Mr. Wright lays out the details here and makes a good case for the argument that had these two agencies cooperated, namely had the C.I.A. given the F.B.I. the information they requested, the 9/11 attacks could very likely have been prevented. Mr. O'Neill retired in early September 2001 and began a new job with security at the World Trade Center. He was killed when the towers collapsed. The Looming Tower ends with the September 11 attacks which makes for an oddly unsatisfactory finish. I wanted to know more. Mr. Wright explains how al-Qaeda and bin Laden ended up in Afghanistan under the Taliban but he does not develop this material enough to explain why the United States felt justified invading that country. These events happened afterwards, true, and are therefore material for another day, but it remained a nagging question in a book that provided so many answers. I do not know if Mr. Wright is planning a second volume. If he is, it will certainly find a place on my TBR shelf.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I guess this is stuff I should know, but I'm reluctant to know it. Certainly it helps me understand Muslim extremism. It does not help me to love my extremeist Muslim brothers, though . . . far from it. Exhaustively researched, well written, can't-put-it-down reading . . . but you want to join the Crusades afterward.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Lawrence Wright, a regular contributor to The New Yorker, provides an immensely instructive history of the development of al-Qaeda. The book begins with a fascinating chapter on Sayyid Qutb, I daresay not a name on the tip of most American tongues, but a man whose writing provided the basis for the future Islamist movement. Wright focuses mainly on providing the factual context and he has some stunning material. The book has about 40 pages of endnotes, a lengthy bibliography, and a list of hundreds of interview subjects. He got an amazing array of people to talk openly about pretty sensitive stuff. According to Wright, Bin Laden was never as wealthy as he is often portrayed (it measured in the millions not hundreds of millions) and was essentially destitute by the time he was booted out of the Sudan. Bin Laden created a myth that blew out of all proportion his role and the role of the so-called Arab Afghans in the Afghan war against the Soviets. Regarding the 'why', while this question is not Wright's focus, a picture emerges that while they don't quite 'hate us because of our freedom' the radical Islamists do indeed despise Western materialism and cultural modernity. They have declared jihad (and I don't mean in the self-improving sense of jihad) on non-Muslims. Their arrogance even extends to declaring 'takfir' on other Muslims as 'kafir' - basically drumming these other Muslims out of the religion and declaring them apostates. More specifically, Bin Laden was also driven nearly mad by the presence of US forces in the sacred lands of Islam. Roughly the last third of the book concentrates on US intelligence efforts particularly John O'Neill, the flawed one-time leader of the FBI's counter-terrorism unit. (O'Neill retired in August 2001 and became security director at the World Trade Center - he died on 9/11). Could 9/11 have been prevented by providing more resources to counter-terrosim, by better cooperation and less personal and institutional antagonism between the CIA and FBI? Wright suggests that this may indeed have been the case. However, he also makes it clear that bin Laden was intent on provoking a violent response that would drag the US into an extended war in the Middle East (he had Afghanistan in mind). Bin Laden was disappointed when the attacks on the US Embassies in Africa and then the attack on the USS Cole did not bring the anticipated war. As long as his organization functioned he was going to attempt greater and greater attacks on the US. Absolutely the highest recommendation.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is astounding. A must-read for anyone interested in the background of Osama Bin Ladin and/or the rise of of Al-Qaeda. It also shows in intimate details the role of the U.S. government's intelligence agencies before and after 9/11. The book is written almost like a novel in the sense that you feel you are reading a story with lots of rich details and perspectives of the various people that make an appearance. I don't read a lot of nonfiction and I had to read this for a history class, but I was fascinated by the information and details that gave such amazing insight into the complicated problems that are caused by ideas, ideology, outside interference, and the people that get caught up in those things. The book is kind of written in two parts-the first half being the rise of Al-Qaeda, and then the second following the U.S. intelligence community. You don't have to read the whole part of either to get a good sense of how complicated the lives and events surrounding both sides are. Another good thing is that you don't even really feel the presence of the author in his writing-he does a fantastic job of allowing the events and facts tell the story rather than inserting himself into the arguments or perspectives. I was so immersed I kept forgetting to even think that Mr. Wright did an amazing job finding out all this stuff and wondering how he did it. It's a long book-but even if you just pick it up and read a few choice chapters, you'll see what I mean.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An emminently readable account of Osama bin LAden and Ayman al Zawakiri and the rise of the Al Qaeda terrorist organzation from its early roots in Saudia Arabia, Sudan, Egypt and Afganistan to the bombing of the World Trade Center in 2001. The book describes terrorist leaders and the men who tried to stop them. The book explains many things about the organization of Al Qaeda and its strengths and weaknesses. The book seems to end rather abuptly in 2001 and one wonders how it was that an impoverished bin Laden managed to acquire the resources to regroup after the forced exit from the Sudan however this book is a must read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very interesting and informative explanation of where bin Laden and the major al queda players came from. Best discussion of Qutb I've read. Very well written.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent, heart breaking look at the history of Al-Qaeda and the half-hearted attempts by the US government to stop them. Wright places the intellectual and political development of Al-Qaeda firmly within the context of oppressive Middle Eastern regimes and the geopolitics of the Cold War.It sometimes reads like a horror novel, as Wright carefully highlights all of the self-defeating bureaucratic infighting and lack of focus at the top levels of government that contributed to 9/11. Washington does not come out well.Read this book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Nice complementary reading to Steve Coll's Ghost Wars. It is amazing though that Pulizer prize was awarded to two books with the same subject.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A thorough, scholarly, and complete explanation of the rise of militant Islam, and a clear exposition of the West's dismal failure to appropriately respond- with ultimately devastating results. Refreshingly apolitical. Wright demonstrates that radical Islam is a product of regional repression, and is anathema to the residents of the Middle East, as much , if not more than America or western culture. A clear sad commentary on the failure of each culture to understand the other. Should be required reading for every talking head , Presidential candidate, or anyone currently in the White House.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This history of Al Qeada is very well done and easy to read. Its easy to put too mush detail in and leave out pertinent facts. It dispels dozens of right wing foolishness about terrorism and Islam.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The most detailed book I have seen that focuses on the developments and ideology that created Al - Qaeda. The book begins by describing the life of Sayyid Qutb, and how is ideology helped shape the beliefs of many involced in 9/11. The book then describes the criss-crossing lifes of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin-laden and their groups, Al-Jihad and Al-Qaeda. Although the book does cover the US mistakes during the lead up to 9/11 (especially focusing on the fact the CIA refused to share information with the FBI), the book mostly focuses on the two Islamic Militants. It goes in to great detail about their lives in there respective countries,and what drew both of them to radical Islam and to each other.What I found so amazing about the book is its ability to make Bin Laden actually look human (albeit a horrible human). Wright portrays Bin Laden as a man that truly believes in his cause, without defending the actions.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An account of the development of Al Qaeda that reads like a novel. Wonderfully detailed, well researched, and written in a highly factual tone, The Looming Tower is equally enlightening and frightening. It is the best account I have read yet of Al Qaeda's roots. Wright provides some reasonable insight into the lure of Al Qaeda and provides excellent portraits of its main players. When I finished this book I was far more worried about Islamic extremsists than when started... If there is a weakness in the book, it is in the handling of the CIA/FBI covering of counterterrorism of pre 9/11 - this is handled much better in Ghost Wars, and in what was done seemed like an aside from the main story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An amazing explanation of the culture and events that led to 9/11. The book humanizes Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, the founders of Al Quaeda, but it does not apologize for their despicable acts and misdirected anger. If you only read one book on 9/11, this should be the one.