DoD destroyed 'Able Danger' documents [" ...in compliance with intelligence oversight directives."

(UPI) ^ | 9-2-2005 | By SHAUN WATERMAN

[johnny7]

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- The Pentagon said Thursday that three more people who worked on a top secret data mining project now corroborate claims that it identified the Sept. 11 ringleader as linked to al-Qaida more than a year before the attack, but that documents the project generated were destroyed.

"We have identified three other individuals ... who have a recollection of a chart with a photo of Mohammed Atta or a reference to Mohammed Atta... pre Sept. 11," said Pat Downs a senior policy analyst in the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Steven Cambone.

[Loyal Buckeye]

Can't the chart be recreatd by those involved in its preparation?

[An.American.Expatriate]

Asumming the original database was destroyed - no it can't.

From my understanding of how this worked - the internet was used extensivley to help link the various people together - when you consider the volume of information that has been printed regarding ATTA since 2001 (and the fact that a lot of the info availble PRIOR to 2001 may no longer be on the web), the likelyhood that the exact chart could be recreated is rather small.

[skinkinthegrass]

Can't the chart be recreatd by those involved in its preparation?

Well, Yeah. If they're not found dead in Ft. Marcy Park, First.

[mewzilla]

We need a special prosecutor.

[An.American.Expatriate]

Ping for more information regarding the destruction of AD Documents....

[ovrtaxt]

This is the chart which Weldon had behind him during a videotaped speech. I would LOVE to see a clip of that. I understand it's not very recognizable, but visual evidence is a powerful thing.

Not only that, Shaffer mentioned like 20 boxes of docs. I think they know where those are. Only a representative part of those boxes was submitted to the 911 Commission, and I doubt they gave them the originals.

[LucyJo]

Johnny7, do you know if the chart mentioned here is the original that Weldon said he gave to Steve Hadley, or if it is the reconstructed copy made with help from members of the Able Danger team?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475109/posts

To: SunnyD1182
Here is a link to the web site. http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/2002archive.cfm

The title of the speech is "Breaking the Stovepipes: Improving Intelligence Sharing for Homeland Security" and was given May 23, 2002. The chart is displayed about 33 minutes into the speech.

It sure prompts a lot of questions.



44 posted on 08/29/2005 5:49:27 AM PDT by rwa265 (I was blind, now I see)
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[Roccus]

Well, like a lot of us cynics predicted, a$$es and tracks were covered. Nothing to see here...move along.
With the MSM out of DC due to Congressional and Presidential vacations and with Katrina now taking the headlines for the foreseeable future this story is dead. The sheeple will never know,..... but the mess in NO is Bush's fault. (/s)

[Dat Mon]

Well, as the article says, the definition of US person is somewhat arbitrarily applied....its nebulous except for the obvious case of a citizen or a permanent legal resident...which is spelled out explicitly in the DOD 1982 policy you posted.

Applying this definition to include Atta and the other terrorists is in my mind, a tortured legal definition at best, and doesn't follow from the DOD language.

Destroying intelligence reports or background data is one thing...destroying the entire contents of the AD program, including the source code is still not justified due to the nature of the data mining activity.

It appears that Gorelick set up the perfect Catch 22...a situation in which this operation could neither share info it obtained with the FBI, nor retain it itself. Its another area of the Clinton intelligence failures, an area which was covered up by the 9-11 commissions report for apparent political reasons.

So why was this operation set up in the first place, what was its charter? What other info was identified? When was the info destroyed and under whose orders? What info was given to the commission?

Its going to take Philpot and others publicly testifying under oath to provide those answers.