The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon

Several of the senior investigators of the 9/11 commission joined in a statement today "in defense of Philip Zelikow.'' It's available here: http://hnn.us/articles/47634.html. It's an interesting document that repeats some of the material from a statement issued by 9 of the 10 commissioners two weeks ago. Both statements seem to rely on a misreading of the book -- or rather a misreading that spilled into the internet and blogosphere in the days before the book was released -- that I've tried to rebut, namely that executive director Philip Zelikow bullied the staff into making false statements in the commission's final report. That's not what the book says. In fact, much of the narrative of the book is of an independent staff -- a staff that, the book notes, Dr. Zelikow is credited with putting in place -- standing up to him to make sure the facts were told accurately. The book does identify several instances in which Dr. Zelikow's actions were perceived as attempting to skew the investigation or the final report to defend the Bush administration, especially with regard to possible links between Al Qaeda and Iraq, the portrayal of the disputes between Condoleezza Rice and Richard Clarke, the handling of potential false statements by NORAD generals, and the comparison of the public pronouncements of President Bush and President Clinton about terrorism threats. On that last point, the Bush-Clinton comparison was removed entirely at Dr. Zelikow's insistence, over the objections of the staff, because he felt it was "unfair'' to President Bush; had those passages remained in the report, they also certainly would have been seen as the commission's most direct criticism of President Bush. (Page 396-398.) Many of the accounts of those incidents were offered to me in interviews with some of the very same people who signed the statement today. Anyway, I welcome the debate. And again, all of Dr. Zelikow's answers to me on all of these issues are available on this website at the "Behind the Book'' clichthru from the homepage. Phil Shenon