Hearing Protection Devices And System

Book Critique of The Looming Tower

The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center were a shock to America, but by a detailed investigation into the origins and intentions of the terrorists who planned them, The Looming Tower: Al- Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright removed much of the "mystery" surrounding that dreadful day. Wright graduated from Tulane University with a bachelors in English Literature and earned an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from The American University in Cairo, where he also taught English. Pursuing a journalistic career since his return to the U.S. in 1971, he joined the staff of the New Yorker magazine and has written six books. The Looming Tower was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Wright did not state a specific thesis, but he clearly wanted to prove that the 9/11 attacks succeeded because of an emerging radical Islamist movement that was not recognized as a threat by the dysfunctional U.S. intelligence agencies of the FBI and CIA, which failed to cooperate in coordinating counter-terrorism measures. The strength of his analysis is supported by some 600 interviews with key individuals on several continents, providing personal perspectives on how bin Laden created al-Qaeda by studying the writings of Sayyid Qtub, an Egyptian holy man martyred for his anti-Western Islamist ideology; the Muslim Brothers; and Ayaman al-Zawahiri, a radical Egyptian physician who founded al- Jihad and became bin Laden's second in command. "The dynamic of the two men's relationship made Zawahiri and bin Laden into people they would never have been individually," as they embraced an ambitious and "unique path" of "global jihad" (Wright, 146). Another key player--on the American side--in the events leading up to 9/11 was John O'Neil, a leader of the FBI Counterterrorism unit. "There was no one else in the bureau who was as strong and as concerned, no one else who might have taken the morsels of evidence that the CIA was withholding and marshaled a nationwide dragnet that would have stopped 9/11"(Wright, 395).

Without bin Laden 9/11 could not have occurred and Wright provides several examples of how it is so. Bin Laden, throughout the book, is portrayed as the leader and financer. In several chapters Wright makes connections of how bin Laden and his supporters viewed him. For instance, most of the time he was ill and his "victories" were mere luck. Wright provides an indept analysis of al-Qaeda and its transition commit the actions that took place on 9/11 as a result of bin Laden. The book, which is composed of twenty chapters, gives birth to a new understanding of the tragedy that 9/11 caused America. What was surprising within the book was the fact that O'Neil worked diligently in trying to find information about bin Laden and that he would later be killed in the attack led by bin Laden. The use of various stories activates the readers mind to not only think of 9/11 as a whole but as a series of individuals whose actions eventually led to the 9/11.

Wright listed all interviewees on seven pages and provided brief bios on principal characters, as well as a bibliography. His many endnotes were keyed to quotes in text. Wright used many unique sources that validated most of the information in the book with personal "insider" perspectives. Videos, books written by colleagues of bin Laden, and personal interviews done by Wright himself differs from the typical research on the subject of 9/11. While reading Wright does not distract the reader by using footnotes, which made me wonder where is he getting the information from, but once completing the book there is a section of notes in which Wright sources his information. The evidence that he used to support his claims offers the readers insight into the lives of those closest to bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Where he lacks in evidence is the failure