9/11

"No one can do an excellent, cost-effective job by themselves, dependency is universal...optimizing each system sub-optimizes the whole NAS...sharing information globally will be the basis for free flight...sharing information presupposes common interpretation of information otherwise too much is lost in translation ($, meaning, time, and safety)...we don't have $ and time to waste on duplications to ensure safety" -NIAC Co-Chair and NAS Information Architecture Project Lead, NIAC (FAA) Data Architecture Conference, April 21-22, 1998. The import of the statement would not be felt until three years later, until September 11, 2001 to be precise, when America came under attack from four terrorist-hijacked airplanes. The impunity with which the attacks were carried out and the devastating aftermath that followed altered global perception of terrorism irrevocably thereafter. It is surprising or perhaps shocking then that the official 9/11 Commission, formed to investigate into the horrific crimes that were perpetrated on that day, failed to take cognizance of both the statement and its impact on America's airspace security. In this meticulously researched book, Ramesh S Arunachalam takes on the role of a forensic analyst as he painstakingly examines the findings in the 9/11 Commission's official report as also the various evidences and testimonies available. He reveals that, in the sixteen years spent researching the subject, what captured his attention most is the inexplicable absence of certain lines of enquiry, whether by omission or by design. In outlining all these gaps in the report and the Commission's approach, he leads the reader to question if the Commission truly discharged its obligation of unearthing the whole and complete truth behind the horrific attacks. Close to two decades after the crime, the questions the author raises remain possibly unasked and unanswered. In the absence of a concerted and holistic investigation, will the world remain uninformed forever on certain fundamental truths that may have well facilitated if not perpetrated the terror attacks?