The Looming Tower (2006) by Richard Wright

 New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century(#55)

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (2006)

by Richard Wright

   The Looming Tower is a non-fiction account of the "road to 9-11."  It landed at #55  on the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century list and unsurprisingly it isn't a very popular Audiobook.  I did find the story interesting, specifically the way Al-Qaeda arose from a bunch of stuff that had literally nothing to do with the United States- the Egyptian repression of Islamists that led to the further radicalization of the incarcerated, the history of Saudi Arabia and the role of Bin Laden's dad in developing the infrastructure of that country and of course the fervent US support of the very same Jihadis who became our worst enemies after 9/11 but were our friends during the war in Afghanistan.

  Another theme that emerges is just how kooky Bin Laden and his obsession with hitting the United States were in the context of the global movement for jihad.  Many of Bin Laden's own people thought he was out to lunch and other US targets:  The Taliban and Saddam Hussein to name two, were only peripherally involved and on-board with Bin Laden's dramatic plans.   The other side of the coin is Wright's investigation of the failure of United States intelligence to disrupt and prevent 9/11.  Here, I was reading as a criminal defense attorney who knows a lot about law enforcement and I finished The Looming Tower with the conviction that, yes, more could have been done particularly in the area of collaboration between the FBI and CIA which was prevented for some reason I still don't understand.  On the other hand, it's hard to prevent an attack that no one had even conceptualized before it happened.   Wright is able to point to scattered foreshadowing but there really was very little to hone on before the attacks occurred.