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

Lawrence Wright. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. New York, NY: Borzoi Book, August 8th 2006. 373 pp.

I knew I had to read this book after seeing many other books on counter-terrorism and radical Islam referenced this work.  There’s a reason why this book is cited often and mentioned in bibliographies: it is a well-researched book on the origins of Al Qaeda leading up to their attack on September 11^th.  The author spent five years researching for the book which led the author to travel all over the world.

The book goes back before Al Qaeda was around and started with the story of an Egyptian name Qutb who transitioned from a Westernized “modern” Egyptian to an Islamic radical after his experiences of living in the United States during the late 1940s.  Qutb’s teaching and writings would later influence the leaders of Al Qaeda.  The book also presents the background and origin of both Osama Bin Laden and Zawahiri, both important leaders of Al Qaeda.  The author did a good job documenting the transition of these men into radicals and eventually terrorists.  The book marches up to September 11^th and it also gives us a portrait of some of the men and women who were going against Al Qaeda long before most Americans understood the threat.  Also what was interesting about the book is the perspective of the family and friends being interviewed of Al Qaeda members and also the perspective of the Saudi prince in charge of Saudi’s intelligence services.

THINGS I LEARNED

This work is jammed packed with information.  Here are some of the things I learned through this book:

• In the 90s Al Qaeda had discussion about how the West have continued their crusades against Islam which they bitterly saw as beginning on Septemebr 11^th 1683 by the Polish who beat back the Muslims’s farthest advance on Europe at the gates of Vienna (171).  It certainly does explain why Al Qaeda attacked on that date.  I think it signify that ideologically their war is not just merely against America but on the non-Muslim West in general.
• The person that would later be the second in command of Al Qaeda, Dr. Zawahiri, have at one time visited California before to raise financial support for his terrorist organization called Al Jihad.
• The first traitor of Al Qaeda stole money from the organization and then fled to sell information about Al Qaeda to US intelligence services.  He was paid a million dollars, was allowed to make a new life in the United States and while living in New Jersey won the lottery.  You can’t make some of these things up.
• The origin of the Taliban as orphans of the Afghan and Soviet war, who grew up as refugees receiving religious education from the madrassas and who were sick of the fighting warloads in Afghanistan.  Ironically they end up being another warring and cruel faction in Afghanistan.
• I was surprised at how much the intelligence agencies and counter-terrorism services knew about Al Qaeda before 9/11 happened.  Unfortunately this documents the infighting and politics between various agencies.  It is enough to make readers mad.
• I’m not going to ruin the book for the readers but if one picks this book up pay attention to the character John P. O’Neill with his tragic and ironic end.  Again, sometimes in history things happened so coincidentally, you can’t make it up.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

Here are some things I thought that would have made the book better, even though I think it is a five out of five already:

• I wish the book had footnotes, it would have allowed readers to track the sources of where the author got his information.  I felt that was important given the nature of the subject matter is difficult to know who is telling the truth, etc.  Therefore knowing the source of the information is very important.  If the author had at least an endnote that would have helped readers discern where he got the information.
• On page 171 the author mentioned that American Evangelical Christian churches have at one time allowed mujahedeen leaders of the war in Afghanistan against the Soviets to make tours in their churches.  This is an astounding claim, and I wished the author gave his sources of where he got that information in the book.
• The author discussed about Christian fundamentalists on pages 346 and 347 that fundamentalism was powerful and dangerous with the example that anit-abortion protestors “were willing to kill others in the name of God.”  I don’t think it’s at the scale in comparison with radical Islam and I wished the author acknowledged that.

Again, an amazing book that has more materials than I can cover in one review.  If you want to have of what Al Qaeda is and also its root, read this book.

Purchase: Amazon