The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright Essay (Critical Writing)

Introduction

The book of Lawrence Wright impressed the readers with an innovative, unusual approach to the narration of the story that occupied the minds of all people around the world for several years, being the only interesting headline, and terrified the hearts of all civilized people not understanding how such cruelty, inhumanity and terror could have been committed by human, thinking beings. The topic of September 11, 2001 is not new – there has been so much discussion over the tragedy that it seems nothing more can be found out, no more conclusions and interesting facts can be inferred and found out about the situation.

But it turned out that the public was wrong, which was proved by Wright creating a really outstanding masterpiece revealing the story of the catastrophe from a completely another angle, so that people understood that it became a part of their life.

The main charm of the book is that it speaks not about the tragedy of 9/11 itself and it does not describe all horrors that took place during it and afterwards. Its main advantage is personification – Wright attempted to show that terrorists who are monsters are also people with their families, weaknesses and strengths.

But what is particular about the writing is that Wright investigated not the consequences of the tragedy but tried to have a deeper insight into why it took place, what events led to it, why it was not prevented and how it could have been prevented. Thus, it is worth thorough attention opening the personalities of Osama bin Laden and his first assistant Al-Zawahiri from an unknown side, letting people understand the whole way of their terroristic activity and incentives that brought about the creation of such a terror that gradually became the threat for the whole world.

Lawrence Wright is said to collect the image of bin Laden from multiple sources like his correspondence, remembrances of other people about him, people who knew him etc. so the writer states that he managed to discover the inner soul and deeply rooted personality of the most wanted person in the world. These findings are surely doubtable, but they are still informative, so even if the most part of inferences of the author is wrong, the book is still worth reading and analyzing, at least with the purpose of getting an alternative outlook at the tragedy of 9/11 and making one more tiny attempt to understand the motives of the organization that dared to commit such an awful crime against society.

The argumentation is chosen by Wright. Explanation of the attack of Al-Qaeda

From the very beginning of the book Wright explains the situation in the USA before the tragedy of 9/11 and tells the story of an FBI agent Coleman who found out who would be the projected most wanted criminal in the 21^st century and was not mistaken learning the name of bin Laden. He initiated his own investigation and tracked the people who were close to bin Laden to find out who he was and what activities he was undertaking. A man who was guilty with bin Laden and was running from him after stealing his money told much interesting to him and told the name of Al-Qaeda for the first time (Wright, 2006).

What is important about the prologue is that the author surprisingly sums up everything that took place before the tragedy and after it – how the evident threat of Al-Qaeda was neglected, how a small group of less than 100 people grew and evolved and finally became an undefeatable force that finally managed to create such chaos and kill so many people. Wright accounts for the medieval beliefs, primitivism of organization guided by some barbaric considerations – he says that these people have only learned to use contemporary tools for their goals, but in fact they remained in the 7^th century and were too bizarre and unreal that they could not be perceived seriously.

The USA was trying to protect themselves from savages by all possible innovative means, but they remained helpless against the basic hatred radiated from this group of people wishing to kill everyone on their way (Wright, 2006).

Lawrence Wright stipulates that the USA could have prevented the disaster if the governmental bodies were more integrated and coordinated; if the representatives of law enforcement and intelligence were less impudent to think that they were protected by the American dominance in the world market and would take the fact of the threat seriously. It becomes clear from the words of the author that the terrorism organization Al-Qaeda was at first something like an amateur organization that united disenchanted people and did not give any possibilities for them to commit such crimes and even think about their planning.

It was only in 1996 when people first heard about Al-Qaeda, as it became evident from the prologue, and paid no attention to its activity and growth. However, in case the threat were taken seriously and necessary actions were well-coordinated, then it would be possible to catch and liquidate Osama bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri before they managed to poison so many minds and work out a plan of mass destruction.

One more thesis Wright offers to the reader in the book “The Looming Tower” is that in general the event of 9/11 was the logical ending, the culmination of the development of Islamic movement that was rising for a long time, seeking some way for self-expression.

People were exhausted by constant wars, hostility, inhuman conditions and treatment; they were dissatisfied with the life they had been offered by developed countries and they sought change – the only thing they wanted was to be left alone and to be given a chance to live calmly. But the natural resources, gas and oil deposits that attracted the USA so much, as well as the overall wish of the USA to interfere with the domestic affairs of Eastern countries in an attempt to help them establish order made their wish non-accomplishable.

Thus, their rage and dissatisfaction, their wish to kill, their hatred and hostility that were formed for centuries, were finally shaped by the ideals of Islamic fundamentalism – they found their refuge in religion and managed to justify all their actions and terror they brought into the world by jihad. Thus, the author states that the activity of Al-Qaeda was a natural response to the actions of the USA in the world arena and to the domestic situation of war actions and hostility that surrounded Muslims and radicalized them (Wright, 2006).

The frame of the book is very interesting and original – through the personality of Coleman in the prologue the author states the main questions he will address in the course of the whole book. They are where Al-Qaeda had come from, why they had chosen America as their goal, and what Americans could have done to save themselves from the catastrophe. Afterwards the author analyses the emergence of Islamic terrorism organizations starting from the personal history of Kutub, the creator and ideologue of Islamic fundamentalism who, according to the opinion of the author, was not in fact religious.

Further on Wright gives a detailed account of Al-Zawahiri’s life, his establishment as a leader of terrorism and his activities in 1970s in the wartime against Israel. Further on Wright proceeds to the life story of Osama bin Laden, recording the moment when these two leaders united and created Al-Qaeda. From this moment, having answered the first question, Wright continues his analysis with the second question – why America was the aim. Finally, through the story of O’Neill who failed in the pursuit of bin Laden and tragically died during the tragedy the author speculates on the topic of what should have been done in order to prevent the disaster.

The argument of the author about the fact that Al-Qaeda was initially created as an organization with the sole aim of destroying the USA seems rather credible, but still it seems that the organization had broader goals than only this superpower. The author himself further analyses the establishment of Islamic fundamentalism and explains that the initial incentive for its emergence was not the West but the defeat in the war against Israel in 1967.

Looking deeper at the roots of emergency of Al-Qaeda, it is necessary to keep in mind that it was only a tiny part of a larger Islamic movement that was established in the context of the 20^th century in response to the turbulent living conditions in the East, neglect of religion and impurity of the West. The force of the movement comprises cruel, terror-oriented people who used to apply their maniac wishes in Afghanistan. However, as soon as the fire of Afghanistan faded, they needed another place to find where they would be able to fight against evil in their own perception. Thus, they came to the Middle East in search of war and they got it (Atwan, 2008).

At first the movement was disorganized and chaotic, being not unified by any common ideology which, as it is known from the world history, is the strongest force that may lead people to committing crimes for the sake of some ideals imposed on them. Thus, the Middle East terroristic movement also went through a set of reformations, becoming a structured and thoroughly built organization. ‘Al-Qaeda’ itself did not exist as a separate organization and was termed due to the concept in the Arabic language.

“It can mean a base, as in a camp or a home, a foundation, such is what beneath a house or a pedestal that supports a column. It can mean the lowest, broadest layer of a large cumulonimbus-type cloud. And, crucially, it can also mean a precept, rule, principle, maxim, formula, method, model or pattern” (Burke, 2004).

This explanation shows that the concept of ‘Al-Qaeda in Islam is rather peaceful; however, the term was also used in the most extreme situations during the fight in Afghanistan, so it acquired warlike meaning there.

The second issue to be addressed by the author is why the target was America. First of all, it may be clear from the point that the USA was an active participant of all war actions in the Middle East helping Israel and hence fighting against Muslims, becoming one of their primary enemies in the war. One more fair explanation may be found in the deeply-rooted juxtaposition of both countries for the past half of a century, with the US Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton, the Presidential Candidate John McCain were all anxious about the Iraq invasion and favored it.

“The fact that these three people immediately advocated an attack on Iraq as a response to 9/11 indicates that their view of the conflict is not too different from that of Osama bin Laden. This is a conflict between America and its policy of financial, military and political dominance throughout the Middle East and a small group of guerrilla fighters who view this as nothing less than the theft of the entire region’s wealth. Basically they feel they are getting a really, really bad deal” (McSheehy, 2008).

Could the US intelligence or legal enforcement bodies have stopped Al-Qaeda and have prevented the catastrophe? The question is rather hard to answer because Wright holds an opinion that only disintegration and failure to coordinate the work of different governmental institutions in the USA was the reason for the failure to stop the catastrophe.

However, there are many other opinions justifying the way the US government faced the disaster and the fact that the US legal enforcement forces were so unprepared to the tragic event. For example, Jason Burke (2004) explains that US intelligence officials were not fairly criticized for missing such an event because there was no group called ‘Al-Qaeda’ at all – while in Sudan, bin Laden revealed very little interest in terrorism and did not mean to create an army of warriors, so he was not interesting for the US intelligence at all.

Key findings and implications from “The Looming Tower”

First of all, dealing with the book involves understanding of major political, social, cultural and economic changes that took place in the world during the second half of the 20^th century – Laurence Wright explores the world situation on the examples of Afghanistan and Vietnam wars, the military resistance and war actions that took place in the Middle East and shaped the philosophy of radicalized Islamists who were to become the leading forces of terrorist organizations that constitute the real threat nowadays.

In order to understand the argumentation chosen by Wright, it is interesting to have a more precise look at the choice of facts the author chooses to explain the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism and turning to implementation of ‘jihad’. The revelation of this truth gives a better insight into the choice of the USA as a primary goal for terrorists, namely Al-Zawahiri and bin Laden. The beginning of the movement was marked after the end of the 1967 war with Israel that brought frustration to Muslims and made them believe that God had turned against them (Wright, 2006).

They tried to understand why this could have happened and what they had done wrong to cause His dissatisfaction. The logical inference they made was that they had to return to pure religion and to protect its purity – they realized that religion had been recently neglected and polluted with democratization and different freedoms that were unaccepted for Islam. They chose faith as their weapon and decided to use jihad for defeating the near enemy – impure Islam with the further aim to defeat the bearers of impurity – the West (Wright, 2006).

The major part of the book, namely the first section of it, is dedicated to exploring the background of Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri, their way to terrorism and the process that led to their heading Al-Qaeda. It is very interesting to read about these people’s early years and to follow their life way that was not distinguished at the very beginning and did not presuppose their becoming such notoriously famous people.

As one turns attention to Al-Zawahiri’s background, it is possible to see that this man originated from a very positive, respected and educated family, he lived in a favorable and calm region of Egypt and did not experience all misfortunes other people in the country did – he lived in a sophisticated and secular society. Thus, it is logical that he had no personal reasons to arrange the fight against the world.

However, the conditions appeared to blend in such a way that Ayman was destined to taking an active part in the Islamist movement, quickly becoming a significant person in the whole community of terrorists. Starting with 1973, Al-Zawahiri’s organization grew and constituted 40 men by 1974 (Wright, 2006).

Bin Laden’s biography is also described in a detailed way – this number one terrorist in the world nowadays comes from a very rich family in which he achieved everything himself because of the divorce of his parents and the philosophy of the bin Laden family to prove that one is a man and only then to have the right to inherit. Bin Laden was leading a prosperous life and received good education, but then left schooling to work and to make a career, which was against the will of his mother. Surprisingly, his success was profound and he finally became what he finally was when he met with Al-Zawahiri and began his terrorist activities.

As Wright justly noted, bin Laden was exchanging his wealth for fame, which was recognition of his wisdom in itself. However, speaking about these two leaders it becomes clear that the author does not criticize them, but looking deeper in their lives he admires and respects them for their philosophy, which is strange in itself. The information gathered by the author and interpreted by him, his own inferences from unorganized sources of knowledge about these two people created a firm bias in the author that is felt through the lines as he speaks about their activities, the work of CIA and FBI on searching ways to eliminate the threat.

The author supports Al-Zawahiri and bin Laden – of course not in the choice to attack America, but in the way they were achieving their goals and the way they organized their activity. Wright repeatedly notes bin Laden’s wisdom in the interviews, the strength, cleverness and skillfulness of Al-Zawahiri, thus showing that they are also human beings and they have their own personalities, stressing and substantiating the fact that in case they were not outstanding, they would not be able to organize such a powerful Islamist entity around them and, more than that, would fail to coordinate it.

The book also presents surprising evidence, though it is not stated directly, that the main person in the Al-Qaeda group is not bin Laden but Al-Zawahiri. This evidence may be taken from the fact that Al-Zawahiri was an active participant of the Islamist movement for many more years than bin Laden, that he had his own activist group that continuously grew, and that he possessed more power within the organization:

“Some experts even suggest Zawahiri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad virtually took over al-Qaeda, when the two groups forged a coalition in the late 1990s” (Profile: Ayman Al-Zawahiri, 2004).

Ed Blanche also recognizes the discrepancy that officially exists in the organization of the Al-Qaeda group, noting that bin Laden, though being considered the most wanted terrorist in the world and the leader of this organization is not the actual leader. The author indicates that the evidence speaks for the guiding role of Al-Zawahiri:

“While bin Laden has the charisma and the funds that built the Al-Qaeda (The Base) network of Islamic fundamentalists, mainly from the men who followed him during the fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, al-Zawahiri is widely seen by counterterrorism and Islamic specialists as the intellect and ideological driving force behind the organization” (Blanche, 2001).

Coming up to the choice of evidence by the author, it is surely great work done by the author – it is hard to suppose how much research he had done to gather all materials: the book is almost solely based on authentic resources such as personal diaries of Al-Zawahiri and bin Laden, or their relatives and friends, close people who surrounded them, interviews with people who interacted with them before the US tragedy.

It goes without saying that the personalities created by Wright are appealing, deep and multifaceted – they have really acquired humane traits due to the writer’s effort. However, the rate of credibility of these materials is highly doubtable because of personal bias that may be felt in the interviews and personal remembrances of these people – nobody will ever be able to state for sure whether it was so or not. This is why the major part of inferences made by the author is only his personal opinion, and he is not entitled to stating that it is the truth, as the objective truth will never be revealed, taking into consideration the specificity of these two people.

The stories of Prince Turki and O’Neill both trying to somehow fight the unpunished activities bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri unleashed on the territory of the Middle East and in Europe are important in the overall understanding of the reasons for the event still taking place and being not prevented.

The chapter about CIA’s planned capture of bin Laden, interrogation with further liquidation is remarkable because all actions were paralyzed because of certain state policies not allowing the capture. It is surely still interesting why the plan was not put into action when there was a good chance to act quickly and decisively – but, as it was noted by the author, the USA is a democratic, civilized country, and the officials are not criminals, so they wanted to arrange everything in a legal way, thus signing the death sentence to thousands of people.

Prince Turki, from his part, also tried to finish the ferocities committed by bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri and paid tribute for bin Laden, but again nothing worked out, bin Laden gave a better bribe and secured his safety, continuing awful massacres.

This story is based on official, statistical data, thus being credible but still unbelievable. The way this person managed to remain uncaught and alive presupposes his having extremely powerful protectors – it is possible to justify the events that took place within the CIA borders and in the places of his refuge. Of course absence of coordination between governmental agencies also constitutes a good explanation for the failure to stop the act of terror in 2001, but it causes much doubt, taking into consideration the scale of the tragedy.

Conclusion. Strengths and limitations of the book. Relevance of findings for the present-day situation

The book surely represents a wonderful contribution not only to understanding of the philosophy of the extremist movement that brought about the disaster of 2001, but to the world literature on the whole. The strength of this book is in its detailed account of all historical, political and social events and tendencies that preceded the creation of Al-Qaeda. The author has created a complete, personalized image of leaders of this organization, the way they developed as personalities and came to these activities.

However, the limitation of this book is the biased approach to the issue – documents used for creation of images of bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri are too personal to present an objective idea of what they really were and are. Thus, the book and all materials, except the facts about war actions, statistics and objectively documented events should be perceived not as ultimate truth but as the subjective perception of the author and a set of his personal inferences.

However, one should not forget about the fact that the tragedy of 9/11 was not the beginning and thus cannot be the end of Al-Qaeda’s activity. As noted by Jenkins (2002) the potential of the organization is really frightening.

“Al-Qaeda is more than just an organization; it is also a process, and its principal resource is its human capital. Al Qaeda’s future ability to grow and continue operations depends most strongly on its ability to gather new recruits”.

The book is relevant to the contemporary situation in the world concerning terrorism because it gives a clear idea of how the concept of terrorism managed to emerge and develop, what social, religious and cultural preconditions facilitated its establishment, thus giving an additional tool in the fight against terrorism. It is evident that understanding the core roots of the problem helps in its solution – so researchers and officials may take much useful information in work. The essence of terrorism is that it is a disease of minds, obsessing the immature minds and making people deviate from the path of common sense (Greenberg, 2005). Thus, it is necessary to approach the problem not only from the legal side, but on the level of psychology and morale as well.

Bibliography

Atwan, A.B. (2008). The Secret History of Al-Qaeda. University of California Press, 328 pp.

Blanche, E. (2001). Ayman Al-Zawahiri: attention turns to the other prime suspect. Web.

Burke, J. (2004). Al-Qaeda. I.B.Tauris, 355 pp.

Greenberg, K.J. (2005). Al-Qaeda now. Cambridge University Press, 257 pp.

Jenkins, B.M., Rand Corporation (2002). Countering Al-Qaeda. Rand Corporation, 30 pp.

McSheehy, R. (2008). 9/11: Why Did Al Qaeda Attack the United States? Web.

Profile: Ayman Al-Zawahiri (2004). Web.

Wright, L. (2006). The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Knopf, 469 pp.