The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • A “heart-stopping account of the events leading up to 9/11” (The New York Times Book Review), this definitive history explains in gripping 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.
One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century • A Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of the Last 30 Years
WITH AN AUTHOR'S NOTE ON THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY
In gripping narrative that spans five decades, 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 a sweeping, unprecedented history of the long road to September 11.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
1. The Martyr
6/10
Yeeeesh… the author paints a picture of USA you legit see radicals Muslims paint. Black people beaten on the streets and not let into establishments. Women are of lower value than men. I get that many Muslims have these ideas about the West, but instead of being critical the author just jumps into this anti-American worldview and supports it. I couldn't get over how extremely primitive and narrow his understanding of USA is. Which is a shame as the rest was fairly good. But then how do I know the author is less narrow-minded in other topics? I'm not an expert on Egypt or Nasser so I can't say if the author is fair on this.
The chapter is about a religious fanatic who lived a bit in USA and wrote a book attacking USA for the sexual freedom, Jews, and greed. He later was high ranking in Egypt. But he refused to work for Nasser and follow his ideas and would rather be executed to become a martyr.
2. The Sporting Club
7/10
Luckily either the book got better or I’m just so clueless about Egypt that I can’t see the biases anymore. We follow religious fanatics in Egypt. Largely single people. I’m not sure who these people are or why we need to understand them? Did they do something in relation to terrorism later on in life? Maybe, but right now it’s hard to care about random people. I do like how we learn about fanatical motivations and the strive to make Egypt religious extremist.
3. The Founder
7,5/10
It's getting good. It's still small stuff about people. But this is about how the bin Laden family got rich. Mostly about the uneducated dad who built the empire. But also about Osama. I know who Osama is which makes this much better. And it's also just a better chapter as you learn a bit about Saudi Arabia.
These chapters are huge so far! Like really long. Over 1 hour each on audiobook.
4. Change
7/10
The Mosque attack in Saudi Arabia. Osama giving Saudi Arabian private support money to the Afghans vs. USSR.
The Afghan fighters are fearless. The Saudis are terrible. But the Saudi money from bin Laden are crucial. USSR soon starts to lose. Bin Laden is creating an army of Muslim extremists because of this war. Getting connections, starting a training center, trying to create an international group of Muslim extremists.
5. The Miracles
6,5/10
Jumping from country to country.
6. The Base
6,5/10
Between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.
7. Return of the Hero
6,5/10
Turki bin Faisal Al Saud running the Saudi intelligence agency. He’s a huge character in this book. We also go through the Middle East wars in this book here it’s Kuwait.
8. Paradise
7,5/10
Al-Qaeda has no enemy as USSR collapses. Now the former warriors pick USA as a foe as Christians are seen as evil.
9. The Silicon Valley
7,5/10
Terrorists set up units in USA. Some are free to travel USA and preach hate towards Jews and about their pro terrorism ideas. Some support killing civilians, Jews, cops.
10. Paradise Lost
6,5/10
About Osama bin Laden and his family and personal life. He got money from Saudi Arabia, but since he refused to return they finally stopped sending money. Which was shocking for his followers as they thought he was a billionaire yet now he had no money to give them. One of his wives divorces him and takes her kid with her to Medina.
11. The Prince of Darkness
6,5/10
John O’Neill, his work for FBI, and FBI zoning in on Osama bin Laden.
12. The Boy Spies
7/10
Assasination attempt on Mubarak. These governments fight Muslim extremist.
Osama bin Laden kicked out of Syria because USA and Saudi Arabia want him away from there and see that Afghanistan is where he must go. But Syria doesn’t give him all the money they owe him.
13. Hijira
6,5/10
Osama bin Laden works with people who commit terror attacks after he writes his anti-USA and anti-Israel and Saudi Arabia manifesto.
14. Going Operational
7/10
US agencies slowly start looking into Osama bin Laden and discover the name Al-Qaeda.
15. Bread and Water
6,5/10
More creation of terror units in Muslim countries. Chechnya, Afghanistan, Egypt.
16. “Now It Begins”
7/10
Sharing info on Al-Qaeda is very hard in USA as the agencies guard their info so that they can use it to spy and get more info. Both USA and Saudi Arabia wants Osama bin Laden, but he makes sure to become friends with Taliban. Saudi Arabia gave them weapons and cars to make them a strong military unit, just to get back Osama bin Laden, but Taliban has their own plans. They don’t mind breaking deals.
17. The New Millennium
7/10
FBI investigations into Al-Qaeda and new terror attacks.
18. Boom
7/10
USA slowly starts to investigate terror cells in Arabic countries, but they get very little info from Muslim regimes and agencies in USA refuse to share information as information is power for each single agency. There are some main characters like O’Neill. And I’m not sure this is what I need in info, but it’s an impressive book.
19. The Big Wedding
8,5/10
9/11. It’s like a fresh start to the book. It feels like a topic I actually wanted to read about instead of being about just single individuals. This should be the first chapter. Then future chapters should point back to this. Instead we just follow random characters we don’t quite understand yet in the other chapters.
20. Revelations
7/10
More stories about single people.
My final opinion on the book
Lately I have read a lot of books that went in one ear and out the other while I still appreciated the work that went into them. It’s a book with 1000 small stories and I maybe remember 20 of them. I always rate these books 4 or 5 stars while in reality they are books I barely remember or learn much from. It’s just a very impressive work of history and if you fully focus on it you will get A LOT out of it. You just need to be focused on the small emotional stories of people and very carefully keep track of every name mentioned in this book to remember the people as they appear in future chapters. I rarely do this that well. Of course my brain is not geared to remember names, but maybe I’m being lazy about it too. I need a visual medium for the characters and the technical stuff. Everything else I can pick up while reading. So while the book was not really for me I still recommend it. For sure.
Extra comments:
I decided to watch the TV show to "finish" this review. I always do this, but often a week AFTER I post the review. But that's no good, people want to know how to compare this stuff. The TV show is better than the book at explaining the personal details and main elements of the story. I did like it more than the book. But it had several issues. It's very slow-paced. It has a ton of sex scenes, shaving scenes, romance scenes. The book has the same issues for sure, but the book is more focused on history. I do recommend the TV show if you enjoyed the book. But watch it BEFORE you read the book. This is just crucial to understand everything in the book. Now I'm going to watch a few documentaries TV series about 9/11 to get even more background info. And then also try to go back and look at my old reviews to update them. Unfortunately these 9/11 stories are lacking details CIA and FBI never revealed.
6/10
Yeeeesh… the author paints a picture of USA you legit see radicals Muslims paint. Black people beaten on the streets and not let into establishments. Women are of lower value than men. I get that many Muslims have these ideas about the West, but instead of being critical the author just jumps into this anti-American worldview and supports it. I couldn't get over how extremely primitive and narrow his understanding of USA is. Which is a shame as the rest was fairly good. But then how do I know the author is less narrow-minded in other topics? I'm not an expert on Egypt or Nasser so I can't say if the author is fair on this.
The chapter is about a religious fanatic who lived a bit in USA and wrote a book attacking USA for the sexual freedom, Jews, and greed. He later was high ranking in Egypt. But he refused to work for Nasser and follow his ideas and would rather be executed to become a martyr.
2. The Sporting Club
7/10
Luckily either the book got better or I’m just so clueless about Egypt that I can’t see the biases anymore. We follow religious fanatics in Egypt. Largely single people. I’m not sure who these people are or why we need to understand them? Did they do something in relation to terrorism later on in life? Maybe, but right now it’s hard to care about random people. I do like how we learn about fanatical motivations and the strive to make Egypt religious extremist.
3. The Founder
7,5/10
It's getting good. It's still small stuff about people. But this is about how the bin Laden family got rich. Mostly about the uneducated dad who built the empire. But also about Osama. I know who Osama is which makes this much better. And it's also just a better chapter as you learn a bit about Saudi Arabia.
These chapters are huge so far! Like really long. Over 1 hour each on audiobook.
4. Change
7/10
The Mosque attack in Saudi Arabia. Osama giving Saudi Arabian private support money to the Afghans vs. USSR.
The Afghan fighters are fearless. The Saudis are terrible. But the Saudi money from bin Laden are crucial. USSR soon starts to lose. Bin Laden is creating an army of Muslim extremists because of this war. Getting connections, starting a training center, trying to create an international group of Muslim extremists.
5. The Miracles
6,5/10
Jumping from country to country.
6. The Base
6,5/10
Between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.
7. Return of the Hero
6,5/10
Turki bin Faisal Al Saud running the Saudi intelligence agency. He’s a huge character in this book. We also go through the Middle East wars in this book here it’s Kuwait.
8. Paradise
7,5/10
Al-Qaeda has no enemy as USSR collapses. Now the former warriors pick USA as a foe as Christians are seen as evil.
9. The Silicon Valley
7,5/10
Terrorists set up units in USA. Some are free to travel USA and preach hate towards Jews and about their pro terrorism ideas. Some support killing civilians, Jews, cops.
10. Paradise Lost
6,5/10
About Osama bin Laden and his family and personal life. He got money from Saudi Arabia, but since he refused to return they finally stopped sending money. Which was shocking for his followers as they thought he was a billionaire yet now he had no money to give them. One of his wives divorces him and takes her kid with her to Medina.
11. The Prince of Darkness
6,5/10
John O’Neill, his work for FBI, and FBI zoning in on Osama bin Laden.
12. The Boy Spies
7/10
Assasination attempt on Mubarak. These governments fight Muslim extremist.
Osama bin Laden kicked out of Syria because USA and Saudi Arabia want him away from there and see that Afghanistan is where he must go. But Syria doesn’t give him all the money they owe him.
13. Hijira
6,5/10
Osama bin Laden works with people who commit terror attacks after he writes his anti-USA and anti-Israel and Saudi Arabia manifesto.
14. Going Operational
7/10
US agencies slowly start looking into Osama bin Laden and discover the name Al-Qaeda.
15. Bread and Water
6,5/10
More creation of terror units in Muslim countries. Chechnya, Afghanistan, Egypt.
16. “Now It Begins”
7/10
Sharing info on Al-Qaeda is very hard in USA as the agencies guard their info so that they can use it to spy and get more info. Both USA and Saudi Arabia wants Osama bin Laden, but he makes sure to become friends with Taliban. Saudi Arabia gave them weapons and cars to make them a strong military unit, just to get back Osama bin Laden, but Taliban has their own plans. They don’t mind breaking deals.
17. The New Millennium
7/10
FBI investigations into Al-Qaeda and new terror attacks.
18. Boom
7/10
USA slowly starts to investigate terror cells in Arabic countries, but they get very little info from Muslim regimes and agencies in USA refuse to share information as information is power for each single agency. There are some main characters like O’Neill. And I’m not sure this is what I need in info, but it’s an impressive book.
19. The Big Wedding
8,5/10
9/11. It’s like a fresh start to the book. It feels like a topic I actually wanted to read about instead of being about just single individuals. This should be the first chapter. Then future chapters should point back to this. Instead we just follow random characters we don’t quite understand yet in the other chapters.
20. Revelations
7/10
More stories about single people.
My final opinion on the book
Lately I have read a lot of books that went in one ear and out the other while I still appreciated the work that went into them. It’s a book with 1000 small stories and I maybe remember 20 of them. I always rate these books 4 or 5 stars while in reality they are books I barely remember or learn much from. It’s just a very impressive work of history and if you fully focus on it you will get A LOT out of it. You just need to be focused on the small emotional stories of people and very carefully keep track of every name mentioned in this book to remember the people as they appear in future chapters. I rarely do this that well. Of course my brain is not geared to remember names, but maybe I’m being lazy about it too. I need a visual medium for the characters and the technical stuff. Everything else I can pick up while reading. So while the book was not really for me I still recommend it. For sure.
Extra comments:
I decided to watch the TV show to "finish" this review. I always do this, but often a week AFTER I post the review. But that's no good, people want to know how to compare this stuff. The TV show is better than the book at explaining the personal details and main elements of the story. I did like it more than the book. But it had several issues. It's very slow-paced. It has a ton of sex scenes, shaving scenes, romance scenes. The book has the same issues for sure, but the book is more focused on history. I do recommend the TV show if you enjoyed the book. But watch it BEFORE you read the book. This is just crucial to understand everything in the book. Now I'm going to watch a few documentaries TV series about 9/11 to get even more background info. And then also try to go back and look at my old reviews to update them. Unfortunately these 9/11 stories are lacking details CIA and FBI never revealed.
The story of modern fundamental terrorism but with good business acumen, such as the very dangerous pitfalls of working in silos (lack of cooperation between CIA/FBI), the interplay of rationalization for immoral means and petty politics in Al-Qaeda and US intelligence, and of course, the hypocrisy of all the leaders.
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