Posted on 08/12/2005 6:54:48 AM PDT by CyberAnt
(CNSNews.com) -- Members of the 9/11 commission apparently left some key information out of their "comprehensive" report on the terror attacks - because their own staffers didn't tell them about it.
Press reports said commission staffers are now planning to retrieve their notes from the National Archives to find out if they overlooked important information. (They did, one U.S. senator says.)
The staffers are looking for information about a secret U.S. military unit called Able Danger. That military unit learned -- one year before the 9/11 attacks -- that a terror cell including Mohammed Atta and three other future 9/11 hijackers was operating in the United States.
Information about the terror cell was not handed over to the FBI, although Able Danger repeatedly requested that the FBI be told. Sen. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) says Pentagon lawyers in the Clinton administration refused to tell the FBI, because the four terrorists were in the country legally.
Because the Clinton administration barred U.S. intelligence agencies from sharing information with the FBI, Pentagon lawyers reportedly argued that information on the legal residents could not be shared with the FBI.
Thursday's New York Times reported that 9/11 commission staffers were told that Able Danger had identified a terror cell in the country - a full ten days before the 9/11 commission issued its final report on the terror attacks.
Sen. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) told Fox News on Wednesday that commission staffers were briefed at least once on Able Danger, but he does not believe that panel members were told about it.
"Why weren't they briefed? Was there some deliberate attempt at the staff level of the 9/11 commission to steer the commissioners away from Able Danger because of where it might lead?" Weldon said on Fox News Wednesday.
Weldon also told Fox that some commission staffers did not return phone calls from members of the Able Danger military unit.
Thursday's New York Times reported that Weldon has just sent a letter to commission members, in which he "criticized the panel in scathing terms, saying that its 'refusal to investigate Able Danger after being notified of its existence, and its recent efforts to feign ignorance of the project while blaming others for supposedly withholding information on it, brings shame on the commissioners, and is evocative of the worst tendencies in the federal government that the commission worked to expose.'"
'Hats off to Weldon'
Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox & Friends on Thursday that "Able Danger and what they learned" is a "huge deal."
"We will learn that we should have known about [the Sept. 11 attacks] and that we could have prevented it," he said.
"And hats off to Curt Weldon," Shays said, for directing the media's attention to critical information that other government agencies and the 9/11 commission apparently had no interest in pursuing. (Weldon, in a show-and-tell on the Senate floor in June 2005, explained that Able Danger had identified the four suspected terrorists in 1999.)
Said Shays, "Bottom line is -- we had a defense organization that knew about this [terror] cell... they knew about these guys; they knew about four of the 19 hijackers."
Lee Hamilton, the 9/11 commission's co-chair, told Fox News on Wednesday, "The Sept. 11 commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohammed Atta or of his cell. Had we learned of it, obviously it would've been a major focus of our investigation."
In another development, a group of Sept. 11 widows that demanded a probe of the events leading up to 9/11 issued a statement saying it is disappointed to learn that the commission's final report is "incomplete and illusory."
Copyright © 1998-2005 CNSNews.com - Cybercast News Service
I posted this on another thread - but it bears repeating:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1461683/posts
This should explain a lot of things. I couldn't understand why the dems kept insisting there was no connection between the terrorists and Iraq. Now .. John has exposed that this was a ploy to hide the fact that they HAD THE INFORMATION THERE WAS A CONNECTION AND THEY WERE HIDING IT.
And .. I further believe this goes back to the Senate Select Committee on Intel memos which stated that the democrats of that committee were going to use the intel information against Bush. This is exactly what they did - and they all need to be REMOVED FROM OFFICE - AS TRAITORS!!
Well .. he later changed his story and said that they did get the info .. but "it didn't fit their timeline" - which Podhortz points out is because they had already been led astray with the timeline - and this new info confirmed there was a CONNECTION BETWEEN ATTA AND IRAQ - which the dems wanted to keep hidden so they could continue to pillory the Bush admin with the "no connection" between Atta and Iraq mantra.
Well .. people with a brain will figure it out.
It's not just "scary" .. it's disgusting!
I agree 100%
And .. Gorelick's little patronizing of the Chairman of the committee was for the purpose of appearing to be cooperative while she was hiding things behind his back to protect the Clintons.
Well, that just stinks to high heaven! Sounds like we need to clean out the Senate of all the boneheads who enacted the laws (and reaffirmed them year after year by doing nothing) that allowed such a disconnect to occur. This has happened over years and years of neglect and politics.
I don't know why I've been in quite a foul mood of late, but it gets worse and worse each time I drive by a gas station and see the price of gas going up, up, up! I think about how there are folks out there who could barely afford gas when it was $1.50/gallon, and now it's a dollar more/gallon. Who controls the price of oil? (I know this has nothing to do with the Gorelick Wall, but I'm just fed up!) This Gorelick Wall stuff fuels my foul mood.
"Who controls the price of oil?"
Unfortunately, the 'speculators' in the stock market have a direct influence on market prices.
If they 'think' that there may be an attack somewhere (verifiable or not) then they rush to buy 'hedges' against a 'possible' shortage.
It's these people that just totally drive me nuts because they basically have control over the price of oil, whether it's justified or not.
"This Gorelick Wall stuff fuels my foul mood."
Mine too!
The so called 'timeline' statement was just a way to cover his a$$.
He stated that the report said Atta 'might have been in the U.S. in late 1999 or early 2000", which he claimed made the information 'suspect', when in fact Atta was in the U.S. in JUNE of 2000 which was verified AFTER the fact.
'Early 2000' or 'June 2000' VERIFIES the facts. Not make them SUSPECT!
To be fed up will not do a thing.
For years we skidded into this mess by allowing Democrats to block drilling for oil, natural gas, block building of atomic power plants, forcing us into refining capacity shortages so that we need to import 11% of our refined fuels from Mexico and Canada, created multiple different grades of gasoline and prevented regional trans shipments of gasoline.
Besides we enabled a group that prevented cleaning out forests or do clear cutting which then were called meadows and at the same time served as fire barriers.
To burn up 6 million acres of good wood in '04 and
7 million in '03 is a waste that no other country's voters would tolerate as a concession to a democratic party garnering and vying for the green vote.
Those that now are voting and empowering naysayers, blockers and the latest twist: just be against everything without providing an alternative, yes those voters are the enablers that got us there.
No fast way out, but start by putting people in place (Congress)with the common man's interest uppermost.
I believe Hamilton was played for a fool .. just like the democrats played Roberts (the head of the intel committee). These old codgers still believe these democrats are honorable and refuse to realize the dems are subverting everything the repubs try to do.
Now Hamilton's complicity in this fiasco makes him as accountable as the rest of them.
Well .. I'm hoping the 9/11 family members will be outraged that they have been lied to over and over by the democrats.
Some of the family members will want to know the real truth .. the lefties will not - and I believe those lefties will cling to their belief that it's "all Bush's fault".
When did Weldon make Senator?
I don't think he is - he's in the House - 7th district out of Pennsylvania.
So why is Weldon willing to take Lehman's and Roemer's word for the fact that they didn't know? And why is Weldon so quick to pin the blame on staffers?
Business as usual for the government, IMO.
Carolyn
It was the "staffers" who got the briefing. It was up to the staffers to inform the principles.
Why is he taking their word for that?
Good grief .. how would I know that information. I have no idea why Weldon is willing to believe these people .. I can't read the guy's mind. I guess you'll have to ask Weldon himself .. send an email to his office and ask him.
I have no idea why anyone is willing to believe Weldon.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.