Be prepared for a long read. At 428 pages, it's a bit of a doozy, but I felt it was important for me to read this.

Overall, it's fascinating. Some parts were too technical for me (especially towards the end, it discusses restructuring of government entities, and I just lacked some of the knowledge and/or interest to find it totally understandable). Some parts were difficult to read. Some parts were frustrating. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, and we must remember that while a lot of the facts unearthed in this tome show that perhaps, the attacks were not as "unfathomable" and unpredictable as officials claimed, the majority of people "in charge" were doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. It also reaffirms a respect for our first responders, for the inherent good in human beings, and the good of our nation.

So to sum it up, it was of course a challenging book, not only due to the tremendous scope but the subject matter. However, for anyone who wants to know a bit more about one of the days that will live in infamy for all Americans, I'd say give it a shot, but bargain on spending some time here. I read it much more slowly than other works, simply because it's a lot to digest: twenty pages at a time seemed my average intake.

Very informational.

This is quite an interesting read. It covers the actual day 9/11, the rescue effort, what led up to the attack, and the war on Afghanistan, including the discussion on Iraq. I am going to do some research to see if any of the recommendations were put into place.

The "final report" what a farce! The official expolanation for collapse is admitted to have a low probability of occurrence and bldg 7 is not even mentioned once! Read DRGriffin to make sense of the propaganda.

Today, September 11, 2021, is the 20th anniversary of the day American was forever changed.
A day the people, all over the world, remember. You ask people, of a certain age bracket, where they were when they heard about the planes and the towers and the Pentagon, and they can tell you.
At work.
Driving.
At home.
In Class.
At the office, watching it as it was happening outside my window....

To honor the events of that day - heroes we lost, the innocent victims who didnt do anything, the people who stood up to the hijackers and say "Not today and not with this plane. Let's Roll" - I spent the day reading and finishing this book.

First, the honest part - it is long and dry in spots. There are chapters that are going to be dated - it was published 17 years ago- and will outline things that are almost a normal part of our lifes. TSA airport screenings. Heighten security measures to prevent future attacks. The need to combine intelligence and investigative resources into a cohesive group, so there is no 'This is our data, and we dont share'. The need to find and capture Bin Laden and to eliminate the non-state terrorists groups in the world.
Another thing that has to be remembered is dates. For example, 1993 is almost 30 years ago to us now; at the time this report, it was 11 years. That the Clinton Administration ended 21 years ago - but it was still fresh and raw at the time of 9/11. That the threat of Saddam and Iraq was still present - and not a neutered and dead ruler as he is now. So yes, it is going to wrong or outdated at times.
And the last 2 chapter can be skimmed - it is an outline of what changes/ improvements are needed. At this point, these are standard operating procedures. (Well, maybe not the Border issue. Still a hot topic).

The Good news - the beginning part of the book is a History lesson. In the path of Bin Laden to global threat, in US policy failings to recognize the growing threat of Post Cold War terrorist. An in-depth outline of the planes on that day. And a chapter on the heroic deeds of PAPD, FDNY, NYPD, and others at the Twin Towers, and the brief, but positive review of how the Pentagon rescues and recovery was a case study in positive things.

Would I recommend this book - maybe. It is a tough one - remember, we are talking about sudden deaths of thousands of people. And then you have to factor in the loves of those who have to deal with the aftermath - the 1st responders who are suffering still today, the soldiers who gave their time, their body and in some cases, their lives in America's Longest War.
So, it is not a feel good book. (Side note: if you are looking for a feel good book about that same day, I would recommend "The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland" by Jim DeFede. It is the story of about what happened to the planes who couldnt land in NYC, and were diverted to Canada. And how the Canadians - the great people they are - welcomed them and made them feel at home for a brief period of time).

But - I would say you should read parts of it. Maybe the chapters on the what the Passengers and first Responders did that day.

This happened to be sitting around my house in a bag of books I acquired. For a government report, it makes for fairly compelling reading. The parts that covered the most new territory for me, were the sections that detail the terrorists' exact movements in the years prior to the attack (dating back to 1988 and including the 1993 attack and the Mosque in Jersey City).

Twenty years ago, counterintelligence had to re-orient its thinking away from the Cold War and toward fighting a loose-knit stateless enemy that could strike from within. Now it seems we are back to square one with the FBI declaring that our greatest threat is from homegrown terrorism (and our greatest foreign enemy is again, Russia).

Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they are not out to get you. Words to live by.

If you are unfortunate enough to have the NYT copy of the report, skip the first 100 pages where the NYT tears down the country. It was sickening. The report itself is fairly comprehensive and unbiased. I tried to read the NYT slant and was truly surprised to see how anti-American they are and that was back in 2004 when it was published.

Read the report, skip the anti-American rhetoric at the front.

Preliminary note on the event horizon of contemporary America and the vacant catastrophe lying beyond it: this book has a Goodreads average rating of 3.60 while The Mueller Report: Presented with Related Materials by The Washington Post has a 4.28.

Absolutely incredible. For the first chapter, I was immediately intrigued on how the whole thing came together and something worth reading and not something that seemed like a CSPAN transcript or something. Can the in depth analysis and reporting get any better for one of the worst days in American history? I don't think so.

Definite recommended reading for anybody interested in 9/11, the lead up to it, and how we ended up invading Afghanistan. So glad I carried a highlighter while reading so I can revisit things I am more interested.

Deduction of a star because the last two-three chapters of the book were aged. I would have liked a 20 year update to the book as it concluded with what we had learned in 2004.

Really liked it.

Having read more than a few government reports, I was surprised by the writing quality of this one: it was refreshingly sober, methodical, level-headed, and thoughtful. The commission had the opportunity to use the report as partisan propaganda, and, to its credit, it did not take it.

The report breaks the events of 9/11 into several distinct parts: the attacks, the historical background, the planning stages, the victims and responders, the aftermath, and recommendations. All are clear well-written. The presentation of the information in this way made it a little harder to perceive in a linear, timeline fashion - in particular, how intra-agency squabbles presented barriers to information analysis - and for this reason I strongly recommend reading The Looming Tower.

Worth skimming in a library. I own a copy. I like to go back to it every few months just to remind myself of the jaw-dropping casualness of this report. Reminds me that "reality exists independently of opinions about it".

If any other family members actually like this explanation (which is no statement at all in terms of making anything clear) then I'll have to confess to not knowing why. I can't believe they spent over 300 pages - and 12 public hearings - making nothing lucid at all and not one person in the government (except Richard Clarke) taking any responsibility for anything at all.
But now I know almost exactly how the person in my life died; they could explain that because they don't have to lie or avoid culpability of any person or group to do it.

The one thing that stayed consistent through the whole book was the fact that everyone in this country turned the death of our loved ones into everything OTHER than the f'ing death of our loved ones; everything from an opportunity to get re-elected and start wars that you make money off of to feeling sorry for cold-blooded killers to god knows what else.
To someone who knew one of those people, all of it feels pretty inhumane or at best shallow behavior.
The only person in government who even apologized to us was Richard Clarke.

Page 251:Bin Laden routinely told important visitors to expect significant attacks against U.S interests and during a speech at the al Faruq camp, exhorted trainees to pray for the success of an attack involving 20 martyrs.

That's the grossest, most disgusting thing I've ever heard.

My God. Reading about Bush and his presidency is making me sick. I voted for Bush twice but not for him to do what he did in this situation. I never thought he even could do what he did.

Chapter 5: I could just KILL Bush, Cheney and their damn psychotic LAWyers who rewrote entire sections of the Constitution to excuse themselves for approving of torture of the captured al Qaeda members.

Abbreviated statement about Chapter 4: Still so surprised they tried so many times and gave up the plan to find bin Laden as many times as they made one. So surprised and so agonized about it. It feel like a scab was torn from a wound and is bleeding freely again bc it wasn't as "healed" as I thought.

Page 132: Osama bin Laden should be treated humanely and not abused if he surrenders to the capture.

Me (thinking) What FOR? He doesn't treat anyone ELSE humanely. Why do we have to play games of niceties?

Until they explain why more than 20 "important" people in government all remember little to nothing about any of this, it's going to STAY at three stars - and possibly drop to 2.
I find it way TOO convenient that nobody alive recalls anything, that all their memories are dim with barely recollected information - and lots of people who could have told us something about it are dead.
Well so is Eric, my daughter's dad, but he's one of the people who was considered nothing in our government. He wasn't President, Secretary of State, Under Secretary, etc. Just what President Obama called an innocent citizen having no influence in government. He was Vice-President of his company, but it was not connected to the government.

Page 114: Impressions vary as to who actually decided not to pursue the operation [to capture bin Ladin in 1998.] Clarke told us that the CSG saw the plan as flawed. He was said to have described it to a colleague on the NSC as "half-assed" and predicted that the principals would not approve it. "Jeff" [CIA agent whose name they're hiding] thought the decision had been made at the cabinet level. Pavitt thought that it was Berger's doing, though perhaps on Tenet's advice. Tenet told us that given the recommendations of his chief operations officers, he alone had decided to "turn off" the operation. He had simply informed Berger, who had not pushed back. Berger's recollection was similar. He said the plan was never presented to the White House for a decision.

Me: Why does that sound like a rendition of the f'ing Keystone Kops in government? Nobody knows ANYthing. Eric and all these other people are dead, but nobody in the government can rightly recall ANYthing. (sigh)

When asked about the Africans who died in the 1998 bombing of the embassies in Kenya, Osama bin Laden said that Islamic law mandates that it's okay to do if that's what it takes to drive the Americans out of East Africa; which, for the LIFE of me, I never thought was HOLY land to Muslims, and he's a gd LIAR OF TITANIC PROPORTIONS.
I know a Muslim person, and he said the jackass had no right issuing a fatwa b/c he wasn't an imam or scholar of Islam. That's why a group of sheiks issued a second fatwa for him, to make it "legal under Islamic law."
Which is as much a load of downright CRAP as it is for Christians to try to force people into Christianity.

While I was in the middle of page 61, I suddenly became filled with real revulsion that I was actually reading detail by disgusting detail of how his killers' minds work.
It made me want to vomit just reading about it. Something about reading it unhinged me to the point of feeling I can't read this at all. It's really a vile and disgusting thing to get inside their brains, and I CERTAINLY don't WANT to spend any more time in there than strictly necessary.
That's how I feel about members of Al Qaeda. That has nothing to do with Muslims, if you ask me. Al Qaeda murdered Muslims, according to President Obama and about that I don't think he was lying.

The whole time I've been reading about Osama bin Ladin's desires and nefarious disGUSTING plans, I've wanted to throw up. I'm sorry but the dingbat was planning to kill my daughter's dad and all those other people, and he began his demented plan when my daughter was only two.
Information like that tends to upset me. We're there living our life and almost the whole time my daughter was alive, someone was plotting a scheme to have her dad killed. No matter that he didn't know Eric was one of the people he would end up killing, it doesn't matter. He was still planning it.
It's just a TAD upsetting to discover this, although I'm not going to go into detail here as to why it distresses me so much, mostly b/c IDK all the reasons.
How downright disgustingly freakin' ODD do you have to be to plan for so many years to kill people just b/c they don't think the way you do? It's crazy.

Chapter 2 and 'Bin Ladin's World View.' Excuse my language, but goddam if he isn't the most anNOYing person that ever lived; and by some MIRACLE walked on two legs instead of four.
My friend, Robb, knows an Arab guy who works for the United Nations, but he doesn't think a damn thing like Osama bin Ladin. He can't STAND Osama bin Ladin. He said Osama bin Ladin and all his friends "had no authority to issue a fatwa, b/c none of them was a scholar of Islamic Law."
The guy is really nice all the time, or every time *I* see him he's been openly friendly. But the only times I've seen him are during major holidays, times when most people are happy.
I heard him translating a speech between President Obama and an Arab leader, but it was by accident. I recognized his voice though.
He's just been so decent to me that, at first, it confused me. But after he said Osama bin Ladin and his friends had no authority to issue a fatwa, I felt a little more comfortable. Even though I don't know for sure what he means. I know he hated the attack that Al Qaeda carried out, b/c he said so, and that's good enough for me to trust him a little. Translating a speech lends even more credibility to him.

If the damn FAA, NORAD & NEADS didn't have such a long chain of command to pass current hijack information, Eric MIGHT have actually lived.
But they had to send information up a long line of command that resembled a mutated daisy chain. I mean hijackers can do a LOT to the people on the plane in the time it was taking for all these yay-hoo Air Controllers just to send information to all the right people, which would have taken too much time IMO. In an emergency rapid response is always one of the requirements to efficiently managing the incident. Or in this case Mass Casualty Incident. (MCI)
The guy who said 'It's not our job to tell air personnel working for the airlines what to do' was OBVIOUSLY a freezing cold bastard. His response sounded like he didn't even care what happened in the first place. He was defensive the whole time they were asking him questions, and I bet that's b/c he's one of those people who don't want to do what they're doing anyway, and that type of person has no freakin' business working as an Air Traffic Controller. It's plain stupid to make him a head manager.
It's ridiculous that it took them so blazing long to get things done.
The New York Fire Department, the one everyone thinks employs stellar, heroic responders did some of the same stuff. While people were dead or dying inside the towers two of the managers, who also lived, were arguing about who has the say in directing firefighters or something similar to that. I no longer remember the exact words but more than 30 units responded to the blaze, and 23 units from the New Jersey area responded to it.

Page 51: "Bin Ladin shares Qutb's stark view [of Islamic law], permitting him and his followers to rationalize even unprovoked mass murder as righteous defense of an embattled faith. Many Americans have wondered, "Why do 'they' hate us?" Some also ask, "What can we do to stop these attacks?"
Bin Ladin and al Qaeda have given answers to both these questions. To the first, they say that America had attacked Islam; America is responsible for all conflicts involving Muslims. Thus Americans are blamed when Israelis fight with Palestinians, when Russians fight with Chechens, when Indians fight with Kashmiri Muslims and when the Philippine government fights ethnic Muslims in its southern islands. America is also held responsible for the governments of Muslim countries, derided by al Qaeda as "your agents." Bin Ladin has stated flatly, "Our fight against these governments is not separate from our fight against you." These charges found a ready audience among millions of Arabs and Muslims angry at the United States because of issues ranging from Iraq [before 2001] to Palestine to America's support for their countries' repressive rulers."
Now I just have two tiny little things to say to all that: 1) WHAT THE HELL DOES ALL THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ERIC, ONE OF THE PEOPLE THEY KILLED. HE NEVER THOUGHT LIKE THAT SO, IN THIS CASE, HE SHOULD AT LEAST HAVE BEEN SEPARATED FROM THEIR IDEA OF 'AMERICA.'
BUT THEY JUST LUMP EVERY SINGLE LIVING BEING IN WITH FOOLS LIKE GEORGE BUSH JUNIOR AND KILL EVERYONE THEY SEE? AND WHO DIED AND GAVE THEM THE REAPER'S GD DUTIES ANYWAY?
2) About Osama bin Ladin: He's fuckin' crazy. We're talking 'toys in the attic, three sheets to the wind CRAZY.
I have no more to say about him. He's just crazy and that's all.

What the hell? I don't get how all these "sectors" or sections of Northeast Regional Air Defense (NORAD) could have their sectors at all points of the country but none anywhere NEAR where the planes were flying. Colorado Springs, Colorado? Panama City, Florida? Cities in Virginia?
None of those places are anywhere near where the planes were flying. Only Rome, New York was anywhere near but they called people from all those other points.
What the hell were these people supposed to actually DO from Colorado Springs, Colorado other than call somebody in Florida? Then what did THEY do?
I'm totally confused about the way this damn thing was set up. I've got to be missing some kind of information that other people aren't, b/c I have no idea why they called people in Colorado Springs, who called people in Panama City, who called people in Virginia. Rome, New York did this to alert all the centers. But why did the Colorado Springs Center need to know about something happening thousands of miles away?

from page 17: "The threat of terrorists hijacking commercial airliners within the United States--and using them as guided missiles--was not recognized by NORAD before 9/11."
No kidding. Like who would think the way Osama bin Laden was thinking? I don't even think the devil himself thinks as low and black and evil as THAT guy did.
There's something wrong with that man, and I mean that in the present tense. The evil that was his soul still exists, and there's something definitely WRONG with it.

Damn. On September 11, 2001, there were more than 20 things they tried while not one of them worked. Not even the Flight 93 deal, that everyone goes on and on about. Yes, they aVERTED the plane but what good did it do for the actual people who did it? They're still DEAD. I'd rather be alive but that's just me.
And, anyway, one of them never got to meet his daughter while he was on earth. I know that b/c I met his wife. She was 6 months pregnant and he never got to meet Morgan, who's named after him. His middle name was Morgan, so Lisa named her Morgan Kay Beamer.
She's really cute and, if I were him, I'd rather meet my daughter than be a dead "hero."
I think he'd agree with me.

from page 11: "Several FAA air traffic control officials told us it was the air carriers' responsibility to notify their planes of security problems. One senior FAA air traffic control manager said that it was simply not the FAA's place to order the airlines what to tell their pilots. We believe such statements do not reflect an adequate appreciation of the FAA's responsibility for the safety and security of civil aviation."
I don't know what "they" believe but I think they're freakin' CRAZY to be concerned about "who's allowed to tell whom what" IN THE MIDDLE OF A NATIONAL DISASTER!
I don't comprehend what's WRONG with the senior air traffic control manager, but I've worked long enough in a professional capacity to totally see that happening. I've heard so-called "professionals" lie right through their teeth whenever the fancy takes them, so I know it's completely possible that such a statement could occur.
I think the man's crazier than a LOON if THAT'S the most important thing on his mind out of all that happened that day.

from page 2: "In passing through these checkpoints, each of the hijackers would have been screened by a walk-through metal detector calibrated to detect items with at least the metal content of a .22-caliber handgun. Anyone who might have set off that detector would have been screened with a hand wand--a procedure requiring the screener to identify the metal item or items that caused the alarm. In addition, an X-ray machine would have screened the hijackers' carry-on belongings. The screening was in place to identify and confiscate weapons and other items prohibited from being carried onto a commercial flight.
None of the checkpoint supervisors recalled the hijackers or reported anything suspicious regarding their screening."

Last sentence: 'None of the checkpoint supervisors recalled the hijackers?'
WTF?--- The guy from the security in Boston at Flight 11's security specifically TOLD us he recalled Mohammed Atta. He said the guy "looked like the angriest person I'd ever seen in my life."
He said Atta looked "so angry, it made me deeply uncomfortable and I had to think about whether I was going to pass him through." He added that it took him "at least 5 minutes of thinking about it." Which was probably more than a few minutes and FELT like five. But anyway, what finally decided him was that they were all "quiet people [not causing any problems] and wearing business suits."
How in the world can the 9/11 Commission team say that "none of the checkpoint supervisors recalled the hijackers?"
I'm utterly confused by that statement.
Unless the guy who talked to US wasn't a supervisor, which I have no way of knowing now, b/c I don't even remember his name. I remember his face and voice but his name is long gone.
I DO know that I DID hear him say that. Two people were with me, and they'll remember him saying it, b/c one of them (my daughter) became visibly upset upon hearing that he let them through b/c they "were wearing business suits." She had to leave the room at that point and didn't return.
She was a freshman in high school when all this happened and not much older than 18 when the Boston checkpoint guy said this.
Anyway, I'm just saying: I'm NOT crazy, I know what I heard, and this guy comPLETEly remembered Mohammed Atta.
And now I'm totally confused about this particular part of the issue. But I guess I should think 'What the hell ELSE is new?'
I'm not going to try to understand it, b/c I KNOW what I heard, and I'm positive that at least one person working at Logan International Airport remembers Mohammed Atta.

Mohammed Atta and the two or three goons with him killed Eric and all those other people in Tower 1.
I know practically nothing about anyone but Mohammed Atta, b/c he's the one who flew the plane that crashed into Tower 1, where Eric was, which is why I know so much about Atta.
He had a Master's Degree in Urban Development. His father was a lawyer, and both his sisters were doctors. With a Ph.D in something.
He came from a wealthy family, had every opportunity in the world to make something of himself and it makes no sense why he threw it all away on committing mass murder combined with suicide.
I think he's just about the most brain-dead person that ever lived, and that's all I can safely say about my feelings toward him.
I believe what I saw on the security camera and on the Flight chart. Where they recorded the names of people and their seat numbers. They also played the tape of the two flight attendants calling into the control tower, saying they were being hijacked.

Excerpt: "Mihdhar and Moqed placed their carry-on bags on the belt of the X-ray machine and proceeded through the first metal detector. Both set off the alarm, and they were directed to a second metal detector. Mihdhar did not trigger the alarm and was permitted through the checkpoint. After Moqed set it off, a screener wanded him. He passed this inspection."
I'm sorry, but that makes no sense at ALL. How are they setting off more than one alarm and then NOT setting off the wand? And why, when the dufus set off TWO alarms did "security" think it was okay to pass him through just b/c a wand DIDN'T set off an alarm?
I simply don't get why they were so damn tolerant about a person who set off two alarms, not one but TWO? I think if they both set off the first alarm and one set off a SECOND alarm, the security officers should have made THEM stay back. That news upsets me, even though Eric was unaffected by Moqed and Mihdhar.
Not that making Mihdhar and Moqed stay off the plane would have saved Eric. Mihdhar and Moqed boarded Flight 77 at Dulles-International airport. The only people who would have benefited from keeping Mihdhar and Moqed detained are the people who worked at the Pentagon and the passengers/crew of Flight 77.
Eric, being in Tower 1, would have still died. Mohammed Atta killed Eric and all the people in Tower 1, even those who died bc the tower crushed them to death at 10:28.