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

In its new issue, Foreign Affairs magazine declared "The Commission" to be the nation's top-selling book on international affairs. The magazine, which is published by the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, says its rankings are determined by sales at Barnes and Noble and its website. Here's the list: http://www.foreignaffairs.org/book/bestsellers. In the small-world department, I should note that the number-two book on the list, "Marching Toward Hell," was written by Michael Scheuer, the former CIA analyst who is a key figure in my book. And the number-five and number-14 books were written by colleagues at the NYT: Tim Weiner and Elizabeth Bumiller. Phil Shenon

Just got back from Los Angeles and the LA Times book fair, which is an incredible event. Essentially the LA Times takes over the entire UCLA campus for two days to celebrate books. I was on a panel Sunday morning on books about "checks and balances," or the lack thereof, in government. The book fair was also something of a community festival, with plenty of booths set aside for political and other activist groups, including several tables for what is often referred to as the 9/11 Truth Movement. These are people who, by and large, believe that elements of the American government had some hand in the 9/11 attacks. Many of the movement's leaders have been critical of "The Commission," since I am perceived as an establishment journalist who has bought into the government's official line on 9/11. The book fair presented me with a chance to meet my critics, and so I went over and introduced myself. It was a pretty civilized conversation all in all, must have lasted an hour, and the results are available on Youtube. com, posted by a couple of the "truthers." It's in five parts, and here's the link to the first of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poZy8CPaQ4U. Phil Shenon

And here's the review of "The Commission" from the Sunday Book Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/books/review/Heilbrunn-t.html?ref=books Two months was a long time, but worth the wait. (The wait is understandable, I'm told, since the book was embargoed until the day of publication; usually reviewers get a book months in advance of its formal publication.) If you're online this afternoon, I welcome your questions at firedoglake.com. 5 p.m. Saturday. My first blog interview about the book. Phil Shenon

It's been a long wait, or at least it seems like one to a nervous first-time author, but the New York Times Book Review is about to publish a review of "The Commission." And it's a rave. "Mezmerizing account ... vivid portraits of everyone from Henry Kissinger to Samuel Berger ... vividly illuminates the obstacles to holding high-level intelligence and government officials accountable for their bungling." The Book Review is the Book Review, and it may be the best place on earth to find praise of your book. The review takes up a full page, with a nice color photograph of Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton taken by my NYT colleague Doug Mills, and was written by Jacob Heilbrunn, author of the new "They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons." (For the record, I don't think I've ever met Mr. Heilbrunn, but I'm grateful to him.) I got a taste of the good news last week, when I received an invitation to travel to New York this Wednesday to appear on "New York Times Close Up," the weekly television show produced by The Times and NY1, the local all-news station. The host is an old friend, Sam Roberts. The show is broadcast on Saturday night and Sunday morning, and it previews what is in the Sunday edition of the paper. The show's producer explained that I'd be talking about the book, which would be reviewed the following Sunday, April 13. I didn't dare ask if the review was good, but I hoped and assumed I wouldn't be asked up to New York if I were about to be panned. On Tuesday, I got a call from Cary Goldstein, the terrific publicity director at Twelve, my publisher, who read out portions of the review. He was excited. I was excited. Off to New York in the morning. I'll post the electronic link to the review as soon as it's up in the NYT website. Phil Shenon

Well, this is interesting. Karl Rove was questioned about my book during an apperance at the University of Pennsylvania late in February. He was asked specifically about his phone contacts with Philip Zelikow, the commission's executive director, in 2003. The video of Rove's appearance was just brought to my attention and is posted at 9/11blogger.com: http://www.911blogger.com/node/14225. Rove says, as my book attributes to him, that his contacts with Zelikow were entirely innocent and involved Zelikow's old work at the University of Virginia. Rove says he knows nothing about why Zelikow might have ordered his secretary to stop keeping phone logs of his White House calls. Phil Shenon

I wear that as a badge of honor. It's a description of me a fine new review of "The Commission" in the Buffalo News by the paper's former managing editor, Edward Cuddily. He takes a couple of digs at me as representative of the evils of my employer -- the "anti-administration, know-it-all" New York Times. But overall, he praises the book, saying it "offers a luminous window into the world of the power-hungry, sleep-deprived overachievers who control our destiny; it is a testament to how difficult it is to sort out the truth about anything in 21st century Washington." Here's the link: www.buffalonews.com/entertainment/booksliterature/story/311278.html. I'm looking forward to my first interactive blogging experience next week on the Fire Dog Lake book salon. http://firedoglake.com/booksalon. Saturday, April 12, 5 p.m. eastern. I invite tough questions. I'm on WBAI radio in New York Monday afternoon at 5 p.m., talking with Mike Levine of Expert Witness radio. Mike's a decorated DEA agent turned provocateur. There will be a link to the interview (which continues into a second hour next week) on Mike's website: www.expertwitnessradio.org. Phil Shenon

I'm grateful for all the terrific reviews around the country, and now around the world. But this has to be the best one of all. It appeared on March 17 on the letters-to-the-editor page of the Daily Report in Morristown, N.J.

Here's the entire letter:

To the Editor:

As the years have passed since the murder of my only brother, Ken, and nearly 3,000 others on Sept. 11, I found myself compromising about the effort, or lack thereof, to tell the story of that event in the investigative way I had envisioned.

I have written hundreds of letters hoping that my points would somehow become headline news somewhere. But they never were.

Finally there came a book that I have been waiting for: "The Commission: the Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation." The author, Philip Shenon, was the New York Times lead reporter on the investigation of Sept. 11. I would like to say thank you to him for having the courage to tell this story.

BARRY ZELMAN
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