The Looming Tower

Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

by Lawrence Wright

Audio CD

English language

Published Sept. 27, 2006 by Tantor Media.

ISBN:: 978-1-4001-0305-8
OCLC Number:: 73173029

(16 reviews)

National Book Award FinalistA Time, Newsweek, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and New York Times Book Review Best Book of the YearA gripping narrative that spans five decades, The Looming Tower explains in unprecedented detail the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Lawrence Wright re-creates firsthand the transformation of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri from incompetent and idealistic soldiers in Afghanistan to leaders of the most successful terrorist group in history. He follows FBI counterterrorism chief John O'Neill as he uncovers the emerging danger from al-Qaeda in the 1990s and struggles to track this new threat. Packed with new information and a deep historical perspective, The Looming Tower is the definitive history of the long road to September 11.From the Trade Paperback edition.

14 editions

ilchinealach reviewed The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright

Review of 'The Looming Tower' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

serviceable journalistic biography of Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri

Luca Broggi reviewed Le altissime torri by Lawrence Wright

Review of 'Le altissime torri' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

È un bel resoconto sui movimenti islamici che portarono Bin Laden e Zawairi a promuovere un attacco contro gli stati uniti e quello che rappresentano (in particolare come avamposto cristiano). La lettura scorre e non mancano alcuni riferimenti scioccanti all'incapacità di dialogo tra le agenzie americane (CIA, NSA, FBI).

La descrizione dell'attentato al WTC è sintetico ma mi ha molto colpito emotivamente.

Siddhartha Golu reviewed The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright

Review of 'The Looming Tower' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A brilliant backstory to the global phenomena that shook the world to its core and ultimately, for better or for worse, shifted the entire political spectrum in many countries. This Pulitzer-prize winning book deserves all the acclaims it gets. Mostly when people talk about terrorists and Jihad, they only discuss the result - the bombings, the beheadings, the hijackings - but very few people care about going into the details of how these attacks happened in the first place. Although it remains a big mystery to me, Lawrence manages to shine some lights on some of the key figures in this global Jihad and what ultimately motivated them to take on this deadly course. A page-turner for sure and a must-read for anyone who is as ignorant about Jihad as I was till sometime ago.

markm reviewed The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright

Review of 'The Looming Tower' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The terrible tragic story of the development of modern Islamic terrorism, the results of poor communication between the CIA and the FBI, and the consequences we can obtain when ignorance and cruelty are combined with some widely held delusion. The ending is abrupt and makes the account even more tragic. The book was published in 2006, five years before OBL caught his.

The Beach Reader reviewed The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright

Review of 'The Looming Tower' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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 …