October 26, 2010 Update
I just receive a personal copy of Ground Truth paperback edition. This edition is “First Riverhead trade paperback edition: September 2010.”
Farmer has added an afterword, “Systemic Failures.” to account for the Fort Hood tragedy in November, 2009; the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, 2009; and the alleged attempted bombing of Times Square in May, 2010.
The author concludes: “… the task of “fixing” the intelligence or emergency response systems [his reference is to the BP Gulf oil spill] is inseparable from the larger task of reinventing government, with one vital difference. Given the stakes involved in the failure to protect public safety, it must be tackled first, and immediately.”
Original Post
My Google alert “9-11 Commission” surfaces the occasional article arguing that John Farmer’s book discounts the 9-11 Commission Report. In its simplest form the argument is that the 9-11 Commission Report is false, according to Farmer. There is no arguing with that kind of false logic and I won’t attempt to even try. Let me just state for the record that, as John Farmer has it, the 9-11 Commission Report is an accurate presentation of the events leading up to and on 9-11.
The Commission report clearly established what the Government did and did not do. Farmer’s book establishes that the story the Government reconstructed in the aftermath and then told the public, including testimony before Congress and the Commission, was wrong. It is the Government’s reconstruction of the actions it took that was false, not the actions themselves.
The quote at the top of this the what’s new page from the work of the Commission Staff is instructive. Aspects of the issue have been previously addressed on this web site, here, here, and here.