This is a short summary of the pulitzer prize winning book "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright. It is an excellent account of the events that led up to the 9/11 attacks. Read the book in its entierty if you have the time. I can especially recommend this book to all "Loose Change" and "Zeitgeist" conspiracy theorists who are out on that wild goose chase claiming that the US had something to do with the planning of these attacks. Check your facts:

Afghanistan has often been called the empires graveyard because several empires have met their doom there. The British did in the 1800s, and the Russians followed the same fate when they invaded the country in 1979. When Osama Bin ladin orchestrated the two bombings of American embassies in Africa in Nairobi and Dar El Salam in 1998 his intention was to draw America into the quagmire that is Afghanistan. They were also meant to serve as a distraction while the major 9/11 attacks where being prepared. The first stage in the American reprisals was when America bombed the factory in Khartoum that they claimed was manufacturing chemical weapons.This factory later showed to be producing regular and veterinary medicine. Sudan therby lost one of its major producers of medicine. The Clinton administration also fired six cruise missiles towards jihadi training camps in Aghanistan. What these operations really suceeded in doing was to paint Bin Ladin as the great freedom fighter. On the streets of Kenya and Tanzania you could see children wearing Bin ladin tshirts, even though these countries had been hit hard by his organisation.

The Taliban leader Mullah Omar was now forced to ask himself wether to let Bin Ladin stay in his coubtry or not. Being allied with America this was a difficult choice. But eventually he would choose to let him stay in Afghanistan. The Saudis, who also supported the Taliban tried to have Bin Ladin extradityed but Mullah Omar would not comply. The next hit would be the attack on the USS Cole. An American battleship stationed in Jemen. This proved to be a huge success for Bin Ladin causing there to be a massive upswing in recruits and cash donations to the Jihadi training camps in Afghanistan. But the American revenge did not come to Afghanistan as he had planned. Therefore it was necessary to orchestrate an even bigger attack. Due to an ongoing conflict between the CIA and the FBI much of the relevant information concerning the identities of the future plane hijackers would go unoticed by those who needed them most.

By the time the bombers of the African embassies where put on trial in America all 19 of the 9/11 operatives where living in America and planning their mission. There was an awareness that something big was about to happend within the major intelligence organisations in America (something on the scale of Hiroshima). But due to the lack of cooperation within the different agencies the perpetrators could not be traced. The agent Kenneth Williams even sent an email in july to his FBI bosses saying that Bin Ladin might send his protgees into the country to train at pilot schools for some kind of organized attack. His advice was to make a list of all suspect individuals in the countries flying academies. A decision was made within the agency that it would be too time consuming and costly to review all the 30000 individuals that this list contained.

The attack finally happend on the morning of the 11th of september 2001. Almost 3000 Americans lost their lives in the building, many of them having to have to jump to escape the burning flames. the fires burned for over 100 days. From all over America caravans of people came to the scene to aid in the cleaning of the area and helped to search for survivors. Among the dead where citizens from over 62 nations and representatives of all the worlds different religions and ethnic groups. By the 6th of october American and British airforce planes would be bombing taliban positions in Afghanistan. Most of the Al Qaida warriors had fled the training camps and moved on to positions within the Tora Bora mountain range. There they fought against hostile Afghani troops and where repeatedly bombed by American B 52s. They successfull killed about 18 of Al Qaidas top leaders and about 100 of their troops. But Bin Ladin had manag