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On That Day
The Definitive Timeline of 9/11
Description
“A maddening, essential study in misinformation, jingoism, bad intelligence, and other hallmarks of the recent American past.”—Kirkus (starred review)
Anyone who experienced the attacks on September 11 cannot forget the imagery: the smoking, falling towers, the Pentagon smoldering, the Shanksville crash site, the first responders.
But there is an invisible story hidden in the wreckage, one that required years of patient investigation and the piecing together of a sequence from many scattered sources. By establishing the most definitive timeline of how that day unfolded, William M. Arkin shows how the US government failed in the face of the unprecedented attack. It is a story of laughable airport security, vulnerable airspace, blind intelligence, poor communications, muddled orders, Pentagon chaos, and presidential isolation. Everything about the emergency procedures of the governments—from White House security to continuity of government to military alerts—went wrong.
On That Day is a stunning, nightmare journey through a government reeling in confusion while many civilians performed individual acts of heroism. It is a chilling exposé of government negligence and overreach, and a constitution in crisis.
Anyone who experienced the attacks on September 11 cannot forget the imagery: the smoking, falling towers, the Pentagon smoldering, the Shanksville crash site, the first responders.
But there is an invisible story hidden in the wreckage, one that required years of patient investigation and the piecing together of a sequence from many scattered sources. By establishing the most definitive timeline of how that day unfolded, William M. Arkin shows how the US government failed in the face of the unprecedented attack. It is a story of laughable airport security, vulnerable airspace, blind intelligence, poor communications, muddled orders, Pentagon chaos, and presidential isolation. Everything about the emergency procedures of the governments—from White House security to continuity of government to military alerts—went wrong.
On That Day is a stunning, nightmare journey through a government reeling in confusion while many civilians performed individual acts of heroism. It is a chilling exposé of government negligence and overreach, and a constitution in crisis.
Praise
“A maddening, essential study in misinformation, jingoism, bad intelligence, and other hallmarks of the recent American past.”
—Kirkus, Starred Review
“Beginning in the spring of 2001, the CIA repeatedly warned the White House that Osama Bin Laden was planning terror attacks inside the USA. The Bush administration did not nothing. The disaster that unfolded on 9/11— from the first minute of the day through the last — has now been meticulously recorded in Bill Arkin’s new book. If you want to understand what happened, this is the place to start.”
—Thomas Powers, author of Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda.
“Arkin has compiled a detailed account of the events of that day related to the attacks, resulting in one of the most important historical documents of the year.”
—Booklist
“This book takes readers much deeper behind the scenes, in the White House, near the Pentagon and in the air above, and it’s not necessarily good news. Unique about this book is readers don’t usually see such in-depth, government-based reporting on 9/11 and the days afterward.”
—The Daily (Galveston County)
