“The 9/11 9/11 Commission” (Not a Misprint)

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

Gorelick's job for the Clintons

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39605

"As we have also documented beyond doubt, it was the 9-11 Commission's Jamie Gorelick who, as deputy attorney general, summoned the FBI to Washington on Aug. 22, 1996, a few days before the Democratic Convention, and warned them off the pursuit of a terrorist explanation."

You can also find the same kind of comment about OKC, Gorelick turned the investigators away from the guilty to something more acceptable. In OKC, it was changing from Middle Eastern terrorists killing Americans which would have required a response to a couple of white patsys. TWA800 was from Middle Eastern Terrorists shooting down an airplane with a missile to a center fuel tank explosion, something which absolutely DID NOT HAPPEN.

Gorelick, Clark, Berger's job was to keep the truth from coming out.

Please realize that if 9/11 would not have happened you'd never have known that Clinton covered up the terrorist acts for polictical reasons- HIS RE-ELECTION.

People would NOT have liked Americans dying because of terrorism. Clinton made sure that you didn't know, it never happened.

Well, here's an interesting article regarding "open source" material.

OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE SERVICES

Suggested Reading:
First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan
The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It

by H. Thomas Hayden

The “transformation in military affairs” has spawned many off shoots like information transformation, cognitive transformation and intelligence transformation. Nothing has been more surprising than the expansion of open source intelligence and information. A global industry in military and counter-terrorism intelligence published in open sources must rival the daily intelligence briefings provided by the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. Much has been made about the chronic under funding of US Human Intelligence (HUMINT) which has contributed to the many intelligence failures. Yet, the rapidly growing commercial intelligence and security industry has become a multi-billion dollar business according to Roman Kupchinsky, in an article he wrote for WORLD, “Information Revolution Feeds Alternative Intelligence Market,” May 2005. Kupchinsky says that the business can be dived into two sectors: “- those that deal with security threats and provide intelligence and security in combat-related operations; and - those that provide companies with vital intelligence needed to expand business and avoid unnecessary pitfalls in an emerging market place.” I would add that there is a much larger market filled by companies who sell publications and provide websites that cater to military, businesses, academics and current affairs writers like me. My favorite open source intelligence publications come from “The Economist,” a weekly magazine that publishes economic and political analysis around the world and the Jane’s Information Group that publishes a variety of magazines and news letters. Each has its own website filled with their numerous open source intelligence reports. Both are produced in the United Kingdom but cover the world. “The Economist” has the Economic Intelligence Unit which is must reading for all who want to know the latest economic intelligence around the world. The Jane’s Information Group publishes the premier Jane’s Defense Weekly, Jane’s Intelligence Digest, and the Jane’s Terrorism & Insurgency Center reports. There are five separate “centres’ for Jane’s intelligence products: Defense Intelligence Centres, Transport Intelligence Centres, Aerospace Intelligence Centres, Security Intelligence Centres, and Business Intelligence Centres. The internet website for www.economist.com and www.janes.com will provide extensive information on both. Not surprisingly there is a number of expanding websites dedicated to strategic analysis and general information. My two favorite web sites with open source intelligence and analysis are Access Intelligence (ai) – not to be confused with a private web site called accessintelligence.com - and Stratfor. Go to google.com and type in “intelligence reports” and see just how many commercial open source “intelligence reports” one may find. Weekly newsletters like “Inside the Pentagon” at www.InsideDefense.com – there are too many to list here - is a great source of open source intelligence and defense and homeland security information. However, a real growth industry can be found in the private security and intelligence services that are even being hired by government agencies for a myriad of tasks. It is reported that some members of the U.S. Congress are worried that the unregulated spread of private intelligence agencies could constitute a threat to privacy rights enjoyed by U.S. citizens. Rubbish as they say in Great Britain. Prominent former special operations forces military personnel or former spy agency members run many privately owned security and intelligence firms that present themselves as an alternative source of information and intelligence and offer other services. The U.S. Department of State has been reported to lists 29 private companies doing business in Iraq. According to the Corporate Watch website in an article published on 7 March 2005, over 50% of the $40 billion given annually to the 15 intelligence agencies is now spent on private contractors. Recent news headlines captured the public interest in these private security companies when the U.S. Marine Corps arrested a number of former Marines in Iraq who worked for a private security firm and threw them out of Iraq with orders not to return. There are too many to mention, but private companies working in Iraq have contracts to provide intelligence analysis, man security positions for critical facilities, serve as translators, and even provide security escorts for VIPs. Unfortunately, many of these private sector personnel have lost their lives. Some Marines and soldiers often resent the exorbitant salaries being paid to the civilian contractors while the troops make far lesser pay. Nevertheless, the private contractors have no “med-evacs” to Europe and the finest military hospital care available in the U.S. and no VA benefits after they leave military service. As far as I’m concerned, they earn the pay. With more and more London-type terrorist attacks on the general public there will be more private companies making their service available to those who want it. While there are over 4 million subscribers to one military and homeland security website, www.uscav.com and “U.S. Cavalry On Point” is the fastest growing website for those interested in the latest thinking on military matters around the world or homeland security and police matters here at home.

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.