This book is not a page-turner, but it is a great book. Wright does a detailed historical analysis (yet, readable) on the rise of radical Islam (beginning in 1960's) as well as tracing bin Laden's life path. It took me a long time to navigate through the 370ish pages (followed by probably 70 pages of endnotes and citations documenting his research), but it was worth it. There was so much I didn't know about the rise of al-Qaeda.

In addition to bin Laden and Zawahiri, Wright traces a few key FBI and CIA figures who track them. By the end of the book, his thesis is clear: The U.S. government agencies failed to communicate with one another for stupid, stubborn reasons and if they had communicated, they would have easily had intel that could have thwarted the 9/11 plots. For instance, the CIA knew two of the 9/11 jihadis were in the U.S. for over a year, but withheld this info from the FBI, even as the FBI sought to track them down. As this thesis became more clear at the end of the book, I thought: "Maybe, but if bin Laden had been taken out, wouldn't someone else have coordinated these attacks?" Wright assumed that question and in one section made clear that he believes that without bin Laden's influence, there's no way that 9/11 would have happened.

As I read, I was repeatedly reminded of how seemingly unrelated, small events can have unintended consequences. For example, Wright suggests at one point how the Monica Lewinsky situation in America may have led Clinton to some hasty, ill-timed U.S. action against extreme Islamists in Afghanistan/Pakistan, which actually ended up bolstering bin Laden. It's unfalsifiable, but is a reminder of how actions have unintended consequences.

Perhaps the craziest part of the book, aside from bin Laden's worldview, is the story of FBI agent John O'Neil. O'Neil was concerned about bin Laden in the early 90's, way before anyone else seemed to care. He tracked him for years, and led the investigative team in Yemen when bin Laden orchestrated the bombing of the USS Cole. The crazy part, is that O'Neil retired from the FBI on August 22nd, 2001 and began his job the following day as head of security at . . . the World Trade Center. After spending the better portion of his career tracking bin Laden, it was the cruelest of ironies that O'Neil was in the WTC on 9/11/01. O'Neil, it is said, helped a preschool class evacuate the building before returning into the building to rescue others, but he would not exit alive.

If you want a well researched understanding of the rise of al-Qaeda that led to the terrible morning of 9/11/01, I highly recommend this book.

Gdyby nie to że autor potrafi dobrze opowiadać historię, trudno by było przedrzeć się przez informacje nie do końca odpowiadające tematowi.

A fabulous account of the rise of Osama bin Laden and events leading to 9/11 terror attack. A detailed narrative of the rise of terrorism and how religious extremist leaders played a role in spreading terror in the name of jihad across the world. It was horrifying to read that the CIA was aware of the plot to attack America but chose to ignore the red flags raised by FBI and Immigration Services. A routine basic investigation by the CIA could have averted the tragedy. But it chose to stonewall the FBI enquiries on the terror suspects. Terrorists were freely issued American visas, purportedly because they were Saudi citizens (a US Ally and least likely to plot terror attacks unlike the Egyptians), move about freely in the country and join aviation schools for flight training. Even the Bush govt in their initial days deprioritised anti-terror activities. All these factors culminated in one of the most outrageous terror act.

It would have been great if the author dwelt more on the preparations for the attack and a detailed account and background of the terrorists and the events leading to the hijacking. This book is as riveting as it gets.

I think it is a must read. For me, it showed once again the dangers of religion, especially when it is taken to the extreme. Same goes for all ideologies. If there is one hero in the book, it is John O'Neill, the one man who could have stopped Bin Laden. There were failures of governments, religions, human beings. All of it added up to a disaster still destroying the world.

There are discussions on Goodreads where members call it all a conspiracy of false stories. Shame on those people.

For most of the chapters we focus on one person carrying the narrative along, starting with Mohammed and Sayyid Qutb. At the time of publication, Mohammed Qutb was still living in Mecca. That tells you something.

Al-Qaeda was made up of angry but powerless young men. They felt a need for justice. They were taught to hate heretics, Shiites, America, and Israel. Other than that, they thought everyone else was wonderful.

Marginalised people found identities in mosques. I know the feeling. When I studied philosophy, I spent constant time with every religious group and center I could find. I covered them all. I always felt welcome. They draw you in and ask you to believe their version of supernaturalism.

Mohammed Atta's will gives you an idea of the hatred of women: "No pregnant woman or disbelievers should walk in my funeral or ever visit my grave. No woman should ask forgiveness of me. Those who will wash my body should wear gloves so that they do not touch my genitals."

There were a few people along the way who were concerned about events they were tracking. The failures of leaders and jealousy between departments hurt.

John O'Neill had a story about a great-grandfather who was racing another clan to touch a stone first. He was losing, so he cut off his hand and threw it at the stone to win the race.

The author feels without Bin Laden none of this would have happened. He convinced people to join him in an international goal.

Condoleeza Rice failed to give terrorism a high enough priority. I worry with all of the government haters being spread around by the crazy libertarian movement, we are destroying almost permanently our important government agencies. We will not be able to handle future crises like climate change.

The first man needing to be killed by Bin Laden was Ahmed Shah Massoud, the charismatic leader of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. If he could have lived, what might have been possible we will never know. He was the best hope for a moderate Islamist alternative to the Taliban.

The CIA blocked the FBI's investigation into the Cole attack and allowed the 9/11 plot to continue.

The dead represented 62 countries and nearly every ethnic group and religion in the entire world.

Fits in with the Quranic injunction that whoever takes a single life destroys a universe.

Wherever you are, death will find you, even in the looming tower.

Such is from the Koran. Apparently, Mr. bin Laden quoted it a number of times. We know this from an interview -- or interrogation. Most of this book has a similar source. It obviously isn't scholarly,largely journalistic. Its thematic is a group of people who to survive had to avoid a paper trail. Last week I was reading an article in the LRB about the rise of Jihadism in Syria. The author of the piece cited Mr. Wright's book as the authoritative history of al-Qaeda. (BTW the fundamentalists were invited and encouraged by Al-Assad, who believed he could control them and their presence would destabilize US operations in Iraq). I wasn't yet primed to get off my ass and read the work. Laurence Wright himself was then on PBS Newshour late last week discussing his play about the Camp David Accords. That's it, I said, call me a mystic, it was written in the stars. I read Looming Tower essentially in 24 hours. It is not cumbersome prose. It is both grim and fascinating. That first element lingers as the conditions which fostered such are likely to stay.

I feel that The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East is the much more comprehensive work, though one concerned with the region less than the specific organization.

It is hard to imagine a more meticulously-researched, and chilling, story coming out about how 9/11 occurred. Wright does a superb job of weaving all of the various elements and intricate story lines of Al-qaeda and the jihad movement to show how bin laden constructed a cohesive and destructive global terrorist organization. The number of instances where just one small thing - literally a different path down a road or someone showing a picture of a suspected terrorist to someone else - could have prevented the attack is truly mind-boggling.

When, at the end of the book, I read of the fate of John O'Neill - the senior FBI official who doggedly pursued al-qaeda and bin laden for years only to be continually met with dead ends, bureaucratic red tape, or personal vendettas by others within the FBI or CIA - I felt a real sense of loss for someone who sacrificed himself to save others. O'Neill was in the first tower when it was struck, and actually made it outside fine, but went back in several times to help get people out - including emptying out a daycare on the ground floor. He went to the second tower shortly before it collapsed.

When a book causes you serious consternation by forcing you to think about all of the possible scenarios that could have played out instead, and makes you angry because so many people needlessly lost their lives due to an improbable combination of bureaucratic jealousy, incompetence, arrogance, and failure to tie loose ends together, then you know the author has done his job. No wonder that Wright won a Pulitzer Prize for this gem.

"Wherever you are, death will find you, even if you are in looming towers" ("أينما تكونوا يدرككم الموت ولو كنتم في بروج مشيدة")
- Qur'an 4:78

  

A great narrative history of the rise of al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Wright's journalism takes the reader from Sayyid Qutb's youth to the destruction of the twin towers and includes most of the major characters both in al-Qaeda, and Zawahiri's al-Jihad to Saudi Arabia to the FBI, CIA, and NSA. The focus of the book, however, is obviously Bin Laden and O'Neill who both seem iconic symbols of radicalized Islam and the US. The research and narrative of the book is impressive and even though many of these stories and ideas have been floating for years; some of what I seem to have known is probably due to Wright's groundbreaking reporting in this book (It was originally published in 2006). The narrative is complex and jumps back and forth across countries and cultures and institutions, but never loses the central theme and historical elements. It is a masterpiece of narrative history in both focus and scale.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, most Americans had never heard of Al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden. But they were very well known to the FBI, CIA, NSA and the White House. This book (which won the Pulitzer Prize) explains why.

"The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" by Lawrence Wright precisely details the individuals and events that lead (over the course of five decades) to September 11, 2001. The writing is crisp. The narrative is compelling. The historical context is vivid.

Shortly after World War II ended the seeds of Islamic fundamentalism (and its bitter grievances against the United States) were sown. And in this history book (that reads like a novel) Lawrence Wright describes the ideas, people and developments that lead to the dramatic terrorist attacks.

Most readers are familiar with "the events" of September 11, 2001. But what lead up to that fateful day? Why did it happen? "The Looming Tower" answers these questions. And in doing so, it also explains:

Why Islamic fundamentalism grew rapidly during the second half of the 20th Century.

How the Muslim Brotherhood came to be. And why its ideas appealed to the majority of students in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Why Islamic extremists tried to destroy the World Trade Center in 1993. How the crime was solved. And how the perpetrators were indicted, arrested, tried and convicted.

How an Egyptian (Ayman al-Zawahiri) and a Saudi (Osama bin Laden) came to declare war on the United States during the 1990s. And how the U.S. Government failed to neutralize them.

How intelligence agencies in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt repeatedly warned the United States of the growing threat of Al-Qaeda. And how the FBI, CIA and NSA failed to connect a blizzard of dots.

Why young, well educated, professional men repeatedly undertook suicide attacks on United States interests throughout Africa and the Middle East. And why the U.S. Government failed to adequately respond to the growing phenomena.

How the U.S. Government concluded in August 2001 that Osama bin Laden was intent on striking inside the United States. And how the U.S. Government failed to prevent the attack.

"The Looming Tower" is an important book. Any citizen interested in understanding what really happened to the United States on September 11, 2001 would benefit from reading it. "The Looming Tower" is a fascinating story that is very well written. But it is also disheartening.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, America was shocked by the crimes of Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. But the FBI, CIA, NSA and White House were not. "The Looming Tower" explains why.

It's such a great title. Taken from a section of the Quran that Bin Laden regularly quoted.

n  "Wherever you are, death will find you, even if you are in lofty towers"n

The towers loom large over the whole book; the narrative builds towards them, starting as a blip in the distance but by the end they appear as seemingly unbreakable American monoliths. The book also shifts gears from an almost sedentary beginning to a breakneck pace as it approaches that fateful day.

As is the case with many modern historical events I felt familiar with them but knew so little factual detail about Bin Laden and the rise of Al Qaeda. I was surprised to start the journey in Cairo but since reading this book have learned so much about the politics of the Middle East and the beginning seems deeply apt. further afield, things like the current civil unrest in Sudan is completely explained by its history and Bin Laden's time there; it's no surprise that the Christian south split off from the Muslim north. After the story of Sayyid Qutb, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Ayman al-Zawahiri's journey I was most surprised to read about Bin Laden's time in Sudan. Being completely ignorant of his time there, it was fascinating to read about what lured him there and what could have been.

Equally interesting was the way Bin Laden seemed to fail upwards. His early days as the leader of nascent Al Qaeda are full of blunders. The scene where a disgraced group leader is allowed to go to the top of the mountain and shoot his AK and RPG's off into the air to lift the shame of failure is almost comical. Just as the myth woven of Bin Laden's first great victory, when he fainted on a battlefield and the Soviets retreated for no apparent reason, is hilarious. As is his decision to keep the pimped out AK-47 he is given as a reward for his actions near him at all times. Despite being more akin to Dad's Army, Al Qaeda continues to grow and Bin Laden becomes increasingly famous in the Muslim world. One of the few things Bin Laden succeeds in doing is letting competent people run parts of the operation. Early on Zawahiri seemed to be the brains behind the organisation and Bin Laden the charisma and moolah. But Zawahiri was in the dark about the 9/11 attacks until very late. It seems other competent people were also in the organisation doing some heavy lifting. Bin Laden at Al Qaeda'speak seems to have become the charismatic ideas guy and other people did the execution. Surely there's a comparative biography between Bin Laden and Steve Jobs somewhere.

I was wondering whether John O'Neill had been set up as a contrast to the Al Qaeda leadership. When it started to focus on his infidelity I thought maybe Wright was trying to show how morally corrupt he was. But then when the first mention of him moving into another role comes and the tower is looming towards the end of the book I knew exactly where we were going.

Obviously, the single most devastating part of the book is how preventable 9/11 was. The refusal of the CIA, FBI, and NSA to work together or even share information is truly mind boggling. You can see how bureaucracy and internal power plays could have lead to that situation but you'd think that in the instance of life and death they'd be able to put the pettiness aside. Bin Laden and Al Qaeda may have been largely an unknown entity to us pedestrians in the west before 9/11 but America's intelligence services knew every man in the organisation, listened to all their phone calls, and the phone calls of their family, and the phone calls of those people, and so on.

The pretzel some of these religious fundamentalists have to tie themselves into to justify acts that their holy book is so explicitly against is extremely convoluted. Although once they take up a takfir position anything can be justified.

The book is comprehensive and magisterial and in that sense it reminds me so much of The Making of the Atomic Bomb. I often found myself wondering how on earth Wright found some of his information. Did he wander the mountains of Afghanistan looking for clues? The more likely answer is, he's a great historian. It also seems that he had several good sources, I'm pretty certain he must have had a line to Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, mainly because he seems to know what was going on in his head, and also because the book is quite sympathetic to Turki.

A few more interesting little facts I collected on my way through this book.

- At one stage Saudi Arabia accounted for 1% of the global muslim population but 90% of the funding of all religious education. Hence why Wahabbism is so prevalent outside Saudi.

- When Saudi Arabia conducted their first census the king was disappointed and worried about the final population count so he asked them to double it and that was the official count published.

- Jamal Kashoggi pops up a few times in the story, many will know how important he was in setting up a lot of the Kingdom's media and communication platforms, but did you know he was a very good friend of Bin Laden? He was even sent as an emissary by the Kingdom to visit Bin Laden in Sudan and ask him to renounce his criticism of the royal family and regain his inheritance.

This is a very readable account of the growth of Islamic militancy. This is given from the perspective of life in the Arab states and the different personalities involved. It starts with Sayyid Qutb’s visit to the United States in the late 1940’s and the subsequent publication of his books espousing fundamentalist Islam. This version of Islam hardly recognizes any of the social transformations that have taken place in the world in the last 1200 years (since the death of Mohammed). The author then describes the life of Ayman al-Zawahiri (like Qutb an Egyptian) who also became an Islamist favouring a Sharia state. Lawrence Wright then moves on to Bin laden’s early life in Saudi Arabia and events there. Ayman al-Zawahiri came to influence Osama Bin Laden.

The level of violence in Egypt and Saudi Arabia between the government and religious groups is astounding. Both groups vie for power and control by any means necessary. Fundamentalist Islamists assassinated Anwar Sadat in broad daylight. After, predictably, thousands of Islamists were incarcerated. Violence spread and was justified by various interpretations of the Quran – for the killing of innocent people – children, women, apostates. These justifications later evolved to the glorification of suicide in killing people.

There is an attempt to blame the FBI and the CIA for being negligent in putting together the pieces of the puzzle that led to September 11/2001. Only a small minority within these two organizations were convinced of the dangers of Islamic militancy to the U.S. This aspect on the failures of U.S. intelligence seemed to be an afterthought when writing the book. Was it necessary to describe the girlfriends of John O’Neill?

But on all other fronts this is an excellent account of the growing turbulence in the Middle East and how it became global.

There have been numerous books that tell the stories of the victims of the 9/11 tragedy, but I’ve always wanted to learn more about the perpetrators. How could so many people commit such horrible acts and justify them as sacred? Lawrence Wright’s book does an amazingly engaging and thorough job of telling the backstory of 9/11.

He follows each main character’s formative years and their transformation to zealotry during the most violent and cruel times in Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. I found it particularly impressive that Wright was able to help me better understand the mental and moral gymnastics these men used to rationalize cruelty and genocide.

Wright really did his homework. The level of detail in this book is mightily impressive. He spent years in the Middle East interviewing countless people. He interviewed the people who knew these men best and provides fascinatingly detailed accounts of intimate conversations.

Throughout the book he explains the politics, oppression and revolutions that galvanized the protagonists. He provides captivating insight into the personal motivations of these men and reveals the meticulous planning that went into the nefarious acts they undertook.

This is a captivating book with thorough research and a masterful narrative. The plot reads like an enthralling fiction book. This makes it all the more disturbing that these smart, capable but horribly perverse and twisted people managed to inflict such frightful suffering on the world.

I'm so glad I finally read this book. It was part of my reading resolutions to read more non-fiction and read some of the books that have been sitting on my shelves for quite awhile. Guess I felt the subject was too chilling but mainly this is a very well research and wonderfully written history book. There is little about the actual events of 9/11. There is much to be learned here about who Al-Qaeda is and their concerns for their own culture with valuable information about the events leading up to 9/11. Can't thank Lawrence Wright enough for all the time and effort he put into getting the background information and back up interviews he did as well as putting it all together in an easy to read form. Yes at times it is more than a little chilling but if you haven't read this book I would encourage you to do so. Take it from someone who reads little non-fiction, it is an immensely readable book. I actually was sorry to see it end as I'm sure much has happened in this area since. It is now a mini series on Hulu (haven't seen it) but read the book first.