Posted on 08/16/2005 10:28:31 AM PDT by spycatcher
That Lt. Colonel posted this anonymously too:
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002382.html
Anon (www):
OK smart guys - with your "smell tests" and "Thats just flat out wrong" opinions shown above - I hope you don't mind, but let me clear up a few things - I was there and I lived through the ABLE DANGER nightmare.
First - yes - The lawyers involved in this (and similar projects) did interpret the 9-11 terrorists as "US persons" - so while you can second guess them all you want - but that was their "legal" call as wrong as it was and is. Unfortunately, the chain of command at SOCOM went along with them (and this, I expect, will be a topic that will become more clear in the near future).
And lawyers of the era also felt that any intelligence officer viewing open internet information for the purpose of intelligence collection automatically required that any "open source" information obtained be treated as if it was "intelligence information"...does this sound like idiocy to you? It did to me - and we fought it - and I was in meetings at the OSD level, with OSD laywers, that debated this - and I even briefed the DCI George Tenet on this issue relating to an internet project.
And yes, Virgina - we tried to tell the lawyers that since the data identified Atta and the others as linked to Al Qaeda, we should be able to collect on them based on SecState Albright's declaration of Al Qaeda as transnational terrorist threat to the US...well the lawyers did not agree...go figure...so we could not collect on them - and for political reasons - could not pass them to the FBI...I know because I brokered three meetings between the FBI and SOCOM to allow SOCOM to pass the informaton to the FBI. And, sadly, SOCOM cancelled them every time...
Oh - and as to your opinion that ABLE DANGER was a precursor to the IDC - you are flat out wrong - and obviously not keeping up with what is coming out in the press. ABLE DANGER partnered with LIWA/IDC to use the LIWA/IDC capability to obtain the data on Atta and the other 9-11 terrorists. I brokered the relationship...
And - wrong again on the IDC using only "classified" databases - IDC used 2.5 terabytes (a whole hell of a lot of data) - all open source - to identify Atta and the others that have been identified. Classified data bases were only use to "confirm" the links subsequent to the open source data runs.
Oh - and DATA MINING is not overt or clandestine - it just "is" - it is something that is done with either open source or classified information. ABLE DANGER used an array of both open and close databases...
So...good try, gentlemen - good to see there is intellectual riggor here...but before you start doubting the story, perhaps you need to do better research.
8.12.2005 11:27pm
WHAT????
I just don't understand that.
"and I even briefed the DCI George Tenet on this issue relating to an internet project."
Who was it that briefed Tenet?
Thanks for the last post..I needed a good laugh.
Double hmmmm. Mr. Anon seems to know of what he speaks. Thanks...
Who the hell are you to laugh at real men in the military trying to keep your pencil neck from being sawed off while you chant Allahu Akbar trying to make them stop?
"Who the hell are you to laugh at real men in the military trying to keep your pencil neck from being sawed off while you chant Allahu Akbar trying to make them stop?"
That was even funnier.
How about your family in flames jumping to their death out of the World Trade Center? You'd probably laugh at that too, wouldn't you?
"How about your family in flames jumping to their death out of the World Trade Center?"
Interesting question. But the way you framed it was a little strange. "You'd probably laugh at that too, wouldn't you?"
The way you put it made it seem like that it would happen in the future. You never thought to ask what I did when I lost family and friends on that day.
Anyway..I am signing off. See you when I wake up. God Bless.
Initially, yes, he did. The next day, though, Podhoretz backed away from the apology call. It seems he did a little further research and changed his mind. I'll try to find a link to the story.
Shaffer claims to have briefed Tenet on the issue of treating "open source" information as intelligence information.
thanks for clarifying that. it's encouraging that he's changed his position. i was about to write off "the corner" because of that...
"Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the commission's follow-up project called the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, said this week the panel was unaware of intelligence specifically naming Atta. On Wednesday, he retracted the statement and confirmed the commission had been made aware of the intelligence.
During the July 12, 2004, meeting with the military official, the officer said he recalled seeing Atta's name and photo on an analyst's chart made by the secret Able Danger unit, the statement released by Kean and Hamilton said.
The relevant data discussed by the officer showed Atta to be a member of an al Qaeda cell in New York City from February to April 2000, the statement said.
But the commission knew that according to travel and immigration records, Atta first obtained a U.S. visa on May 18, 2000, and first arrived in the United States on June 3, 2000, the statement said.
Kean, a former Republican New Jersey governor, and Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, said records had been sought from the U.S. Special Operations Command and none mentioned Atta or any other September 11 hijackers. They were requested after staff members from the commission were told about Able Danger during a meeting in Afghanistan.
Weldon said Friday that Atta's name was specifically mentioned during the Afghanistan meeting, but Kean and Hamilton denied that Friday in the statement."
I just realized that it was posted to you. :=)
I'm hopeful that the interviews with the Able Danger team clarifies and supports the charges that Congressman Welden has intimated at. However, the information should be looked at in its full context, not simply through the prism of that small piece of the intelligence operation. To do otherwise would be to fall into the same trap the supporters of Richard Clarke did earlier.
indirect responsibility is no reponsibility
Then you should have some respect for the military men putting their own lives on the line and not so quick to laugh like a jackass.
It's on FOX news right now...the official who gave Weldon his information is not backing down. Says the 9/11 commission was told of this info.
Well boys and girls...here we go.
She also said that Fox asked the 911 committee for comment.
They have not responded.
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