Not quite there

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (aka the 9-11 Commission) web site (and the documents therein) makes for some fascinating reading. Perhaps not the best way to relax on a weekend but I believe that it's as close to an unvarnished version of the truth as we're ever going to get.

I didn't really want to pay attention to the various news reports from this past week (and I was far too busy to make that possible) until I'd had a chance to look myself at the data presented. I'd known the commission was gathering evidence, generating reports, and holding hearings but had not in any real way been paying close attention.

The staff reports are well worth reading (really!) as are some of the individual bits of testimony. The transcripts are where everything gets tied together, but I caution the reader that they're long and contain duplicates of the staff statements read into the record. That's not an admonition to read selectively, just a warning. The complete online record is also two meetings behind (the last one with full documentation was on April 13 — Hearing Ten) which is frustrating. It's also missing all charts, photos, diagrams; they may be present in the media streams but they're not easily available elsewhere.

When I explained to Sarah what I'd been doing today and how wonderful I thought it was, she gave me the usual "I love you but you are not quite sane" look, rolled her eyes and smiled; such is life after many years of marriage.

The final report, when it comes out, is going to be a very interesting read. Unlike other massively read and researched investigative reports, this will be the first to emerge in a massively networked world. My hope is that it will be complete and contain all the relevant materials (or link to them in a way that won't break over a long period of time).