Geoffrey Buck’s Reviews > The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 > Status Update

Vocabulary - marginalize: to treat as insignificant or peripheral. Osama Bin Laden was marginalized on the existential plane, however the myth he spun about himself was growing his reputation among several persecuted and humiliated Muslims.

What lengths would you go to in order to clear your name of a horrible offense?

If you knew you were banned somewhere, would you try to sneak in or obey the rule?

Writer’s Strategy: The author composes this section of the book primarily of pictures. I believe he does this to give the audience an easier time with visualization.

Summarize: Ali Abdelsoud Mohammed walked into a CIA office to offer his services as a spy. Mohammed entered a mosque and told the Iranian cleric in charge that he was an American spy assigned to infiltrate the community. He was unaware that the CIA had already penetrated the mosque. The CIA terminated him and placed him on the US’s Do Not Enter list.

Ask: Whenever Osama Bin Laden had guests over, he would eat the small morsels off of his guests’ plates after they left, because he believed these abandoned morsels gained the favor of God. What religion enables this belief?

Theme: I notice a recurring theme of partnership in this book. This theme is especially prevalent at this point in the book when the Republic of Yemen is established.

Writer’s Strategy: The author does not use a lot of dialogue, only when it is most convenient or required. This is most likely because The Looming Tower is a non-fiction book, and making up dialogue would mess with that.

Vocabulary: Zawahiri is looking at two options for the universal restoration of true Islamic dominance. The Egyptian option was called Al Jihad, meaning, “the effort or struggle,” while the universal option was called Al Qaeda, meaning, “the base or foundation.”

Khalifa wonders if Osama is being manipulated by the Egyptians. What would cause you to believe you were being manipulated?