This is not abook about the 9-11 events. It looks at the workings of the 9-11 commission behind the scene. For example: The Executive Director was a close friend of Dr. Rice; the White House's stonewalling at the release of relavent documents; overlooked NSA documents; and the strong desire to have a balanced report that resulted in not pointing fingers at individuals or agencies that didn't do their job before 9-11. In the end the commission created a well crafted report, but didn't really accomplish much. ( )

Philip Shenon is an investigative reporter with The New York Times, who was assigned as the paper’s lead reporter covering the 9/11 Commission. Despite the sensational title, this book is actually a fascinating story of the personalities, politics, and internal struggles of the Commission.

The book begins with Sandy Berger, Clinton’s former National Security Advisor, removing confidential documents from the National Archives. Shenon describes Berger’s background and how he removed the documents, and speculates about Berger’s motivations.

Next we have a group of 9/11 widows meeting with Henry Kissinger, who had been appointed to chair the Commission. The “Jersey Girls” ask Kissinger to reveal his client list, to demonstrate that he would not have a conflict of interest in chairing the Commission. Kissinger resists. Eventually Lorie Van Auken asks him directly: “With all due respect, Dr. Kissinger, I have to ask you: Do you have any Saudi clients? Do you have any clients named bin Laden?”

Shenon continues: The room went dead quiet. Kissinger, who had been pouring himself a cup of coffee, was clearly startled by Lorie’s question. He fumbled with the pot, spilling coffee onto the table. He seemed to lose his balance from the sofa at the same moment, nearly falling to the floor. Kissinger indicated that he had to end the meeting, because he had another appointment. The next morning, he resigned from the 9/11 Commission.

With that, Shenon is off and running. He describes how the Commission members were selected, outlining the credentials and the possible conflicts of interest each member brought to the team.

Shenon paints Philip Zelikow, the Executive Director of the Commission, as a major villain of the story. Shenon credits Zelikow, a noted historian, with the editing and readability of the final report, but severely criticizes his failure to reveal his potential conflicts of interest as a member of the Bush transition team, a close associate of Condoleezza Rice, and a principal author of the 2002 National Security Strategy, which established the doctrine of preemptive war and was used as justification for invading Iraq. Zelikow maintained his contacts with insiders in the White House for the duration of the Commission, eventually ordering staffers to stop logging his calls after his frequent conversations with Karl Rove attracted attention. Shenon also criticizes the committee chairs, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, for their overall weakness and their lack of diligence in investigating Zelikow’s background before his appointment.

Zelikow divided the Committee into task groups, then insisted that all information sharing within the Committee must be channeled through him. In this way, he prevented the different investigative groups from sharing information, and prevented staffers from alerting Commission members to Zelikow’s interference with their investigations.

FBI director Robert Mueller, CIA Director George Tenet, and Attorney General John Ashcroft come in for well-deserved criticism. Shenon raises, but does not resolve, the issue of Cheney’s actions on 9/11.

As new information came to light after the publication of the 9/11 Commission report, Kean and Hamilton issued a book titled Without Precedent, describing the ways in which the Commission was stonewalled, obstructed, and misled.

The Commission has been severely criticized by 9/11 conspiracy theorists for failure to reveal “the truth”. I found it a fascinating story, as compelling as any thriller, but very frustrating due to the numerous missed opportunities prior to 9/11 and the total lack of accountability afterward. ( )

It's hardly shocking that politics colored the whole of the 9/11 Commission. But the story detailed in this book is shocking even to cynical political observers like me. This book by Philip Shenon leaves everyone looking bad. But especially bad are George Tenet, Condolezza Rice (know by some 9/11 widows as "kinda-lies-a-lot") and the main villain of the book, Philip Zelikow. Zelikow was a member of the Bush 43 transition team and wrote a position paper justifying the war in Iraq, and didn't disclose any of that when he was hired as the executive director of the commission. It appears that he went to great pains to try to shield the Bush Administration and his friend Rice. ( )