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Navy Officer Affirms Assertions About Pre-9/11 Data on Atta
NY Times ^ | August 22, 2005 | PHILIP SHENON

Posted on 08/22/2005 4:13:55 PM PDT by neverdem

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 - An active-duty Navy captain has become the second military officer to come forward publicly to say that a secret defense intelligence program tagged the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a possible terrorist more than a year before the attacks.

The officer, Scott J. Phillpott, said in a statement today that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta, by name by early 2000. "My story is consistent," said Captain Phillpott, who managed the program for the Pentagon's Special Operations Command. "Atta was identified by Able Danger by January-February of 2000."

His comments came on the same day that the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, told reporters that the Defense Department had been unable to validate the assertions made by an Army intelligence veteran, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, and now backed up by Captain Phillpott, about the early identification of Mr. Atta.

Colonel Shaffer went public with his assertions last week, saying that analysts in the intelligence project had been overruled by military lawyers when they tried to share the program's findings with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2000 in hope of tracking down terror suspects tied to Al Qaeda.

Mr. Di Rita said in an interview that while the department continued to investigate the assertions, there was no evidence so far that the intelligence unit had come up with such specific information about Mr. Atta and any of the other hijackers.

He said that while Colonel Shaffer and Captain Phillpott were respected military officers whose accounts were taken seriously, "thus far we've not been able to uncover what these people said they saw - memory is a complicated thing."

The statement from Captain...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 911; 911commission; abledanger; anthonyshaffer; atta; coverup; defensedepartment; mohammedatta; phillpott; scottjphillpott; scottphillpott; terrorism; whitewash
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To: kayak

Thanks, Kay!


201 posted on 08/23/2005 12:05:21 AM PDT by Two Thirds Vote Aye (9/11/2001 - The greatest clxxxon legacy to date.)
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To: Spaulding; neverdem
Fascinating.

Here is a sample of their data mining software results.


202 posted on 08/23/2005 1:56:46 AM PDT by andyandval
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To: oceanview; WilliamofCarmichael
where did they get it all from?

Check out this website, in which you will find the following...

The charts generated by these analytical techniques not only help establish relationships and focus the investigation, but they also have a hidden benefit – all the source information is documented on cards behind each link and entity on the chart, or through a direct link to the investigative database. This ensures that when the legal process begins all documentary evidence is organized and substantiates the charts.

http://www.i2inc.com/

203 posted on 08/23/2005 2:19:08 AM PDT by andyandval
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To: El Gato; sono

Thanks for the feedback. I'll have to check it out.


204 posted on 08/23/2005 3:52:51 AM PDT by Coop (www.heroesandtraitors.org)
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To: jimbo123

Slimes just desperate for some new subscribers.


205 posted on 08/23/2005 4:46:19 AM PDT by OldFriend (MERCY TO THE GUILTY IS CRUELTY TO THE INNOCENT ~ Adam Smith)
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To: jwalsh07
Two career officers telling the same story and no paper trail at all. It spells COVERUP!

I'd say.

206 posted on 08/23/2005 5:13:11 AM PDT by nicmarlo
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To: andyandval

Thanks for the G2 (info) on this neat datamine textchart website. This helps me understand the Able Danger in context.


207 posted on 08/23/2005 5:40:29 AM PDT by Colonial Warrior ("I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once")
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To: sarasmom
"The civies are stupid.Not ignorant, actually stupid. USN Intel is as just good as its carrier pilots."

They aren't stupid, they are biased, believe they need to protect their territory, and want to be sure that the armed forces don't take funds away from them. Stupid only in ignoring the value of other sources.

The Navy does have the most professional intelligence operations, possibly because they are by default more strategic than tactical.

This from a former USAR collection guy.

208 posted on 08/23/2005 6:18:01 AM PDT by norton (tagline and state flags pending)
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To: thoughtomator
The big question is, why is the New York Times printing stories that may prove immensely damaging to their politics? It's totally out of character

Because they know Bush will get blamed for it. Most people probably don't remember who was running the show then. If this story gets legs, watch for this: accounts in the media will ascribe blame to the "government" or the "administration"; generic terms that will fall back on the current president. I doubt will hear the words "Clinton", "Freeh" etc

209 posted on 08/23/2005 6:21:58 AM PDT by IFly4Him
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To: Shermy

What are YOU selling? It must be good to justify your essential claim that the military officers are lying.

I believe them and so do many who don't want to.


210 posted on 08/23/2005 6:32:42 AM PDT by justshutupandtakeit (Public Enemy #1, the RATmedia.)
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To: andyandval
Thanks for the link.

After a quick look I'm guessing they've applied a kind of web crawler to ferret out data relations from a department's multitude of document files. This is certainly a time-saver and a valuable tool for that application. Similar tools are available for an organization's millions of lines of legacy computer code analysis.

I have to defer to the experts but I've heard Lt. Col. Shaffer talk about one aspect of Able Danger being matching patterns of known bad guys to multiple tera-bytes of data. One point is IMO, you are not going to generate useful charts on a computer screen with that many combinations of "data points." Thus, the need for a huge, wall-sized working document that makes it easy to pick off the mined data, IMO. And that chart is not likely to be saved unless it was copied to a manageable size.

I know that you are not suggesting this tool would have worked for Able Danger. It is useful for understanding, however. Thanks.

211 posted on 08/23/2005 7:03:07 AM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (Hillary is the she in shenanigans.)
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To: Spanaway Lori
Whats even more ironic is she said this in public knowing what she knew of Able Danger and Atta.
212 posted on 08/23/2005 7:04:24 AM PDT by Prophet in the wilderness (PSALM 53 : 1 The FOOL hath said in his heart , There is no GOD .)
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To: gpapa
Totally in character for the NY Slimes. When not bashing Bush, return to bashing the FBI, CIA or military, and Clinton gets a pass.

This is a good article on that bias

213 posted on 08/23/2005 8:10:12 AM PDT by spycatcher
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So... Libs are responsible for Iraq too!
Gorelick->9/11->wot->iraq
Cia director, Clintnoid-false wmd evidence->Kerry->votes for Iraq


214 posted on 08/23/2005 8:14:48 AM PDT by omega4179 (SEAL THE BORDERS. Yes You, W.)
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To: frannie

"I recall when Clinton became President and had appointed Reno Atty.Gen, the first thing they did was to fire all appointed lawyers in the Justice Dept. Reagen nor either Bush did that, which in my opinion, was a real mistake."

Not a mistake. Preparation for their illegal activities.


215 posted on 08/23/2005 8:31:18 AM PDT by strategofr (What did happen to those 293 boxes of secret FBI files (esp on Senators) Hillary stole?)
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To: IFly4Him

the sheeple are stupid. but not stupid enough to not know the difference between the years 1999 and 2000, from 2001.


216 posted on 08/23/2005 8:50:26 AM PDT by oceanview
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To: andyandval

OMG - what hasw the internet and intel wrought.


217 posted on 08/23/2005 9:20:25 AM PDT by spanalot
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To: popdonnelly

We watched Part 1 on Tivo last night. The segment mentioning MacDill must have been included very, very recently, as the clip showed the new gate entrance, which has only been completed in the last month or two. Interesting!


218 posted on 08/23/2005 9:38:46 AM PDT by GatorGirl (God Bless Pope Benedict XVI)
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To: Coop

What's odd about this report?


http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:vZ8-lWhJWEQJ:www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/0205/fullreport.pdf+Atta+doc&hl=en


219 posted on 08/23/2005 10:20:59 AM PDT by AliVeritas (Ignorance is a condition. Stupidity is a strategy.)
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To: JaneAustin

You raise very valid questions as had been mentioned also by others earlier on in recent FR article posts, as to just who had what at what times. Perhaps if this continues to have legs, we shall gain answers to your questions. To attempt to answer one of your questions. It appears Schaffer had provided some of "his set of documents" to the commission staffers. Some two briefcases worth. His statement regarding now not being able to located the whole set of documents, he had placed in a secure safe, is a bit disturbing to say the least.
Once signed into the storage area, one would think they would just set at BIN#/Isle#/Row$, and not be disturbed.
Surely the secure warehouse contains tons of stuff. So either he is setting up a gracefull exit scheme for himself, or someone removed his set from where they where designated to reside. Obviously we do not know if all his set of documents where formally at the warehouse site and he had retrieved and assembled some of the stuff to present to the Commission Staffers or not. Or they where at the time he and the DIA folks where interviewed by the staffers, his set of docs where somewhere else prior to showing them to the staffers. Perhaps someday we shall get a better over all picture as to what went down. But I doubt it will satisfy those who demand details that may never surface.


220 posted on 08/23/2005 10:27:10 AM PDT by Marine_Uncle (Honor must be earned)
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