The Looming Tower (2018) "The Looming Tower" traces the rising threat of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in the late '90s and how a rivalry between the FBI and CIA during the time period may have inadvertently set the path for the attacks of 9/11. The series follows members of the I-49 Squad in New York and Alec Station in Washington, D.C. -- the counterterrorism divisions of the FBI and CIA, respectively -- as they travel around the world, fighting for ownership of information while seemingly working toward a common goal of preventing an imminent attack on American soil. The drama is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name by Lawrence Wright.