Posted on 08/10/2005 9:13:33 PM PDT by Pikamax
9/11 Commission's Staff Ignored Military's Early Identification of Chief Hijacker By DOUGLAS JEHL and PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 - The Sept. 11 commission was warned by a uniformed military officer 10 days before issuing its final report that the account would be incomplete without reference to what he described as a secret military operation that by the summer of 2000 had identified as a potential threat the member of Al Qaeda who would lead the attacks more than a year later, commission officials said on Wednesday.
The officials said that the information had not been included in the report because aspects of the officer's account had sounded inconsistent with what the commission knew about that Qaeda member, Mohammed Atta, the plot's leader.
But aides to the Republican congressman who has sought to call attention to the military unit that conducted the secret operation said such a conclusion relied too much on specific dates involving Mr. Atta's travels and not nearly enough on the operation's broader determination that he was a threat.
The briefing by the military officer is the second known instance in which people on the commission's staff were told by members of the military team about the secret program, called Able Danger.
The meeting, on July 12, 2004, has not been previously disclosed. That it occurred, and that the officer identified Mr. Atta there, were acknowledged by officials of the commission after the congressman, Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, provided information about it.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Boom!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my miscellaneous ping list.
Which was 9/11 commission member Jamie Gorelick's prime function.
Interesting enough, NYTIMES changed the headline from
"9/11 Commission's Staff Ignored Military's Early Identification of Chief Hijacker"
to
"9/11 Commission's Staff Rejected Report on Early Identification of Chief Hijacker"
The editor must have come in late today.
It was on the Times' front page when I posted Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00.
"9/11 Commission's Staff Ignored Military's Early Identification of Chief Hijacker"
to "9/11 Commission's Staff Rejected Report on Early Identification of Chief Hijacker"
The online edition changed it again to:
"9/11 Panel Decided to Omit a Reference to Atta"
It becomes more innocuous each iteration.
It's just another story under the National heading in the online edition, right below the Sports section.
It's the third story under the National section of their homepage now. Before it was third under the Washington section. If you go back to the original article you find "Next Article in Washington (5 of 6) >" near the bottom of the page. That homepage changes all the time.
Excellent post. Thank you.
I have never liked John Ashcroft more than when he was putting the blame back where it belonged -- on the Clinton Administration.
If there were more straight shooters like him we'd be a safer and better place.
"These procedures, which go beyond what is legally required"
This sentence makes me crazy, and its echoes can be heard today with the demands that we treat detainees to Geneva Convention rules "which go beyond what is legally required." Let's just give that extra protection to those who want to destroy our country.
These people are sick.
If you value your posting privileges here, I would suggest you cool it.
I do value my posting, so please tell me what I have done now? I posted a partial article with a link to the original site, so I thought I was doing what was allowed. I'm not trying to ruffle feathers, and I thought I had done what was asked by not posting entire articles without links.
The Sidebar Moderator had simply made a request. Your response was uncalled for. If you don't wish to abide by the rules as everyone else is required, you are invited to leave.
I wuz lookin for you. Hehehe.
If you wuz to talk more, You'd be easier to find. :)
The audicity of these washed up civil servants who grilled and picked apart the FDNY and NYPD because of their communication problems after the towers were hit leaves me speechless.
The 911 Report may have been a best seller but it belongs in the FICTION aisles now.
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