The 9 11 Commission Report

It has, improbably, been called uncommonly lucid, even riveting by The New York Times, and it was a finalist for the 2004 National Book Awards nonfiction honor. It is a literally chilling read, especially in its minute-by-minute description of the events of the morning of 9/11 inside the Twin Towers.It is The 9/11 Commission Report, which was, before its publication, perhaps one of the most anticipated government reports of all time, and has been since an unlikely bestseller. The official statement by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States-which was instituted in late 2002 and chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean-it details what went wrong on that day (such as intelligence failures), what went right (the heroic response of emergency services and self-organizing civilians), and how to avert similar future attacks.Highlighting evidence from the day, from airport surveillance footage of the terrorists to phone calls from the doomed flights, and offering details that have otherwise gone unheard, this is an astonishing firsthand document of contemporary history. While controversial in parts-it has been criticized for failing to include testimony from key individuals, and it completely omits any mention of the mysterious collapse of WTC 7-it is nevertheless an essential record of one of the most transformational events of modern times.

Final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States.

“A document of historic sweep and almost unprecedented detail.”—Washington Post Published for the tenth anniversary of 9/11, this new edition of the authorized report is limited to the Commission’s riveting account—which was a finalist for the National Book Award—of the attack and its background, examining both the attackers and the U.S. government, the emergency response, and the immediate aftermath. It includes new material from Philip Zelikow, the Commission’s executive director, on the Commission’s work, the fate of its recommendations, and the way this struggle has evolved right up to the present day.

Publisher description

Gain a firsthand account of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks' methods and actions as 9/11 Commission Report with Related Documents walks you through the drafting process despite the bitter political divisions surrounding the commission.

In a work of history that will make headlines, New York Times reporter Philip Shenon investigates the investigation of 9/11 and tells the inside story of most important federal commission since the the Warren Commission. Shenon uncovers startling new information about the inner workings of the 9/11 commission and its relationship with the Bush White House. The Commission will change our understanding of the 9/11 investigation -- and of the attacks themselves.

The untold story of how the 9/11 Commission overcame partisanship and bureaucracy to produce its acclaimed report. From the beginning, the 9/11 Commission found itself facing obstacles — the Bush administration blocked its existence for months, the first co-chairs resigned right away, the budget was limited, and a polarized Washington was suspicious of its every request. Yet despite these long odds, the Commission produced a bestselling report unanimously hailed for its objectivity, along with a set of recommendations that led to the most significant reform of America’s national security agencies in decades. This is a riveting insider’s account of Washington at its worst — and its best.

"With this new book, David Ray Griffin establishes himself, alongside Seymour Hersh, as America's number one bearer of unpleasant, yet necessary, public truths." Richard Falk, professor emeritus, Princeton UniversityWith US political leaders Democrat and Republican alike rushing to embrace the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, and an eager media receiving the Commission's 567-page report as the whole story, the history we can stand upon forevermore, everyone who cares about the fate of American democracy will want to know something about what those pages actually say. The Commission's account, by popular reckoning, has made an impression with its heft, its footnotes, its portrayal of the confusion of that sobering day, its detail, its narrative finesse. Yet under the magnifying glass of David Ray Griffin, eminent theologian and author of The New Pearl Harbor (a book that explores questions that reporters, eyewitnesses, and political observers have raised about the 9/11 attacks), the report appears much shabbier. In fact, there are holes in the places where detail ought to be thickest: Is it possible that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has given three different stories of what he was doing the morning of September 11, and that the Commission combines two of them and ignores eyewitness reports to the contrary? Is it possible that the man in charge of the military that day, Acting Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Myers, saw the first tower hit on TV, and then went into a meeting, where he remained unaware of what was happening for the next 40 minutes? Is it possible, as the Commission reports, that the FAA did not inform military that the fourth airplane appeared to have been hijacked--contrary to both common sense and the word of FAA employees? Is it possible that the Report, upon which are based recommendations for overhauling the nation's intelligence, fails to mention even in a footnote the most serious allegations made public by Coleen Rowley, FBI whistleblower and Time person of the year? David Ray Griffin's critique of the Kean-Zelikow report makes clear that our nation's highest leaders have told tales that wear extremely thin when held up to the light of other eyewitness reports, research, and the dictates of common sense--and that the Commission charged with the task of investigating all of the facts surrounding 9/11 has succeeded in obscuring, rather than unearthing, the truth.