My Trip to Al-Qaeda: Q & A with Journalist Lawrence Wright

By ralph on September 12, 2010 in News 11

I didn’t see the theatrical adaption of Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower (which is the most informative book I have ever read about 9/11) so I am looking forward to checking about this documentary. From the Economist’s Prospero column:

Lawrence Wright spent five years conducting hundreds of interviews in at least ten countries in order to write “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11”. The book, a best-selling history about Islamic fundamentalism, weaves the stories of terrorists, intelligence officers and government officials in a remarkable narrative that helps to explain both the cult of Osama bin Laden and the flaws in American intelligence that let him get away with murder.

“When I finished my book,” Mr Wright said in an interview with Prospero, “I had countless people asking me ‘What were they like?’ and ‘How did it affect you?’” He ultimately answered these questions in his one-man play, “My Trip to al-Qaeda”, a gripping personal account of the people he met and what it all felt like. On September 7th HBO will premiere Alex Gibney’s elegant screen adaptation, which mixes theatrical footage with more photographs and videos to help tell Mr Wright’s story about the lure of radicalism in the Islamic world.

Read More on the Economist’s Prospero

9/11, Al-Qaeda, Books, Documentary, Intelligence, Islam, Lawrence Wright, War On Terror

The Biology of Soul Murder

Ironaddict06

I watched it on HBO. I thought it was good. He was also able to show what life was like for male and females living in Saudi.
Ironaddict06

I watched it on HBO. I thought it was good. He was also able to show what life was like for male and females living in Saudi.
Pier

So according to the book 911 was REALLY done by arabs on a spiritual jihad?
Pier

So according to the book 911 was REALLY done by arabs on a spiritual jihad?
- Butter Knife
  
  Shockingly, some people just go ahead and assume that the most obvious explanation requiring the least convoluted logic and the fewest number of participants is the most likely, and don’t bother spending a lot of time combing for evidence of something else.
  
  How crazy is that?
Butter Knife

Shockingly, some people just go ahead and assume that the most obvious explanation requiring the least convoluted logic and the fewest number of participants is the most likely, and don’t bother spending a lot of time combing for evidence of something else.

How crazy is that?
Vox Penii

Lord what fools these sheeple be for thinking William of Ockham had some good ideas…
5by5

Near the tail end of if I just thought to myself, “Thank God somebody in mainstream media finally reference the movie ‘The Siege’”.

Seriously, that one movie plotted out our every idiotic overreaction to a terrorist attack in advance, and I’ve been waiting for someone to finally point out the obvious — that no terrorist can “destroy this country”, we can only do that to ourselves by freaking out, and shredding the Constitution until we don’t recognize ourselves.

And that’s precisely what happened during the Bush Administration, and frankly Obama hasn’t done enough to reverse that crap either, because his Justice Department is still infested with Bushbots — political appointees placed illegally in non-political roles who still go out and defend illegal wiretapping and irrational secrecy methods and a general torching of the 4th Amendment. Not to mention that the President still hasn’t asked Congress to over turn the Patriot Act, or signed an executive order putting enforcement of that fascist piece of crap on hold until they do.
- ralph
  
  The end of this doc addresses those exact issues (had a chance to watch). Lawrence Wright was one of the first journalists to go public about the Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping program (not only in regards to everyone but on journalists, which he discovered he was targeted for) so my respect for him has grown. Even in light of “The Siege” (point, well taken).
5by5

Near the tail end of if I just thought to myself, “Thank God somebody in mainstream media finally reference the movie ‘The Siege’”.

Seriously, that one movie plotted out our every idiotic overreaction to a terrorist attack in advance, and I’ve been waiting for someone to finally point out the obvious — that no terrorist can “destroy this country”, we can only do that to ourselves by freaking out, and shredding the Constitution until we don’t recognize ourselves.

And that’s precisely what happened during the Bush Administration, and frankly Obama hasn’t done enough to reverse that crap either, because his Justice Department is still infested with Bushbots — political appointees placed illegally in non-political roles who still go out and defend illegal wiretapping and irrational secrecy methods and a general torching of the 4th Amendment. Not to mention that the President still hasn’t asked Congress to over turn the Patriot Act, or signed an executive order putting enforcement of that fascist piece of crap on hold until they do.
http://disinfo.com ralph

The end of this doc addresses those exact issues (had a chance to watch). Lawrence Wright was one of the first journalists to go public about the Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping program (not only in regards to everyone but on journalists, which he discovered he was targeted for) so my respect for him has grown. Even in light of “The Siege” (point, well taken).