If you are a citizen of the USA and young enough to remember 9/11 as it unfolded, this is something you'd be pretty much gobsmacked over. Holy smokes - read this thing! It is fascinating in an awful way.

Of course, this shocking book didn't just win the Pulitzer because that section of the population can relate. The layers of secrets that are peeled back and how these events were the escalation of other attacks are just the surface. If you work for a company, say, where maybe management makes stupid decisions based on information that comes from isolated areas, then you will see parallels in here.

There is one agency that is committed to unraveling knots, even if it takes a bit of time, and finding kingpins of various plots, then eliminating them. This government group is the kind who believes that when you chop off the head of the snake, the whole body (eventually) dies. A second group thinks that when it comes to fundamental religious terrorists, treating the entire body - head and tail - like a common criminal is the best way to go. Chop off the head, and the head becomes a revered martyr, a folk hero whose story (always embellished) will bring more little snakes into the den.

Now, I have zero experience in dealing with law enforcement or intelligence or espionage. But I can see both viewpoints having some merit. The problem comes when Group A and Group B have been at odds with each other for years. Instead of a pack approach to dealing with terrorism, the two ended up like competing hounds peeing on the same fire hydrant and allowing the quarry to scuttle away, repeatedly.

I've had a copy of this book forever and have even downloaded the audio from the library, but never got around to reading or listening. Since school is out for a few more weeks, hubby and I have been binge watching some TV series with our 16 year old... lazy pleasures. We watched the first episode against my wishes (I was bound and determined to read first, then watch). WOW. We could not stop watching.

The series has more up to date information than the book, but also combines various characters into a single "person" who embodies the attitudes or viewpoints of a small group of people. The effect creates a couple of distinct villains in the TV series and also drops a big chunk of blame at the feet of the administration who had only come into office a short while prior. Condoleeza Rice is briefly but badly skewered in the series, but it turns out that the Clinton administration was presented at least 8 shots at eliminating Bin Laden (they declined) while the Bush people were offered only one (they too declined). But we learn in the book and in the TV show that these "shots" would involve collateral damage. If you were the guy or gal in charge, how many dead civilians do you think are worth wiping out the head of a snake whose ultimate bad deeds we don't know and whose presence at the point of impact may or may not be guaranteed?

Fascinating book. If you cannot get to it, do watch the ten episode show. Incredible.

Książka pokazująca skąd wziął się radykalny ruch dżihadystyczny, skupiona na Al-Kaidzie i Osamie bin Ladenie. Bardzo ciekawe są również wątki pokazujące jak wyglądała praca wywiadowcza FBI, CIA i innych służb. Niestety, w mojej ocenie, najmniej doawidujemy się o samym bin Ladenie i az_Zawahirimi - drugiej najważniejszej osobie w al-Kaidzie.

الكتاب رائع وفيه معلومات قيمة وسرد جميل لبداية نشأة القاعدة والتنظيمات الجهادية ، مع سيرة مختصرة لأبرز شخصيات الحركات الجهادية، و مدار الكتاب حول أحداث 11 سبتمبر حيث ينتهي بها، المؤلف بذل جهد رائع في البحث والتقصي والكتاب أشبه برواية، إن كنت مهتما بتاريخ العنف ونشأة الحركات الجهادية فلن تجد أفضل من هذا الكتاب في الأسلوب وغزارة المعلومات ودقة التحليل.

I picked up this book shortly after it was released in '06 and it quickly became the cornerstone of my top five books* you must read to understand America's enemy in the world today. A wonderful and engaging book that I can't recommend highly enough.

*the other four book are:
America Alone -  Mark Steyn
While Europe Slept -  Bruce Bawer
The Pentagon's New Map -  Thomas P.M. Barnett
Guests Of The Ayatollah -  Mark Bowden

I am just being honest now. I don’t have the energy to write the review that this book deserves. I an giving myself a break that I need. Here follow just a few short words.

What the title promises is fulfilled. You get, in fact, a comprehensive review of how terrorism has developed since the Second World War. The book has in-depth biographical portraits. The history leading to 9/11 is clearly and thoroughly covered. The coverage of 9/11 is well written too. There is not an excess of detail.

Terror is not glorified—events are not drawn in a manner to raise excitement. Facts are presented to enhance an understanding of events. The style is journalistic, factual and clear. The Arabic names are not always simple to keep straight for a Westerner. Nevertheless, in my view, the author provides adequate information making each individual unique—both private and public attributes are mentioned.

I am glad to have read this book. A book such as this could have been extremely distressing. I find it balanced in its presentation. Its purpose is to educate, and it does this well.

The author reads the audiobook. He reads slowly and clearly. In my view, the narration is excellent. I gave the narration four stars, but maybe it deserves five.

Seriously, this book is very well written. Maybe it is worthy of a whopping five stars, despite that its topic is so grim. I highly recommend it. You will not regret having read it.

My first Lawrence Wright book.

If you've followed my reviews, you know nonfiction usually presents a difficult read for me, but this book kept me riveted to the page. Maybe because I can remember where I was when the towers fell on 9-11. Maybe because it never made sense to me. Maybe because of the distance of years and Wright's ability to research complicated topics and then translate it to the page.

I once had a professor tell me if I wanted to understand current events to read books not newspaper articles. The older I get, the more that makes sense to me. This is a book that leads up to 9-11, but it begins back in post WWII. It covers ground on both the US side as well as the Middle East. It covers some of the WHY but also a lot of the HOW this tragedy happened.

Highly recommend for anyone interested in the events of 9-11.

I read two books by Lawrence Wright this year, and he is one of those gifted authors who can weave the most compelling stories even from the tangled threads of mundane, real-life events.

The HBO documentary on Scientology brought me to his 2013 book “Going Clear”, which takes a sweeping look at the mysterious religion, followers of which include Tom Cruise, John Travolta and several other Hollywood celebrities.

I have been fascinated by cults for as long as I can remember, and that book explored how they can sustain in the 21st century, in broad daylight, while committing gross human rights violations.

Wright appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast, so did several former Scientologists. They indeed had some wild tales to share.

“The Looming Tower,” on the other hand, is about the men behind the terrorist group Al-Qaeda: the Egyptian doctor, Ayman al-Zawahir and Saudi businessman Osama bin Laden. Wright follows them from their childhood to their execution of the 9/11 attacks. It is superior to “Going Clear” in terms of its effortless, engrossing narrative flow.

What I realized I liked most about Wright’s tone is that he manages to retain some semblance of objectivity which is of course a really hard thing to do, particularly for American journalists (Unless of course it is a domestic affair, then they will cling onto objectivity rather than the truth, worsening their readers' confirmation bias). Even when it appears he is being sympathetic towards the Al-Qaeda followers, I get the sense that he is not divulging his own opinions or personal interpretations of events, seen through a Western lens; rather the book enjoys some distance from its author and consequently does not reek of bias.

I found journalist Peter Bergman’s “Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden” a perfect sequel to this book, as it begins with the September 2001 attacks and ends in Abbottabad, where bin Laden breathed his last, ten years later.

One fun fact: Bin Laden was an avid reader of Noam Chomsky and Bob Woodward.

Careful and cogent and stirring. The back stories of the major al Qaeda figures and their families were particularly revelatory for me.

El libro ganó el premio Pulitzer en el 2016 y me llamó la atención porque muchos CEO de grandes compañías recomendaban su lectura

Se divide en dos partes.

La primera se centra en varios personajes claves que tuvieron una contribución muy significativa en la creación y desarrollo de la teología moderna de la guerra santa. Es muy sorprendente ver como prácticamente todo nace en Egipto. Esta parte continúa con una pequeña biografía de Bin Laden explicando sus inicios en Arabia saudí, Sudán y Afganistan. también es sorprendente descubrir nuestra ignorancia sobre un personaje del que se hablado tantas veces en televisión durante tantos años.

La segunda se centra más en el desastroso proceso de la investigación de Al Qaeda, donde le saca los colores al FBI y la CIA.

El libro se lee con facilidad y es muy interesante. Netflix hizo hace poco una serie basada en el libro y, aunque no lo he visto aún, me la han recomendado varias personas.

“Radicalism usually prospers in the gap between rising expectations and declining opportunities. This is especially true where the population is young, idle, and bored; where the art is impoverished; where entertainment—movies, theater, music—is policed or absent altogether; and where young men are set apart from the consoling and socializing presence of women.”

This Pulitzer-Prize winner encompasses a massive scope by tracing the roots of Islamic fundamentalism all the way back to the 1950s (with a few brief nods to the Crusades) and the writings of Egyptian author Sayyid Qutb as it picks up steam during the Palestinian conflict, gains traction in financing and personnel during the Russian war in Afghanistan, and rises to a fever pitch in the years leading up to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which are not the focus of the book but rather are portrayed as a horrifying inevitability. The information within has been meticulously researched, as evidenced by the massive section of notes and sources at the back of the book, including an astonishing number of firsthand interviews with many of the players involved in the events related. The most frustrating part for readers will be the damning amount of proof that massive amounts of information about al-Qaeda acting in the United States was available to U.S. law enforcement agencies prior to the attacks but was never shared or acted upon for reasons ranging from bureaucratic indifference to political stubbornness to myopic overconfidence, as evidence by the fact that those who sounded the alarms were quickly and quietly marginalized.

"Whatever has happened to this - someday somebody will die - and wall or not - the public will not understand why we are not more effective and throwing every resource we had at certain 'problems.'"
- email from FBI Agent Steve Bongardt to FBI intelligence Analyst Dina Corsi complaining about lack of freedom to investigate Al Qaeda activity within the United States, dated August 24, 2001 - 18 days prior to the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001

Another awesome tale by the brilliant Lawrence Wright.

To explain 9-11, Wright reaches way, way back to the first trip of a loner Egyptian (who was terrified of women) to immediate post-WWII America, his turn to radicalism under the rule of an over-fed and over-sexed Middle Eastern despot, the slow growth under brutal Egyptian repression of the very angry Muslim Brotherhood, the passing of the baton to Zawahiri and a younger generation of radical kids hiding guns in the dank slums of Cairo, to Zawahiri’s flailing attempts to take over the Egyptian government, only to be thwarted at every turn, to his pathetic attempt at fund raising in California, to the near bankruptcy of his creation, al-Jihad.

Wright also takes you through the polygamous society of Saudi Arabia, its sketchy royal family and their tenuous hold on power, the prosperous growth of the Yemeni bin Laden family, doing the dirty work that the Saudis have no mind to, to the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets, the rallying of jobless young Saudi men with no life skills to refugee camps in Pakistan, sucking on the teat of US security money and digging out caves in Tora Bora to no clear purpose, incompetent fighting, getting killed by Soviet bombs, and when not, believing in miracles and their own invincibility because of dumb luck.

We follow the spoiled, unhappy Osama to the dry heat of Somalia, eating lamb and rice on the patio and debating the Quran with his followers when not racing horses or delving into honey horticulture; getting kicked out of Saudi Arabia and his own family when he insists that the real enemy is America, because without a worthy opponent, his poor, sad, empty life with his four to six wives and twelve to sixteen kids seemed (to him) to lack sufficient meaning…

And then, enter the FBI…

And that is only the first 200 pages!

Wright explores the rift between the CIA and the FBI, the clashes in leadership personalities made even worse by some stupid bureaucratic BS, and when, one day after the attack, when the CIA finally shares its information on the attackers with one of the FBI investigators on an interrogation assignment in Yemen, you feel like you could retch your guts out right there along with him.

F**K!

This book was obviously very immaculately researched (he interviewed over 500 people?!?), however at the end of the day I just don’t really like non-fiction and have little to no interest in terrorism or 9/11. I also think the book almost suffered from how much research he did. It’s very impressive how much he was able to learn about al-Qaeda but some paragraphs just felt like him trying to shove as many random facts as he could down your throat which led him to lose track of the point he was trying to make.