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
Hmmmmm?? Why don't the staffers just check with Sandy Berger ..??
That would be Burglar......
And, let's not forget Gorelick....
The only reason Gorlick and Ben-venista were on the committee was to damn well guarantee that the final report would be "incomplete and illusory."
Please note, that the DOD and possibly Rummy himself said they had never heard of any of this stuff, so now we know what Berger was stuffing in his pants, also, White had begged the DOJ to tear down the wall and that was not included, so where does this end, what good did this commission do, we have been duped.
Yep. We figured all along.
Tie Jamie Gorelick Clockwork Orange style to a chair and make her watch film of the Fox News Coverage from 9/11.
I'm not so certain many will fall for that B/S.
Build their gallows high
"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."
You didn't 'hear' about it Lee, because it was 'kept' from you by Goerlick and her cronies. All in the interest of protecting the Clintons.
How dumb does he think people are?
Sandy's free to walk the streets of DC. Wonder who paid his paltry $10,000 fine ?
I don't know that I believe Hamilton. The Democrats along with the Republicans have always turned over backwards to protect Bill Clinton and his treasonous appointees. I think they'll do it this time, too.
For instance, Sandy Berger is an outright thief for Clinton and got away with it. However, you don't hear much about that from these so called leaders.
-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.-
Uh-huh. Do they think anyone, anywhere, believes that? "My secretary forgot to tell me it was my wife's birthday!"
So what happened after Able Danger identified these al Qaeda members? Did they quit watching them because the terrorists were legally in the US? They could not pass off the information to the FBI, a law enforcement agency, but could they do the job of the Defense Department and defend the US from enemies?
Lets not forget thsese folks are sticking around to force their recommendations down our throats.
Recommendations it seems based on information they did not know.
Which is worse?
Well .. you're assuming that the DEMOCRATS wanted to continue watching these people. Who knows that information ..?? Shelton was in charge of this group .. perhaps he will reveal what they did or didn't do with the information.
Exactly! And .. I'll add that I personally believe that Gorelick was KEEPING THAT INFORMATION FROM BEING REVEALED .. because that was exactly why she was on the committee.
If we go back and read the "memogate" memos .. Gorelick did exactly what those memos said they were doing.
I think you're exactly correct in your "force feelings".
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