Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. It was the largest single loss of life from an enemy strike on U.S. soil. How did it happen? And could it have been prevented? The U.S. Congress and President Bush set up the 9/11 Commission in 2002 to answer these questions in detail and their final report ran to over 500 pages. It examined the circumstances that led to September 11th and the mistakes made by the White House and the CIA all the way down to basic airport security that meant the U.

S. was unprepared for and unable to prevent the attacks. Lastly, it provided recommendations to protect the U.S. against future acts of terror. This illustrated account uses the text from the 9/11 Commission's report to turn the complicated and confusing mass of information contained therein into an accessible, straightforward and clear story for the first time.