Footnotes to History

Yesterday, my copy of the graphic novel version of the The 9/11 Report arrived in the mail. (I had seen a preview in Slate.)

It was interesting to look at this document as an example of innovative information design, and I was surprised to see commission members indicating their approval of the comic book format in the preface.

Of course, as a voracious reader of government documents, I have to point out that they didn't actually present the entire six hundred page report. For example, in the fine print in the footnotes I discovered that one of the terrorist operatives in contact with Mohammed Atta actually used the alias "Losh," which -- outside of some rural counties in Pennsylvania -- is an extremely rare surname. Here's the actual text:

In May 2001, however, Ali asked KSM to participate in a suicide mission and offered to travel to the United States and assist the operatives there. As discussed in a set of Atta-Binalshibh exchanges in August 2001, Ali (referred to by the nickname "Losh") appears to have contacted Atta and expressed the desire to join the operation.