Thomas H. Kean

Well narrated by Grover Gardner, this is an hour long (35 pages if you read the pdf.) summary of the 585 page (pdf) report. It discusses the government's awareness of the al-Qaeda threat and lack of awareness/preparedness of their intent to use American commercial planes as weapons of mass destruction. It discusses the failures of communication between government agencies and executives, and their inability to act on any intelligence, suggesting specific updates/reorganization of intelligence agencies that the commission believes could better thwart current technologically advanced threats.… (meer)

On this 18th anniversary of the 9/11 disaster, I'd like to recommend reading (or rereading) this historical book. Some government reports require hacking through thickets of bureaucratese; not so in the case of the 9/11 Commission Report. Written in clear, simple English, it gives a fascinating account of not only the attacks, the victims, the terrorists, but also events that led up to that infamous day. The Report won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Admittedly, a lot more information has been discovered, reported, and published since the Report came out, but for people who were children at the time, and for others who may not recall all the details reported during those days, this is a riveting account.… (meer)