Able Danger's Hidden Hand

[Warham]

Able Danger's hidden hand
By Jack Kelly
August 15, 2005

The report of the September 11 Commission, once a best seller and hailed by the news media as the definitive word on the subject, must now be moved to the fiction shelves.

The commission concluded, you'll recall, that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon couldn't have been prevented, and that if there was negligence, it was as much the fault of the Bush administration (for moving slowly on the recommendations of Clinton counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke) than of the Clinton administration.

Able Danger has changed all of that.

Able Danger was a military intelligence unit set up by Special Operations Command in 1999. A year before the September 11 attacks, Able Danger identified hijack leader Mohamed Atta and the other members of his cell. But Clinton administration officials stopped them -- three times -- from sharing this information with the FBI.

The problem was the order Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick made forbidding intelligence operatives from sharing information with criminal investigators.

"They were stopped because the lawyers at that time in 2000 told them Mohamed Atta had a green card (he didn't) and they could not go after someone with a green card," said Rep. Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania Republican, who brought the existence of Able Danger to light.

The military spooks knew only that Atta and his confederates had links to al Qaeda. They hadn't unearthed their mission. But if the FBI had kept tabs on them (a big if, given the nature of the FBI at the time), September 11 almost certainly could have been prevented.

What may be a bigger scandal is that the staff of the September 11 Commission knew of Able Danger and what it had found, but made no mention of it in its report. This is as if the commission that investigated the attack on Pearl Harbor had written its final report without mentioning the Japanese.

Mr. Weldon unveiled Able Danger in a speech on the House floor June 27, but his remarks didn't attract attention until the New York Times reported on them Tuesday.

When the story broke, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, Indiana Democrat, co-chairman of the September 11 Commission, at first denied the commission had ever been informed of what Able Danger had found, and took a swipe at Mr. Weldon's credibility:

"The September 11 Commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge prior to 9/11 of the surveillance of Mohamed Atta or his cell," Mr. Hamilton said. "Had we learned of it, obviously it would have been a major focus of our investigation."

Mr. Hamilton changed his tune after the New York Times reported Thursday, and the Associated Press confirmed, that commission staff had been briefed on Able Danger in October of 2003 and again in July of 2004.

It was in October of 2003 that Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger stole classified documents from the National Archives and destroyed some. Mr. Berger allegedly was studying documents in the archives to help prepare Clinton officials to testify before the September 11 Commission. Was he removing references to Able Danger? Someone should ask him before he is sentenced next month.

After having first denied that staff had been briefed on Able Danger, commission spokesman Al Felzenberg said no reference was made to it in the final report because "it was not consistent with what the commission knew about Atta's whereabouts before the attacks," the AP reported.

The only dispute over Atta's whereabouts is whether he was in Prague on April 9, 2001, to meet with Samir al Ani, an Iraqi intelligence officer.

Czech intelligence insists he was. Able Danger, apparently, had information supporting the Czechs.

The CIA, and the September 11 Commission, say Atta wasn't in Prague April 9, because his cell phone was used in Florida that day. But there is no evidence of who used the phone. Atta could have lent it to a confederate. (It wouldn't have worked in Europe anyway.)

But acknowledging that possibility would leave open the likelihood that Saddam's regime was involved in, or at least had foreknowledge of, the September 11 attacks. And that would have been as uncomfortable for Democrats as the revelation that September 11 could have been prevented if it hadn't been for the Clinton administration's wall of separation.

The September 11 Commission wrote history as it wanted it to be, not as it was. The real history of what happened that terrible September day has yet to be written.

Jack Kelly, a syndicated columnist, is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette.

http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20050814-095413-9369r_page2.htm

[FORD]

Wow, a Scaife employee writing for the Moonie Times....

And Brian questions my sources?

[Warham]

Just when you thought the Warren Commission couldn't have been topped for ineptness.

[Nickdfresh]

This ABLE DANGER stuff is increasingly sounding like bullshit to me, now they're corroborating the "ties" between Atta and the IRAQIs, pure bullshit!

No documentary evidence, just more conjecture and rumors...

How come nothing was ever mentioned at the time the 9/11 Commission Report came out? Funny how this LTC had nothing to say until his clearance was revoked (for lying about phone charges I think).

[Warham]

Sandy Berger was probably stuffing those Able Danger memo's down his drawers to save Slick Willy the embarrassment. ;)

[Guitar Shark]

So, in a nutshell . . . it's Clinton's fault, right?

[Warham]

Nope. It's the fault of both administrations.

I see that I'm one of the few people here who will hammer the previous administration for their many blunders on this.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Warham
Sandy Berger was probably stuffing those Able Danger memo's down his drawers to save Slick Willy the embarrassment. ;)

Don't forget JANET RENO and Willy FREEH.:)

[Warham]

Janet Reno...

And you guys thought Ashcroft was bad.

[Guitar Shark]

Originally posted by Warham
Nope. It's the fault of both administrations.

I see that I'm one of the few people here who will hammer the previous administration for their many blunders on this.

Yes, you are always a pillar of unbiased opinions, War. ;)

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Warham
Janet Reno...

And you guys thought Ashcroft was bad.

Well, to her credit she never lost an election to a dead guy.

[Guitar Shark]

Originally posted by Warham
Janet Reno...

And you guys thought Ashcroft was bad.

Here's a good one... who would you rather have sex with... Reno or Asscrotch? Assume that you are a heterosexual male.

It's a tough question, isn't it.

[Warham]

Originally posted by Guitar Shark
Yes, you are always a pillar of unbiased opinions, War. ;)

Well, I do admit I get carried away sometimes. Who doesn't on this forum!

But come on! This is ridiculous.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Guitar Shark
Here's a good one... who would you rather have sex with... Reno or Asscrotch? Assume that you are a heterosexual male.

It's a tough question, isn't it.

Well, RENO doesn't look like much, but she is female (I'm pretty sure) and damn, that woman can cut a rug:

http://www.glennbeck.com/news/07-23-02/renodiscoparty.gif

[Warham]

MY EYES!!! MY EYES!!!

[jhale667]

IT BURNS!!!! IT BURNS!!!!! :)

[Nickdfresh]

The funny thing is...I'm listening to "Everybody Wants Some" and RENO kind of moves to it. Ugh!!

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
This ABLE DANGER stuff is increasingly sounding like bullshit to me, now they're corroborating the "ties" between Atta and the IRAQIs, pure bullshit!



Yeah, anything to sever the al-Qaeda/Saddam link, huh?

;) ;)

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by Guitar Shark
So, in a nutshell . . . it's Clinton's fault, right?

Not entirely.

Richard Clarke must take a portion of the blame also.

As well as Sandy Berger, Al Gore, etc.


:gulp:

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by BigBadBrian
Yeah, anything to sever the al-Qaeda/Saddam link, huh?

;) ;)

You mean the magic air link? Sure, whatever...

[ODShowtime]

Originally posted by Warham
Sandy Berger was probably stuffing those Able Danger memo's down his drawers to save Slick Willy the embarrassment. ;)

What a happy day for you :rolleyes:


I just hope somebody gives you a BJ someday so you can move on with your life.

[Warham]

OD, Sandy Berger had nothing to do with Ms Lewinsky.

Please stay on topic.

[ODShowtime]

Originally posted by Warham
OD, Sandy Berger had nothing to do with Ms Lewinsky.

Please stay on topic.

serenity now!

[DrMaddVibe]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050916/ap_on_go_co/sept11_hijackers

Weldon: Atta Papers Destroyed on Orders

By DONNA DE LA CRUZ, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago

A Pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman said Thursday.

The employee is prepared to testify next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee and was expected to name the person who ordered him to destroy the large volume of documents, said Rep. Curt Weldon (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa.

Weldon declined to name the employee, citing confidentiality matters. Weldon described the documents as "2.5 terabytes" — as much as one-fourth of all the printed materials in the Library of Congress, he added.

A Senate Judiciary Committee aide said the witnesses for Wednesday's hearing had not been finalized and could not confirm Weldon's comments.

A message left Thursday with a Pentagon spokesman, Army Maj. Paul Swiergosz, was not immediately returned.

Weldon has said that Atta, the mastermind of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and three other hijackers were identified in 1999 by a classified military intelligence unit known as "Able Danger," which determined they could be members of an al-Qaida cell.

On Wednesday, former members of the Sept. 11 commission dismissed the "Able Danger" assertions. One commissioner, ex-Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said, "Bluntly, it just didn't happen and that's the conclusion of all 10 of us."

Weldon responded angrily to Gorton's assertions.

"It's absolutely unbelievable that a commission would say this program just didn't exist," Weldon said Thursday.

Pentagon officials said this month they had found three more people who recall an intelligence chart identifying Atta as a terrorist prior to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Two military officers, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott, have come forward to support Weldon's claims.

[DrMaddVibe]

'Able Danger' Will Get Second Hearing

Saturday, September 24, 2005

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department on Friday reversed its earlier decision to bar key witnesses from testifying about just how much information the U.S. government had on the Sept. 11 hijackers before they led the attacks that killed 3,000 people.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has therefore scheduled a second hearing for next week on the formerly secret Pentagon intelligence unit called "Able Danger" (search).

Former members of Able Danger say the group identified Sept. 11 hijackers, including Mohamed Atta (search), more than a year before the attacks. Although those Able Danger analysts say they told the Sept. 11 commission about their findings, former members of the panel have so far dismissed the claim.

The Senate Judiciary Committee said in a statement Friday that the Pentagon now will allow five witnesses to testify. Among those are Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer (search), Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott (search) and defense contractor John Smith (search).

Shaffer said in written testimony last week that the Pentagon blocked him from offering information on Able Danger and its identification of Atta — the lead hijacker.

Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (search), R-Pa., had suggested that the Pentagon's refusal to allow the testimony "may be an obstruction" to the committee's work. Specter is the judiciary committee chairman.

The second hearing will focus on what happened with pre-attack charts and information allegedly destroyed at the behest of military leaders.

The committee held its first hearing Wednesday, after which senators still had questions.

"I think the Department of Defense owes the American people an explanation about what went on here," Specter said. "The American people are entitled to some answers."

Shaffer's attorney, Mark Zaid, also said that the Pentagon prevented testimony from a defense contractor that he also represents.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Defense Department had a representative at the hearing and that it had provided sufficient information to committee members.

“I think there are aspects of this as a classified program that we have expressed some concerns with respect to the appropriateness of some things in an open hearing,” Whitman told reporters after the first hearing on Wednesday. “We are working very closely to provide all the information that [committee members] need to assess Able Danger.”

Zaid fielded questions from committee members on behalf of Shaffer and contractor Smith. He testified that Able Danger, using data mining techniques, identified four of the terrorists who struck on Sept. 11, 2001.

Zaid said Shaffer would have testified about charts his team created dealing with Al Qaeda (search) and a grainy photo on file of Atta.

“Shaffer remembers it specifically because of the evil death look in Mohamad Atta’s eyes,” Zaid said.

Pentagon officials had acknowledged earlier this month that they had found three people who recall an intelligence chart identifying Atta as a terrorist prior to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Specter asked the official representing the Department of Defense at the hearing, William Dugan (search), the acting assistant to the secretary for intelligence oversight, if the department had any information about an Al Qaeda cell and Atta.

"I don't know," Dugan replied.

Specter asked Dugan to "find out the answers to those questions" relating to what the department knew about the workings of Able Danger.

Able Danger personnel have said they tried to give the FBI information three times, but Defense Department attorneys refused, citing legal concerns about investigations run by the military on U.S. soil, Zaid said.

Former Army Major Eric Klein Smith also testified that he was instructed to destroy data and documents related to Able Danger in May and June of 2000, in accordance with Army regulations that limited the collection and holding of information of U.S. persons.

Klein Smith said the order to destroy data was not hostile or aggressive, it was a matter of policy. Asked if this information could have prevented Sept. 11, the major said he could not speculate, but believed it would have been significant and useful.

Klein Smith said that he did not remember seeing a picture of Atta, but said he believed "implicitly" claims by Shaffer and Phillpott that they had seen Atta's picture.

Zaid told committee members that some of the secret unit's records were also destroyed in March 2001 and spring 2004.

Rep. Curt Weldon (search), R-Pa., was the first lawmaker to come forward with claims that the Sept. 11 commission that investigated pre-attack intelligence failed to accept offers from Able Danger staff about the data it had before the attacks.

Weldon said their refusal to hear from Able Danger's members makes the government record of intelligence incomplete.

FOX News' Catherine Herridge and Trish Turner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Jesus Christ]

Verily much deception hath taken place in this story, and the Sons of Bush are guilty of it.

[FORD]

Amen, Lord!

I wonder if they'll admit that Atta was running drugs for the BCE with his CIA "flight instructors" Rudi Dekkers and Wally Hilliard.

[ELVIS]

Responding to yourself again ??


:rolleyes:

[FORD]

Quit changing the subject. Atta was a BCE drug smuggler, and that fact (along with Babs Olson's "miraculous resurrection" are going to blow this 9-11-01 scam right open. The BCE is going DOWN.

[DrMaddVibe]

Originally posted by FORD
The BCE is going DOWN.

Keep telling yourself that dimwit!

Is Santa too?

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by FORD
Amen, Lord!

I wonder if they'll admit that Atta was running drugs for the BCE with his CIA "flight instructors" Rudi Dekkers and Wally Hilliard.


You crack me up when you respond to your own alias.

:D

It's almost funny....if it wasn't so warped. :rolleyes:

[DrMaddVibe]

Saturday, Sept. 24, 2005 12:58 p.m. EDT

Washington Post Trashes Able Danger Witnesses

The Washington Post is challenging the credibility of five members of the Army's elite Able Danger intelligence unit, saying there's no evidence they ever produced a chart identifying lead hijacker Mohamed Atta as a terrorist threat.

The paper declined, however, to dispute the authenticity of a videotape showing a copy of the Able Danger chart, which was displayed by Rep. Curt Weldon during a May 2002 speech to the Heritage Foundation.

Launching the attack in Saturday editions, the Post insisted that investigators and counterterrorism experts find it "improbable -- if not impossible -- that an obscure Defense Department program that used open-source records could identify Atta by name and photograph in early 2000 when he was living in Germany under a different name and had yet to obtain a U.S. visa."

The paper sought to portray Rep. Weldon as a crackpot, saying:

"Weldon is a controversial figure who is vice chairman of the House homeland security and armed services committees and is known for carrying a replica of a suitcase nuclear bomb. His book, which devoted one paragraph to the claim about Atta, focused primarily on allegations by an Iranian intelligence source whom the CIA has dismissed as a fabricator."

Without offering any examples, the Post said Able Danger witnesses had changed their stories:

"Weldon and others who have made the charges have contradicted themselves or provided shifting explanations for important details at the heart of the case, according to interviews, news reports, transcripts and hearing testimony."

Most damaging to Weldon's claims, the paper said, was the denial it obtained from National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley on Friday - whose spokesman challenged Weldon's assertion that he had given Hadley a copy of the Atta chart two weeks after the 9/11 attacks.

"Mr. Hadley does not recall any chart bearing the name or photo of Mohamed Atta," Frederick L. Jones II told the paper. "NSC staff reviewed the files of Mr. Hadley as well as of all NSC personnel. That search has turned up no chart."

The Post also quoted former 9/11 Commissioner Slade Gorton, who declared: "No evidence turns up to corroborate what people think they saw."

In fact, the video of Weldon's Heritage Foundation speech offers strong - albeit circumstantial - evidence that the Able Danger chart did indeed exist - and that it identified lead hijacker Atta.

After unveiling the chart during his presentation, Weldon explained: "I went to the White House. I don't mean to embarrass this guy cause he's a good friend of mine. But I took a mini version of this chart in Nov. [2001] and I turned it over to him - Steve Hadley, who works directly for [then-National Security Advisor] Condi Rice."

While the online version of the Heritage video is too blurry to make out details of the chart, Weldon's description of Hadley's reaction suggests it contained shocking new information.

"This is unbelievable," Hadley allegedly said. "Where'd you get this?"

After being told about Able Danger, Weldon said Hadley told him: "I've got to show this to the man" - meaning President Bush.

In an interview last month, Able Danger Defense Department liaison Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer confirmed that the chart Weldon gave to Hadley featured a photo of Mohamed Atta.

Discussing the Atta chart with ABC Radio host Sean Hannity, Shaffer explained:

"Within two weeks of the attack, this colleague of mine ... she took that very poster to Congressman Weldon. And I have to say he took it right to [Stephen] Hadley, I believe, over at the NSC. It's my understanding that he gave him that chart and Hadley had a great deal of interest in it."

Though the online video of Weldon's Heritage speech isn't clear enough to discern the Atta photo, video enhancement techniques applied to the original recording may yield more than just circumstantial evidence that such a chart existed.

To view the online video of Rep. Weldon's May 23, 2002 Heritage Foundation address, go to:
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/2002archive.cfm
He displays the Atta chart approximately 34 minutes into his presentation.