Lawrence Wright - The Looming Tower

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 i sbased on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted around the world.



The Looming Tower achieves an unprecedented level of intimacy and insight by tellilng 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; the the former head of Saudi Intelligence, Prince Turki al-Faisal. Wright reveals 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 absolute destruction.



The Looming Tower adds immeasurable to our understanding of how we arrived at September 11, 2001. The richness of its new information, and the depth of its perception, can help up deal more wisely and effectively with the continuing terrorist threat.