LAWRENCE WRIGHT

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

Introduction

The September 11th terrorist hijacking and attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon caught the United States largely by surprise. Once the dust had settled, and the shock and horror of such an unprecedented event had waned, the American public began to ask questions. Names such as Osama bin Laden, countries such as Afghanistan, and organizations such as Al-Qaeda brought into the public's consciousness for the first time. Through newspapers, talk back radio and television programs, the nation asked why do they hate us so much? Others, such as those in the government and public service, asked what could we have done to have prevented this? It is these two burnings questions that Lawrence Wright attempts to answer in The Looming Tower. In his incredibly detailed account of the events leading up to 9/11, Wright narrates the development of Al-Qaeda, and it is anti-American philosophy, as well as the efforts of various personalities of the US law enforcement bureaus who attempted to prevent these attacks from occurring. Wright concludes his book by placing the blame for 9/11 on the organizational structure of the law enforcement agencies in the US, as well as on certain individuals within the CIA (Wright, 2006). While Wright presents some highly persuasive and well researched arguments as to the causes of 9/11, his bias and one-sided approach to certain issues detracts from the readers overall understanding of these events.

The Looming Tower is an extremely impressive book, one which probably deserved to win the Pulitzer, and it is required reading for anyone with an interest in 9/11, terrorism, Al-Qaeda or the modern history of the Middle East in general. What is particularly interesting about this book, is what it can tell us about the ubiquitous and very hard-to-eradicate conspiracy theories that continue to linger on about September 11, now nearly ten years after its occurrence.

Discussion

Wright's account takes on the form of a biography, narrating the lives of a series of seemingly unconnected individuals to illustrate how Al-Qaeda came to be, and why September 11 occurred. He outlines why the United States attacked, stringing together events that he believed were crucial in the development of Al-Qaeda's desire to attack America. While Wright develops his argument through the medium of storytelling, his book fact-checked against hundreds of exhaustively researched sources, from official intelligence documents to eyewitness statements from those close to bin Laden, some of which the author dedicated tracked down himself (Scheuer, 2011). One of the great strengths of The Looming Tower is Wright's ability to condense such an immense quantity of information into a story that is not only readable and thrilling, but greatly enhances the readers understanding of the road to 9/11.

Wright's personality driven account begins with a biography of SayyidQutb, who he contends founded the Al-Qaeda stream of modern Islamic fundamentalism. It is interesting to learn that Qutb's extremist philosophy, made famous in his manifesto Milestones ...