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The Looming Tower
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The Looming Tower

Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

Lawrence Wright
Knopf, 2006
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Editorial Rating

9

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  • Innovative

Recommendation

Religious zealotry, poverty, repression and cheap weapons are critical elements for any terrorist group, but in the hands of a charismatic leader they can foment a formidable movement. That’s how millionaire Osama bin Laden revived an archaic form of Islam to confront contemporary Muslims, modernity and Western culture. Lawrence Wright richly describes the people and events, including mismanaged U.S. intelligence information, which led to numerous attacks on U.S. interests – culminating, of course, in the destruction of the World Trade Center. This disturbing book explaining the prospects of a long-term jihad has all the elements of a crime thriller, except it is real. getAbstract considers this essential reading for anyone interested in terrorism, current events and how the forces of radical terrorism hope to shape the decades ahead.

Summary

Early Days

Egyptian doctor and Islamic revolutionary Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri played a key role in shaping the radical Islamic politics that eventually attracted Osama bin Laden. Al-Zawahiri began with a clear political and religious goal: to overthrow the Egyptian government. He participated in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Imprisoned, tortured and then released, al-Zawahiri entered Saudi Arabia in 1985. There, he met Osama bin Laden, the 17th son (of 54 children from 22 wives) of Mohammed bin Laden, an illiterate laborer who benefited from the largesse of American construction firms and a series of jobs which brought him close to the Saudi royal family, starting with remodeling a house for King Abdul Aziz.

Osama became religious at 14 and first married at 17 to a 14-year-old cousin. About this time, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Saudi government considered subversive. He worked in the family construction business, but soon became drawn to the Islamic rebels fighting the Russians in the Afghan war. In 1989, as that conflict was winding down, bin Laden moved to Sudan when Muslim fundamentalists overthrew its democratic government...

About the Author

Lawrence Wright taught at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, for two years. A staff writer for The New Yorker, he is a fellow at the Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law. His books include City Children, Country Summer, In the New World, Saints and Sinners, Remembering Satan, Twins and one novel, God's Favorite. He co-wrote a film, The Siege.

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