Rating: 
Summary: Your are there, 9/11/01
Review: Mohamed Atta had a terrorist primer. He spent the night before 9/11 at the Comfort Inn in Portland, Maine. The story of the terrorists in flight schools, creating problems in night clubs and elsewhere in the weeks before the incident of the suicide attacks of the four commercial jetliners, and their journeys in America and abroad are outlined in the book. Calls from passengers and flight personnel on the highjacked airliners are detailed in this account. Next, the authors, journalists of DER SPIEGAL, describe the attempts of the workers in the World Trade Center towers to save themselves. It was important for small firms to have the World Trade Center on their letterheads. Initially it was conceived as a center for overseas trade, not a financial center. Later the rise in commercial-space rents in New York City caused the kinds of businesses most likely to rent space in the towers to change. One of the reasons so much is known about situations within the planes and towers is telephone contact. Wired and wireless, modern communications capabilities are awesome. Reading the account is an emotional experience. People waited to be rescued and rescue workers never came. Others walked down and out of one of the towers from the eighty-ninth floor. Horribly burned individuals exited safely with others. Fear is something firefighters train themselves to ignore. The authors show the messages received at the fire department message center--FDNY Emergency Message Center. When the tower came down it sounded like a freight train. The entire South Tower had collapsed. Nobody in the FDNY expected a collapse of the entire structures of the monumental towers. The South Tower was hit second but collapsed first. It was hit lower. NYC has more tall buildings than any other city. Still, FDNY is not a suicide organization. After the collapse of the tower, the plans of evacuating persons on the higher floors of the other tower changed. A quick thinking fireman shouted, causing most of the fire personnel in the North Tower to leave the building. The North Tower collapsed in an almost absurdly controlled way. Eleven people survived the crash of that tower. Nearly all the men in leading positions of the New York Fire Department were dead. By mid day the FBI had determined that some of the highjackers had come from Germany. Mohamed Atta's travel bag was located at Logan Airport. It contained among the toiletries two written documents. Part II of the book is call "In the House of Followers". In the first day the FBI had Atta's suitcase, as noted, and a white rental car containing flying manuals in Arabic and some papers with the same Arabic names that appeared on the passenger lists. The Hamburg-Harburg Technical University has an international profile. Seven of the thirteen names investigators supplied appeared in the student directory. Two of the suicide pilots had studied there. Investigators in Germany began to try to unravel the greatest terrorist act of all time. A treasure trove of papers came to the attention of the authorities. Perhaps some other secret service was at work. The terrorist as slum dweller is a familiar concept. The terrorist as a middle class role model is new. Europe acted as a way station for terrorist groups. What held the groups together is neither Islam not idealogy, but religious delusion and hatred for the U.S. The end of the book contains identifying information on the participants of the highjacking, a timeline, and excerpts from the Terrorist's Manual.
Rating:
Summary: well-detailed account
Review: This book is difficult to read because of its detailed account of the events before, during, and after the attacks. However, it's nice to have such a comprehensive book.
Rating:
Summary: Very moving!
Review: This book is the finest written account of September 11, 2001 and the tragedy that prevails. This book describes intimate accounts of persons in the towers trying to escape. What moved me the most was at the end of the book when the writers interviewed the people a year or two after the tragedy. Their feeligs were expressed in such a manner that allows me to understand what they experienced. I know how I feel today, but I never imagined how some of the survivors live through each and every day of their lives. This book brings the subject matter to light.
I thought one of the most interesting parts of the book was the appendix which includes the Al Queda manual. The instruction manual proves to the world that these people are in need of serious mental health help. There were quite a few instructions which simply made me laugh. Such as the terrorist trainee is told not to speak loudly. Oh please, give me a break! Are these trainees that stupid?
Rating: 
Summary: Terrorism and Religion
Review: This book keeps you occupied most during the reading of the painful 9/11 events. Although, a commendable compilation of terrorists plan and attack , the authors in this book project the views that Muslims are dangerous. Authors, I think, are also biased towards religions. For e.g., (page 248, 4th paragraph, 5th line) "Probably a spoiled young man like Ziad, stumbled into the terrorist milieu the same way a Western teenager might fall in with religious sect on a vacation trip to Asia", by writing this, authors compare spoiled "young man" to "Western teenager" and "terrorist milieu" to "religions in Asia". Unfortunately, authors did not find any other analogy to compare the terrorism. By doing so, authors give an impressions that westerner attracted to Asian religion is a kind of terrorism (unacceptable) or Asian religions are equivalent to terrorism. It is sad that out of 18 authors none of them felt that this statement is not appropriate for this book. It only reflects author conservative views about (Asian) religions. In an increasingly polarized world, where a sense of unity, beyond religion, race and faith, needed to be nurtured, and valued, this kind of writing from a "popular" German newspaper is regrettable.
ONE WORLD
Rating:
Summary: The best I've read yet.
Review: This is the best Sept. 11 book I've yet read, and it doesn't even come from America. The reporting is excellent and thorough and the level of detail is impressive. Sometimes gory, sometimes horrifying, but always educational, this book examines the events of that day from the point of view of the terrorists as well as the victims. An appendix includes the terrorists' final instructions, which are quite chilling to read. Kudos to Der Spiegel for putting together the best 9/11 coverage so far.
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