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p_t_b's review against another edition
5.0
Wright is an amazing reporter, and a good explainer of religious extremism. Perhaps being 12.5 years removed from the attacks tamps down some of the innate drama of this story. That it was published just five years after the attacks is impressive speed, given the focus Wright pulls on a complex, geographically and conceptually tangled story. This is strictly about the ideas and men that conceived the 9/11 attacks, and the bureaucratic infighting that prevented intelligence agencies from preventing them. Definitely kind of a bummer but I feel like I needed to read this at some point to understand al-Qaeda beyond caricature. Glad I read this, even if it took me seven years to get to it.
cgriesemer's review against another edition
4.0
This has to be the most exhaustive published study of the history of Al-Qaeda and the events leading up to 9/11 ever. I first watched the miniseries before reading the book, and this is one of those rare times where I actually enjoyed the TV show more than the book.
That is not a slight against the book, it is just so dense on the history of the jihadist movement. I wish it would’ve delved more into the actual planning of 9/11 rather than the sequence of events in the 40s and 50s that led to the ideological movements that culminated in today’s incarnation of radical Islam.
Superbly written, but I enjoyed the show more, for a first.
That is not a slight against the book, it is just so dense on the history of the jihadist movement. I wish it would’ve delved more into the actual planning of 9/11 rather than the sequence of events in the 40s and 50s that led to the ideological movements that culminated in today’s incarnation of radical Islam.
Superbly written, but I enjoyed the show more, for a first.
frogggirl2's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
3.0
The book is about the rise of this specific, violent ethos of islamic fundamentalism. A significant portion of this book passes before al-qaeda is even formed and 9/11 does not occur until the final pages of the book. I found this book quite slow and tedious to get through. There are some interesting tidbits, but overall, I don't feel like this was for me a very successful book
seec619's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
scrambled_feet's review against another edition
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
4.5
A long chronology of (unbelievable) facts of Al-quaeda's logistical and ideological origins, with just the right balance of sprinkled editorial quips to make characters and scenes more memorable and interesting.
rickwren's review against another edition
4.0
Where to begin? The research that went into the book is impressive - culling through thousands of documents, hundreds of interviews, reams of translations and an extensive array of contacts. Then to take that research and turn it into a compelling narrative was a masterful feat.
I was gripped by the story of Osama Bin Laden as a child, a student, an inept Mujaheddin, a father, and a religious spokesman. It was a story of how a fringe nut can bring together the disenfranchised and the left out members of a society to form a cause both horrific and spectacular. One can certainly argue that his aims are not good and that his methods are mad, but one cannot argue the effectiveness of his objectives or of his goals, which have certainly succeeded - to crush America economically, to make Americans afraid, and to do so despite America's overwhelming military might. Look around you - it's not a stretch to say his ambitions have met with quite a bit of success.
I was horrified at the lack of coordination and priority shown by the FBI, CIA, and NSA. It was bad and reflected poorly on the United States. This is supported by the fact that the 9/11 Hijackers succeeded despite the warning signs, intelligence, and tracking.
And this point remains foremost - if the intelligence gathered prior to 9/11 had been coordinated and acted upon, the tragedy could have been, and most likely would have been averted. What this means is that creating a huge governmental entity - Department of Homeland Security - adding a myriad of new travel obstacles, color-coding national threats, and drum-beating to multiple wars were never needed. All this has done has increased the debt, funneled money into corporate interests with security ties, raised the constant level of fear and stress, and sent a loud and clear message to the world that we can't handle adversity without overreacting in panic.
We could've destroyed Al Qada before it grew. We could've captured Bin Laden before he became an icon. We could've streamlined intelligence gathering and pin-pointed our response to be effective.
But we didn't. And now we have more government, military, bureaucracy and intrusion than we've ever had before.
The book is both scary and scary good. I recommend it to anyone attempting to understand how a small, poorly-funded fringe radical group could attack America so devastatingly as to change it's entire character.
I was gripped by the story of Osama Bin Laden as a child, a student, an inept Mujaheddin, a father, and a religious spokesman. It was a story of how a fringe nut can bring together the disenfranchised and the left out members of a society to form a cause both horrific and spectacular. One can certainly argue that his aims are not good and that his methods are mad, but one cannot argue the effectiveness of his objectives or of his goals, which have certainly succeeded - to crush America economically, to make Americans afraid, and to do so despite America's overwhelming military might. Look around you - it's not a stretch to say his ambitions have met with quite a bit of success.
I was horrified at the lack of coordination and priority shown by the FBI, CIA, and NSA. It was bad and reflected poorly on the United States. This is supported by the fact that the 9/11 Hijackers succeeded despite the warning signs, intelligence, and tracking.
And this point remains foremost - if the intelligence gathered prior to 9/11 had been coordinated and acted upon, the tragedy could have been, and most likely would have been averted. What this means is that creating a huge governmental entity - Department of Homeland Security - adding a myriad of new travel obstacles, color-coding national threats, and drum-beating to multiple wars were never needed. All this has done has increased the debt, funneled money into corporate interests with security ties, raised the constant level of fear and stress, and sent a loud and clear message to the world that we can't handle adversity without overreacting in panic.
We could've destroyed Al Qada before it grew. We could've captured Bin Laden before he became an icon. We could've streamlined intelligence gathering and pin-pointed our response to be effective.
But we didn't. And now we have more government, military, bureaucracy and intrusion than we've ever had before.
The book is both scary and scary good. I recommend it to anyone attempting to understand how a small, poorly-funded fringe radical group could attack America so devastatingly as to change it's entire character.