There's a lot of gaps after reading this 9/11 commission report and still a lot of unanswered questions. Hence why there are conspiracy theories out there. It seemed so easy for the hijackers to just get on the planes.

A very detailed report of the activity of 9/11. The nay sayers won't like this book on the Commission Report of 9/11; but truth be told it is an important book in understanding the events of this tragic day in our nations history. I give it 4 stars due to the missing 28 pages that are still considered too classified to publish, these pages related to KSM (the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks.)

I decided to read this book after some of the hype died down surrounding its release. I also wanted to have a little more perespective as 9/11 was such a nationally traumatic event (even when you live in Phoenix and have never visited New York). The report starts off with an insanely dramatic recounting of the events of the morning of Septemeber 11th, 2001. Nearly every sentence has a footnote listing the commission's source for the information conveyed in that sentence (which all you "Loose Change", 9/11 Truth movement people would do well to read). This thorough level of detail vividly brings alive the horror of that morning. The tone of the writing is Hemingwayesque - not many adjectives, a paucity of adverbs. This only heightens the drama, and tension of the hijackings. There are a slew of tiny details I had no idea of before reading this. For example, when Mohamed Atta told Flight 11 that they have a bomb, and are returning to the airport, he accidently presses the button that relays the message to Air Traffic Control; Atta lets slip: "we have some planes". Nobody in Air Traffic Control picks up on this essential fact which may have helped to identify the other hijacked airlines earlier. Another sinister detail involves Flight 75, which was asked to visually confirm Flight 11. This was their last transmission. The first section ends with the crashing of all four hijacked airplanes, relegating the collapse of the World Trade Center to a later chapter.
The next few sections deal with a backround on terrorism against U.S. targets - mostly overseas - as well as the U.S.'s burgeoning efforts in counterterrorism. Al Qaeda is also given a chapter, recounting their formation and growth. Most of these chapters also read fairly easy, although there is a bit of acronym soup in reading about the different agencies tasked with counterterrorism. In reading this section alone, you can see why this attack wasn't thwarted: there was way too much beaucracy, and not enough information sharing. It was difficult to keep track of who worked in what agency and what they were responsible for trying to stop. The FBI was domestic, the CIA was foriegn, but nobody was domestic AND foriegn. After giving this background the report continues by recounting the "planes operation": from a grandiose idea in the mind of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to the morning of September 11th. In reading this section, you realize how many opportunities the U.S. had to recognize this plot and put a stop to it. Meaning, Al Queada wasn't perfect, they made mistakes that the U.S. could have capitalized on. Al Queada did do a good job of covering its tracks and selecting innocuous looking western muslims to train as pilots, and then not bringing the muscle hijackers into the country until a couple weeks before the attacks. The so-called Hamburg cell, had all lived in the West for at least three years. They understood how to blend in, and - far from being poor, economically exploited middle easterners - they had all benifited from the West's openess to educate muslims from the middle east, and most came from well-off families. And yet the simmering hate of the West was fostered in mosques which preached violence against a society that shunned the God of Islam. But really, if you look past the religion, you see these people for what they really are: sociopaths. Especially Mohamed Atta, which in character bore a striking resemblance to Eric Harris (the Columbine shooter) who also thought the world inferior and corrupt, and seeing himself as better, needed to show the world their inferiority (by killing them and ultimately himself). It's frightening to think that the pilots of the hijacked planes lived in the U.S. for two years, the whole time living as assimilated westerners, avoiding mosques (for the most part) and shying away from any public displays of being a devout muslim. They kept the hate buring inside all this time, trying to fly large jets, knowing each morning what they were training for: to kill thousands of people. The saddest story of the four pilots is Ziad Jarrah, who had a girlfriend in Germany, whom he seemed to genuinely love. Jarrah seemed the most uncomfortable with the plot and refused to sever ties with his family as the other pilots had done. Al Queada was even training another pilot in case Jarrah dropped out. In the end Jarrah went through with it, killing 44 people. And while there is no solid evidence, it seems he did it out of peer pressure more than a true hatred of the West.
The next section recounts the devastation that occured after the planes were crashed. The tragedy of the north and south towers both unfolded in a similar fashion. A lack of communication had 911 operators telling people to stay put; fire and police gave evacuation orders, but trouble with communication lines meant everyone didn't receive this order. This section also tended to be confusing as there were multiple groups who responded to the crashes and at times it was hard to keep them apart.
The report ends with an explanation of what happened and how, and also gives some recommendations of governmental changes to insure an attack of this magnatude does not occur again. While this section was written with good intentions, in reading the previous 300 pgs., it's obvious what happened and why. The intellegence community wasn't designed to stop this type of attack, thus they didn't. The design of these agencies also discouraged open-mindedness, and radical thinking, which might have helped recognize the exact nature of the threats pouring in from different agencies. Alas this didn't happen, and sadly, it doesn't seem that the government has implemented all the suggested changes.
One more issue I had with the report was the lack of information regarding President Bush and his cabinet. The commision didn't try and get the bottom of why Bush didn't take these threats more seriously. They kept appearing in his presidential briefings, yet he seemed okay with not going after this group for another year or two. Also when there is conflicting accounts of what was said and when (most of which are pretty obvious when one person is lying, as their contradiction always clears them of responsibility) the commision should have done more work in ascertaining what really happened, as over 3000 people died that day, and if someone wasn't doing their job as they should have and that contributed to the attacks not being stopped, there should be some sort of repurcussion, or, at the very least, an apology. Yet the commmision hides behind the "hindsight is 20/20" rationale, which didn't work for me in high school when my teacher asked me why I didn't finish my homework, or why I didn't let someone know when that nerdy kid was being picked on. My inablilty to act has, in a small way, contributed to the bullying of that kid, as I did nothing to stop it. And in many ways it's worse for these government agencies, as in high school it wasn't my JOB to stop bullying, yet it was the President's sworn duty to protect the American people. And on the morning of September 11th he failed in doing this. And sadly, as far as I know, he's never apologixed for this, nor has he even admitted to such a tragic failure.

I know it is kind of weird to rate the 911 Commission Report. My rating only reflects the report as a reading experience for those who have ever been interested in reading it. I would say it is well-written, thorough, and thoughtful, although not every party of it is super compelling. For example, there's lots of national security bureaucracy stuff that was a bit dull. Still, the report does a great job showing the origins of the attack, the missed chances to maybe unravel the plot, the response to the attacks, and, in the intense first chapter, the hijackings themselves. I will definitely draw on it in the future for research and teaching. Quick note: the ratings for the report on sites like goodreads are weighed down by 9/11 truthers, who treat it as fiction. Their feverish opinions should be discounted.