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conceded that there was evidence that either department’s officials connived to reconstruct the story on events on 9/11. The Commission’s John Farmer—as a former attorney general of New Jersey a man well used to weighing evidence—challenged that finding. “There is no question,” he has written, “that the official version … served the interest of every institution involved.… It is impossible to conclude honestly, from the two Inspector General reports, that the official version of the events of 9/11 was the result of mere administrative incompetence; too many questions remained unanswered.” The full body of evidence is extremely complex, too complex to be dealt with in this book. The authors suggest that interested readers consult Commission general counsel Marcus’s referral letter to the inspectors general, the resulting IG reports, and Farmer’s 2009 book, Ground Truth (referral: Marcus to Schmitz and Mead & attachments, 7/29/04; IG reports: “Memorandum for Under Secretary of Defense of Intelligence,” 9/12/06, “Results of OIG Investigation of 9/11 Commission Staff Referral,” Todd Zinser to Acting Secretary, FAA, 8/31/06; “There is no question”: Farmer, 287–).

69 “in my opinion”: Testimony of Monte Belger, 6/17/04, CO;

70 “In my opinion”: Testimony of Richard Myers, 6/17/04, CO;

71 “were talking mainly”/“leadership was irrelevant”/was not simply wrong: Farmer, 186–, 290, 277, 288–.

Part III: AMERICA RESPONDS

CHAPTER 14

1 garbage can/“Allah will be”: Chicago to Director, 9/12/01, FBI 265D-NY-280350-CG, INTELWIRE;

2 kept an eye/“Mission failed”: FBI 302 of int. Grant Besley, 9/16/01, B11, T7, CF, Chronology ADA-30, Operations Center, Terrorist Attacks NYC-DC 9/11/01, “FAA 3 of 3 Chronology ADA Ops Center,” B19, T8, CF;

3 Picciotto/The guy: Picciotto, 75–.

4 5,000/“remained in custody”: “The September 11 Detainees: A Review of the Treatment of Aliens Held on Immigration Charges in Connection with the Investigation of the September 11 Attacks,” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, 6/03. The figure of 5,000 is taken from the study by Professors David Cole and Jules Lobel, which is in turn derived from official U.S. government reports. The Washington Post reported that 1,182 “potential terror suspects” had been detained by November 2001. In addition, some 4,000 were detained under two post-9/11 INS initiatives, the Special Registration and Alien Absconder programs. “The vast majority” of the 5,000, Professor Cole told the authors, were detained “on immigration charges, ranging from overstaying a visa to working without a permit or even to failing to file a notice of change of address” (corr. David Cole, 2010, LAT, 11/18/07, WP, 11/6/01, 6/16/04, Anjana Malhotra, “Overlooking Innocence,” www.aclu.org, & see “The September 11 Detainees,” Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice, 4/03, 2–, CR, 327–, 556n17, Philip Heymann, “Muslims in America after 9/11: The Legal Situation,” conference paper, 12/15/06, www.ces.fas.harvard.edu).

5 conditions included/abuse: The abuse occurred especially at the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn (“The September 11 Detainees,” 4–).

6 only one convicted: As of 2009 the only post-9/11 detainee convicted was Ali al-Marri, who had been arrested in December 2001. Marri was sentenced to eight years for plotting with and materially supporting al Qaeda. Zacarias Moussaoui, who is serving life without the possibility of parole for conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism and air piracy, had been arrested before 9/11 (Marri: corr. David Cole, 2010, AP, 10/30/09, LAT, 5/1/09; Moussaoui: AP, 9/25/09, BBC News, 5/4/06, AFP, 1/4/10, CR, 247);

7 Ziglar/“a moment”: MFR 04016455, 11/14/03;

8 anti-Arab hostility/Sikh shot: New Republic, 9/24/01, Queens Tribune, 9/18/01;

9 Egyptian pilot: DiMarco, 314–.

10 Flight 23/“four young Arab”: Spencer, 102–, MFR 04020009, 4/14/04, CBS News, 9/14/01. The account of the Flight 23 incident is drawn principally from notes of a Commission interview with Ed Ballinger, the United