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9/11 Report nominated for major book award

The 9/11 Commission Report overseen by Philip Zelikow, University history professor and director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs, is a nominated finalist for a National Book Award under the category of nonfiction.

According to National Book Foundation Publicist Camille McDuffie, the book was nominated for the category along with 449 other submissions, and a panel of impartial judges whittled the selections down to five.

"Basically they're told to pick the best books of the year," McDuffie said. "There's been a lot of press about the 9/11 Report and the strong writing in it, but the judges don't give their reasons" for the nominations.

Although McDuffie said "there's no one person taking credit for the writing," she pointed to a New York Times article in which Zelikow was named as an "author surrogate" of the 9/11 Report.

Zelikow was chosen to manage the commission's report as a nonpartisan director by the co-chairmen of the council, Congressman Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) and former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean (R). The primary concern was that the committee should stay unified and nonpartisan in its findings.

Some people were concerned about Zelikow's ability to remain nonpartisan, given his work with key Republican actors and administrations, a University press release said. Zelikow previously worked with former President George H.W. Bush as a member of his National Security Council and co-authored a book with current National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice. He also has worked with the current administration on transition and intelligence matters.

Matt Smyth, director of communications at the Center for Politics, said he believes Zelikow managed to keep the report commission bipartisan.

"Active or former members of both parties were participating on the commission, and everybody's sort of got an agenda," Smyth said. Zelikow has "got a lot of governmental and academic experience, and he was able to push those agendas to the side. He does have a partisan background, but so does just about everyone that works in government in one way or another, and he's taken an effort to distance himself from that."

Smyth said the book's nomination shows that the commission overcame the partisan tendencies on behalf of its members.

"I think the fact that it's nominated shows that it's a significant piece of literature," Smyth said. "The commission was well-organized, and it did come out as a bipartisan finding that criticized both administrations."

Smyth added that everyday citizens should make an effort to read the book in order to make informed decisions about their government's actions.

"A lot of people are making their decisions about how secure their government is keeping them [during this election season], and they should have as many of the facts as they can," Smyth said. "If you want to be an informed and active citizen, it's good to have the facts not only from the book, but also from as many other sources as they can."

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