9/11 Commission Report

Former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean led a bipartisan team tasked with uncovering the failures behind the September 11, 2001 attacks. The commission began its work on November 27, 2002, more than a year after the towers fell, and spent months interviewing officials and reviewing classified documents. Their findings filled a 585-page volume that detailed how intelligence agencies missed critical warnings and how bureaucratic silos prevented information from reaching decision-makers. President George W. Bush and Congress established the group to ensure such gaps never happened again. Originally scheduled for release in late May, the report faced a sixty-day delay approved by Speaker Dennis Hastert before hitting shelves on July 22, 2004. This final document remains accessible today as a free download or through standard book retailers. Readers find a stark narrative of missed opportunities rather than a simple list of events. The authors avoid speculation and focus strictly on what the evidence showed about communication breakdowns within the FBI and CIA. That level of transparency set a high bar for government investigations into national security matters.[edit]