Just a week after its publication, the 9/11 commission's report is selling out of bookstores, its website has been flooded with traffic, and, more pointedly, the panel has captured the attention of official Washington in a way few such commissions ever do.

It's still unclear how many of the bipartisan body's recommendations will be enacted, or when. But pressure to deal with its findings has built with extraordinary speed since last Thursday's report.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry dubbed the report a "blueprint for action" and urged extending the commission's mandate another 18 months. President Bush had already called for steps "within days" on some of the its recommendations. Congress is launching new hearings, starting Friday, to jump-start legislation in the fall.

And the commission itself is moving forward to promote its case for sweeping reforms of everything from the intelligence oversights to major facets of US foreign policy.

"This is a moment of perfect storm in terms of intelligence reform....If something like this ever could be done, it's now," says Robert Boorstin, senior vice president for national security at the Center for American Progress.

Some of the key reforms appear, on the surface, to be another rearranging of bureaucratic boxes, such as the one that created the Department of Homeland Security not long after Sept. 11 or the Defense Department after Pearl Harbor.

But this effort potentially runs deeper: The report's recommendations range from a top-to-bottom overhaul of the intelligence function to engaging the struggle of ideas in the Muslim world. The recommendations are numerous, but key ones include:

• A new national intelligence director with Cabinet status and budget control of 15 agencies in the intelligence community.

• A civilian-led unified joint command for counterterrorism, which combines intelligence and operational planning, and centralized congressional oversight.

• Promoting US moral leadership and a Muslim world more friendly to American ideals, with special attention on three nations particularly vulnerable to becoming terrorist havens: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan - and more recently Iraq.

• Developing strategies for neglected areas of homeland security, from borders to biometric screening of travelers.

While blue-ribbon panels typically issue reports and then fade away, 9/11 panel, formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, will be crisscrossing the US to build support for its conclusions.

"It's a voluntary thing," says commission vice chair Lee Hamilton. "We feel deeply about our recommendations."

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