G
gilliam
Guest
The gist is here…
Here’s the fun part. The AP apparently confirmed at least part of this stunning information.
Defense Department documents shown to an Associated Press reporter Tuesday said the Able Danger team was set up in 1999 to identify potential al-Qaida operatives for U.S. Special Operations Command. At some point, information provided to the team by the Army’s Information Dominance Center pointed to a possible al-Qaida cell in Brooklyn, the documents said.
However, because of concerns about pursuing information on “U.S. persons” — a legal term that includes U.S. citizens as well as foreigners admitted to the country for permanent residence — Special Operations Command did not provide the Army information to the FBI. It is unclear whether the Army provided the information to anyone else.
The command instead turned its focus to overseas threats.
The documents provided no information on whether the team identified anyone connected to the Sept. 11 attack.
If the team did identify Atta and the others, it’s unclear why the information wasn’t forwarded. The prohibition against sharing intelligence on “U.S. persons” should not have applied since they were in the country on visas — they did not have permanent resident status.
If this checks out, it’s going to have a lot of repercussions. Clear-thinking folk will have to seriously reexamine 9/11 commission’s work and conclusions. Missing a key fact like this is inexcusible. Most fascinatingly, it appears Commission staffers were told of Able Danger and what it found, but never passed this information on to the commissioners themselves. Why???
The dispute, as described by the New York Times is here.
Somebody’s lyin.
If this checks out, a lot of folks left, right and center are going to have to ask hard questions about what the heck Jamie Gorelick was doing on that Commission instead of answering questions to it. The whole, “well, both administrations were to blame, let’s move on” conventional wisdom regarding 9/11 could be shot to hell, if it turns out the U.S. military intelligence had these guys identified and located within NYC and an effort to capture them was vetoed. Over a legal argument that seems flat-out wrong. Atta wasn’t a U.S. citizen; none of these guys were.
The Sandy Berger stuffing his socks has always looked like a deliberate coverup, but now that slap on the wrist sentence he recieved looks truly outrageous. And the defense of him from President Clinton — something along the lines of, “oh, that’s just absent-minded Sandy, we always laughed about him walking off with papers” becomes supremely implausible. No, if Weldon’s account is accurate, this entire thing smells of a stunningly brazen coverup.
By the way, the blogs are buzzing about Slate’s dismissal of the story, stating, “Weldon has a reputation for relying on iffy sources” and calls him “a congressman known to make wildly dubious claims.” They say that right now it’s the word of the 9/11 Commission vs. Weldon and one unnamed former military intelligence official.
I don’t know. Weldon seems to indicate he’s got multiple sources on this, according to the Times:
Weldon said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that he had spoken with three team members, all still working in the government, including two in the military, and that they were consistent in asserting that Mr. Atta’s affiliation with a Qaeda terrorism cell in the United States was known in the Defense Department by mid-2000 and was not acted on.This is in addition to the former intelligence official. Four government guys, and a document shown to the AP? I don’t know if everything is exactly as Weldon says it, but there’s clearly something here.
UPDATE: A thought provoking post here.
Hat tip
Here’s the fun part. The AP apparently confirmed at least part of this stunning information.
Defense Department documents shown to an Associated Press reporter Tuesday said the Able Danger team was set up in 1999 to identify potential al-Qaida operatives for U.S. Special Operations Command. At some point, information provided to the team by the Army’s Information Dominance Center pointed to a possible al-Qaida cell in Brooklyn, the documents said.
However, because of concerns about pursuing information on “U.S. persons” — a legal term that includes U.S. citizens as well as foreigners admitted to the country for permanent residence — Special Operations Command did not provide the Army information to the FBI. It is unclear whether the Army provided the information to anyone else.
The command instead turned its focus to overseas threats.
The documents provided no information on whether the team identified anyone connected to the Sept. 11 attack.
If the team did identify Atta and the others, it’s unclear why the information wasn’t forwarded. The prohibition against sharing intelligence on “U.S. persons” should not have applied since they were in the country on visas — they did not have permanent resident status.
If this checks out, it’s going to have a lot of repercussions. Clear-thinking folk will have to seriously reexamine 9/11 commission’s work and conclusions. Missing a key fact like this is inexcusible. Most fascinatingly, it appears Commission staffers were told of Able Danger and what it found, but never passed this information on to the commissioners themselves. Why???
The dispute, as described by the New York Times is here.
Somebody’s lyin.
If this checks out, a lot of folks left, right and center are going to have to ask hard questions about what the heck Jamie Gorelick was doing on that Commission instead of answering questions to it. The whole, “well, both administrations were to blame, let’s move on” conventional wisdom regarding 9/11 could be shot to hell, if it turns out the U.S. military intelligence had these guys identified and located within NYC and an effort to capture them was vetoed. Over a legal argument that seems flat-out wrong. Atta wasn’t a U.S. citizen; none of these guys were.
The Sandy Berger stuffing his socks has always looked like a deliberate coverup, but now that slap on the wrist sentence he recieved looks truly outrageous. And the defense of him from President Clinton — something along the lines of, “oh, that’s just absent-minded Sandy, we always laughed about him walking off with papers” becomes supremely implausible. No, if Weldon’s account is accurate, this entire thing smells of a stunningly brazen coverup.
By the way, the blogs are buzzing about Slate’s dismissal of the story, stating, “Weldon has a reputation for relying on iffy sources” and calls him “a congressman known to make wildly dubious claims.” They say that right now it’s the word of the 9/11 Commission vs. Weldon and one unnamed former military intelligence official.
I don’t know. Weldon seems to indicate he’s got multiple sources on this, according to the Times:
Weldon said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that he had spoken with three team members, all still working in the government, including two in the military, and that they were consistent in asserting that Mr. Atta’s affiliation with a Qaeda terrorism cell in the United States was known in the Defense Department by mid-2000 and was not acted on.This is in addition to the former intelligence official. Four government guys, and a document shown to the AP? I don’t know if everything is exactly as Weldon says it, but there’s clearly something here.
UPDATE: A thought provoking post here.
Hat tip
