The 9/11 Commission Report: The Attack from Planning to Aftermath Book

List of Illustrations and Tables vii

Member List ix

Staff List xi

1 "We have some Planes" 1

1.1 Inside the Four Flights 1

1.2 Improvising a Homeland Defense 20

1.3 National Crisis Management 47

2 The Foundation of the New Terrorism 64

2.1 A Declaration of War 64

2.2 Bin Ladin's Appeal in the Islamic World 66

2.3 The Rise of Bin Ladin and al Qaeda (1988-1992) 75

2.4 Building an Organization, Declaring War on the United States (1992-1996) 80

2.5 Al Qaeda's Renewal in Afghanistan (1996-1998) 86

3 Counterterrorism Evolves 97

3.1 From the Old Terrorism to the New: The First World Trade Center Bombing 97

3.2 Adaptation-and Nonadaptation-... in the Law Enforcement Community 100

3.3 ... and in the Federal Aviation Administration 113

3.4 ... and in the Intelligence Community 118

3.5 ... and in the State Department and the Defense Department 129

3.6 ... and in the White House 136

3.7 ... and in the Congress 141

4 Responses to Al Qaeda's Initial Assaults 149

4.1 Before the Bombings in Kenya and Tanzania 149

4.2 Crisis: August 1998 160

4.3 Diplomacy 168

4.4 Covert Action 175

4.5 Searching for Fresh Options 186

5 Al Qaeda Aims at the American Homeland 200

5.1 Terrorist Entrepreneurs 200

5.2 The "Planes Operation" 211

5.3 The Hamburg Contingent 221

5.4 A Money Trail? 234

6 From Threat to Threat 240

6.1 The Millennium Crisis 241

6.2 Post-Crisis Reflection: Agenda for 2000 251

6.3 The Attack on the USS Cole 263

6.4 Change and Continuity 273

6.5 The New Administration's Approach 281

7 The Attack Looms 298

7.1 First Arrivals in California 298

7.2 The 9/11 Pilots in the United States 310

7.3 Assembling the Teams 320

7.4 Final Strategies and Tactics 334

8 "The System was Blinking Red" 352

8.1 The Summer of Threat 352

8.2 Late Leads-Mihdhar, Moussaoui, and KSM 368

9 Heroism and Horror 386

9.1 Preparedness as of September 11 386

9.2 September 11, 2001 395

9.3 Emergency Response at the Pentagon 433

9.4 Analysis 437

10 Wartime 449

10.1 Immediate Responses at Home 451

10.2 Planning for War 454

10.3 "Phase Two" and the Question of Iraq 461

11 Foresight-and Hindsight 468

11.1 Imagination 469

11.2 Policy 480

11.3 Capabilities 484

11.4 Management 487

Afterword: The Twilight War Philip Zelikow 499

Appendix A Common Abbreviations 549

Appendix B Table of Names 551

Notes 563

Index 607