Rating: 
Summary: If you're not outraged, you have'nt read this book!
Review: If you read no other book concerning 9/11, read this one. Ahmed pulls no punches and backs his statements with numerous sources and extensive notes. The definative book on 9/11. Disturbing, informative and most of all, eye opening. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: a wakeup call
Review: To begin with, I recommend that you first select to sort the reviews for this book from lowest rating to highest and read the reviews of the few people who all gave it 1 star (after the last 1 star rating it jumps to a 4 star rating). I encourage you to do this because it is important to make your best effort to consider as many possible angles as you can. Pay close attention to the things they say and realize how terribly unsubstantiated their statements are. For example, one reviewer questions quote "If Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld had any knowledge of this plot, why would he be sitting in his Pentagon Office when it was attacked by a jetliner?" Consider that statement and realize that Mr. Rumsfeld knew what was happening, all the more reason for him to be unflinching as he sits on the other side of the Pentagon building that day. There is so much more that could and needs to be said about this and many other issues surrounding September 11th. One dissenting reviewer attempts to be objective in pointing out that the facts (or "facts" as the reviewer refers to them) in this book are unsubstantiated. After seeing this I then encourage you to continue through to the positive reviews of this book and notice that probably the single most recurrent themes in all of them is that this book is heavily substantiated and corroborated, painstakingly so. At the gentlest description offerable for the negative reviews of this book, these few seem to be invoking their gag reflex and spewing up the rhetoric they've heard their favorite conservative talk show host use.Which brings me to my next point, the issues surrounding 9/11 have nothing to do with partisan politics, but instead have everything to do with more universal themes of justice for all Americans, indeed all humans. How dare any critic claim that this is "typical America-hater nonsense"? Since when did preserving the integrity (whatever amount of integrity anyone thinks our politicians have, be it large or small) of our politicians become more important than understanding a grave injustice against our fellow Americans, our fellow human beings? Since when does seeking out the truth make one an "America-hater" (what a gaulish, rediculous, narrow, ignorant, and foolish term that is anyways)? Indeed, the invented distraction of the left-right war is fruitless and has reached levels of being truly destructive and divisive for our democracy. I'm sorry I haven't been more specific to the book's qualities but I felt there were enough reviews here to attest to the book itself and I felt it was important to illustrate the significance of such a book in more general terms. The point is that this book digs into truths that are essential for everyone to understand. The People must know the truth! As George Orwell wrote in his book "1984": "Ignorance is Strength." But finish the sentence; ask yourself for whom ignorance (I certaily mean no offense by this term, which, despite its negative connotations essentially means 'unaware' or 'unknowing') is strength. Ignorance is strength for "the Party". It is strength for those who would lie to you, manipulate you, and mistreat you for their own gain. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad!
Rating:
Summary: How sad for America, how sad for the world...
Review: Possibly one of the most distressing, horrifying, and shocking books I have ever read. Painstakingly documented and corroborated, rendered in detail, the sad, tragic story of the greatest treason ever perpetrated against the people of America. Prepare to grieve. Then fight.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing
Review: Both my daughter and nephew were attending college in NYC on September 11, 2001. I am chilled by the reality that either one or both could have been victims that day. Having just read War on Freedom I am now outraged and find it incomprehensible that the American public has failed to demand the full and independant investigation proposed in this very important book. There are no single assertions contained therein which Mr. Ahmed fails to substantiate with credible sources. My reaction has been to e-mail Senator Daschele and my own Senate representatives and, to date, I have received no response. Meanwhile, the media and the White House throw about terms like "intelligence errors" to diguise the treasonous events leading up to 9-11 and thereafter. In the name of the "War on Terrorism" the Bush administration has engaged in an attack on our Constitutional freedoms and has hence taken the battle to the American people. The causes of the 9-11 tragedy are conveniently ignored but for the courageous works of writers like Mr. Ahmed.
Rating:
Summary: The Bible on 9-11
Review: Information overload is what the reader will experience very quickly. The author (a British Scholar) in addition to his own observations, cites well over 500 footnotes including articles, interviews, Senate committee hearing transcripts, FBI interviews, and other news sources. Because of the gravity of the subject matter I believe the author has done this on purpose, realizing that any intelligent reader, will most likely discriminate between what they perceive to be a truly valid and vital source, and what could possibly be dismissed as speculation, or simply independent observation. In other words, even if you threw out half of the information, what you would still be left with is an overwhelming amount of credible information and facts, that should at the very least, (assuming you're not brain dead), raise some serious questions in your mind, even if you are the most cynical skeptic. Many people still believe that the Sept 11th attacks were not preceded by any type of clear and imminent warnings of some type. This is hardly the case and the author does an excellent job in proving this. After watching the 911 Commission hearings that were held recently, the questions and observations posed by some of the panel members confirm this without a doubt. There is some essential background information on Afghanistan the author takes you though before he gets into the meat of things. This is necessary in order to understand what drives American foreign policy and interests. He then takes you through what our intelligence community knew, and when they knew it. Chapter 5 is the most damning, as he dissects the complete abandonment of standard operating procedures that were in place that fateful day Sept.11, 2001, and alerts you to a little known fact about the 'official version'. The book also covers our particular brand of "friendship" with the Saudis, the corporate money trail, plus much, much, more... It took me 2 months to scour through over 150 of the footnotes I thought the most important, and in doing so I came upon much more information than I ever thought I would, stemming from various sources including trade reports, gas and oil investor news, as well a first hand statements mentioned in the book. And I have to say, that after reading and confirming what this book reveals about the true US/Taliban relationship prior to 9-11, that it is clear without a doubt, that we have an incredibly selfish and self serving foreign relationship policy, in which we will be "friends" with almost anyone as long as it serves our corporate or military interests, regardless of their human rights record. And only after the friendship sours because of lack of cooperation, will we then launch a campaign exposing them if it will serve in promoting support for disciplinary action. This may not be an easy book for some Americans to read, and I am sure that some will scoff but fail to look any further. But the case is presented before you and the author's work is done. The burden is now on you, the reader, to investigate his sources and footnotes, and determine whether this book is merely biased propaganda, or a compilation worthy of serious consideration, or indeed .. the awful truth.
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant, Brave Sophistocated Analysis
Review: At the amazing age of 23, Mr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed has written a book of enormous emotional and intellectual maturity. It is true that much of the evidence is journalistic (and easy to check on the internet), not the best evidence, to be sure. He himself cautions that his analysis cannot be conclusive. It IS conclusive, in my opinion, in establishing the case for an independent, full-blown investigation of what really happened on September 11th in all its political, geo-political, and economic aspects. This is his aim.
Let us take note that while lawyerly standards of evidence are indispensable for the avoidance of terrible mistakes, for people at every level of public life, they often at the same time prove an unaffordable luxury. Just think of the investors and politicians alike who must predicate their decisions on evidence a court of law would reject.
It is true that Mr. Ahmed's argument is a conspiracy theory, but the same can be said for the government's case against Enron executives. As Enron investors know, conspiracies EXIST, and theories accounting for them cannot always draw on evidence satisfactory in a court of law, at least not always in time to save the victims. I have already said that Mr. Ahmed is quite aware of these limitations and NEVER ceases to alert the reader to them.
The book closes with an essay by John Leonard. Mr. Leonard differs with Mr. Ahmed on certain things but his essay at least has many good references and arguments for further thought. In the area of politics, I do not believe that he has the rigor or the sophistocation of Mr. Ahmed. Nevertheless, his contribution compliments Mr. Ahmed's to provide a richly faceted vehicle for comprehending our great national tragedy.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must read
Review: As many of the reviewers before have said. This is definately a must read.
Although Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is extremely repetitive and sometimes comes off sounding like he's trying to convince himself more than the reader. But the facts do not lie. You can look up every source he sites and double check the facts yourself. Although there is no way of truely knowing the absolute truth regarding 9-11. This is as close as you'll ever get. It also has some startling predictions that the author may have no completely realised until the recent war with Iraq. Some of his observations and that of some of the sources he sites in the book are startling and to be honest damn scary. In the end I gave this book 4 stars. Mainly for the rehashing he does. In a couple of spots he practically resites entire paragraphs from 3 or 4 pages back. After reading this you will definately look more closely and question more deeply our foreign policy.
Rating:
Summary: Wow...
Review: Fascinating book that has no research to back it up... well, except for the HUNDREDS of footnotes based on interviews, papers and articles of those in the know. How can one dismiss direct quotes from US government officials as "fiction?" Maybe what they said was fictional, but the fact that they said it places this well-researched book squarely in the "non-fiction" section. The most interesting piece in the book for me, and possibly the one that was the hardest to read and digest was the part about automatic procedures in the case of a plane straying from a flight plan. US fighters were tailing Payne Stewart's out-of-control Lear jet within 21 minutes of losing contact with the pilots, and yet fighters were not scrambled for as long as 95 minutes after the first jets deviated from their course and stopped responding to ATC queries. Now I understand that there's always a threat involved whenever a golf pro takes to the air, and I'm sure that those flights are watched much more closely than say... large passenger jets, but one has to wonder exactly what was going on. Think about this: the procedures to intercept a runaway plane are automatic, and would take an override from a very high place in order for them to NOT take place. Oh and I find it interesting to note that Nafeez Ahmed is a native of >ENGLAND<, as in born and raised there. To dismiss his writings because of the structure of his name without doing any kind of research into the facts is simply irresponsible. Have we not progressed beyond stereotypes based on ethnicity? It is hard for me to comprehend folks that can't hold two conflicting thoughts in their head (i.e. "We live in a great country" and "The government of our great country may be unbelievably corrupt.") Is it possible that the conclusions in this book are wrong? Sure is. Is it possible that there was a lot more going on behind 9/11 that the government isn't telling us? This book makes it easy to believe that there just might be.
Rating:
Summary: question authority
Review: The American public is too quick to believe simple answers from its leaders. There's more to 9-11 and our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq than most realize and it's imperative that we, as individual citizens, start demanding answers now. I don't believe everything in this book because I don't believe much of anything I read. But I'm suspicious of the Bush administration and I'm so convinced that our country is headed in a very bad direction that I bought 15 copies, in addition to my own, to donate to my city's (Oakland, CA) libraries.
Rating:
Summary: To M Hartrich
Review:
At 9:05am CoS Card whispered to Pres. Bush that 4 commercial airliners have been hijacked, two of which have just crashed into the WTC towers. They were hijacked between 7:45am and 8:10am almost an hour prior to Card informing him. The press at this school appearance described Pres. Bush as "briefly turning somber." However instead of getting up out of his chair and being whisked away to AF1 to a secure line with other Washington/Pentagon leaders, he continued to listen and talk with the young children of this school. At 9:30am he decided to give a brief press statement to the world stating what every person on the planet near a television has already seen. As commander-in-chief of our armed forces, his conduct between the first FAA/NORAD reports of the hijacking at 7:45am and his press briefing at 9:30am leave EVERYTHING we expect out of POTUS to be desired.
Then Acting JCoS Gen. Myers(and commander of NORAD) was having a meeting with Sen. Max Cleland that morning and it wasn't until after the WTC had been struck twice and the Pentagon once, that he got on a secure cell phone and called for interceptors to hit the skies. What was so important in that meeting between Cleland and Myers to keep him from ordering interceptors up immediately after the first reports of hijacked planes baffles a great many of us. The reason we spend $400 billion on defense(half of the world's military spending)is to avoid even the smallest threat from inflicting damage on ourselves and our lands. To discount their response as "slow human response to exceptional and out-of-the-ordinary events" is incredulous. I invite you, or anyone else who shares this notion, to share this explanation in person with families like ours who lost someone that terrible day.
There was a stand down order given, and a stand down order obeyed. There are Air National Guard bases all over the Northeast with response times and constant training to intercept such threats. This may be unprecedented in reality prior to 9/11/01, but the fact that we have trained our ANG in these very intercepts and the command, by only the President, to engage such threats is in place is fact that we ARE prepared for these actions and only the ACTION would be unprecedented, not the RESPONSE. Andrews AFB is 10 miles from the Pentagon. I could have ran there in the time it took interceptors to hit the sky.
However its not ironic, but was sadly predictable based on your tone, that you'd use Mr. Ahmed's descent as a reason to polarize his fact-telling as fiction. Its predictable because descent only comes up when all other capable arguments are exhausted and people of your level of thinking must encapsulate one's position in their lineage.
I think this is an opinion you'd be better served responding to amazon.com and every other fine book warehouse with. But since they've all categorized it, along with the publishers, as NONFICTION i don't think you'll find any satisfaction. In addition to Mr. Ahmed's work, i'd recommend reading literary essays by Gore Vidal and the writings of print media journalists through WWW outlets...
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