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

500 Pages·2006·8.67 MB·English

by  Lawrence Wright

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Praise for
T HE L O O M I NG T O W ER
"What a riveting tale Lawrence Wright fashions in this marvelous
book. The Looming Tower is not just a detailed, heart-stopping
account of the events leading up to 9/11, written with style and
verve. [It's] a thoughtful examination of the world that produced
the men who brought us 9/11, and of their progeny who bedevil
us today . . . Wright has unearthed an astonishing amount of
detail about Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri. .. and all the
rest of them. They come alive . . . The portrait of John O'Neill,
the driven, demon-ridden F.B.I, agent who worked so frantically
to stop Osama bin Laden, only to perish in the attack on the
World Trade Center, is worth the price of the book alone. The
Looming-Tower is, a thriller. And it's a tragedy, too."
—Dexter Filkins, Cover, The New York Times Book Review
"A towering achievement. One of the best and more important
books of recent years. Lawrence Wright has dug deep into and
written well a story every American should know. A masterful
combination of reporting and writing." —Dan Rather
"A searing view of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. a view
that is at once wrenchingly intimate and boldly sweeping in its
historical perspective ... A narrative history that possesses all
the immediacy and emotional power of a novel, an account that
indelibly illustrates how the political and the personal, the pub
lic and the private were often inextricably intertwined."
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Lawrence Wright's integrity and diligence as a reporter shine
through every page of this riveting narrative." —Robert A. Caro
CURRENT AFFAIRS/
ISBN 0-375-4K86-X HISTORY
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A SWEEPING NARRATIVE HISTORY of the events
leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the peo
ple 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 cross
currents of modern Islam that helped to radicalize
Zawahiri and bin Laden . . . the birth of al-Qaeda
and its unsteady development into an organiza
tion 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 despair
ing as he meets Western culture up close in 1940s
America; the privileged childhoods of bin Laden
and Zawahiri; family life in the al-Qaeda com
pounds 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 bat
tles among U.S. intelligence agencies.
Brilliantly conceived and written, The Looming
Tower draws all elements of the story into a gal-
vanizing narrative that adds immeasurably to
our understanding of how we arrived at Septem
ber ii, 2001. The richness of its new information,
and the depth of its perceptions, can help us deal
more wisely and effectively with the continuing ter
rorist threat.
LAWRENCE WRIGHT graduated from Tulane Uni
versity and spent two years teaching at the
American University in Cairo, Egypt. He is a staff
writer for The New Yorker and a fellow at the Center
on Law and Security at New York University School
of Law. The author of five works of nonfiction—
City Children, Country Summer; In the New World;
Saints and Sinners; Remembering Satan; and Twins—
he has also written a novel, God's Favorite, and was
cowriter of the movie The Siege. He and his wife are
longtime residents of Austin, Texas.
Lawrence Wright's Remembering Satan and Saints and
Sinners are available in Vintage paperback.
With 16 pages of photographs and 1 map in text
jacket photograph: Osama bin Laden and His Sixteen
al-Qaeda Members, © Reuters/Corbis
Jacket design by Chip Kidd
>~<
Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher, New York
www.aaknopf.com
8/2006
THE
LOOMING
TOWER
ALSO BY LAWRENCE WRIGHT
God's Favorite
Twins
Remembering Satan
Saints and Sinners
In the New World
City Children, Country Summer
THE
LOOMING
TOWER
Al-Qaeda and the
Road to 9/11
Lawrence Wright
Alfred A. Knopf ^^ New York 2006
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 2006 by Lawrence Wright
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A.
Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in
Canada by Random House of Canada, Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Constable & Robinson Ltd.
and Michal Snunit for permission to reprint an excerpt from
The Soul Bird by Michal Snunit. Reprinted by permission.
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks
of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wright, Lawrence, [date]
The looming tower : Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11 /
by Lawrence Wright.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-375-41486-x
1. September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001. 2. Qaida (Organization)
3. Terrorism—Government policy—United States.
4. Intelligence service—United States. I. Title.
HV6432.7.W75 2005
973.931—dc22 2006041032
Manufactured in the United States of America
Published August 8, 2006
Reprinted Three Times
Fifth Printing, August 2006
This is for my family,
Roberta, Caroline, Gordon & Karen
CONTENTS
Prologue 3
i. The Martyr 7
2. The Sporting Club 32
3. The Founder 60
4. Change 84
5. The Miracles 99
6. The Base 121
7. Return of the Hero 145
8. Paradise 163
9. The Silicon Valley 176
10. Paradise Lost 187
11. The Prince of Darkness 202
12. The Boy Spies 213
13. Hijira 224
14. Going Operational 237
15. Bread and Water 245