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highly recommended |
Deserving of its Pulitzer 
Lawrence Wright's "The Looming Tower" is richly deserving of its Pulitzer Prize. Wright takes the tortuous history of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahari, separate and then together, and weaves that into a compelling, informative narrative that is juxtaposed against the efforts of FBI agent John O'Neill, a fascinating, complex character. That O'Neill would be in the middle of the chase efforts over the years - many times, along with Dick Clarke, the sole voice in the wilderness - then wind up posting at the World Trade Center as its Director of Security only weeks before 9/11 is something that would feel contrived in the hokiest of novels. But it really did happen.
An important thread - of many - in the book is the excellent job Wright does at showing how lack of cooperation between various US organizations (notably, the FBI and CIA) doomed efforts to find and stop the plot. A few days prior to 9/11, a frustrated FBI agent - denied permission to key intelligence - states presciently in an e-mail "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.'"
This was the 9/11 Commission's finding and the public reaction in a nutshell.
Then the morning after 9/11 in Aden, Yemen: "The CIA chief drew [FBI Agent Ali] Soufan aside and handed him a manila envelope. Inside were three surveillance photos and a complete report about the Malaysia meeting - the very material Soufan had been asking for, which the CIA had denied until now. The wall had come down. When Soufan realized that the agency and some people had known for a year and a half that two of the hijackers were in the country, he ran into the bathroom and retched."
Want to Know the True Story of 9/11? Read This Book!
I was a 9/11 conspiracy theory believer before I read this book. I still think that there is much not known about the incident and that many powerful people were involved in bad ways they should not have been.
But, after reading this book, I have a MUCH better understanding of what happened and where Al-Qaeda and bin Ladin came from.
That much of our present world situation was influences by things like the terrible torturing of some key figures in Egypt and how this changed them (almost understandably) into very bitter and vengeful men goes a long way to support the idea that things like torture most be stopped now, by ALL countries (and you know who I am talking about), by all means.
Read this book for a better understanding of our world, and how the personal lives of historical figures later help bring about decisions that can never be undone.
A masterful account
Lawrence Wright has produced an extremely well-researched and thoroughly documented account of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, starting in 1948 and culminating with the horror of 9/11. Additionally, he does an excellent job recounting the steps and missteps that occurred within the US intelligence communities. Mr. Wright infers that lack of communication between the various agencies, indeed even some petty inter-agency jealousies, allowed certain events to go unnoticed when they should have raised red flags.
This book was five years in the making and Mr. Wright interviewed hundreds of people to create it. It's quite detailed, though very readable. I wouldn't call it a gripping narrative, but it certainly holds your interest. Mr. Wright does an excellent job of assembling and recounting the facts without injecting opinion.
A must read
Our book club, in existence since 1963, discussed this book in September. We agreed that it is a most important book. I gave copies to each of our five offspring. I tell everyone that it is a must read. I would like to ask all those people running for the office of President if they have read it.
The Looming Tower - a must read for those interested in knowing how we got to where we are.
The Looming Tower is a fast-paced, clearly written book that carefully illuminates the climate that spawned 9/11.
reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Politics
looming tower, looming, tower
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based on 285 reviews
