Twenty-four hours after the Sept. 11, 2001, commission report
hit bookshelves across the country on July 22, the 20-copy supply
in Ackerman Union sold out.
The 560-page report ““ ranked No. 1 in online sales on
Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble ““ reflects the
nation’s widespread interest in the findings and
recommendations of the committee’s 20-month investigation.
The panel’s extensive deliberations attempt to decode the
complexity of the country’s deadliest terrorist attacks.
The 10-member committee’s most significant recommendations
called for a major overhaul of the nation’s intelligence
agencies and the establishment of a counterterrorism center under
one chief supervisor who would report directly to the White House.
The bipartisan commission consisted of five Republicans and five
Democrats.
Ackerman should be fully restocked early this week, a sales
representative said, in anticipation of a second wave of students
eager to read the report. The report is also available online
through the commission’s and various news sources’ Web
sites.
The report came with the panel’s plea for urgency to act
and a pledge to make its recommended reforms a key issue in the
upcoming presidential elections.
“˜”˜We’re in danger of just letting things
slide. “¦ Time is not on our side,” said former
New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, a Republican who served as the
commission’s chairman.
Kean added that, unless the commission’s suggestions are
implemented, the country would be more vulnerable to another
terrorist attack.
In response, Congress will hold a series of impromptu August
hearings in both Senate and House committees in which Kean and Lee
Hamilton, the commission’s Democratic vice chairman, will
testify. The hearings will focus on the panel’s two key
recommendations.
Congress began its summer recess July 23, but leaders of both
houses announced they would hold special hearings throughout the
next several months, though it is unclear how soon some of the
commission’s recommendations could be implemented.
“The American people expect us to act. “¦We
don’t have the luxury of waiting for months,” said Sen.
Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Governmental
Affairs Committee. Senate leaders also urged the panel to introduce
legislation regarding the intelligence proposals by Oct. 1.
The report, released after the consideration of more than 2.5
million pages of documents and 1,200 interviews, makes no attempt
to place blame, Kean and Hamilton wrote in the report’s
preface.
Instead, “Our aim has been to provide the fullest possible
account of the events surrounding 9/11 and to identify lessons
learned,” they wrote.
In doing so, the report, written more like an unfolding story
than an investigative report, details major failures on several
fronts: travel control, military, administration and intelligence.
With dialogue excerpts and extensive footnotes, the panel reveals
the large extent by which communication broke down.
After a lengthy narration of the minutes and seconds that led up
to the four plane hijackings and ensuing crashes, the report
provides background on Islam extremists, Osama bin Ladin and the
creation of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. Also included is a
description of response from fire and police officials in a chapter
titled “Heroism and Horror.”
Lastly, the report lists a series of 40 recommendations ranging
from permanently stabilizing Afghanistan and creating a better
relationship with Saudi Arabia (“a relationship about more
than oil”) to improving the transitions between presidential
administrations.
With the abundance of information about the attacks available in
the report, students expressed varying interest in reading the
report, with many saying they would have been more interested had
the report been released closer to the tragedy.
This was true for students like fourth-year marine biology
students Pauline Delacastillo and Melissa Lintag, who had not heard
previously about the commission or the report but said they would
have wanted questions answered earlier.
But third-year history student Mickel Jourabchi said he wanted
the facts revealed now.
“I want to find out the real facts,” Jourabchi said,
as to why he would eventually read the report. “(Students)
should find out the truth. “¦ It could affect their election
choice.”
With reports from Bruin wire services. Go to
www.9-11commission.gov for the complete report.