the great strength that osama bin laden has and that no one else in al qaeda has right now. and that zwoo heri doesn t have. clearly does not have. he s just not capable of that kind of inspirational leadership. lawrence wright, i appreciate you being with us. it s been a pleasure. really interesting stuff. still ahead tonight. and again the book is the looming tower. i urge you to read it. it s a great book. an important update on the story of eman al obeidy, the libyan woman who burst into a tripoli hotel saying she d been beaten and raped by moammar gadhafi s men. we ve been following her story a lot, talked to her a lot over the last month or so. the news on her situation is good news tonight. we ll give you an update on how she got out of libya. up next, the swollen mississippi river threatening memphis, tennessee tonight. flooding in low-lying areas, but we ll see if the levees protecting the city are holding up. meteorologist chad myers is going to show us what s i
administration s national security adviser went on the sunday talk shows. the pictures became the story instead of the changing narrative of what really happened inside the compound. you might remember last week top officials at the white house and pentagon said bin laden used women as human shields. they later backstrakd on that. there was also talk that bin laden was engaged in a firefight with the u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s. later they said he was not armed. joining me is lawrence wright author of the best-selling book the looming tower: al qaeda and the road to 9/11. wif i ve said is probably my favorite book on al qaeda. he s also a writer for the new yorker magazine. you can read his latest article on al qaeda in the latest issue. were you surprised by these videos? not really. first of all, the austerity in his environment is typical of bin laden. even when he was living in jeddah. it was very squalid. his attention to housekeeping when you hear a million-dollar compound you
many ways except it s human. and that is such a counterbalance to all those other images we ve seen in the past with the gun at his side and this really confident manner about how he s going to destroy america. you ve written so well in looming tower about the relationship i mean, the history of al qaeda and the relationship between zawahiri and bin laden. what role do you think zawahiri now takes over al qaeda? i wouldn t be surprised if he s been running it for some time. i can t believe that that was really an operating center for al qaeda given how difficult entry and egress was. you know, he must have been very, very isolated. and so somebody s been running al qaeda very badly for the last several years. and that would very likely be ayman al zawahiri, who ran his own terror group in egypt into the ground. why did he run it into the ground? why is he not a good, effective leader?
bin laden has and that no one else in al qaeda has right now. and that zwoo heri doesn t have. clearly does not have. he s just not capable of that kind of inspirational leadership. lawrence wright, i appreciate you being with us. thank you. it s been a pleasure. really interesting stuff. still ahead tonight. and again the book is the looming tower. i urge you to read it. it s a great book. an important update on the story of eman al obeidy, the libyan woman who burst into a tripoli hotel saying she d been beaten and raped by moammar gadhafi s men. we ve been following her story a lot, talked to her a lot over the last month or so. the news on her situation is good news tonight. we ll give you an update on how she got out of libya. up next, the swollen mississippi river threatening memphis, tennessee tonight. flooding in low-lying areas, but we ll see if the levees protecting the city are holding up. meteorologist chad myers is going to show us what s in store down river
story. all we know is that al qaeda was on his tail all across america. and the fbi interviewed him and let him go. but you know, this guy has been responsible for most of the major attempts in the united states in the last couple of years. he s been a very inspirational figure. he clearly has the ability to summon up followers, which was the great strength that osama bin laden has and that no one else in al qaeda has right now. and that zwoo heri doesn t have. clearly does not have. he s just not capable of that kind of inspirational leadership. lawrence wright, i appreciate you being with us. thank you. it s been a pleasure. really interesting stuff. still ahead tonight. and again the book is the looming tower. i urge you to read it. it s a great book. an important update on the story of eman al obeidy, the libyan woman who burst into a tripoli hotel saying she d been beaten and raped by moammar gadhafi s men. we ve been following her story a lot, talked to her a lot over