While this work is a bit didactic, Wright lays out the logic and planning of the September 11 attacks as a part of a greater plan to purify Islam. He explains the origins of this movement from the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt, and differentiates the international role of al Qaeda (if only President Bush had asked Karen Hughes to read this book and give him an executive summary). The Looming Tower is a must read for every Westerner who plans to go out in public, and for every Muslim who is not ultra devout and loyal to OBL. Once you read it you'll understand the thinking of another religious zealot, Jeremiah Wright (no relation to the author). And you'll understand why the war on terrorism will be waged indefinitely.

One of many disturbing, ironic tales Lawrence Wright shares about the evolution of Islamic terrorism in his 2006 book "The Looming Tower" is about the day Ramzi Yousef, the man who tried to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993, was finally brought to trial. Arriving by helicopter, he was nudged by a guard who pointed out the Twin Towers against the Manhattan skyline.

"You see, it's still standing," the guard said with a nudge.

"It wouldn't be if we had had more money," Yousef replied.

Osama bin Laden, as it turned out, had that money, Saudi petrodollars funneled through his father's vast contracting empire. He also had zealotry, vision, and charisma to unite a disparate group of fundamentalists and nihilists and set them on a course that would knock down the towers and usher in an Age of Terror like no other in history.

Wright's book, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is a suspenseful and riveting read despite the handicap of subject matter that makes for thoroughly depressing reading toward a conclusion everyone on the planet knows going in. He puts 9/11 in perspective, not an easy thing to do, by showing bin Laden's antecedents in the last century and revealing the organization's weaknesses as well as strengths.

Cut off from his wealthy family, bin Laden struggled to pay for basic necessities during the mid-1990s, hardly the Bondian supervillain once imagined. His followers were confused, often disenchanted by his killjoy attitudes toward everything from music ("The flute of the devil") to air-conditioning. He even struggled with the moral question of terrorism, though his monochromatic worldview didn't leave him wrestling for long.

"The confrontation that we are calling for with the apostate regimes does not know Socratic debates...Platonic ideals...nor Aristotelian diplomacy," read the al-Queda manual "Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants". "But it does know the dialogue of bullets, the ideals of assassination, bombing, and destruction, and the diplomacy of the cannon and machine gun."

To make 9/11 happen, bin Laden needed help, not only from fellow zealots like Egyptian radical Ayman al-Zawahiri and Afghan Taliban leader Mohummad Omar, who paved the way for his own regime's downfall by hosting and insanely abetting al-Queda until the bitter end. He also got sizable support from intelligence agents like those at the CIA, who had 9/11 in their sights but refused to share their information with the FBI's counterterrorist boss John O'Neill, who knew what was afoot and only needed the CIA's help to take the necessary action.

In writing about O'Neill, who exhausted by in-fighting, went to work at the World Trade Center and died in the ensuing carnage, Wright's book answers the challenge posed by some who would award al-Queda the monopoly on bravery in this savage fight. Yet even O'Neill helped al-Queda in a way, by being such a polarizing figure in the Bureau that others found him all-too-easy to discount.

Not everything about this book sits right with me. He's too easy on Richard Clarke, the White House counterterrorism czar who passed up many chances to kill bin Laden, and offers some tortured Freudian analysis suggesting that the root of Islamic terrorism is tied to female sexuality (bin Laden may be repressive, but he's also been married five times).

There are no easy answers in the end, just piercing questions, which Wright lays out in a compelling, crystalline fashion. You may not want to pick up "The Looming Tower", but if you do, you'll have as hard a time putting it down.

I flipped through this book a while back, and simply went to the index to find some key figures in the 911 attacks... like General Mahmoud Ahmad or Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the funders of the 911 attacks. Without information like who paid, this book is rendered as useless as the 911 Commision Report.

I wanted to respond to the reviewer who said the Bin Laden of the book wouldn't have denied the 9/11 bombings right after they happened. Remember, he does say in the book that Bin Laden denied the bombings of the East African embassies right after they happened. So I don't think the argument that Wright carefully omitted facts to make Bin Laden into a stock movie villain holds much water. In fact, Hollywood would never dare offer the portrait Wright offers. Bin Laden is far from a cartoonish villian in this book. In fact, the most startling parts are the descriptions of him with his family, friends, etc. Or the episode where he changed his mind about going to Yemen as a teenager when his mother cried about him leaving Saudi Arabia. Also, a cartoonish villain would not have been portrayed as mostly a joke in the Afghan war against the Soviets. Or, far from the stock evil genius of Hollywood, Wright includes this depiction by his young friend from Sudan: "I loved that man by that time because of so many ideas I see in him. There was no hypocrisy in his character. No divergence between what he says and what he does. Unfortunately, his IQ was not that great". This Osama is as much a Don Quixote as a Genghis Khan--a (perhaps) well meaning guy not smart enough to see through his own corruption of the true and pure Islam he thought he was protecting.

This is the most 3 dimensional view of Bin Laden that I'm aware of--and that's what made this book so spellbinding. The bad guys aren't all good and the good guys aren't all good--i.e.: John O'Neill is shown as a tad shady.

Lawrence Wright's "The Looming Tower" is a richly detailed account of the people and events that led to the World Trade Center attacks on September 11 2001. Wright provides insight into the philosophy that drove the al-Qaeda and towards its extremist charter.
The book also starkly lays bare the inept handling of intelligence by the CIA, poor decisions that let the al-Qaeda get away with missteps in its planning and execution.

I do feel the book could have benefited from a study of the 9/11 hijackers themselves - it focuses mostly on the al-Qaeda's founders and management and not sufficiently on the men who actually carried out the attacks. Perhaps in a later book?

If you ever wanted to better understand where and how modern terrorism all started and how it links to the two embassy bombings in Africa, the USS COLE bombing in Yemen, the 1st WTC bombing and finally to 9/11/01, this book very clearly explains the linkages, the people, organizations and the histories & ideologies of all the players. It also follows the people were working to prevent 9/11 and the obstacles and frustrations they encountered each step of the way. This book was impossible to put down from the very first page to the final chapter. A great read.

It's encouraging that this is the #1 book on the topic of 9/11 in Amazon. It deserves to be. Not content with depicting the terrible events of 9/11, Wright brilliantly and logically draws out the origins of the nihilist religious movement that formed the ideological motor of 9/11. The roots of 9/11 are twofold: in the writings of Egyptian expatriate Sayyid Qutb, who ironically wrote his most inflammatory works while an academic guest in Colorado (some of Qutb's works form the Mein Kampf of Islamic extremism); and the toxic Wahhabi Muslim sect in Saudi Arabia. When you finish the chapters on these topics, you will thoroughly understand the repellent underpinnings of Saudi-specific culture, which in fact have very little to do with the humane face of Islam.

Obviously, the central figure in this book is Osama Bin Laden, and you will also find yourself knowing more than perhaps you really wanted to know about this unusually prolific mass-murderer. In Qutb's and Bin Laden's world, the deaths of innocent Muslims are of no more value than blowing your nose in a Kleenex.

The ultimate issue exposed beyond debate in this book is the calamitous incompetence of the CIA, coupled with the hidebound bureaucratic stupidity pervading all levels of the FBI, with its institutional rigidity and lack of acceptance of technology. The lion's share of the blame for the failure of the United States to forestall the attacks really has to be laid at the doors of President Bill Clinton and his CIA directors, who were responsible for the policies disallowing the CIA from sharing any intelligence information whatever with law enforcement authorities inside the US. Secondary blame has to be laid at the door of the Bush Administration, who had ample warning of impending attacks and had absolutely no interest in proceeding even with the lamentably weak anti-terrorism policies of the Clinton administration.

But, ultimately, as I've noted, the CIA is really to blame as an institution for allowing the 9/11 attacks to succeed. It leaves an indelible impression of decadence and decline in America, and that particular institution should be disbanded and those CIA functionaries who did not share vital information with the FBI really should be thrown in prison for the rest of their lives, starting with ex-Director Tenet. There is no excuse for such meretricious incompetence. Absolutely none. My fondest hope is that one or two of the people mentioned in the book as having committed these acts of arrogant stupidity will read these words or those of others on this page. These CIA people have as much blood on their hands as Bin Laden, as far as I'm concerned.

Can you tell I'm really, really angry with these people? You will be too, by the time you finish reading this book. The final chapter, "The Big Wedding," painstakingly describes the attack on the USS Cole and its aftermath, and clearly draws a direct line between that attack and the one that single-handedly (and ironically) ensured George Bush a second term. The book climaxes with a strikingly brief but utterly visual and devastating real-time narrative of the attacks as the ex-FBI man John O'Neill (another central figure in the book, who reminds me strongly of Tony Soprano if Soprano was a big-time FBI man) experienced them. This book will be read and discussed a century and more from now. It is an essential work of our time.

Looming Tower should be required reading for all Americans. It is by far the best book about Al Qaeda and its antecedents. While it is extremely comprehensive, it is never boring. I find it extraordinary how Wright was able to develop such a book so soon after 9/11. It reads more like a book written 20 years after the fact rather than just 5 years.

Wright is particularly good at "developing the characters of his story." In this it reads more like a great novel, rather than a typical non-fiction book. Wright creates fascinating portraits of Sayyid Qtub (the intellectual founder of modern Jihadism), Abdullah Azzam (the cleric who gave a fatwa calling on all Muslims to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, Ayman Al Zawahiri (the intellectual and organizational founder of Al Qaeda) and finally Osama Bin Laden (the financier and symbolic leader of Jihad), Jamal Al-Fadl (the defector who first told the incredulous FBI of the existence of the Al Qaeda), Ali Mohammed (who infiltrated the US Special Forces, copied their manuals and started the How to wage jihad encyclopedia).

Particularly interesting is how all of these radical leaders came from the upper-crust of Arab societies. One might expect that their anger and violent rhetoric came from very poor people, but that is not the case.

Also interesting is how Al Qaeda's strategy and organization gradually evolved out of a serious of historical accidents - the visit of Qtub to the USA; the imprisonment of Zawahiri after Sadat's assassination; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; Zawahiri's work in a Kuwaiti hospital with radical Jihadi doctors; the near destruction of infant Al Qaeda in one small skirmish with the Soviet army; squabbles within Al Qaeda after the Soviets withdrew resulting in the assassination of Assam; the inability of the Arabs to return to their country after the war due to government hostility against the very people they recruited; the coup in Sudan which gave Al Qaeada a base just when they were losing their old one in Afghanistan; the USA passing up Sudan's offer to extradite bin Laden due to lack of evidence to prosecute him.

Wright also dismantles the myth that Al Qaeda brought down the Soviet Union by destroying their army in Afghanistan. This is a foundational myth for Al Qaeda and key to understand their seemingly irrational desire to attack the USA. Wright shows that only a few hundred Arab troops were actually in combat, and they did so mostly after the Soviets started withdrawing. Arab troops did not come in large numbers until after the Soviets completely withdrew, and they spent most of their time fighting against Afghan Muslims and each other. Even by the end of the war, the organization was just one of dozens of almost irrelevant radical organizations.

Wright somehow manages to maintain an objective perspective despite the murderous rhetoric, thoughts and action of his subjects.

wright prepared an excellent book. it's written as engagingly as a novel, but it is choke full of detail which has been corroborated. this was a fantastic page-turner. it did not provide the kind of detail that i sought regarding the actual attacks of 9/11, how individuals were trained and supported, etc. - it provided a comprehensive background on what was going on and who was involved. looking at the pages of interviews, pages of references, i am convinced of the thoroughness of the author and i appreciate why this book was the winner of the pulitzer prize. outstanding work!!!

I have read extensively about Islamic terrorism and Al Qaeda and The Looming Tower is by far the most compelling and comprehensive book on this subject. It clearly lays out the social, philosophical and theological progression and foundations that led to 9/11. Though you may not agree, by the end of the book you clearly understand the radical extemist's rationale and the historic time line of the people and events that led to 9/11. Though it provides history, The Looming Tower reads like a novel which I could not put down. It is the seminal book on this subject.

A must read for any informed U.S. citizen. We all need to recommend it to our legislators for their reading..

Not being a student of history, or caring much about Muslims or Al Qaeda, I was reluctant to start The Looming Tower. Once I began, however, I was swept up by the pathology. Recognizing Qutb's dysfunctional personality is key to realizing what lost souls bin Laden and Zawahiri are. But understanding comes from knowing how inept our government has been. After reading The Looming Tower, read Marching into Hell. Then try to sleep.

I have found this to be an engrossing account. Once I got used to the names, it reads like a novel. So very informative and really holds my attention.
If you like history and detail, you'll love this book.

Since 9/11, I've read extensively on our enemies in the Middle East. This book is the best distillation of their ideology, their training, their tactics that you are going to find. Buy it, read it, and buy more for your family.

Technically, The Looming Tower has nothing to do with Iraq. It ends at 9/11. However, no other book on the subject illuminates so well the underpinnings of the complex terrorist movements that eventuate in a lucky but effective Al Qaeda. No other book documents so well the insularity, defensiveness, and ultimately the arrogance that leaves the United States so unprepared to deal with a Muslim based terror group. Wright builds his story like a police procedural. He examines the streams of influence that bring together former Afghan insurgents, Egyptian radicals, and Bin Laden himself into an uncomfortable federation that can barely find a home anywhere. He examines the motives and psychology of the players, not simply their religious and political aims. And he weaves the tale together into a fascinating narrative. On the other side, he shows how unwillingness to take the nascent movement seriously combines with thoughtless inertia to create an inability to understand Al Qaeda's threat when it could have been managed or even stopped. Wright also describes and analyzes how the "siloizaton" of the agencies in charge of the intelligence fed into policy and operational incompetence. As both stories begin to come together on the day of the flaming towers, as in a good procedural novel we are prepared for the ending and undestand how it inevitably came to be. The spate of books on the events that brought us from 9/11 to a manipulated war in Iraq all make more sense because of the framework established by The Looming Tower.

The Looming Tower definitely deserved its Pulitzer Prize. I have read a few post 9/11 histories and some are better than others. Lawrence Wright has put together a very solid piece, with what was, for me, new information.

Wright does a great job of puling biographies of four men together to really paint a picture the evolution and eventual fact of the 9/11 disaster. He starts with Sayyid Qatb, a repressed Egyptian Muslim who is the philosophical underpinning of one of the key figures in 9/11, Ayman al-Zawahiri. He also does a great job of telling the life story Zawahiri, another repressed fanatic, who was tortured in jail after his organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, was involved in the assassination of Anwar Sadat for this secular government and repression of religious fanatics. And finally, John O'Neill, the obsessed playboy FBI agent who was the lead investigator in the Cole explosion and knew something big was going to happen with Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

This work is a crucifixion of the internecine warfare among American law enforcement and intelligence agencies tasked with protecting America with their turf warfare and lack of information sharing. It is beyond painfully clear that bureaucracy, jealously, and ineptitude not only contributed to 9/11, but ensured that it would happen. And it also paints a dim psychological portrait of the men behind the 9/11 attack and their perversion of the Muslim religion to suit their own warped worldview. The mostly subtle psychology of terrorism, at least terrorism among this group, is believable and frightening. Frightening because such previsions can be so successfully persuasive among those who would follow their lead.

This is a solid work on some of the background the root factors leading up the 9/11 and highly recommended.

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to try and understand the basis for the current world terrorist movement. A great read with insights into many key people and events that led to 9/11.

Lawrence Wright's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Looming Tower is the best history of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden that I have come across. Wright traces not just the history of the terrorist, but the fascinating if disturbing history of Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East, where religion was more intimately linked with people's way of life than in any other nation in the world, and where a perception of the world engendered by old tribal customs and anti-Western attitudes fanned hate and extremism that was nonetheless seen by its practitioners to be essential to maintain their culture and religion- a point that has been sadly lost on Westerners. As CIA agent and bin Laden expert Michael Scheuer says, they don't attack the US because of "its freedoms". They attack the US because they see the US as interfering in their quintessential Islamic way of life, what they hold dearest, irrespective of whether it's justified or not. They are as much in love with Islam as any one ever was with any entity. That is what is frightening.

Wright traces the roots of extremism in the Middle East through Saudi Arabia's history, where extreme and primitive religious traditions juxtaposed strangely with immense wealth driven by exploration for oil. It was in this milieu, after World War 2 that Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri grew up and acquired a taste of jihad. Often lucidly Wright talks about the environment where they spent their childhoods, and brings the rustic Saudi Arabian landscape to life. Wright also talks about the enduring influence of Syed Qutb, the devout Egyptian religious scholar who was disturbed by what he perceived as the hedonistic coed culture of the United States, when he visited the country as an exchange scholar in the 1950s. It was his writings and his image as a martyr- Qutb was jailed and executed as an extremist in Egypt- that greatly inspired Bin Laden's and Al Zawahiri's calls for worldwide Jihad.

Wright also documents in considerable detail both Bin Laden's and Al-Zawahiri's transformation from educated, well-to-do moderates to extremist radicals in love with the Quran and martyrdom. Bin Laden's extremism was only set aflame during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Wright vividly describes the deadly brotherhood and romantic visions of martyrdom that bound the Jihadis together in that war-torn country. It only helped that Bin Laden had the money to draw followers and finance missions. After that, it was only natural and a small step before Bin Laden turned his already brainwashed and transformed psyche towards the US.

On this side of the Atlantic, Wright also narrates the urgent and often heartbreaking efforts of the few CIA and FBI agents who recognized Bin Laden's threat in the 90s, the marginalized Michael Scheuer among them. The central tragic figure in the book is John O'Neill, the brilliant, swaggering but restless and tormented FBI agent who was desperate to snare Bin Laden, often fighting tenaciously against the foot-dragging and bureaucracy in the government agencies. A man who never achieved satisfaction in life, O'Neill was a heavy drinker who lived with three women at the same time. After many failed attempts to capture Bin Laden and convince the administration to be more serious about the threat- a journey that along with some other dedicated FBI agents led him around the world from Africa to the Middle East- O'Neill finally had enough and took up a new position as head of security...at none other than the World Trade Center. O'Neill could have escaped in the initial attacks. But keeping with tradition, he decided to go inside the flaming towers to save others. The man who more than almost anyone else had been trying to catch or kill Bin Laden tragically perished inside the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Wright's book is a gripping treatment of an urgent subject. It demonstrates what fearsome power religion can summon, how it can completely transform the minds of men in the service of romanticized deadly causes, how blind ideology can have devastating and heartbreaking consequences. It shows us how the Middle East is largely and tragically still a land stuck in time, where irrational beliefs and tribal brotherhood can manifest in the most violent ways. The story of these gentle-looking, pious Jihadis is chlling by any standards. It is yet another illustration of the insidious nature of religious faith. It deserves to be read, and we all deserve to read it and think about what we can do to stop such fanaticism. The leader of the United States is not even close when he says that the men of Al Qaeda are cowards and fanatics. They are anything but that; they are cold, calculating, determined men who have dedicated their lives to what they see as the most just cause in their lives. They need to be stopped at any cost, and understanding where they come from will be the first step in trying to do that.

This book is fascinating. It personalizes the history of 9/11, taking us into the mind and culture of those who founded it, and those who laid down the philosophy before it. It is a gripping read, highly factual, but written in a way that pulls you in to the story and gives you breadth about the characters, and the evolution towards increased bloodshed and the incompetence of the American bureaucracy in dealing with it. This book should be read. Don't just listen to my review... press the buy button and read it yourself. It is worth it.

Not an easy read, but an important read if one wants to understand how we got where we are in terms of Bin Laden, Al Queda, 9/11, and the war on terror.

We must understand the past if we are to understand the future. Otherwise, we will make the same mistakes again...

This is a litany of our mistakes, missed opportunities, and misunderstandings that led to 9/11.

It is impressive that this book is written without casting blame or second guessing. It just lays it out there, warts, moles and all.

That makes this a very important book for our age. A very important book. A "must read" for anyone who wants to understand the world in which we live.

Very informative. Every American should read this book to get a better understanding of al Qaedi - who they are and how they think and operate.

I would echo what an author said on the jacket - this led to a lot of 'aha' moments where things were stitched together for me.

This book gave me a detailed understanding of the radical Islamism mind. It should be required reading fo all Western civilizations including US congress.

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.

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."

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.

The Looming Tower is a fast-paced, clearly written book that carefully illuminates the climate that spawned 9/11.

It's sad the book was ever written. We had opportunities to capture OBL, which would of completely disrupted al Qaeda. In fact, only a small faction within the CIA and FBI ever heard of the group. The were never taken serious. One of the main reasons of our intelligence failures, is rooted in the poor communication between the CIA, FBI, NSA. The book explains had there been better communication we probably would of got the 9.11 hijackers. The question I am still asking is: Why haven't these problems been fixed?

I have read perhaps 20 books or more on 9/11, Al Qaeda, Bin Laden and thier origins. This books captures it all. Read this book if you want to understand Al Qaeda and the sheer evil the US is confronting.

I wanted to learn more about Al Qaeda and, after careful research, I decided this was the book that could best teach me. I certainly wasn't disappointed.

It often read like a novel, but did not spare any of the minute details that gave me a better understanding of how we went from point A to points B through Z.

While I hesitate to write much on a book that has been so thoroughly and well-reviewed, I would like to add a few points. The Looming Tower is eminently readable and informative. The "truthers" notwithstanding, the Looming Tower is destined to be the definitive text for some years to come. As scholars continue to deconstruct the events that lead to 9-11, this book will be the starting point.

With countless first hand accounts, Wright brings a wealth of personal perspectives to a story that is fairly well known; or it it? After reading several books on Bin-Laden and the formation of Al-Quaeda, I was surprised to see the depth of ineptitude of the Afgan Arabs and the bitter infighting of the various factions of radical Islam. The myth of the omnipotent Bin Laden is well exposed as is the assumption that the Saudi jihadihsts were instrumental in the defeat of the Soviets in Afganistan. The salient theme of Al-Qaeda is not their efficiency or planning, but a history of incompetence capped by one highly successful, murderous event.

This is popular history as it should be written. Highly readable and credible.

Can't say enough good things about this book. I learned more about the subject via the book than in all the previous reading and study I had done. A well deserved Pulitzer!

Absolutely the best book on the subject!
As gripping as a Sayers mystery and as well
written as a Hemingway short story. Not just
good information but a good read.

We cannot combat an enemy we do not know, and this book tells us who our enemy is, why he thinks the way he does, and why 9-11 happened. In my opinion every Amercian should read this book. It may be the most important book of our generation. It starts with the philosopical foundations and leaders of radical Islam from the 1930's forward and how their thought and actions evolved. More important it helps us understand their long term objectives, why we are so hated, and gives us great enlightenment about what we can do to combat it. Most important it helps us understand how our intelligence services failed and why so many people perished on that tragic day.

Lawrence Wright's "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" tells the story of the rise of al-Qaeda and some of the early U.S. government attempts to thwart al-Qaeda. This is an interesting, well-researched, and well-written book, although it does not tell the whole story.

Wright begins his story with some of the early Egyptian Islamists who formed the Muslim Brotherhood. Their writings and actions formed the foundation for al-Qaeda. Then he tells the story of Osama bin Laden - first his father's rise to wealth and influence in Saudi Arabia, then the personal story of Osama bin Laden, his work in Pakistan, his time in Sudan, his adoption of extreme Islami and founding of a terrorist network, and finally his fleeing to Afghanistan under the Taliban. Wright tells not only the public story of these men but also their private lives - who they married, their children, their relationships with their wives, and other interesting details that are little-known to most. Finally, Wright tells the story of the FBI's counterterrorism efforts, especially those run by John O'Neill, who was driven by his belief that al-Qaeda would strike the U.S., but whose personal life read like a soap opera.

Wright's story is very well-researched. He traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and interviewed over 500 people for this book. However, despite all of this research, Wright does not quite tell the whole story of al-Qaeda and the path to the 9/11 attacks. Some of these holes are in his own story; for example, Wright makes it a point to stress that Osama bin Laden was broke when he fled Sudan and that the time in Afghanistan with the Taliban was a frugal one, but he never explains how al-Qaeda was able to find the funding for 9/11 or for al-Qaeda's continued existence. He also tells of the early rise of the Taliban but never finishes the story of how they secured power in Afghanistan.

But this is an important and informative book that sheds light on America's enemy. Wright also illuminates some of the inter-agency problems and barriers that hampered the U.S. government's ability to foil terrorism before 9/11. Because Wright does not quite tell the whole story, readers of "The Looming Tower" should also read Steve Coll's "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001" for more background on Afghanistan and Terry McDermott's "Perfect Soldiers : The 9/11 Hijackers: Who They Were, Why They Did It" for the personal stories of the 9/11 hijackers.

This book's strength is that it is written like a thriller. Unfortunately, that's also its weakness. What happened on 9/11 is too complicated to be reduced to a Hollywood production.
In order to achieve an exciting narrative, Wright has to gloss over those areas which are puzzling. For instance, he leaves out the fact that immediately after 9/11 Osama Bin Laden denied any responsibility. But would the Osama depicted in this book have done such a thing? His life for the previous ten years had been one of self-imposed privations and sacrifice dedicated to attacking America, but without much success. But we are supposed to believe that his first reaction to the 9/11 spectacular would be to disown it totally.
In true Hollywood style, at times the author tries to write the story as a personal war between Bin Laden - the evil genius who lives in a cave - and the maverick US FBI man, John O'Neill. Bin Laden emerges as much the more attractive character. This wealthy Arab sacrificed the rich lifestyle offered him by his background in order to fight the Russians. He treated his wives and family fairly and inspired devotion from his supporters. On the other hand, O'Neill lived a dissolute life, lying to every woman he slept with and poisoning the relationship between the CIA and the FBI with his arrogant attitude. He doesn't make a very convincing hero. But the real problem with the book is the author's sources.
For instance, Wright relies heavily on the testimony of a man called Jamal al-Fadl, but in the introduction he tells us that al-Fadl was "selling a story, but he clearly knew the players. The problem was that he kept lying to the investigators, embroidering his tale, depicting himself as a hero who only wanted to do the right thing."
The book has forty pages of notes, and any careful reader should constantly refer to these because many of the most important allegations are not supported. One example will have to suffice: we are told that in 1988, Bin Laden and others met to debate the future of jihad. Wright states that "Although the notes don't reflect it, a vote was taken to form a new organisation aimed at keeping jihad alive after the Soviets were gone." This was clearly a momentous decision, but you can't find in the book who actually said that there was a vote.
This book is a novelisation of the official version. It's very entertaining, but please don't read it uncritically. And what really surprised me was the very generous depiction of Qutb, Bin Laden and Zawahiri.

The looming tower, tells from a US perspective, the story of the emergence of Al-Queda. It does a creditable job in telling of the emergence, in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, of a generation of fanaticists, who were humiliated and disgusted by their own leaders and by the US support for Israel. The book follows the emergence of radical views of the Islamic teachings, eventually seeking to justify Muslims in committing suicide, killing civilians, killing other muslims and so on. For me, this had echoes of the IRA campaign, in which a wider and wider group of people were said to be `legitimate targets' over the course of the years.
There were a number of surprises for me in the book, one being the ruthless effectiveness of the Egyptian security services. There is an unspeakable tale of infiltration of Al-Queda in Sudan, by the Egyptian security, and the devastating consequences for all concerned. The book claims that the mainly-urban society which is modern Egypt has militated against the emergence of an effective guerrilla/subversive organisation, I'm not sure why it didn't emerge, but I can't credit the rural/urban divide as being the main reason.
One other surprise was the lack of sophistication of the majority of Al-Queda attacks, the book describes the bombing of the US embassies in Africa, and of the US Cole. It shows that one of the key communications links between the leaders and the operators was a home in Yemen, which acted as a message relay centre. Similarly other operatives were caught through, apparently, quite straight forward detection.
Undoubtedly the fact that Al-Queda was based in lawless countries contributed to its ability to train operatives and mount attacks. However the clear lesson of the book is the dysfunctional relationship between the US intelligence agencies. The CIA was aware of a significant number of operatives, had tracked them and failed to pass this intelligence on to the FBI when these operatives entered the US. The CIA's interpretation of its exclusion from domestic surveillance, was that it would not compromise its international sources and methods, by sharing information with the FBI.
This calamity was repeated and repeated through the years tracked by the book. Indeed the FBI itself is shown as slow-moving, bureaucratic an plagued by its own internal dissensions. For me the chief lesson from the book was that the subsequent over-reaction - Guantanamo, waterboarding - might not have been necessary, if an effective intelligence network had been put together, overcoming internal, corporate resistance.
Overall a powerful read, of a looming tragedy, which was foretold, but ignored

Are we being lulled to sleep by the fact that there hasn't been an attack on U.S. soil since 9/11? If so, Mr. Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower should shake us wide awake to the dangers of our enemy. This true account of the development of Al-Qaeda reads more like a fast paced novel than a historical account and will engross you quickly and keep you turning pages.

The beginning of the book masterfully looks at Sayyid Qutb and how his philosophies and book, "Milestones" in the mid-20th century eventually led to present day Al-Queda. All the cast of characters are present with good development around each. I found especially interesting the friction between bin Laden and Zawahiri. The dynamic tension between the FBI and the CIA; which is exemplified by the admiration and conflict between John O'Neil (FBI) and Michael Scheuer (CIA), author of "Through Our Enemies' Eyes" is also extremely fascinating. For an interesting video account of John O'Neil I would highly recommend watching the Frontline special "The Man Who Knew" from 2002. [...]

The Looming Tower does and excellent job of vividly describing our enemy and what we as a nation and the West in general are up against regarding Islamic radicals. This problem will not go away easily and can't be ignored if we hope to continue to enjoy our freedoms and liberties that make this country so great.

If you want a well rounded and excellently researched account of how we got to where we are today regarding our struggle with Islamocfascism and how this struggle could continue for many years, The Looming Tower is a must read.

Are we being lulled to sleep by the fact that there hasn't been an attack on U.S. soil since 9/11? If so, Mr. Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower should shake us wide awake to the dangers of our enemy. This true account of the development of Al-Qaeda reads more like a fast paced novel than a historical account and will engross you quickly and keep you turning pages.

The beginning of the book masterfully looks at Sayyid Qutb and how his philosophies and book, "Milestones" in the mid-20th century eventually led to present day Al-Queda. All the cast of characters are present with good development around each. I found especially interesting the friction between bin Laden and Zawahiri. The dynamic tension between the FBI and the CIA; which is exemplified by the admiration and conflict between John O'Neil (FBI) and Michael Scheuer (CIA), author of "Through Our Enemies' Eyes" is also extremely fascinating. For an interesting video account of John O'Neil I would highly recommend watching the Frontline special "The Man Who Knew" from 2002. It can be found at pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/view/.

The Looming Tower does and excellent job of vividly describing our enemy and what we as a nation and the West in general are up against regarding Islamic radicals. This problem will not go away easily and can't be ignored if we hope to continue to enjoy our freedoms and liberties that make this country so great.

If you want a well rounded and excellently researched account of how we got to where we are today regarding our struggle with Islamicfacism and how this struggle could continue for many years, The Looming Tower is a must read.

Well researched, well written and a real eye opener. Many "wow" and "now I understand" moments. Truly a book every American should read.

First of all, this book is not a conspiracy theory or a bash-Bush tale. It's a very balanced and thoughtfully researched book dedicated to the American reader to help them better understand the Islamic extremists and how the anger is propogated in the Middle East. Shoo, conspiracy theorists, because you may learn something you don't want to in this book. Alex Jones and David Ray Griffin are waiting for your attention.

I picked up this book about 4 months ago and had struggled to read the first half for about 2 months. For me, the Arab names and ME countries were confusing because I had never learned about this area of the world, but working through it was well worth it.

The first half is filled with the history of how bin Laden and other extremists became they way they are/were, with a good explanation of the countries and of Muslims. The names, like I said, were difficult for me to absorb all at once, but once I got things sorted out, the reading was fascinating. Some of the main characters even stomped the ground in areas in the U.S. close to my home. That was incredible! I often stopped mid-sentence and thought about how this all makes sense and how all of what we hear on the news for years connected to this incident (and others).

The second half of the book talks about the U.S. and what the intelligence agencies were doing here, following the interesting life of FBI agent John O'Neill. I don't think it was meant to be a critique on what we, as a country, failed to do in order to protect our borders. The second half was clearly much easier to read. I even had a sympathy for a womanizing snake like O'Neill, who was very dedicated to helping this country but had a weakness for messing with ladies' hearts.

The book maintains an overall balance, even when writing about Al Qaeda and the "making" of bin Laden. I am in awe of this outstandingly well written and well reasearched book that I plan to reread it now that I've finished it. It will definitely open your eyes to how extremist Muslims think and the confusion that is rooted in the ME.

Worth the read! Give it to all your friends who care about understanding the world's conflicts, or to your 9/11 obsessed friends like me.

This is a well detailed work with profiles of the leaders and founders of Al-Qaeda. Interestingly, the author notes that the leaders (including Zawahiri and bin Laden) are all too human and aren't perfect. They have made mistakes and at times have actually botched terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, 9/11 was one scenario they got right.

The research done for this book was excellent and the author presents a very comprehensive historical overview.

Tthis is an excellent book and is impossible to put down. As many others have written, everyone should read it.

Prior to The Looming Tower, author Lawrence Wright wrote seven major articles in the New Yorker about al Qaeda and the events of September 11, 2001. While I bought the book as soon as it was published, I was reticent to pour myself into it because I'd already read the seven previous articles. This was a mistake. We have all seen books where the author has taken previously written work only to put it between covers and call it a new book. To be sure, the seven referenced New Yorker articles make up the framework for The Looming Tower. But it's only a framework; Wright, (or his editors or publishers), have done a fantastic job of weaving these articles together with some new information to most importantly, tell you a story.

There are plenty of fine books out there about the history of radical Islam and how tentacles of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood have lead to the franchised jihad movement we now see today. (See Benjamin and Simon, The Age of Sacred Terror; Stern, Terror in the Name of God; and Miller, God has Ninety Nine Names, among many others). Wright starts with this same history of al Qaeda, but then much more importantly goes on to develop the significant characters who become the morning of September 11. Of the characters Wright describes in an appendix, (titled Principal Characters), I personally knew or know 14 of them. Several of them, including the story's protagonist John O'Neill, I knew very well. The context, color, and dimension Wright has brought to the characters whom I knew gives me great confidence in the worth of this overall rendition of what for many of us, will forever be the most significant story of our lifetimes.

Other than his work at the New Yorker writing about terrorism, I know very little about Lawrence Wright. Among other things he is described (including by himself), as a screenwriter (The Siege), and a playwright. He reportedly stars in his own one-man play titled My Trip to al Qaeda. I say this because it is obvious as someone who has read (many) and written (some) scholarly works about international terrorism, Wright has much more to offer than a generic account of "what happened". In fact, it's important to note that his story ends on the morning of 9/11. If you are interested in the intimate details of the investigation that followed that tragic event, and the investigations about the investigation, this book is not for you. If you are interested in the substance, the very DNA of the people whose lives in some cases literally collided on that early autumn morning, then you need to read this important book.

I can't possibly say anything more positive than what others have already shared. This should be required reading in every high school in America (but I know it never will be)

One recommendation, however - consider the audiobook. I have trouble picking up and sustaining proper pronunciations of many arab names and places. The audiobook was a huge help to me -- and might be for you.

This is an amazing book, no wonder it won the Pulitzer Prize. It traces the growth of radical Islam from the 1950s to the events of 9/11. It reads like an adventure novel, but it is non-fiction. I think everyone should read this book!

It is no secret that most Americans have little knowledge of the outside world and the Middle East in particular. You could argue we have even less knowledge about why we were attacked on 9-11 and what we are currently fighting for. This book should be a must read for every American to get a better understanding of the mind of radical Islam, where it came from and how it got to be. I promote this book to everyone I know.

This is an excellent book.The writer won a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for this book.Lawrence Wright's story is based on 5 years of research and is a narrative history of the events leading up to 9-11.He tells his story from both sides outlining the story of the 2 leaders of Al Quaeda and the FBI counterterrorism chief,John O'Neill.If you don't understand the real threat we face from Islamofascism after you read this book you never will.This book shows us the reality that we are facing.The War On Terror is not just a bumper sticker,it is real.This book proves it.
I recommend it highly.
Tom Needham
New Freedom,Pa.

Extremely well written, readable overview of the organization and events that culminated on 9/11. Tremendous research and many interviews are combined with a lot of previously gathered information and presented so that the reader feels enlightened. We underestimated their abilities for too long, but should not overestimate them now. It's time to get the real bad guys and stop the Iraq disaster.

Anyone out there confused about the Middle East, Al Qaeda, Jihad, Fatwas, where bin Laden came from and how he got his power? Well, this is the book for you! It is highly readable. A page turner and the only confusion for me is in the miriad of Arabic names and trying to keep everyone straight but it is a real eye opener to this intense world situation and how it all came about.