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The Looming Tower

Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

By Lawrence Wright

(12)

| Hardcover | 9780375414862

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Book Description

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.

Critics

The spectacle is all

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda's Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright 480pp, Allen Lane, £20 Forty years ago, in a scathing and prescient manifesto against consumer capitalism and celebrity culture entitled The Society of the Spectacle, the French situationi ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

The road that led to 9/11

The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright Allen Lane £20, pp480 Al-Qaeda has become a virtual phenomenon. We know something exists, though what is continually debated. The evidence of its existence is limited to internet sites, intermittent statements and ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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3 Reviews

Very very interesting and scary. So many mistakes and so many lifes lost, Very interresting the descripton of the caracters involved

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mummune said on Jan 29, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Excellent and compelling look at the multi-decade leadup to 911 and the development of radical Islam movement. Fascinating

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Simon Newstead said on Jul 6, 2008 | Add your feedback

One of the many points taken are what a bunch of arrogant shits our intelligence services are..the FBI and CIA.

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ambient pleasures said on Oct 11, 2006 | Add your feedback