I am currently listening to "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" by Lawrence Wright. Wright, a New Yorker writer, brings exhaustive research and delightful prose to what is generally regarded as one of the best books yet on the history of terrorism.

The book starts in the days post World War II, and lays out the rise of Islamic militants in Egypt, and later, in Saudi Arabia. Wright begins with the observation that, despite an impressive record of terror and assassination, post–World WarII, Islamic militants failed to establish theocracies in any Arab country. Many helped Afghanistan resist the Russian invasion of 1979 before their unemployed warriors stepped up efforts at home. Al-Qaeda, formed in Afghanistan in 1988 and led by Osama bin Laden, pursued a different agenda, blaming America for Islam's problems. Less wealthy than believed, bin Laden's talents lay in organization and PR, Wright asserts. Ten years later, bin Laden blew up U.S. embassies in Africa and the destroyer Cole, opening the floodgates of money and recruits. Wright's step-by-step description of these attacks reveals that planning terror is a sloppy business, leaving a trail of clues that, in the case of 9/11, raised many suspicions among individuals in the FBI, CIA and NSA.

Wright shows that 9/11 could have been prevented if those agencies had worked together. Instead, they failed to even share important pieces of information, let alone coordinate and cooperate, and at times were torn apart by inter-agency and intra-agency infighting. For example, the mostly young and female agents at the CIA assigned to prevent terrorist attacks at home are nicknamed "the Manson Family" and ridiculed for their devotion to their assignment, and thus, largely ignored. . . .

This is an important, gripping and profoundly disheartening book. I’ve got about 2 hours left in the audible book, and sadly, know how it will end.