Required Reading: The 9/11 Commission Report

SEPTEMBER 7, 2004
By GREGORY J. RUMMO

          TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States. Millions of men and women readied themselves for work. Some made their way to the Twin Towers, the signature structures of the World Trade Center complex in New York City…”

            So begins “We Have Some Planes,” the opening chapter of “The 9/11 Commission Report.”

            Daniel Henninger in his “Wonderland” column that appears Fridays in the Wall Street Journal characterized it as a “reality check for any who take the time to read it.”

Order from Amazon.com

Joe Belz, the publisher of WORLD Magazine wrote in the August 7 issue: “[F]or Election Day 2004, I have a[n] …idea. Just this once, let’s ask everyone to show up with his or her own copy of the paperback version of The 9/11 Commission Report. It should be slightly dog-eared to prove that it’s actually been read. Maybe poll watchers should even ask each prospect to point to one underlined paragraph that the reader thinks is especially pertinent. Just for 2004: No book, no vote. Citizenship, after all, should be a little costly. If the right to cast a free ballot has cost some of our forerunners their very lives, is it so bad to put a couple of speed bumps in the road to the voting booth? Is it wrong to ask would-be voters to offer a little proof that they’ve thought things through?”

            Hmmm, not a bad idea, especially this year when candidate Kerry’s position on the war in Iraq continues to “mature.” First he said he had voted for the war only to vote against it. Then he didn’t vote to fund it. Then he said he would have voted for the war even knowing what we know now—we assume the senator was implying our inability to find caches of WMD. And now—I can’t say “finally” because who knows when “finally” will happen?—Kerry has characterized the war in Iraq as “the wrong war in the wrong place in the wrong time.” All this from the man who would be in charge of the war against terrorism if we elect him this November.

            It’s hard to believe that only three years after that terrible day, one is hard pressed to find a factual, non-partisan account of America’s war against terrorism.

            The 9/11 Commission Report cuts through the spin.

            The first chapter is both a riveting and poignant account of the events of that day. I found myself reliving the emotions as I read through it, wiping the tears from my eyes at several points. And even though the report characterizes the details of what happened on that morning as “complex,” it concludes on page 45, “[T]hey play out a simple theme. NORAD and the FAA were unprepared for the type of attacks launched against the United States…They struggled under difficult circumstances to improvise a homeland defense against unprecedented challenges they had never before encountered and had never trained to meet.”

If you enjoyed this column, imagine how much you'll love Rummo's latest book! It's 536 pages of sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant and almost always provocative commentary on American Culture. $19.95 shipping and handling included. Click here for more information.

Chapter two describes the beginnings of Bin Laden’s al Qaeda network and the issuance of a fatwa (an interpretation of Islamic Law) against the United States in February 1998. It was claimed that “America had declared war against God and his messenger.” The signers, Bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri and the other members of the “World Islamic Front” declared it was the “individual duty for every Muslim” to murder any American “in any country in which it is possible to do it.”    

Few Americans were made aware of al Qaeda’s threat to the US. Bin Laden and the names al Qaeda and Taliban were hardly ever mentioned in our casual conversations or in the evening news.  The threat to America was not taken seriously, a tragedy in and of itself for it portrayed an administration that was largely asleep at the switch while these pathogens festered on Petri dishes in places like the Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Other factual surprises await the diligent reader.

Take for example the Iraq-al-Qaeda connection that no one in the mainstream press is willing to admit. Although the 9/11 Commission concluded there was no evidence of any “collaborative operational relationship” between the two on 9/11, it does report that Bin Laden had sent out a number of feelers to the Iraqi regime offering some cooperation. In mid-1998, Iraq took up the initiative, sending a delegation to Afghanistan to meet with the Taliban and then Bin Laden. Additional meetings may have occurred in 1999 between Iraqi officials and Bin Laden at which time Bin Laden was offered a safe haven in Iraq. The report describes the two sides as being “friendly…indicat[ing] some common themes in both sides’ hatred of the United States.”

            May I remind everyone what George W. Bush said in his State of the Union in January 2002 for which he received rousing applause from both sides of the aisle: …[S]ome governments will be timid in the face of terror. And make no mistake about it:  If they do not act, America will.  (Applause.) …The price of indifference would be catastrophic.”

            George W. Bush’s position on the war against terrorism “matured” on 9/11. And it has not wavered since.

            Spend the next several weeks reading through the 9/11 Commission Report. You owe it to yourself to be informed, especially in this election year when so much is at stake and when the candidates for the White House couldn’t be farther apart in their fundamental understanding of what America’s response must be in this continuing war against terrorism.  n

Gregory J. Rummo is an author and syndicated columnist. His latest book, “The View from the Grass Roots—Another Look,” was just published. Visit GregRummo.com  for more information.