Synopsis
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States was created by Congress and charged with analyzing issues relating to the events of September 11, 2001. This collection of official papers synthesizes a lot of information from various official sources, and presents a coherent narrative, with many new details and many questions about what happened, why it happened, and what needs to be done so that it does not happen again. Included are 12 Staff Statements, which provide context and background and which are fascinating by themselves. Alongside each Staff Statement are relevant and judiciously selected excerpts from the testimony of 14 major witnesses who appeared before the commission, including Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Albright, Reno, Freeh, Tenet, and others from two administrations. Finally, there are excerpts from the House-Senate Joint Inquiry Report on 9/11. Edited by Steve Strasser of Newsweek, they are introduced by Craig Whitney of the New York Times. These official papers reveal for all how government works, and how, sometimes, it does not.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2004-06-15 | | Series: | Publicaffairs Reports | | Editor: | Craig R. Whitney, Stephen Strasser |
| Size | | Length: | 624 pages | | Height: | 8.5 in | | Width: | 6.0 in | | Thickness: | 1.8 in | | Weight: | 24.8 oz |
Publisher's Note
The 9/11 Investigations lifts the curtain on the top-secret investigations into the worst attack in American history. Here in one place is the most salient information from both the Joint House-Senate Inquiry and the 9/11 Commission investigation, distilled into a narrative that readers can understand.
First, The 9/11 Investigations presents the most shocking discoveries to emerge in the course of the investigations. Former Newsweek editor Steven Strasser has combed through the extensive investigative documents and extracted the most revelatory information about 9/11 itself-the al Qaeda plot, the terrorist attack, the emergency response-as well as troubling insights into the inner workings of our government: the decision-making process at the top levels of government, the miscommunication between the FBI and CIA, and the fatal oversights made by the Bush administration before the attacks. Primary documents include:
* The House-Senate Committee report, released in July 2003
* Ten 9/11 staff commission reports
* Crucial public testimony by Richard Clarke, George Tenet, and Condoleezza Rice Second, The 9/11 Investigations explores the investigation process itself. A lead essay by Craig R. Whitney, assistant managing editor of the New York Times, places the 9/11 investigation into a historical context of other governmental investigations such as the Warren Report and the Pearl Harbor investigation. Whitney also explores the political power plays that have affected the investigation's progress, addressing these fundamental questions: Why hasn't the Bush Administration cooperated fully with the 9/11 Commission? How has the Administration's behavior affected the work of the Commission? Who will be held responsible for the intelligence and leadership failures revealed by the investigations? And perhaps most importantly: Will the 9/11 investigation help prevent such a tragedy from happening again? Are we any safer for their work? Together, these documents and analysis provide an in-depth look at how America has tried to deal with the shocking impact of the 9/11 attacks.
| See an error? Submit a change request |
All rights reserved.
