9-11 Commission Releases Final Report

The 9-11 Commission released its final report today at a live, televised event in Washington, D.C.

The final report is the Commission's full and complete accounting of the facts and circumstances surrounding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as recommendations for corrective measures that can be taken to prevent acts of terrorism.

In the report, the Commission issued 37 recommendations to help prevent future terrorist attacks, divided into sections detailing a global strategy and a government reorganization necessary to implement such a strategy. The Commission summarized its recommended global strategy into three pillars:

1. Attacking terrorists and their organizations;
   
   
2. Preventing the continued growth of Islamist terrorism; and
   
   
3. Protecting and preparing for terrorist attacks.

To implement this strategy, the Commission proposed a five-part plan to to build unity of effort across the U.S. government:

1. Closing the foreign-domestic divide by linking intelligence and operational planning in a new National Counterterrorism Center;
   
   
2. Bringing the intelligence community together under a National Intelligence Director and national intelligence centers;
   
   
3. Encouraging information sharing through government through decentralized networks;
   
   
4. Centralizing and strengthening congressional oversight of intelligence and homeland security issues; and
   
   
5. Strengthening the national security workforce within the FBI and clarifying the missions of the departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

In the report, the Commission provided support for these recommendations with an account of the events surrounding September 11, 2001, including particular findings. While specifics may be found in the final report, the Commission's general findings focused on failures of imagination, policy, capabilities, and management throughout U.S. government. The Commission found little evidence that the progress of the al Qaeda plot was disturbed by any of the counterterrorism policies or activities of the U.S. government.

The Commission was created by Public Law 107-306, signed by the president on November 27, 2002, nearly 20 months ago. Working with a cumulative budget of $15 million and more than 80 staff members, the Commission completed the most comprehensive independent government investigation in U.S. history. The Commission interviewed more than 1,200 people in ten different countries and reviewed more than 2.5 million documents. The Commission also held 19 days of public hearings, during which the Commission heard from more than 160 witnesses and released 17 staff statements.