The
September 11th plane hijacking by the terrorists and the attacks that were made
on both the World Trade Center largely caught the United States by surprise.
After the settlement of this dust, the shock of this sort of unprecedented
occurrence had vanished, the American citizens started asking questions.
According to Meek, it is during this time that names such as Osama Bin Laden,
organizations such as Al-Qaeda, as well as nations such as Afghanistan came
into the consciousness of the public for the first time. The American public
asked questions like what would have been done in order to avert the incident
and why the organization had a lot of hatred against the U.S. Wright, in The
Looming Tower, makes an effort in giving answers to these questions that were
on everyone’s lips. The Looming Tower was published in the year 2006, even
though Wright started the project earlier, carrying out hundreds of interviews
with an array of individuals ranging from terrorist's sympathizers to the U.S.
law enforcement (Meek). The aim of this book was to give a narrative of the
happenings of the Sept 11, 2001.
Wright’s
account adopts the form of a biography, telling the lives of a number of
ostensibly unrelated individuals so as to make an illustration regarding the
development of the Al-Qaeda, and the reason why the September 11 transpired.
Wright’s The Looming Tower outlines the reason behind America’s attack, linking
together the incidences that he supposed were critical in the advancement of
Al-Qaeda’s desire to strike the United States. Knopf asserts that whereas
Wright develops his core arguments through the story-telling medium, the book
is fact-checked against the actual happenings of the incidences, hence giving
the readers a true account of the whole subject matter.
The
Looming Tower is a gripping account that gives an explanation of the
unprecedented detail on the development of Islamic fundamentalism, the ascent
of the Al-Qaeda, as well as the intelligence failures that culminated during
the attacks made on the World Trade Center. Lawrence Wright reconstructs the
immediate transformation of both Osama bin Laden and also Ayman al-Zawahiri
from ineffectual and idealistic soldiers from Afghanistan. The Looming Tower is
a tremendously impressive book that any individual interested in the 9/11
event, terrorism, Al-Qaeda, or the contemporary history of the Middle East. The
book is particularly interesting from the perspectives of the pervasive as well
as very hard-to-eliminate conspiracy theories that keep on lingering on
September 11, a decade after the event.
The
Looming Tower does not revolve around the conspiracy theories that surround the
9/11 incidences. It is just tangentially about the 9/11 itself. Wright focuses
on the origin of Al-Qaeda and the semi-biography of its dead leader, Osama bin
Laden. Nevertheless, what the book The Looming Towers does is to illustrate how
far the “9/11 Truth†theories from the reality. The book offers a comprehensive
examination on the circumstantial aspect of the 9/11 event, which is entirely
misplaced from the shallow standpoint of the conspiracy theories of the 9/11
attacks. The book is significant to any person who desires to comprehend the
reason behind Osama’s attack on the U.S. and what it is that they wished to
attain. Indeed, even though it was not perceived as a piece of demystification,
the ludicrous conspiracy theories still exist. The Looming Towers provide some
exceptional rejoinders towards the event. Although the 9/11 event is closest among
Osama’s followers, the account is highly attributed to him. The book does a
great job in spotting the flaws as well as the failures that were attributable
to the mass suicide By Osama bin Laden.
The
author of the book does a great job in making an in-depth discussion regarding
the Al-Qaeda roots as well as similar organizations, why they decided to target
the U.S., in addition to elucidation of the failure by the American security
agencies to prevent the tragic attack. Even though Wright’s book was not the
first analysis being made in relation to this event, The Looming Tower is
exemplary in its focus upon the details, which made it to be described as “a
historical narrative that has all the immediacy as well as emotional attachment
of a novel (New York Times). The Looming Tower places emphasis on both the
history as well as psychology on the major figures in the development of the
ideology that eventually toppled the World Trade Center (Wright).
As
the book The Looming Tower reveals, Lawrence Wright is an exceptional writer
who does his research well in relation to an event whose consequences will
forever remain in the minds of the American people. He fleshes out what was
initially long essays on the 9/11 events, combines extensive reportage and
personality sketches, as well as the pacing of a thriller in offering the
reader the best as well as the most readable narration to date, regarding the
events that led to the 9/11 event (Knopf).
Lawrence
explores the incidences that led to the unforgettable 9/11 attacks on the U.S.
in The Looming Tower. He provides an insight into the Al-Qaeda as well as its
activities. He pursues the U.S. intelligence information that showed the plans
by the terrorists. Wright asserts that the attacks would have been anticipated,
if only the information that was gathered would have been used appropriately.
He zeros in on the mastermind behind the attack, Osama Bin Laden, and the
manner in which he gained followers. Laden utilized his money as well as
influence to form a large terrorist organization that was accountable for many
deaths in the U.S. The Looming Tower is an exceptionally comprehensive account
of the incidents that led to the 9/11 events, where Wright talks about the
developments of the Al-Qaeda as well as its anti-U.S. philosophy, in addition
to the efforts made by different personalities in the U.S. law Bureaus in
trying to avert these attacks from taking place.
The
smartest decision that Lawrence Wright makes is his decision to open The
Looming Towers with the biographical description of Sayyid Qutb, who is at
times referred to as the “Philosopher of the Islamic Terror,†as well as
placing emphasis on Ayman al-Zawahiri, along with Osama bin Laden, in order to
clarify the Egyptian setting of most of the Islamism. Wright weaves the
accounts of Qutb, Zawahiri as well as bin Laden into that of Prince Turki, who
beheaded the Saudi Intelligence Services for many years, and that of John
O’Neill, an FBI agent who eminently who abandoned the counter-intelligence post
where he had been amongst the voices. The interplay that Wright provides
between these figures offers a quality turn of events that is nearly the same
as the tragedies by Shakespeare.
Insofar
as the plot of The Looming Towers goes, the author, Wright, does an efficient
job in illustrating just how outrageous the grievances as well as beliefs of
the Al-Qaeda members are, and as a result, how questionable it was that the
political leaders, who had not involved themselves in the study regarding the
movement will acknowledge the reports of their intents. Nevertheless, he
illustrates that the people who were particularly tasked with establishing
intelligence on the extremists came to comprehend the reality of the threat
that they posed. The saddening account in the story is the manner in which
bureaucratic intrigues along with politically-correct civil freedoms
“safeguards†frustrated the efficient investigation as well as exposure of the
threats. We start by comprehending why the individuals in the upper echelons
within the government would not expect attacks similar to the 9/11 one, and
then they end up being enraged by the very structures as well as working of the
government participation in making sure that even when the possibility of such
attacks became apparent, they chose to ignore the Red Alerts.
Lawrence
Wright describes a far-reaching analysis of the investigators as well as the
U.S intelligence apparatus, and illustrating that whereas t 9-11 was ridiculous
to most people it could have been averted relatively easy if it was not for the
governmental incompetence. Wright makes a conclusion on his book by blaming the
9/11 tragedy on the U.S. law enforcement agencies’ organizational structure,
along with a number of people within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Whereas
Wright presents various highly convincing as well as thoroughly researched
arguments regarding what caused the 9/11, he is biased as well as takes a
one-sided approach towards specific issues that detracts his readers from
overall comprehending these events.
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