9) The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon
It’s almost two years since I read the original version of the 9/11 Report; thanks to Slate I became aware of this new and more approachable version, and bought it at the Borders shop on the corner of Wall Street and Broadway, a couple of blocks from the site of some of the events it describes.
A few things jumped out at me differently on reading this version. I didn’t remember the original making such a strong point of the non-involvement of Iraq and Hezbollah in the events of 9/11. The key passage about the FBI agent who speculated that someone might fly a plane into the World Trade Centre has been toned down. But the utter confusion among the US top leadership on the morning of the attacks is even better portrayed in graphical form than by the written word alone.
Two years on, the Commission itself has added to the original text a pretty damning report card of the US response to making sure that it cannot happen again, with a bit more stress on the necssity of getting to grips with the Arab world than the original had, and a general condemnation of the apathy of the Executive and still more the legislative branches of government.
Anyway, this is an excellent adaptation – true to the spirit of the original, very well presented. Strongly recommended.
I liked it a lot. I thought the children were great. I was watching with somebody who knew nothing about the books and she was very interested in the younger characters.