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A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright's remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States. The Looming Tower achieves an unprecedented level of intimacy and insight by telling the story through the interweaving lives of four men: the two leaders of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri; the FBI's counterterrorism chief, John O'Neill; and the former head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turki al-Faisal. As these lives unfold, we see revealed: the crosscurrents of modern Islam that helped to radicalize Zawahiri and bin Laden ... the birth of al-Qaeda and its unsteady development into an organization capable of the American embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the attack on the USS Cole ... O'Neill's heroic efforts to track al-Qaeda before 9/11, and his tragic death in the World Trade towers ... Prince Turki's transformation from bin Laden's ally to his enemy ... the failures of the FBI, CIA, and NSA to share intelligence that might have prevented the 9/11 attacks. The Looming Tower broadens and deepens our knowledge of these signal events by taking us behind the scenes. Here is Sayyid Qutb, founder of the modern Islamist movement, lonely and despairing as he meets Western culture up close in 1940s America; the privileged childhoods of bin Laden and Zawahiri; family life in the al-Qaeda compounds of Sudan and Afghanistan; O'Neill's high-wire act in balancing his all-consuming career with his equally entangling personal life-he was living with three women, each of them unaware of the others' existence-and the nitty-gritty of turf battles among U.S. intelligence agencies.
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Previews available in: English Dutch German
Subjects
Current Events, September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001, Qaida (Organization), Intelligence service, Nonfiction, Government policy, Terrorism, Large type books, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Intelligence & Espionage, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Terrorism, New York Times reviewed, Intelligence service, united states, Terrorism, united states, Terrorism, government policy, Islam and politics, Terrorists, Jihad, Islam, Qaida (Organisation), Al-Qaida, 11 September 2001, Geheimdienst, Service des renseignements, Attentats du 11 septembre 2001, États-Unis, Internationaler Terrorismus, Terrorisme, Vorgeschichte, Politique gouvernementale, Elfter September, Qaida, September 11 Terrorist Attacks (2001) fast (OCoLC)fst01112794, Geschichte, Terrorism, religious aspects, Terrorismus, BekämpfungPlaces
United States, USATimes
GeschichteShowing 5 featured editions. View all 24 editions?
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1
The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
2007 September, Vintage Books
Paperback
in English
- First Vintage Books edition
1400030846 9781400030842
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2
De toren van onheil: Al-Qaida en de weg naar 11 september
2007, Meulenhoff
in Dutch
9029079150 9789029079150
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3
Der Tod wird euch finden: Al-Qaida und der Weg zum 11. September
2007, Dt. Verl.-Anst.
in German
- 1. Aufl.
3421043035 9783421043030
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4
The looming tower: Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11
2006, Knopf
in English
- 1st ed.
037541486X 9780375414862
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5
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
August 8, 2006, Knopf
in English
037541486X 9780375414862
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 429-438) and index.
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Work Description
National Book Award FinalistA Time, Newsweek, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and New York Times Book Review Best Book of the YearA gripping narrative that spans five decades, The Looming Tower explains in unprecedented 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. 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 the definitive history of the long road to September 11.From the Trade Paperback edition.
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