War II: Ghost Wars & Looming Towers

For my money, Steve Coll's "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Landen from the Soviet Invasion to Septemver 10, 2001" has been the best book about the run-up to 9/11. But the reviews of "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" by Lawrence Wright have been over the top and I can't wait to get my mitts on a copy.

Coll and Wright sit down for an informative chat at Slate.

It's worth reading because these guys know what they're talking about. Wright's observations about Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the radical Egyptian medical doctor and OBL's philosophical soul mate and mentor, are especially interesting.

As Wright notes, neither man could have created Al Qaeda without the other.