The above News Hour interview with an author has interesting points. It is worth reading. The following quotes are just highlights.
JEFFREY BROWN (News Hour): One way of looking at 9/11 is the big picture...clash of civilizations. You write about big shifts, but you have decided to focus and tell the story through individuals. Why?
LAWRENCE WRIGHT: But the second is that there were individual decisions that made al-Qaida. It wouldn't be what it is if it weren't for a few men, Ayman al-Zawahri and bin Laden being two of them. Al-Qaida, in its present form, is the creation of individuals. It's not just a historical phenomenon.
JEFFREY BROWN: The next character you mention, al-Zawahri, also was in the jails of Cairo...where you suggest one of the -- one of the major themes that comes out in the book, humiliation.
Torture leads to humiliation, leads to yet another theme, revenge.
LAWRENCE WRIGHT: And he was tortured, brutally tortured. A lot of human rights workers suggest -- and I agree -- that the brutality that characterizes the al-Qaida movement was born in those Egyptian prisons. And the point of torture is humiliation.
Bold emphases is mine
There is much more.
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