The 9-11 Commission Report

Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Official Government Edition

Cover of the Final Report of the 9-11 Commission.

The Commission’s Final Report provides a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. It also includes recommendations designed to guard against future attacks. Below you will find the official Government edition of the Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

The Full Report (7 MB, 585 pages) has been made available in its entirety, as a single PDF file. The report is also available as a collection of smaller PDFs arranged in a browse table based on the Final Report's table of contents. An Executive Summary (344 KB, 35 pages) of the Final Report is also available.

Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
Report Section
File Size Number of Pages
Front Matter 42 KB 4
Table of Contents 48 KB 3
List of Illustrations and Tables 20 KB 1
Member List 511 KB 1
Staff List 49 KB 2
Preface 48 KB 4
1. "We Have Some Planes"
  • 1.1 Inside the Four Flights
  • 1.2 Improvising a Homeland Defense
  • 1.3 National Crisis Management
831 KB 46
2. The Foundation of the New Terrorism
  • 2.1 A Declaration of War
  • 2.2 Bin Ladin's Appeal in the Islamic World
  • 2.3 The Rise of Bin Ladin and al Qaeda (1988-1992)
  • 2.4 Building an Organization, Declaring War on the United States (1992-1996)
  • 2.5 Al Qaeda's Renewal in Afghanistan (1996-1998)
724 KB 24
3. Counterterrorism Evolves
  • 3.1 From the Old Terrorism to the New: The First World Trade Center Bombing
  • 3.2 Adaptation--and Nonadaptation--in the Law Enforcement Community
  • 3.3 ... and in the Federal Aviation Administration
  • 3.4 ... and in the Intelligence Community
  • 3.5 ... and in the State Department and the Defense Department
  • 3.6 ... and in the White House
  • 3.7 ... and in the Congress
267 KB 37
4. Responses to Al Qaeda's Initial Assaults
  • 4.1 Before the Bombings in Kenya and Tanzania
  • 4.2 Crisis: August 1998
  • 4.3 Diplomacy
  • 4.4 Covert Action
  • 4.5 Searching for Fresh Options
274 KB 37
5. Al Qaeda Aims at the American Homeland
  • 5.1 Terrorist Entrepreneurs
  • 5.2 The "Planes Operation"
  • 5.3 The Hamburg Contingent
  • 5.4 A Money Trail?
314 KB 29
6. From Threat To Threat
  • 6.1 The Millennium Crisis
  • 6.2 Post-Crisis Reflection: Agenda for 2000
  • 6.3 The Attack on the USS Cole
  • 6.4 Change and Continuity
  • 6.5 The New Administration's Approach
326 KB 41
7. The Attack Looms
  • 7.1 First Arrivals in California
  • 7.2 The 9/11 Pilots in the United States
  • 7.3 Assembling the Teams
  • 7.4 Final Strategies and Tactics
771 KB 39
8. "The System Was Blinking Red"
  • 8.1 The Summer of Threat
  • 8.2 Late Leads--Mihdhar, Moussaoui, and KSM
206 KB 24
9. Heroism and Horror
  • 9.1 Preparedness as of September 11
  • 9.2 September 11, 2001
  • 9.3 Emergency Response at the Pentagon
  • 9.4 Analysis
2 MB 47
10. Wartime
  • 10.1 Immediate Responses at Home
  • 10.2 Planning for War
  • 10.3 "Phase Two" and the Question of Iraq
141 KB 14
11. Foresight--and Hindsight
  • 11.1 Imagination
  • 11.2 Policy
  • 11.3 Capabilities
  • 11.4 Management
171 KB 22
12. What To Do? A Global Strategy
  • 12.1 Reflecting on a Generational Challenge
  • 12.2 Attack Terrorists and Their Organizations
  • 12.3 Prevent the Continued Growth of Islamist Terrorism
  • 12.4 Protect against and Prepare for Terrorist Attacks
269 KB 38
13. How To Do It? A Different Way of Organizing the Government
  • 13.1 Unity of Effort across the Foreign-Domestic Divide
  • 13.2 Unity of Effort in the Intelligence Community
  • 13.3 Unity of Effort in Sharing Information
  • 13.4 Unity of Effort in the Congress
  • 13.5 Organizing America's Defenses in the United States
214 KB 30
Appendix A: Common Abbreviations 22 KB 2
Appendix B: Table of Names 63 KB 8
Appendix C: Commission Hearings 96 KB 10
Notes 1.2 MB 119