Unanswered Questions
What the September Eleventh Families Asked and the 9/11 Commission Ignored
Unanswered Questions is a compendium of still unresolved queries into the events of September 11, 2001.
Ray McGinnis’s journalistic text Unanswered Questions investigates lingering doubts about the official accounts of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Centered on the 9/11 Commission’s study of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and other sites, the book opens with background information on the attacks, as well as about the subsequent investigations launched by the US government. In clear terms, it lists the problems with the official accounts, saying that they contain multiple discrepancies. In its search for better answers, it considers factors like investments that were made in the weeks preceding the attacks. In their number and nuance, the resultant inquiries are thought-provoking.
Most striking are reproduced testimonials from family members who raised their own questions and concerns about the attacks. There are emotional moments in the course of this work: Carol Ashley, whose daughter Janice was killed on the 93rd floor of the World Trade Center, says “we were stunned when President Bush opposed such an inquiry.” Also decried are the Port Authority’s commands that their workers remain in, or return to, their offices—a decision made with a high cost, and one that the book says has gone unanswered for.
Some of the book’s other mysteries are more about the narrative of September 11th than about laying blame. It includes a reminder of a man with a bullhorn who told fleeing employees “This tower has been secured. You are in America. Return to your offices.” There are memorable excerpts from the oral histories gathered by the New York Times as well—many of which included accounts of explosions “being heard or felt prior to the planes hitting the towers.” Such firsthand counts of abnormalities with the official record are used to cast doubts on the accepted narratives about the day.
The book concentrates on collecting questions; it is not so much concerned with providing answers. No grand counter explanations are included. In their place is a deep sense that all is not right with the the version of events that was accepted by the 9/11 Commission.
Copious end notes are included within each chapter; these citations give additional credence to the work. The lengthy conclusion includes a bulleted list of the mysteries that have yet to be explained, or that were ignored and under attended to by the official 9/11 Commission.
Unanswered Questions is a compendium of still unresolved queries into the events of September 11, 2001.
Reviewed by
Matt Benzing
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