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Chargement... The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage) (original 2006; édition 2007)par Lawrence Wright
Information sur l'oeuvreLa guerre cachée : Al-Qaïda et les origines du terrorisme islamiste par Lawrence Wright (2006)
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. The terrible tragic story of the development of modern Islamic terrorism, the results of poor communication between the CIA and the FBI, and the consequences we can obtain when ignorance and cruelty are combined with some widely held delusion. The ending is abrupt and makes the account even more tragic. The book was published in 2006, five years before OBL caught his. Det här är en banbrytande skildring av människorna och idéerna, terroristplanerna och västerlandets misslyckanden som kulminerade med angreppet på USA. Lawrence Wrights bok är baserad på fem års research och hundratals intervjuer som han gjort i Egypten, Saudiarabien, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, Frankrike, Tyskland, Spanien och USA. al-Qaida och vägen till den 11 september utgår från fyra män, vars liv och gärningar korsas: de två al-Qaida-ledarna Usama bin Laden och Ayman al-Zawahiri, FBI:s antiterrorchef John ONeill och den förra ledaren för den saudiska underrättelsetjänsten, prins Turki al-Faisal. Författaren gräver djupt och analyserar skickligt sitt material. Allt eftersom avslöjas motströmningen inom islam som hjälpte till att radikalisera bin Laden och Zawahiri, al-Qaidas födelse, ONeills hjältemodiga ansträngningar för att spåra al-Qaida före den 11 september och hans tragiska död i World Trade Center. Wright skildrar även FBI:s, CIA:s och NSA:s misslyckande att kommunicera om information som skulle kunna ha hindrat 11 september-attacken. It has taken me this long to read any non-fiction books at all about 9/11, because I needed the distance from my memories of the actual event. I knew from living through it the basic facts of what happened on that day, but this book filled in a lot of holes about the months and years leading up to it. Well written and engaging, this book follows the history of al-Qaeda from its earliest days, explaining well the motivations and beliefs of both the leaders and the footsoldiers. It’s really terrifying to read about how much hate some people can hold inside of them for an entire lifetime, and even scarier because Trump has engaged similar people in the US today. Though disturbing, upsetting and at times heart-wrenching, this is a very good book.
A narrator doesn’t just tell a story; he keeps the listener company. Alan Sklar is good company—with a voice so distinctive that a blind man could pick him out from across the room. Wright, a New Yorker writer, brings exhaustive research and delightful prose to one of the best books yet on the history of terrorism. In the nearly five years since the attacks, we’ve heard oceans of commentary on the whys and how-comes and what-it-means and what’s nexts. Wright, a staff writer for The New Yorker — where portions of this book have appeared — has put his boots on the ground in the hard places, conducted the interviews and done the sleuthing. Others talked, he listened. And so he has unearthed an astonishing amount of detail about Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mullah Muhammad Omar and all the rest of them. They come alive. Mr. Wright’s book, based on more than 500 interviews — ranging from Mr. bin Laden’s best friend in college, Jamal Khalifa, to Yosri Fouda, a reporter for Al Jazeera, to Richard A. Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism chief — gives the reader a searing view of the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, a view that is at once wrenchingly intimate and boldly sweeping in its historical perspective. Appartient à la série éditorialePrix et récompensesDistinctionsListes notables
Références à cette œuvre sur des ressources externes. Wikipédia en anglais (26)A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people 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 crosscurrents of modern Islam that helped to radicalize Zawahiri and bin Laden . . . the birth of al-Qaeda and its unsteady development into an organization 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 despairing as he meets Western culture up close in 1940s America; the privileged childhoods of bin Laden and Zawahiri; family life in the al-Qaeda compounds 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 battles among U.S. intelligence agencies. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)973.931History and Geography North America United States 1901- Bush Administration And Beyond George W. BushClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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I was a little hesitant when I picked this up...I'd read Ghost Wars about six months before and was worried that this would largely be a rehash of things I'd recently read. But that concern turned out to be unfounded. While there's certainly overlap, that book was focused heavily on Afghanistan, and the CIA's involvement in that country's recent history. This book is really about al-Queda and how it's leaders, Osama bin Ladin and Ayman al-Zawahiri, came to join together and carry out attacks against the West from their position in Afghanistan. If you're interested in this general subject area and think you might want to read one of these two books, I'd suggest The Looming Tower (or at least reading it first).
While there is no denying the incredible research and level of detail in Ghost Wars, the end result is a book that tends toward the dense. Having read it once, I'm sure it would take me at least another few passes through it to really feel like everything was sinking it. The Looming Tower doesn't bring that level of specificity, but it's not really trying to either. That's not to insinuate that it's not deeply rooted in fact and without a breadth of source material. The references section is extensive. But what The Looming Tower does well is actually stringing that all together into a cohesive narrative. Depending on the author's skill level (and, to be honest, intended audience), non-fiction can struggle with storytelling and a tendency toward dryness. But this is where Wright shines. Despite working with names, places, and concepts that are largely only vaguely familiar to a Western readership, he never lets the pace get bogged down in information dumps. Like the events it recounts, it keeps on moving forward to what we know is coming.
That's not to say it's perfect. There's an emphasis on counter-terrorism expert John O'Neill (who died helping evacuate others on 9/11), especially his personal life, that doesn't quite fit in with the overall flow of the book that I think should have gotten trimmed. And, having read Ghost Wars, I thought the situation in Afghanistan and the relationship of al-Queda and the Taliban was simplified too far. I think the book could have added about 50 pages and given everything a bit more depth and shading and been stronger for it. But for a primer on the situation in the Middle East and inside the federal bureaucracy that culminated in September 11th, written for a wide audience, I think this a very good book indeed. I highly recommend it! ( )