The Looming Tower

Totally engrossing series. Like an extended Zero Dark Thirty prequel. Absolutely excellent.

When I read that there was a TV adaptation of Lawrence Wright's book I had great hopes. The result is not disappointing, the show is quite good, Jeff Daniels is perfect in his role and the story of John O'Neill is perfect for a movie. But the writers decided to focus only on the final part of the book, which details the internal wars between CIA and FBI which allowed the 9/11 plans to proceed unchallenged. The first part of the book, which describes the history of bin Laden and al Qaeda, starting from the ideology of Qutb, would have been much more interesting to understand what is going on in the world today. But I understand that story would be perhaps more suitable for a documentary than for a TV show, but it's a story that Wright wrote beautifully at that will deserve to be put on screen someday.

A great insight into the self serving American bureaucracy and their buck passing.

I am stunned that the security of American citizens was in control of so many egomaniacs. Absolutely no flow of communication between anyone.

It is remarkable, considering the amount of intelligence that was harnessed, that this occurred and that the death toll wasn't greater.

I had to watch the whole series twice, mainly to identify the "good" and "bad" players. It certainly doesn't speak well of the CIA. Amazing performances, by all players, but Jeff Daniels and Tahar Rahim were outstanding. Curious about Ali Soufan, I watched several interviews with him, and Tariq nailed his accent/speech totally. We all know how it ended, but this series adds to the human element, the frustration and ultimate sadness.

Aside from the excellent way it showed how the CIA and the FBI would not work together, they both had bad ideas of how to handle it. The CIA was mostly academic and the FBI was mostly just knock down doors. Both had the wrong prescription. I hope they are all doing it differently and together, but I fear that they are not. Bush didn't want to be "batting at flies" and I fear that Trump doesn't want to either.

Condaleesa Rice's comment after the Twin Towers that "no one would have thought that someone would do that" is particularly galling, because in fact a person on her staff who was the old Security Advisor would have told her just that if she ever took time to listen and take him seriously. History should really reconsider what it is now saying about her in light of these revelations.

The timing of the episodes seem perfectly timed to what was going on. It showed how we really didn't have much of a clue and the lack of sharing made each less knowledgeable and less able to get the needed incite.