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24: The House Special Subcommittee's Findings at CTU

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This article's subject relates to the 24 expanded universe.This is a production article written from an out-of-universe perspective
BookFindingsAtCTU
Written by: Marc Cerasini with
Alice Alfonsi
Pages: 224
Publisher: Harper Entertainment
Pub. date: January 21, 2003
ISBN number: 0060535504

24: The House Special Subcommittee's Findings at CTU is the first 24 novel published.

In the aftermath of Day 1, a twelve-member House Special Subcommittee was formed to investigate the alleged misconduct of key agents in the Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit and other government agencies. Questioned by representatives Jayce Fulbright, Pauline Driscoll, and Roy Schneider, government and military personnel offered their testimony and insights into the tragic events of the day of the California presidential primary.

This book, compiled by investigative journalist Marc Cerasini, contains that testimony, as well as autopsy reports, newspaper articles, computer files, official dossiers, and other evidence to complete as far as possible the story of the longest day of Jack Bauer's life.

Summary[]

Findings at CTU is presented as an in-universe collection of testimony, newspaper clippings, recovered documents, and other sources, compiled and leaked to the media at large as an expose on the truth of what happened on Super Tuesday. Most of the novel is devoted to transcripts of Jack Bauer and Tony Almeida's testimony before a twelve-member subcommittee of the House of Representatives, providing an hour-by-hour recollection of events on Day 1. Their testimony is supplemented by statements from other parties involved like Kim Bauer and Elizabeth Nash, official dossiers on major players, and evidence collected from Victor Drazen's operation.

Information gained[]

Operation Nightfall[]

JackProfile

Jack Bauer's official declassified dossier, included in the report

  • The impetus and planning for Operation Nightfall, the failed mission to assassinate Victor Drazen, is revealed. Drazen had begun making deals with members of the Russian mafia and former members of the KGB and FSB, funding these alliances with assets from his campaigns of ethnic cleansing in Albania and Kosovo, and represented a grave threat to American national security. After picking up a wire transfer of Drazen's assets to an offshore account, floating NSA operative Robert Ellis brought the matter to the attention of Senator David Palmer, with whom he had worked when Palmer was a member of the House National Security Subcommittee. With Palmer's backing, Ellis arranged for the reactivation of Jack Bauer and his former Delta Force unit to lead the mission, infiltrating Drazen's compound in Đakovica and painting the facility for an air strike by an F-18 Hornet. Bauer's fellow team members were killed during exfiltration by Drazen's surviving men, and it was later revealed that Drazen's wife and daughter were killed in the attack.
  • Testimony from Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Newton reveals that Newton's superior, General Donovan Henderson, learned from intelligence that Drazen had survived and covertly ordered a second mission to capture him alive. Bauer claims that somebody at the Department of Defense sabotaged his mission by leaking the team's radio frequency and mission plans to the enemy, but Newton staunchly denies that Henderson was involved. Regardless, Jack insists that somebody in the higher reaches of the American government was responsible for the failure of the mission, and by extension for everyone who lost their life on Super Tuesday.
The specifics of the mission in Kosovo were later contradicted by Season 3, which states that Stephen Saunders was one of the operatives on Operation Nightfall, and by the comic series 24: Nightfall. In addition, Nightfall implies that Victor Drazen was captured, wounded but alive, from the wreckage of the compound immediately after it was destroyed. See also Operation Nightfall (Findings at CTU).

Eye for an Eye: Plan A[]

  • Translated files from Andre Drazen's PDA outline the Drazens' mission, dubbed "Eye for an Eye", to exact revenge on Jack Bauer and David Palmer. The first plan involved contracting former Navy SEAL and mercenary Ira Gaines to kidnap Jack's wife and daughter, so that he could help smuggle Jonathan Matijevich into the Santa Clarita Power Plant and shoot the senator.
  • Nina Myers was "on loan" to the Drazens for the mission; as she herself stated, she actually worked for another organization the whole time. Several actions she took over the course of the day - working to decrypt the key card and informing Teri Bauer that the real Alan York was dead - could be viewed as impeding the Drazens' efforts, but Jack explains that it is very likely that Nina was kept out of the specific details of the mission and informed only on a need-to-know basis; only after Plan A fell apart with Gaines' death did the Drazens begin to rely on her in a greater capacity. Conversely, Gaines had no idea that Nina was a mole for the Drazens when he ordered Jack to kill her. Jack speculates that Nina was trained by a foreign intelligence service hostile to the United States that shared common interests with the Drazens.
  • Jamey Farrell's activities as a mole for Gaines are explored in depth. Jamey previously worked at Microsoft Corporation in Seattle, where she met her husband Derek and had a son with him, but was forced to move home to live with her mother after Derek divorced her and got her fired from her position. She began a physical relationship with Ira Gaines, and eventually agreed to access CTU's surveillance systems in exchange for three hundred thousand dollars. In testimony to Tony Almeida, Jamey's mother claims that the money was intended to help pay for Jamey's father, who had recently begun suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Neither Jack nor Richard Walsh, who had mentored Jamey from an early age, ever suspected she would turn traitor.
    • It is suggested that Jamey burned the key card containing data on Palmer's schedule. Although Nina Myers was also a mole, she was in fact out of the office with Jack at the time.
  • A week before the events of Day 1, Richard Walsh sent his assistant to collect the key card of every CTU employee, supposedly as a security system upgrade. In actuality, he ordered Scott Baylor to analyze the cards, looking for discrepancies in entry and exit patterns; this led to Baylor discovering details of Senator Palmer's schedule on one of the cards.
  • In "7:00am-8:00am", Tony claims that the ITS room where he and Nina interrogate Jamey is dark with "no active cameras," yet Jack later recovers footage from the room of Nina killing Jamey. This is explained during testimony: the cameras continued to function as normal and record to CTU's video archive, but they were blocked from live viewing to anyone accessing the surveillance network.
  • "Ted Cofell" was actually an alias for Borvo Sobrinna, a Serbian national who was given the identity of a deceased infant Theodore Cofell and trained to infiltrate the American financial community. He was responsible for funding all of Gaines' operation, including the wire transfer of an additional $1 million to Mandy and Bridgit after Bridgit hid Martin Belkin's key card. After Bridgit was killed, Cofell transferred the money back.
  • Kevin Carroll was a former agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami, Florida. He was responsible for dropping pending drug charges against Dan Mounts, Greg Penticoff, and Eli Stram, suggesting that much of Gaines' network was supplemented by associates of Carroll's.
    • Kevin's insistence on meeting with Cofell is explained as a last-ditch effort by Gaines to get the money he was promised for the mission after Andre Drazen fired him.

Eye for an Eye: Plan B[]

  • Nina Myers recognized Jovan Myovic at Grace Memorial Hospital, and used the threat as an excuse to move Teri and Kim to the safehouse where he could have them killed. It is revealed that the motion sensors and security system at the safehouse were disabled from a laptop off-site, soon after Nina left to return to CTU.
    • Nina also alerted the Drazens to the route of the LAPD squad car escorting Kim Bauer to CTU after she was arrested.
  • Ted Paulson was not killed immediately during the attack on the safe house, but died several hours later at 9:26pm in the hospital.
  • With Ryan Chappelle's support, Alberta Green arranged for Teddy Hanlin to provide back-up during the mission at California Plaza, as a way of getting back at him for getting them reassigned from CTU Los Angeles.
  • George Mason's efforts to coordinate the response to the attack on the prison in Saugus were impeded by somebody at General Henderson's office at the Department of Defense.

David Palmer scandal[]

  • Throughout the novel, asides in the form of press articles expand on the public reaction to Palmer's handling of the cover-up regarding Lyle Gibson. It is revealed that the Committee to Elect Hodges, started by Palmer's political rival Governor Mike Hodges, paid George Ferragamo to come forward with what Keith Palmer had told him in therapy.
  • Palmer's confession to the media, known as the "Super Tuesday Address," was a turning point in his campaign for President; it demonstrated that he was a man with faults and shortcomings who was working to correct them, allowing the voting base to better relate to him. Keith Palmer was exonerated of all charges in the murder of Lyle Gibson, as he acted in self-defense, and he became a requested speaker on the college circuit. After the recording of his converstaion with Keith was released to the press, Carl Webb was tried but was exonerated on inconclusive evidence. Webb was forced to resign from politics and retired to Cancun.
  • Palmer's announcement of his divorce from Sherry Palmer was a major news story, as it made Palmer the first bachelor to assume the Presidency in decades. Additionally, Patty Brooks' abrupt resignation from his campaign staff was speculated on, with rumors circulating that either Palmer had propositioned her or vice versa.

Aftermath[]

  • In the aftermath of Day 1, the truth of what happened regarding David Palmer and Jack Bauer was mostly disclosed to the public. The media was aware that Jack Bauer intervened at the Santa Clarita Power Plant breakfast to stop the real assassin from killing Palmer. In addition, Victor Drazen's survival and his activities on Day 1 became public knowledge, and Palmer was criticized to an extent for his unilateral decision to have him assassinated two years before.

Appearances[]

By way of the novel's format, all appearances are mentions only. Characters with testimony or other "spoken lines" are indicated as such.

Background information and notes[]

  • In a form of advertising, this book was mentioned in an email by a "friend of Jack Bauer's" as being published and asking Jack whether or not he knew who was responsible for leaking the information to the press. The friend also makes it clear that the email is taking place during the events of Day 2, knowing that Jack was asked back to CTU. The email was viewable on Jack's Desktop, an old feature of the Official FOX 24 website.
  • The report is dated August 26, 2002. The committee hearings took place in late November the same year as the events described in the book, after David Palmer had gone on to win the general election. This places the events of Day 1 no later than spring 2001.
  • Amusingly, Findings at CTU establishes that Kiefer Sutherland also exists in the 24 universe. A transcript of a showing of Late Night Laughs with Ray Bettelman suggesting possible new wives for President Palmer ends with an announcement to "stick around, because we have one of our very favorite actors, Golden Globe winner Kiefer Sutherland! [CROWD: Loud applause, shouts of excitement.]" The Golden Globe win referred to is Sutherland's 2002 win for Outstanding Lead Actor on 24.

See also[]

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Preceded by:
Day 1 		Timeline:
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