DVD/Documentary Review: Alexander Hamilton

 

Alexander Hamilton is a PBS documentary about the life of one of the (until relatively recently) lesser-known founding fathers of the United States. The DVD was released in 2007 and combines interviews with historians with scenes played by classically trained actors who mostly read lines from the writings of the people they were portraying. The documentary details Hamilton's life, from growing up as a bastard with no status in the West Indies, coming to the United States and taking up the cause of revolution against the English, impressing George Washington during the war, his advocacy for the Constitution (including writing most of the Federalist Papers) and becoming the first treasury secretary during Washington's presidency. It also details Hamilton's anti-slavery beliefs and his advocacy for a strong Federal government, establishing a national bank, and his penchant for pissing people off, which would ultimately end his life in a duel with Aaron Burr. 

The DVD is a single-disc release. The documentary runs just under two hours. The extras include a short behind-the-scenes featurette in which the documentary's creators explain how most of the scenes were shot and include interviews with a couple of the actors. Then, there are also a handful of deleted scenes that run anywhere from one minute to just over six minutes. Ultimately, the documentary provides much information on Hamilton's life, including some aspects that are not as well known. It does an excellent job explaining just how influential Hamilton was to the creation of the United States and his influence on the politics of the time. It is absolutely worth watching.

Book Review: The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy

 

The Conspiracy to End America is a 2023 book by former Republican strategist Stuart Stevens. It is partly a follow-up to his 2020 book, It Was All a Lie, but this one is more forward-looking. In it, Stevens details how his former party has consolidated power over the years, including how the multi-millionaires and billionaires have used dark money to get nutjobs like Empty-G elected and stack the courts with radicalized nutjobs like Clearance Thomas and the Witch Doctor, Sammy Alito, and baited the low-income racists to bolster their voting base. Then Stevens warns what electing the Orange Genital Wart to a second term would entail, especially if Republicans get total control of the government again.

The hardcover version of the book is short-- just 225 pages--and is a very quick read. Stevens is the "never trumper" that I have the most respect for because he admits that much of the Republican platform and talking points going back years has been total bullshit, and actually does a sincere mea-culpa for what he helped unleash because he was only concerned with winning elections and not the fallout. He admits that the current Republican party is full of nutjobs (who have taken over the party) and weenies who are too scared to stand up to the nutjobs because they care more about losing their jobs than defending our democracy. It is a succinct civics and history lesson that provides much information that people may not know (especially those who do not follow politics consistently). It is an insightful and chilling read, but it is absolutely a book everyone should read.

Book Review: We're Not Leaving: 9/11 Responders Tell Their Stories of Courage, Sacrifice, and Renewal

 

We're Not Leaving is a book about the responders of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, published in 2011 in conjunction with the tenth anniversary of the attacks. It is a collection of oral histories in which the author, Benjamin Luft, presents edited versions of the experiences of people who responded to the towers being hit by the planes and those who participated in the rescue and recovery/cleanup operation afterward. 

The softcover version of the book is just under 300 pages. Once you start, it is both hard to read and hard to put down. It is one of the most harrowing and emotional books about 9/11 that I have read. The emotion that the people being interviewed conveyed was palpable, and for many, it had not faded even after nearly a decade. The book is solely devoted to the responders in New York. It does not include interviews with responders at The Pentagon or in Shanksville, PA. Ultimately, it is a must-read book that conveys the horrors and the heroism of 9/11 and the days and months after as the city tried to recover from the attack and the devastation that resulted from it.  

Book Review: Debunking 9/11 Myths

 

Debunking 9/11 Myths is a 2006 book by David Dunbar and Brad Reagan. It is a longer version of an article in Popular Mechanics that set out to debunk some of the larger 9/11 conspiracies that surfaced after that day. The chapters focus on the planes that hit the buildings, the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Flight 93 and are then broken down into sub-elements within the chapters. The book essentially does a point-counterpoint, setting up a particular hypothesis and then presenting the counterpoint. The length of discussion that any point gets really varies, with some getting much more discussion than others. The book also features an introduction by the late Senator John McCain. 

The paperback version of the book is relatively short, at just under 200 pages. The main text is a pretty quick read, but if you want to correlate the text to the material in the source notes, it can take quite a bit longer to read. I think the book would have been better off using footnotes at the end of sentences or paragraphs in the text, pointing out distinctly what the sources on each side were and where to find them. The book does, in the text itself, do some of that, but it is not extensive, and the notes at the end of the book are tied to the particular chapters and do not point to specific wording within the chapter (i.e., they are not actual endnotes). That would have helped people wanting to do deeper research based on the material in the book.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: The Looming Tower

 

The Looming Tower is a 10-episode miniseries that was released on Hulu in 2018. It stars Jeff Daniels, Tahar Rahim, Wrenn Schmidt, Bill Camp, Louis Cancelmi, Ella Rae Peck, and Peter Sarsgaard. There are a couple of things to note when it comes to this series. First, while it is based on the book of the same name by Lawrence Wright, its focus is very different. In the book, the focus was mainly on the rise of Al-Qaeda from its beginnings during and after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to just after the 9-11 attacks. The focus of the series, which was a smaller part of the book, is the tension between the CIA and FBI, centered around the characters of John O'Neil and Ali Soufan. It really displayed how the CIA saw its mission as intelligence gathering, and because the FBI was interested in making arrests, the CIA would stonewall the FBI agents working on bringing Al-Qaeda down. It also dealt with some of the politics playing out in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Clinton's affair and impeachment, and the Bush Administration's obsession with taking out Sadaam Hussein in Iraq and indifference to the Al-Qaeda threat), which prevented any real action against Al-Qaeda being taken until it was too late.

Second, it is a fictionalized docu-drama. It is not a straight-up documentary retelling everything that happened exactly as it did. It does mix in a lot of real-life news footage of events that the series depicts and footage from the congressional hearings that were held a few years after the attacks. Some characters were a combination of real-life people or a fictionalized version of real people (like the Schmidt character (played by Peter Sarsgaard), who was based on a pretty crazy real-life CIA agent at Alec Station), and some events were changed a bit (such as the bombing of the USS Cole). So, if you are looking for something that gives a straight-up retelling, then this is not it. Nor does it put a ton of emphasis on 9-11 itself. The attacks and aftermath mainly play out on monitors playing real-life footage in the background in the final episode. There was very little that the show filmed depicting things that happened on the actual day itself. What was filmed were things like Richard Clarke in the White House as it was being evacuated, and later in the bunker, one of the FBI agents walking through the streets after the collapse of the towers, etc. A big chunk of the last episode involves Ali Soufan finally getting access to interrogate Bin-Laden's former bodyguard who was being detained in Yemen and distills what was an interrogation over several days into a 10-or-so-minute sequence.

The acting and writing of the show are very good. Jeff Daniels really shines as John O'Neil, and for all but one episode is pretty much the main character. Tahir Rahim also does a great job playing Ali Soufan, who was part of a group of FBI agents butting heads with the CIA to get information. Some of the real-life players were also consultants and/or producers of the show, which I think helped its authenticity. For extras, there are commentary tracks on the first and last episodes by the writer and director of the episodes, and then about 40 minutes worth of behind-the-scenes, making of, and source material featurettes. Very good for what was included. It also looks great on blu-ray.

It does have some flaws, but overall, they are, in my opinion, minor in the larger overall context. It is definitely worth checking out.

Book Review: Reluctant Hero

 

Reluctant Hero is a book from 2011 written by Mike Benfonte about his experience during and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Benfonte worked for a telecommunications company on the 81st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (just 12 floors below the lowest point impacted by Flight 11 when it hit the building). Benfonte managed to get all his employees to the stairwell (which was luckily not blocked or inaccessible) and heading down. On the 68th floor, he and another employee discovered a woman in a motorized wheelchair who needed help. They put her in an evacuation chair and carried her down the rest of the way. Once outside, they got her to an ambulance but did not get in and ride with her when offered the chance. They were in awe, trying to take everything in and find out what happened (the South Tower had already collapsed), and people were still jumping from the North Tower). As they were walking north, the tower collapsed, resulting in a chilling piece of video footage of Benfonte running past a cameraman as the cloud of debris roared behind him. Benfonte survived, but his life took many unexpected turns post-9/11, which he details in the book.

The hardcover version of the book is just over 230 pages long. In it, he details where his life was at before and leading up to 9/11, the events of the day, and what he dealt with in the aftermath, including struggling with survivor guilt, post-traumatic stress, and the neverending requests for interviews and media appearances.  The book can be harrowing and hard to read, yet at the same time inspirational and uplifting. Benfonte is very open about his struggles with anger and sadness in the years after 9/11, how that affected his life, and what he did to overcome them. It is absolutely worth reading.

Book Review: The Looming Tower

 

The Looming Tower is a book that was written by Lawrence Wright and initially published in 2006. The book serves as the source material for the series on Hulu of the same name. If you have seen the Hulu series you know that its focus was on the FBI and CIA infighting, lack of information sharing, and was largely set around John O'Neil and Ali Soufan. The book, on the other hand, focuses mainly on the rise of radical Islam and tells the story of how the various splintered groups eventually came together to form what would be Al-Qaeda. The first 200 pages or so are devoted solely to the history of the major events and players in that world and laid out how Osama bin Laden came to power and basically lost his fortune (he was nowhere near as wealthy as he was made out to be), and then managed to cobble together the force that would eventually attack the United States. Later in the book, much of what the focus of the Hulu series plays out, including a lot of detail about what the CIA and FBI did and did not know, how if they actually worked together instead of against each other, the 9-11 attacks could have very likely been averted.

The main part of the softcover version of the book is just over 400 pages. Then there is a glossary giving the backgrounds and current status of the major people mentioned throughout the book and endnotes that flesh out the details in the book. The only picky point on the notes is that they are not actually referenced in the book's text, so there is no way to easily match up the note with the part of the text it is referencing (for the handful of people who would care to do so). As was the case with the series, the book does not focus much on the events of 9-11 itself. While the book includes some detail about what was happening in and around the towers, that was relegated to just a part of the last chapter. The book finishes with the interrogation of Abu Jandal by Ali Soufan, which is pretty much the climax of the series. Overall, the book gives a good description of the backstory of what led up to the attacks and the reasoning and justifications the terrorists used for launching suicide attacks against innocent civilians. It also does a very good job of detailing some of the dysfunction of the government agencies that failed to put together pieces and tied threads that could have stopped the attacks from happening. It is definitely worth the read.

Book Review: Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror

 

Against All Enemies, first published in 2004, is a book written by the former US head of counterterrorism, Richard Clarke. Clarke held several government positions for 30+ years through several administrations, but it is his position as the head of counterterrorism for both the Clinton and Bush administrations that he is best known for. The book is not focused primarily on the events of September 11, 2001, itself. The very beginning of the book is devoted to that day and a few days afterward. The focus of the book is the lead-up to 9-11 and how the country's view of terrorism changed from the Regan administration up to George W. Bush's administration, and then what Clarke describes as the major screw-up by the Bush Administration following 9-11. Specifically, the invasion of Iraq.

One of the things that struck me the most about the book is how ill-prepared the intelligence agencies were for Al-Qaeda. For a long time, even when they were actively attacking US interests many in the FBI had no idea they existed or that there were sleeper cells in the United States. One very telling point was when Clarke asked the FBI to research whether there were websites hosted on US servers that were recruiting terrorists, and he was told there were none, and then asked a reporter to look into it who found dozens of them. Just the fact that there were very few within the FBI, CIA, and other agencies who realized the kind of threat they posed, combined with the agencies' unwillingness to share information with each other, and the Clinton and Bush administration very different lack of responses (Bush's downplaying the threat and brushing it aside, and Clinton's overanalyzing combined with his lack of action due to "Wag the Dog" like comparisons to deflect from his personal scandals) left the country open to attack.

Clarke's harshest criticism is saved for the Bush Administration's obsession with going into Iraq. He claims that from almost day one of that administration they were itching to find a reason to go invade Iraq to "finish the job" from the first Iraq war, and that even a couple days after 9-11 they were trying to find any connection between Iraq and Al-Quaeda despite it being clear that there was no connection between the two. He also argued that by invading Iraq the United States gave Bin Laden exactly what he wanted, the US occupying a Muslim country, which could be used as a terrorist recruiting tool. In the final chapter of the book Clarke lays out what he thought the proper response to 9-11 should have been, vs what was actually done.

The softcover version of the book is about 330 pages long. For me, it read fairly quickly, but I was already aware of a lot of the information discussed by Clarke. Overall, the book is a very interesting read. It does not come across as partisan in that Clarke criticizes and praises things that were done right and wrong by Republicans and Democrats, as well as the career professionals in the various intelligence agencies. While not likely an exhaustive history, it lays out how the United States viewed, and responded to, terrorism, including how the US learned of Bin Laden and his group's existence and motives over a long period of time. Given the age of the book, if you are into the subject at all and have watched any of the documentaries that are out there, read any of the other books, or even have seen the series The Looming Tower, which is currently playing on Hulu, you may know a lot of what is in this book. But it gives a very good and insightful look at what was going on from an insider's perspective. It is definitely worth reading.

Book Review: The Red Bandanna: A Life. A Choice. A Legacy.

 

The Red Bandana is a biography of Wells Crowther, one of the heroes of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Wells worked as an equities trader for Sandler O'Neil on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center South Tower. He was at his desk when Flight 175 hit the building and managed to find the one staircase that survived the crash. Even though he worked in finance, he dreamed of being a firefighter. He had been a volunteer firefighter in his hometown and had filled out an FDNY application shortly before 9/11. Therefore, instead of getting out of the building, he stayed and helped people who were injured, many of whom were on the 78th-floor skylobby, where the wing of the plane made a direct hit. He wore a red bandana around his face, a fact that some of the people he helped to safety distinctly remembered, and ultimately helped his parents find out what happened to him. 

The hardcover version of the book is just over 200 pages. It is both hard to read and impossible to put down. Author Tom Rinaldi interviewed many people from Wells' life, detailing what he was like growing up and piecing together the events of his final hour. Wells was ultimately killed when the South Tower collapsed, having made it down to the lobby just steps away from safety. He was found with a group of firefighters at the command post in the lobby, indicating that he was very likely still trying to help when the building collapsed. It is estimated that he helped about 12 of the 17 people who were at or above the impact zone in the South Tower get to safety. Because of his heroism, he was posthumously made a member of the FDNY after 9/11, and his story was told in an ESPN story and a longer documentary called The Man in the Red Bandana. The book is very sad yet very inspiring and uplifting. It is absolutely one of my must-reads.

Book Review: miracles & fate on 78

 

Miracles and Fate on 78 is a book written by Ari Schonbrun around the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The author worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on the upper floors of the north tower of the World Trade Center. Had he been at his desk, he would have been trapped above the impassable impact zone, but due to a couple of delays, he was on the 78th floor below the impact zone and was one of a few Cantor employees who were in the building when the plane hit that survived, and the only one of those few who was not injured. 

The hardcover version of the book is short, coming in at 180 pages. Schonbrun discusses his day on 9/11, from helping his son fill out a form for school, which delayed him getting to work, to his choice of elevators when he got to the building, which made him take a longer route once he got up to the 78th floor, helping an injured co-worker who was severely burned down the stairs and to the hospital, to how he ended up getting home. Then, he talks about how his life has changed in the aftermath. He does discuss his faith and how it impacted him both before and after 9/11. While that may turn some people off, I do not feel that he gets overly preachy about it. Even though the book is short, it does pack an emotional punch and is absolutely worth reading.

Book Review: Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--from 9/11 to Abbottabad

 

Manhunt is a book published in 2012 and written by Peter Bergen about the effort to find and eventually kill Osama Bin Laden. Bergen is one of the few Western journalists to interview Bin Laden back in the 1990s and was in the process of writing a book about Bin Laden when the September 11th terrorist attacks occurred. This book mostly focuses on the time after 9/11 and tracks (to the best extent possible) where Bin Laden went after fleeing the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan to the raid on the compound in Abbottabad where he was holed up. Bergen does detail a little bit of his history prior to 9/11, but the focus of the book was the time period from September 2001 to May 2011.

The hardcover version of the book is about 360 total pages (260 of which are substantive text, and the last 100 pages include a bibliography, end notes, and an index). The notes mainly cite sources but occasionally flesh out the material in the text. Along with highlighting Bin Laden's movements, the book provides a lot of detail on how the US government ultimately tracked him down. Bergen interviewed multiple government sources, including sources from the CIA (some of whom were referred to using pseudonyms). Bergen also had several in-the-room sources who discussed what was happening as President Obama and the national security team were watching the feed of the raid and military sources who discussed how the raid team got in and out of Pakistan. The book is very compelling, and while most of the details in the book have been declassified and available to the public for years, it is still worth the time to read. 

Book Review: Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11

 

Watching the World Change is a book that is about the images and videos taken during and after the 9/11 attacks. The book was written by David Friend and published in 2006. The book focuses strictly on the images out of New York. In the foreword, the author says that was because he is based in New York and that is where most of the images from the day came from. The book is not an image by image analysis. In the middle of the book the author does include several pages of images that he does discuss throughout the book. But, the book really talks about the impact of the images and videos from that day and how those impacted the response of the nation to the attacks, changed media coverage, and the like.

The hardcover version of the book has just under 350 pages of substantive text and then about 60 pages of endnotes that refer to various sources, and an index. The best part of the book is when the author is telling the human stories about the people involved, including people who were killed, people who survived, and people who were left behind. The chapters in the book correspond to the dates from 9/11 through 9/17 but the author does not limit what he discusses in the chapter to what was happening on the particular date. For example, in the 9/16 chapter he starts out talking about that day and then discusses the wars that occurred months and years later. While I do think that the book would have been a little better if it included more images, included the images in the chapter text, and told the story behind a specific image right after it was shown, the book is still very good and worth the time to read.

Book Review: On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, & 9/11: A Story of Loss & Renewal

 

On Top of the World, published in 2003, is the story about Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond trading company that occupied floors 101-105 in the North Tower of the World Trade Center and lost nearly all of its New York-based workforce in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

The book is partly a biography of Cantor CEO Howard Litnick, who was much reviled after 9/11 as he tried to balance holding the company together with trying to help the families of the people who died. Interwoven, are harrowing accounts (as much as can be put together) of the people who were trapped in the building after Flight 11 hit as they discovered they were stuck with nowhere to go. A handful of Cantor employees were in or around the building but not yet up to the Cantor floors when the plane hit and were able to get out. All of the employees who actually made it all the way up to the Cantor floors, however, were stuck with nowhere to go. Lutnick was on his way to the Trade Center when the plane hit (saved only because he took his son to his first day of kindergarten) and managed to get to the base of the towers. He recounted to the author his horror when he realized that the plane hit near the floors Cantor occupied (where all of his employees, including his brother were) and that it was people who worked at Cantor who were some of those that were jumping. 

What may be the most harrowing account in the book of the actual day is when the author gives vague details about how the people who worked in Cantor's Los Angeles and London officers could hear what was happening on the trading floor of the New York office through an in-house communication system. The employees listening on the conference system were imploring their colleagues to get out of the building and essentially listening to them die. The author does discuss some of the communications that the trapped employees were able to make to people on the outside, but he is very respectful and does not go into any gruesome detail. The author also discusses how the lives of the surviving loved ones of the employees who died changed after the attacks.

The hardcover version of the book is just under 300 pages. Most of the book is focused on the people who worked at Cantor and the effort to rebuild the company after 9/11. The book does go into the backlash against Lutnick and the attacks against him in the media. As I mentioned above, Barbash does discuss some of what happened on 9/11 itself, but the focus of the book was on the people who were lost and the people who helped keep the company going. The book is tough to read but is absolutely worth reading.

Book Review: American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

 

American Prometheus is a biography of Robert Oppenheimer, who was the lead scientist on the Manhattan Project and was, after World War II, called the "Father of the Atomic Bomb." This was the book that served as much of the source material for the 2023 movie by Christopher Nolan.

This book is best described as a slog to get through. It is very, very long. The softcover version of the book is about 600 pages of actual, substantive text, then there are about 100 pages of notes, a bibliography, and an index that pushes it well over 700 pages. And, the font used for the type was very small. Had a larger font that was easier to read been used when the book was printed, it would have been well over 1000 pages. 

The book details Oppenheimer's life from his time as a child to his death in 1967. Sometimes it goes into too much detail, a lot of which probably could have been cut out. The book portrays Oppenheimer as someone who was brilliant, but kind of crazy. In some ways, he was a walking contradiction. He was great at physics, but not at math. He was socially awkward but could charm pretty much anyone (and apparently was quite the swordsman with the ladies). He felt the atomic bomb was needed but regretted his role in its creation when he saw the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union take off. 

The book is split into several parts, each covering a period of time in Oppenheimer's life, including his childhood, his time as a student and then a teacher, as the leader of the Manhattan Project, being swept up in McCarthyism and the Red Scare, the fallout from having his security clearance taken away, and then the end of his life.  I think it will take most people longer to read this book than it would take them to get through a book of equivalent size. I am a very fast reader and most of the time I can get through a 500-600 page book in 6-7 days (sometimes less depending on the book), and this one took me 15 days to finish. So, it is not an easy or quick read. It can be very dry in parts and like I said above, could easily omit some details. But, it is very interesting and worth the time to read or listen to.

Book Review: Assignment Oswald

 

Assignment Oswald is mostly a first-hand telling of the events surrounding the assassination as the author, James Hosty experienced them. It is written in an almost journal-like tone with him referencing time and dates for everything. The major points/themes in the book are:

1. The note that so many have made so much of (especially Oliver Stone in JFK) amounted to Oswald being mad that Hosty had interviewed Marina when they ended up in Dallas. Oswald basically told Hosty to leave them alone and if he did not Oswald would take action against the FBI. After Kennedy was killed and Oswald was arrested Hosty's boss told him to get rid of the note (for fear of incurring Hoover's wrath) and Hosty stupidly (which he admits) destroyed it. Of course, it eventually was uncovered, Hoover did find out about it, and Hosty was pretty much hung out to dry by the FBI.

2. Hosty was very critical of Hoover, the FBI in general, the Secret Service, Dallas Police, the Warren Commission, and the House Committee on Assassinations (who he felt were wasting their time trying to find a mob connection to the Assassination) and the CIA. At various points in the book, he skewers every one of them.

3. Hosty believed that Oswald acted alone in the assassination but believes that the Cubans and/or Russians either knew and possibly tacitly approved of Oswald's intention to kill Kennedy. This is mainly centered around the fact that when Oswald, after being given the run around in Mexico City while trying to get a travel visa to Cuba to get back into Russia, yelled that he was going to kill Kennedy, and only then got to meet with a KGB agent who was a part of the KGB group that took part in assassinations. Hosty then speculates based on circumstantial evidence that there may have been an agreement along the lines of an "if you can kill Kennedy and get back to Mexico City we will let you back into Russia" between the Soviets and Oswald. He further claims that the CIA knew this, never informed the FBI (claiming he did not know when he was investigating the Oswalds before the Assassination and never learned of it until the late 60s or early 70s), and that the Warren Commission knew of the evidence but did not pursue it and/or whitewashed (on the Orders of the White House) it in order to avoid a war that could have ended up in nuclear Armageddon.

The book is definitely an interesting read, although somewhat dry in parts and it is not likely to change anyone's mind about what happened and whether Oswald acted alone. For his part, Hosty lays out the evidence for why he believed Oswald was the lone assassin and provides some evidence for the Cuba/Russia link. Given that it is almost impossible to follow up on that thread after all these years, they will likely remain forever unverifiable unless Castro decides to fess up or there is something in the records that have yet to be unsealed which admits that connection was covered up. He staunchly defends himself against any accusation that he knew of Oswald's plan, assisted him in any way, or had any prior information that Oswald was capable of carrying out the assassination. No matter what side of the conspiracy fence you sit on, I think the book is worth reading.

Book Review: Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11

 

Why America Slept is a book by Gerald Posner, probably best known for his book about the JFK assassination, Case Closed. The book was published in 2003 and details the lead-up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and what was known and missed by various entities, both in the US and overseas. 

Posner, in the author's note at the beginning of the book, states that he began investigating the attacks relatively shortly after they occurred. Of course, twenty years later a lot more is publicly known than was known in 2001-2003 when he was investigating and writing this book. That said, Posner was able to uncover a lot, including material about what might have been known by the German government (where three of the pilot hijackers had been studying before they were recruited into the plot that would become 9/11) and what members of the Saudi government and/or royal family may have known. Posner also details much of the pissing contest that was going on between the CIA and the FBI not only at the time but throughout the two agencies' history, which led them to either not share information or ignore information that came from the other agency. Posner also excoriates the Clinton administration for being more concerned with public relations and looking tough than they were about actually going after Osama Bin Laden, even when they knew he was a threat, and the Bush administration for basically sitting on its hands for too long when it came to going after al-Queada. The chapter about the Saudis is particularly enlightening as it sheds some light on at least some of what is probably in the redacted portion of the 9/11 Commission Report, which many feel was redacted to protect the Saudis and our access to their oil. In the end, 

Posner argues that if the various agencies like the CIA, FBI, and INS would have worked together and not ignored red flags, if the Clinton and Bush administrations had done a better job going after al-Queada, and if local law enforcement in NY would have done a better job investigating what was essentially an al-Queada cell (although loosely affiliated) that pulled off the 1993 WTC bombing and the murder of the head of the Jewish Defense League a few years before that, 9/11 may have been prevented.

The book is relatively short, about 240 pages overall. Most fast readers can probably finish the book in a day or two (at most). The substantive portion of the book is just under 200 pages, then there are several pages of notes, a bibliography, and an index. The main text includes some footnotes that flesh out the material in the text, then there are a bunch of endnotes that mainly cite specific sources, but a few of the endnotes also provide some additional context to the main text. It is absolutely a book that I consider to be a must-read, even if you are someone who has read many of the other books and/or watched evens some of the many documentaries about 9/11.

Book Review: The January 6 Report

 

This is the official Congressional report of the January 6th domestic terror attack on the US Capitol during the certification of electors for the 2020 Presidential election. If you watched the televised hearings, the report basically follows the same format as the hearings. There is an executive summary at the beginning, spanning a little over 100 pages, that summarizes the information in the rest of the report and lays out the overall findings. Then, each chapter is devoted to different aspects or topics, from planning the gathering to the execution of the attack, and a final chapter with the Committee's recommendation. The second to the last chapter involves what the orange genital wart was and was not doing from the time it spoke at its rally, firing up the already angry crowd until it begrudgingly put out a video telling people to go home hours later. 

Each chapter of the report is anywhere from 50 to 100 pages in length (the entire thing is about 750 pages) and devoted to a specific topic. After each chapter, there are several pages of endnotes (hundreds per chapter). Some of the notes just point to a specific source, and some of them flesh out the sentence or paragraph it is noting. 

At the beginning of the book, there are three forwards. The first will vary, depending on what version of the report you get. The one I have includes a forward by Ari Melber, one of the MSNBC evening anchors. In it, he basically gives a high-level overview of what happened on January 6th, and what crimes could potentially be charged. Then, there is a short forward by Nancy Pelosi, one by Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, and one by Vice Chair, Liz Cheney.

The text of the report does include a lot of detail, specifically about the planning leading up to January 6th that was not in the televised hearings. The one area that I think the report is lacking is more detail about how much advanced warning various law enforcement and intelligence agencies had leading up to the attack and what they did or did not do with that information. Some of that information is spread throughout the various chapters, but I think a chapter devoted to that topic was warranted, as well as specific recommendations based on the findings. Overall, however, I think it is something that everyone concerned about preserving our Republic should read.

Book Review: The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World: The Twin Towers, Windows on the World, and the Rebirth of New York

 

This is a book published in 2019 about the Windows on the World restaurant (which was actually a collection of a few different Restaurants and Bars) located at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. It would, of course, be destroyed during the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the building.

The book basically tells the story of New York City and the World Trade Center from the perspective of the operation of the restaurant, and the various obstacles that had to be overcome to operate it. The book details events that occurred as the towers were being built, including a fight with the architect about whether to make the windows on the 106th and 107th floors wider so patrons would get a better view of the city, the fighting that went on between the staff members, the difficulties of getting the restaurant up and running after the 1993 bombing in a parking garage below the buildings, and the resurgence that the restaurant experienced in the late 1990s that lasted until 9/11.

The book does details some of the events of 9/11, first at the beginning, telling the story of the head chef who survived only because he decided to get his glasses fixed in the morning instead of the afternoon, so he was downstairs in the mall under the buildings when the plane hit the tower. Then, toward the end of the book, the author talks about the phone calls that the people trapped at Windows were making as conditions inside were getting worse, and how the handful of Windows employees who were below the impact zone heard pleas for help over walkie talkies, saw people waiving tablecloths out the broken windows, and saw people jumping. The final couple of chapters discuss the aftermath of 9/11 and provided an update on some of the survivors, as well as some of the family members of the people who died that day.

The book is 320 pages, but it is not what I would call a fast read, especially if you want to get all the details. I do think the author spent a bit too long discussing what was going on in the 1970s, but once you get through that part, it does start reading a bit faster. I would also not call it a book about 9/11 as there are really only two relatively short chapters devoted to that day, and one chapter devoted to what was going on at the restaurant on September 10th. Even so, it is very interesting to get some of the history about how the Trade Center came to be, the ups and down that NYC went through over the course of time, and Window's place in all of it.

Book Review: Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew

 

Bringing Columbia Home is the story of the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in which the shuttle broke up during reentry. It was written by a former NASA employee who was the launch director when the disaster occurred and published in 2018.

The beginning of the book goes through what was happening on the ground as the shuttle lost contact with the ground and how frantic people were becoming as the shuttle was not where it was supposed to be and then missed the landing (which is calculated to the second). Then the author goes through the mission from the beginning, detailing how much was known about the foam strike that occurred during the launch of the shuttle, and the debate that went on about whether the shuttle was actually in danger. The author goes into a lot of detail about the recovery effort, and how the focus at first was recovering the remains of the shuttle crew, and then after the remains of all seven astronauts were found, detailing the major effort made to find as much of the shuttle as they could.

The book is very harrowing. The author does a great job detailing what happened, while still being respectful to the people who were lost and their families. He also goes into a lot of detail about how the people in rural Texas (which is where most of the debris was landed) helped searchers locate the remains of the shuttle and the crew. The author does give readers a general idea of where the remains of the crew members were found, but did not go into specifics (to protect the privacy of the property owners) and did not detail the condition of the bodies (to respect the dead and their families). But, you can definitely read between the lines to know that only some remains of each crew member were found.

The substantive portion of the book is 300 pages long, then there are a couple of appendices that give the names of people who were key to the recovery efforts and a glossary of the NASA terms used. Then there are several pages of endnotes. Most of the notes just point to sources, but some of the notes are explanatory. If you are a nerd about reading the notes, it is kind of a pain to go back and see what text it was created from, so I think they would have been better as footnotes. The book is very emotional, even now 20-plus years after the disaster. While the cause of the accident was not as infuriating as the Challenger disaster, as there was really no practical rescue that could have been made either before the shuttle reentered the atmosphere or during, it was still hard to read how some people were just dismissing the fact that there was any danger to the shuttle. It is definitely worth reading.

Book Review: Undaunted: Leadership Amid Growth and Adversity

 

Undaunted is a book that was written in the lead-up to the 20th Anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. It tells the story of a company called Baseline Financial, which had offices on the 77th and 78th floors of the South Tower of the World Trade Center (floor 78 was the lowest floor in the impact zone when Flight 175 hit the building). Some of the employees of the company were featured in the History Channel documentary, Escape from the Towers, which was also put out around the 20th Anniversary, so if you watched that documentary, you are already aware of some of what the book covers.

The book is written by the former head of sales for Baseline, Ed Zier, who was not actually in the building on 9/11. He was on his way to work when the first plane hit the North Tower and could not get to the buildings, so he watched most of what played out from a Taxi going back to New Jersey. The book partly lays out the history of the company, from its beginnings as a start-up that made no money, to being a powerhouse that was making millions of dollars when the 9/11 attacks occurred. He shifts back and forth between the story of the company with the events of 9/11, with the most detail about the people who made it down (including one worker who was 7 months pregnant and walked down 77 flights of stairs without stopping or resting because she was worried about the health of her baby), including what they faced at the moment of impact, trying to find a way out, and what happened when they got out of the building, including as it collapsed. After that, Zein details the four members of the company who died in the attacks (who were all on the 78th floor exactly where the plane hit) and what happened to the company after 9/11 as it tried to rebuild.

The substantive portion of the book is about 245 pages, and then there are several pages of notes and an index. The parts of the book about the experience of the people in the building (who are counted among the 18 people at or above the point of impact who made it out of the building, although technically they were all just below the impact floors) are harrowing. Those chapters detail how many employees seeing people jump from the North Tower wanted to get out (despite the announcement saying the building was secure and they could stay at their desks), and were debating about whether to take the stairs or try the elevators. A few of the employees had been on the 78th floor a couple of minutes before the plane hit the building, and only survived because of a decision to go back down to the 77th floor. Another employee was going back to her desk (which was on the side of the building where the plane hit) to get her shoes, and saw the plane coming as she was walking that way, convinced that if she had been at her desk she would have been killed. Then the author goes into the rush to find a way out, with the employees eventually risking going down the risky A stairwell (which was filled with smoke) after determining that the B and C stairwells were inaccessible or completely destroyed).  

Toward the end of the book, the author details the efforts to rebuild the company, which was complicated not only by the loss of their offices in the trade center, but that it had recently been acquired by what is now Thomson Reuters, and how a decision by one of the employees to grab his laptop (and the fact that he and it survived the aftermath of the towers collapsing) basically saved the company's data and allowed the employees to keep it running. At the very end of the book, there are good eulogies written about the four employees who were killed in the attacks.

Overall, the book is very good and very interesting. I think most people will be interested in the chapters devoted to the day of 9/11, but the chapters devoted to the history of the company and what happened to it in the years after 9/11 are also very interesting, even if you are not all that familiar with, or into finance. It is definitely worth reading.