The 9/11 Commission Report

Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks

By: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks

Narrated by: Ken Borgers, Sal Giangrasso, Charlton Griffin, Mark Moran, Todd Mundt

Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people died in terrorist attacks upon the United States. Hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, while an additional plane crashed into the fields of Pennsylvania. This series of events resulted in the single largest loss of life from enemy attack on U.S. soil.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was created by congressional legislation and the signature of President George W. Bush in late 2002. This independent, bipartisan commission had the task of producing a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the attack, including preparedness and immediate response, and providing recommendations designed to guard against future attacks.

The 9/11 Commission released their final report to the public on July 22, 2004. During the course of the Commission's 20-month investigation, the 10 commissioners and 80 staff members conducted more than 1300 interviews in 10 countries and reviewed more than 2 million documents. In the 17 days of public hearings, the commissioners heard testimony from 140 federal, state, and local officials, and private sector experts.

The Commission was composed of Chair Thomas H. Kean, Vice Chair Lee H. Hamilton, and Commissioners Richard Ben-Veniste, Fred F. Fielding, Jamie S. Gorelick, Slade Gorton, Bob Kerrey, John F. Lehman, Timothy J. Roemer, and James R. Thompson.

(P)2004 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Finalist, Achievement in Production, 2005

"The prose is free from bureaucratese and, for a consensus statement, the report is remarkably forthright. Though there could not have been a single author, the style is uniform. The document is an improbable literary triumph." (The New York Times Book Review)

Excellent, Motivating

This book fulfilled all of my expectations. It went into detail about what happened on 9/11--what the terrorists, our leaders, the airlines, the passengers, and the emergency responders KNEW as it was happening. It details the travel, education and background of the terrorists. It explains all of the branches of government involved in anti-terrorist activities. Can not recommend it strongly enough. There was so much detail (I think other reveiwers called it boring)but I could not stop listening. It was like a thrilling mystery that is written well enough that it doesn't matter if you already know how it ends. Very sad and hard to listen to at times, but so important! God bless those who died that day, the surviviors, and their families!

Absolutely Outstanding Historical Document

I expected a dry, factual report. I was surprised to see this is outstanding, both in its content and in the quality of the writers that produced it. The report contains the details we would expect regarding the events of 911, but I didn't expect the background material that sets the events, terrorism itself, and the ominous future we all face now in a historical context that makes it all the more frightening. Excellent narration too.

Not definitive but still important

I saw Flight 175 crash into the WTC live on Good Morning America when I was 17 years old. It was a formative experience and in adulthood I've done my best to hunt down all the different perspectives of the day as I can. While I wouldn't call this a fully comprehensive or accurate account, it's an important part of the history of the event. The report was written in 2004 and is limited to information provided to the commission at that time.

I know some people are going to see my quibble about accuracy and get twitchy, so let me say this: I'm not a truther or a conspiracy theorist. I've just read and watched a TON of material about 9/11 and heard one or two things in this report that I don't think are true; mostly this revolves around what the president, vice-president, and other leaders said and did in the immediate aftermath. For example, my understanding is that Ben Sliney issued the no-fly order, but he doesn't seem to be specifically credited here: it's just a thing that happened. I attribute the inaccuracies to being written by a commission who was only three years out from the disaster and didn't want their findings to read as blame or criticism of the same administration that was trying to react to the tragedy.

The narration is good overall. However, it changes randomly between sections and I'm not sure why that is. You get your first narrator back for the last section, so at least there's that. Also, occasionally quotes are narrated with a weird echoing sound effect - it happened twice that I noticed and again, there didn't seem to be reason for it.

If you're looking for the experiences of first level responders, witnesses, survivors, etc., this is not the place for it. These crucial participants are referenced on occasion, but the report tries to be an objective retelling of events so you're not going to get a lot of the emotional response from reading this. If you're looking for a deep dive into events at the Pentagon or Flight 93, this won't help you. These events are addressed as appropriate, but I think because there was greater destruction and loss of life in NYC, that's what a lot of the report focuses on.

Basically, even for as long as this is, it's not written for exacting detail or emotional impact. It's for general background, context, overview, aftermath, and recommendations moving forward. I'd highly recommend reading John Farmer's "The Ground Truth" after reading this - he was a supporting staff member of the commission and has been forthright about its shortcomings.

hard to listen to but worth your time

it's a giant data dump of information about 9/11 and terrorism. it can be very hard to listen to step times, especially because of the very odd ways some of the readers choose to pronounce names that you know. it's worth a listen but isn't always enjoyable

Great Book

This book is the report from the commission that investigated 9/11. The report spells out what happened and recommends preventing those things from happening again. The narration was good, too.

Great Educational Tool

I went from not knowing much about the 9/11 to knowing quite a bit

Well written for gov't doc, but long and tedious

This is an important work and gives good insight into the interagency and intelligence processes, the origins of the Islamist extremist threat, and the events of 9/11. Because it offers more detail than most people can probably bear, it may be better to buy the book so you can skip the parts that are not interesting to you. The narration is questionable at times, but bearable. Worth the price.

Great documentary , analysis and recommendations

Great documentary and should be a required reading/listening document. Narration was guite good for such a long document. The report had good analysis and reasonable set of recommendations that should be further studied and seriously considered for implementation. The 9/11 Commission's work should not end with this documentary, but rather continue to review progress on its recommendations once every year, and publish the reviews to the public.

Long but good

This is a very lengthy report to listyen to in its entirety but you will feel it is worth it in the end. You will have a complete picture of what happened and what the government needs to do to correct it. This is a non-partisan report. It sites fact and tell the audience clearly when the authors are making an opinion statement. I was suprised that they were able to put such a report together.

Required Reading

Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." Nowadays everyone has thier opinion about how to address terrorism. The discussion should start with the facts, and the 9-11 Commission Report contains the facts. This is required reading for anyone who wants to hold an educated opinion about Islamic terrorism. Highly recommended.