John Farmer - The Ground Truth: The Untold Story of America Under Attack on 9/11

PRAISE FOR

THE GROUND TRUTH

Assail[s] the governments official depiction of 9/11 as so much public relations flimflam... [and] superbly renders the knuckle-biting tension and confusion engendered by the hijackings... Farmers accomplishment is to throw 9/11 into fresh relief. A precise and reliable accounting of what happened has been absent until now. This is it.

Jacob Heilbrunn, The New York Times Book Review

The Ground Truth is an important reexamination of the events before, during, and after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. As you read it, you may not know whether to laugh or cry. Laughter comes because Farmer paints a picture of government officials who seem like Monty Python running their Ministries of Silly Walks. The tears come when you discover the dozens of missed opportunities to stop this tragedy well before the hijackers boarded a jet. Farmer is particularly well equipped to write this book... and all of it is presented in a compelling, well-written style that is almost thrillerlike in its narrative.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Farmer deftly hones in on the nations bureaucratic morass leading up to September 11 and the governments failure to respond on the day of the attacks, distinguishing his book from other accounts. He highlights the ineptitude of American bureaucracy and the inherent flaws of its national security, and he shows that the horrific attacks could easily occur again unless there is a drastic federal overhaul.

The American Prospect

An important correction to 2004s 9/11 Commission Report... [Farmer] uses newly declassified documents to make the strong case that the 9/11 Commission Report is erroneous in many of its key findings.

San Antonio Express-News

All Americans should read John Farmers The Ground Truth. With keen analytical insight, Farmer rips the lid off many mysteries pertaining to both the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina. A highly recommended historical curative for our times.

Douglas Brinkley, author of The Great Deluge

No one is more qualified to write the definitive book about the tragedy of 9/11 than John Farmer. Fortunately, he has done so. Even more fortunately the language is clear, alive, and instructive for anyone who wants to make certain this never happens again.

Bob Kerrey, former U.S. Senator and member of the 9/11 Commission

History and experience tell us that misperformance or malperformance of government duties inevitably comes to light. In The Ground Truth, Farmer proves this lesson once again. Worse than the overwhelming confusion during the critical minutes of the crisis, was the clear effort to obscure the truth by senior agency officials responsible for protecting America. Reading Farmers book we cannot help but wonder whether many of those same agencies and officials are better prepared for the next 9/11.

Gary Hart, cochair, U.S. Commission on National Security / 21st Century

Farmer, senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, updates the commissions report in this thorough and bipartisan analysis... In his careful exegesis of the events of 9/11, [Farmer] transcends easy generalizations to expose the fault lines in contemporary governance and point the way to fundamental reform.

Publishers Weekly

The incapacity of the U.S. authorities at any point to react to the events of that day, as they unfolded, was far worse than most of us have realized. Farmer concludes that the administrations version of events, of bad luck, near misses yet clear decision-making, was a fantasy.

The Times (London)

Revelatory... Farmer makes shattering new sense of the days events and exposes the true disarray and arrogance in the military and government responses.

William Langewiesche, author of American Ground and The Atomic Bazaar

In revisiting the tragedy of the 9/11 attacks that still haunt America, John Farmer provides a devastating account of how what government and military officials told Congress, the 9/11 Commission on which he served, the media, and the public was almost entirely, and inexplicably, untrue. The result is a major, carefully documented and deeply disturbing book, one that deserves the most serious attention of every American concerned about our future.

Haynes Johnson, Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author

Using recently declassified and released sources, Farmer blends legal and political expertise to paint a startling revised picture of 9/11. Telling the story in successively decreasing units of time, he builds suspense and creates a compelling albeit disturbing narrative. VERDICT: This book sheds new light on the events surrounding 9/11 and the role of government in handling crises and also serves as a rallying cry for change. Essential.

Library Journal

The author makes excellent use of declassified primary-source documents... An important systematic brief on how an elaborately constructed national-defense system was penetrated, and why lessons of that day for disaster response remain dimly understood.

Kirkus Reviews

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Copyright 2009, 2010 by John Farmer

Cover design copyright 2009 Michaela Sullivan

Cover photograph copyright Ariel Fuiz / Altaba / Corbis

Chart on pages prepared with the assistance of Laurel DuMont

The transcript on pages appears courtesy of ABC News.

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