Posted on 08/12/2005 4:40:56 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
Enough has come out about the failure of the 9/11 Commission to include critical information about Mohammed Atta and other 9/11 attackers, to suggest a new Commission to investigate the original Commission. The cure may not be that drastic, but it is that important.
In short, a special Army intelligence operation known as “Able Danger” identified Atta and four of his accomplices, and identified Al-Qaeda cells in Hamburg and Brooklyn and elsewhere, a year before the 9/11 attacks. They offered then to share that information with law enforcement agencies including the FBI.
Those offers were cut off by Clinton Administration attorneys and based that refusal on the “wall of separation” memo written by Jamie Gorelick, then a deputy under Attorney General Janet Reno. By the time 9/11 staffers received multiple briefings on Able Danger’s findings and efforts, Ms. Gorelick had become a member of that Commission.
All details now known, and some reasonable speculation on why Ms. Gorelick wrote that memo, and why the Administration wanted to prevent prosecutors from receiving information from intelligence agencies, is well covered in an article by my colleague, Gregory Borse. His title is, “Gorelick 'MemoGate': It Just Got Worse,” and is here: http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=16201
I deal here with two aspects not addressed by Greg -- the fascinating nature of the research done by Able Danger, and the solution Congress can apply to this festering problem.
“Open Source” means using sources that are out in public. It seems like a contradiction in terms that highly secret information can be derived from documents, articles, speeches, radio and TV broadcasts made in public, in front of God and everybody, as they say hereabouts.
Imagine a jigsaw puzzle with no picture on the box, you don’t know how many pieces there are, the pieces are each hidden in a pile of other pieces that aren’t part of the puzzle, and the pieces are anywhere in the world and written in languages from English to German to Farsi. For a fictional (but accurate) depiction of this process, rent and review an excellent movie, “Three Days of the Condor,” starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway.
Or use this real example. Three decades ago, I attended a speech by Isaac Asimov at Johns Hopkins University. I still remember one particular aspect of Dr. Asimov’s talk. He said, “Japanese or German spies during WW II could have discovered America’s most secret scientific project, using information the federal government required to be published.”
Here is Dr. Asimov’s thinking: 1. Analog Science Fiction & Fact has gone through several changes of name and control, but has always carried articles based on sound science. (Think the accurate science of Arthur Clarke’s “2001" series, rather than the bad science of George Lucas’ “Star Wars.” There is no air in space for Ti fighters to bank against, nor to transmit any sound of exploding Death Stars or planets. But I digress.)
2. As a result, many of America’s “hard” scientists subscribe to Analog. 3. The Post Office required every magazine with a second-class mailing permit to recount, once a year, the circulation of its paid subscriptions. 4. Therefore, Analog published information showong a statistical bulge, a “rat in the snake,” a group of scientists appearing first in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and then in Los Alamos, New Mexico. 5. Since there was no new university or other private employer who hired these scientists, this had to indicate some type of government-sponsored scientific research.
So it was. This “open source” investigation, with some common sense employed, would have led a spy to the location of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb.
Now, we turn to the solution to this 9/11 Commission problem. It is a normal duty of Congress to exercise oversight concerning all federal agencies. The Commission is/was a federal agency. Its failures concerning the Able Danger research is a very focused inquiry. Therefore, an appropriate Committee of Congress should and can convene an inquiry to get to the bottom of this problem.
How fast can Congress act? Well, it ginned up a hearing on steroid use in baseball on 30-days’ notice. It seems to me that the 9/11 failure is slightly more important than that. So start your steroid clocks now. Let’s see if Congress can get Jamie Gorelick on camera and under oath within 30 days. Let the “9/11 9/11" hearings begin.
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
Enjoy.
John / Billybob
Thanks, Congressman. I always enjoy reading your work.
Shouldn't that be the 9/11 Commission Commission?
The MSM failed once again to do their job and the only reason anyone ever gets any semblance of truth is due to the efforts of talk radio, the internet and a very few decent conservative newspapers.
Call in the Texas Rangers
BillyBob BUMP
of course not, that was Rush's point today - both parties serve to protect the political class from blame.
the only way something would happen on this, is if somebody outside the DC "club" who has some national prominence, called them out on it. My pick for that job - Rudy Giuliani.
Is it too much to ask for my money back and Gorelick in jail?
Call in the Texas Rangers
I have my doubts that we will ever get a good clean look at what happened. When questions were raised about Gorelick before, there were republicans ready to defend her.
BUMP!
He's probably undercover, posing as a prisoner. :)
Sounds good to me.
Prediction: the abilities, morals, and sexual preferences of the Able Danger group and/or the Army briefers will be attacked. Who briefed the 9/11 Commission on Able Danger? Gorelick was obviously there to coverup and Sandy Berger got rid of some of the evidence. They'll go after someone on this and it won't be anyone with a relationship to the Clintons.
Wish we could just "cap" Atta types like Jack Bauer would.
Or the 9/11 Commission of the 9/11 Commission
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