Author (or Editor): 9/11 Commission: Thomas H. Kean, Lee H. Hamilton, Richard Ben-Veniste, Bob Kerry, Fred F. Fielding, John F. Lehman, Jamie S. Gorelick, Timothy R. Roemer, Slade Gorton, James R. Thompson, Philip Zelikow, Christopher A. Koim, Daniel Marcus |
Title: The 9/11 Commission
Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the |
Fiction? Anthology? |
Publisher: W. W. Norton |
Date: 2004 |
ISBN: 0-393-32671-3 |
Series Name: |
Physical description: paperback, 567 pg, of which 107 are footnotes |
Relevance to DOASKDOTELL: terrorism |
Review: This book was published with great fanfare on Mr. Kean gave a sobering warning in his public
statement, about the zeal of the asymmetric, ideological enemy and our lack
of preparedness. The book backs up his statements in matter-of-fact,
reasonable fashion of topical fourteen chapters (the first is entitled the
chilling “We Have Some Planes”). “Is it safe”? asks
the dentist in There has been a lack of imagination, both in government and in the
public. In 102 minutes (the length of an average feature film) on The problems were, he says, systemic, and the authors recommend a radical reorganization of intelligence functions. (To blame everyone is to blame no one.) They seem to be aiming for more centralization, which is not necessarily a good idea if bureaucracy oversimplifies the details of “imagination.” From what I can tell, however, the authors talk little or none about the sacrifices that could be expected of ordinary Americans (we could talk about the steganography problem and ordinary use of the Internet)—probably because a radical change in our way of life, imposed by an external agent—seems so plainly unthinkable. The authors give terse but detailed accounts of the events of that day,
including reaching the conclusion that the Air Force might not have been able
to shoot down Flight 93 in time, so the passengers really did save further
catastrophe at the Capitol or White House. (By the way, ground eye witnesses
known to me claim that the Flight 93 plane was turning slightly farther west
that generally reported, and very low to the ground, and might well have
crashed about four miles northwest of the town of Kipton,
Ohio, where I had spent my boyhood summers in the 50s.) The single most
horrific event of all could be a nuclear explosion that could reach both the
White House and Congress when both are occupied—a total decapitation of
government that the hijackers attempted on 9/11. I hope I don’t survive such
an incident since I live in nearby 9/11/ panelist John Lehman gave an interview ( |
See also: Holy War, Inc. by Peter Bergen; 9/11/films, Graham Allison on Nuclear Terror |
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