While tracing the trajectory of Osama's life, Mr Wright had to jettison his reporter tag and agree to take the job of 'mentoring' a couple of young Saudi journalists so that he could get a Saudi visa and a chance to live in Jeddah, Osama's home town - all in order to have a first-person experience of a closet society that gave the world its most notorious terrorist.
Mr Wright interviewed 550 people — jehadis, politicians, secret service agents, journalists, professors — and researched numerous books, pamphlets, testimonies and mujahideen magazines in writing this book. Fortunately, one never gets bogged down in the minutiae. The Looming Tower is so thrillingly written, with such a pulsating pace, with anecdotes dotting every page, and so fascinating that the reader is left hooked, breathless, and panting for more.
A reading of this exciting real-life story could not fail to stir a thought at the supreme irony that this terrorist who has so spoiled the name of Islam had to come from the loins of a self-made multi-billionaire businessman whose construction company built the buildings of Islam's three holiest shrines — grand mosques of Mecca, Medina and Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem — a jet-setting man who sometimes did his daily prayers at all the three shrines the same day!
The book is littered with trivia about Mr bin Laden that helps explain his turning into a religious fundamentalist the world fears. Consider his eating habits: Osama would fast on Mondays and Thursdays, like the prophet himself; during his pre-jehad days, he would make a humble point to eat along with the laborers of his construction company; if he had a feast at home, he would nibble leftovers from the plates of his guests, believing such manners to be noble and pious.
But it was not Islam alone that made this man a prophet of doom. America's role could not be ignored. Osama's evolution into a monster could not have been possible if the USA had not brought its infidel troops — which had women too — in Saudi Arabia, the land of Mecca and Medina.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!
2 - ray from san francisco
osama bin laden? personally, i like the guy...i sympathize with his criticisms of America's consumption obsession, and respect his planning and diligence that produced 9/11..he's really a determined fella
sure, i'll read the book
3 - Chris mankey
"osama bin laden? personally, i like the guy...i sympathize with his criticisms of America's consumption obsession, and respect his planning and diligence that produced 9/11..he's really a determined fella"
Do you? Then you're an ASSHOLE! You respect the planning and diligence that went in to 9/11. Was the killing all right of you as well? What a jerk
4 - pm
do you know how many children--just children--died because of UN sanctions on iraq in the 90s? 1 million. so how can you not expect something like 9/11 to have happened?
5 - This Guy
^That right there^ fact dropping.
that simply makes you look like a douche, my friend.