9/11 Commission Report
The 9/11 Commission Report, officially the Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, is the official report into the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was prepared by the 9/11 Commission, chaired by former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean, at the request of U.S. President George W. Bush and Congress.
For the U.S. government report on the collapse of the World Trade Center, see NIST World Trade Center Disaster Investigation.The commission was established on November 27, 2002, 442 days after the September 11 attacks. The report, which is 585 pages in length, was originally scheduled for release on May 27, 2004, but Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert approved the commission's request for a 60-day extension through July 26. The report was released on July 22, 2004. It was made immediately available publicly and remains available for sale or free download.[1]
Literary praise[edit]
The 9/11 Commission Report garnered praise in some quarters for its literary qualities.
In 2004, Richard Posner, writing for The New York Times, praised it as "uncommonly lucid, even riveting" and called it "an improbable literary triumph".[14] The report rose to the top of several bestseller lists, and became one of the best-selling government reports of all time.[15]
Also in 2004, the National Book Foundation named the 9/11 Commission Report a finalist in its National Book Awards' non-fiction category.[16][17]
Adaptations[edit]
In 2006, The 9/11 Commission Report, a straight to DVD movie, was released by The Asylum. It is based on the findings of the original 9/11 Commission Reports, although it does fictionalize some elements.
The report inspired a controversial television miniseries, The Path to 9/11. Dramatizing many specific scenes in the report, it is a synthesis of multiple (and in some cases partisan) sources in addition to the report itself.
The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation (ISBN 0-8090-5739-5), by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, and published by Hill & Wang, is an abridged graphic novel adaptation of the report.
On Native Soil is a documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report narrated by Kevin Costner and Hilary Swank.
In 2006, director Paul Greengrass adapted portions of the 9/11 Commission Report chronicling the events of United Airlines Flight 93 into the two-time Academy Award-nominated film United 93.
Select testimonies of the report were adapted as a flash-forward storytelling device in Hulu's 2018 mini-series The Looming Tower.
