(Light “red” = quotes that many would consider more interesting—the color probably won’t be in the published version).

For many years I have been comfortable combining disparate information. In business, when faced with a decision I wasn't yet comfortable making, I often combined divergent information because I found that, over time, information from various sources often combined to give me enough direction to make a decision on the issue at hand.
 
Additionally, in the past I have used many charts to display and distill information because I have found that charts often seem to make complex data easier to understand. [1]

I also found in business that triangulated data...three (or more) different sources (or more) supplying a view on the same or on a related question, often provided a sufficient commonality to clarify issues, even when several of those sources were in conflict. Thus, in this book I have listed multiple sources of many events and issues.
 
After deciding on the scope, goal and format of this reference work, I was left with the questions of what date it should begin, how to deal with tangential issues and facts that were unexplained or controversial, and whether I should add my own views to the mix.

I believe one could, in good conscience, start this work around 650 AD when the Muslim religion was founded, or November, 1917 when the Balfour Declaration was signed leading to the future State of Israel, or a multitude of other key dates. I finally settled on March 12, 1947, the day President Harry S. Truman delivered the Truman Doctrine to a joint session of Congress. The Doctrine essentially is committing America to a declared and more formal role involving our country in the politics and policing of the world beyond our shores.

I grappled with how to handle facts and issues that were interesting but not vital to understanding the main 9/11+ events. I decided not to include the more controversial 9/11 issues that surfaced—events that appear clouded in mystery or darkness, such as the question of how an untrained pilot, even with GPS could have so expertly maneuvered a Boeing 767 traveling 500 mph into a direct hit on the North Tower of the World Trade Center, why the third World Trade Center building collapsed without seemingly being hit and why the two main World Trade Towers collapsed given their modern steel construction. Why many Saudis were reportedly flown out of the U.S. in mid September 2001 (when civilian air traffic was halted) without comprehensive interrogation or a documented trail seemed steeped in darkness. (Perhaps others will carefully review these events and questions.)
 
I discussed with my wife and close friends the question of whether I should include my personal opinions on the comments and events that surfaced while compiling and editing this work. In the end, I decided the value of this work wasn't what I or what any one person thought, but of the varied, collective and sometimes conflicting interpretation of events of many. 
 
Finally, comfortable with the outline of what I wanted to accomplish and how I wanted to present the information, I hired a modest team of researchers and a project manager to extract the relevant statements from ____ published books (85%) and (15%) from other sources, and input the data into a database and print form.

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1.       I have habitually added vertical and horizontal alpha numeric codes on my charts to ease the sharing of information
contained in them ("Mary, look at Column X, line Y...it confirms what we suspected"). Charts have also seemed ideally
suited to present time lines and sequential data, and I have used the chart form for this book because I think putting
diverse, but arguably connected events in time sequence will enable the reader to not only focus on specific events at
certain periods, but see the events in a broader if not connected context.