He follows fbi counterterrorism chief john oneill as he uncovers the emerging danger from al qaeda in the 1990s and struggles to track this new threat packed with new information and a deep historical perspective the looming tower is the definitive history of the long road to september 11 national book award finalist. Oneills heroic efforts to track al qaeda before 9 11 and his tragic death in the world trade towers prince turkis transformation from bin ladens 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 al qaeda and the road to 9 11 by lawrence wright precisely details the individuals and events that lead over the course of five decades to september 11 2001 the writing is crisp the narrative is compelling the historical context is vivid. The looming tower al qaeda and the road to 9 11 is a 2006 non fiction book by lawrence wright a journalist for the new yorkerwright examines the origins of the militant organization al qaeda the background for various terrorist attacks and how they were investigated and the events that led to the september 11 attacks the book was a new york times best seller and won a number of awards . The looming tower al qaeda and the road to 9 11 wright lawrence 9781400030842 books amazonca