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Reader recommendation: The Looming Tower

Monitor readers share their favorite book picks.

  • By Betty Cropper, Slidell, La.

I am reading Lawrence Wright's book The Looming Tower (again!) because it is so relevant to the terrorist threat the world is facing today. This book details the record of the formation and financing of Al Qaeda by Osama bin Laden. It is a well researched book which takes you through the early formation of The Muslim Brotherhood. It also explains how bin Laden's father acquired the family's enormous fortune and how his son, Osama bin Laden, used some of it to finance and organize Al Qaeda. The author brings everything together by following the steps of the terrorists who made their way to the United States, lived quietly in American neighborhoods, and took flying lessons so they could fly airplanes into the World Trade Center buildings, the Pentagon, and other unknown attempted targets with the goal of killing as many innocent people as they could. It seems to me that this book should be a must-read for those reporters who are brave enough to get out there and report world news.

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Mark Sappenfield
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Dear Reader,

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