Able Danger: Did They ID Atta Before He Got Here

Captain's Quarters ^ | August 22, 2005 | Captain Ed

[AliVeritas]

Whoa...the plot thickens.

[TASMANIANRED]

bump

[neodad]

We all know that Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11! /sarc

[NonValueAdded]

Actually item #2 is not as inconsistent as Captain Ed believes. While Atta and company might have been in Hamburg and not yet physically in the US, they were transacting heavily with US flight schools and therefore their data was in the US. Since Able Danger was a data mining operation it is not surprising that the email queries were discovered locally and did not necessarily involve an overseas investigation.

[digger48]

If Slade Gordon had shown the fire that he did tonight in defending Gorelick and the Commission, he'd still be a Senator.

He sure acted like someone who'd been caught and called on.

[Eagles6]

"That timeline had Atta arriving for the first time in the US in June 3, 2000, on a flight from Prague to Newark.

Yeah, that Prague. The one where the CIA said that atta didn't meet with the iraqi secret service that the Czechs were tailing.

[Enchante]

The NY Times article today says the 3rd witness to go on record (1st is Col. Schaffer and 2nd is Capt. Philpott) says that Atta's name and photograph were obtained from "contacts in the Middle East" (see below). If true, that would suggest that FIRST they obtained Atta's name from some form of HUMINT operation and THEN fed it into their data-mining software to find other possible terror connections. In any case, Capt. Philpott affirms that they had Atta's name in Feb. 2000, so if the FBI had been allowed to do follow-up there is an excellent chance that the 9/11 plotters could have been foiled.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/22/politics/23cnd-intel.html?hp&ex=1124769600&en=ed47ced9232725eb&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=login

"The former contractor, James D. Smith, said that Mr. Atta's name and photograph were obtained through a private researcher in California who was paid to gather the information from contacts in the Middle East. Mr. Smith said that he had retained a copy of the chart for some time and that it had been posted on his office wall at Andrews Air Force Base"

[concerned about politics]

Bump

[technomage]

That timeline had Atta arriving for the first time in the US in June 3, 2000, on a flight from Prague to Newark. However, according to Shaffer, he recalled seeing Atta on a chart as early as spring 2000

Uh, since Spring normally ends aroung June 22-23 each year and they mention a June 3 timeframe, sounds like the same time frame to me!

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

I can smell rotten fish at all levels of the 9-11 commission, the pentagon, state and the Klintoon WH.

CYA only works when one gets away with it, and I think fecal matter is about to roll down hill and settle out in the aforementioned levels.

[TheSpottedOwl]

This is pretty bad.

[Enchante]

Yeah, but Capt. Philpott sounds emphatic that they had Atta's name by Feb. 2000, so that's well before June....

[concerned about politics]

I can smell rotten fish at all levels of the 9-11 commission, the pentagon, state and the Klintoon WH.

Sandy Burger said he went to the archives to prepare for the 9/11 commission. He was LOOKING for 9/11 information. Anyone who thinks he didn't see and remove the Able Danger documents has got to be nuts. They point right at the Clinton administration. Something had to be pretty important for Burger to STEAL it by stuffing it down his pants

[Enchante]

Capt. Ed is right about #2 posing a problem for the supposed visa or "green card" status of Atta, but he's assuming that the lawyers blocked the Able Danger folks BEFORE June 2000..... we still don't know the details, but it's quite possible that the Able Danger team was still researching and did not seek to share the info with the FBI until summer or fall of 2000, in which case immigration records would show that Atta was already in the US legally (though that still should never have been a barrier, for rational people, to having a suspected terrorist pursued). Anyway, it's looking to me like #2 is the most likely option, from what we know so far, and that Able Danger had Atta's name in Feb. 2000 (according to Capt. Philpott), before he came to the US. It's also possible he made multiple visits to the US, came under a different identity, etc. The 9/11 Omission seems laughably naive in assuming we know everything we need to know from the official INS records, when terrorists might be quite capable of traveling on forged documents with a false identity.

[concerned about politics]

Bump to read tomarrow.

[JediForce]

Would the lawyers stop Able Danger from speaking to say....oh...I don't know...the...ah...er..SECRET SERVICE?

Wouldn't they have to know about ANY threats that could POSSIBLY put the PRESIDENTS' life in jeopardy?

Maybe that is where the documents are.

JEDI.

[conservative in nyc]

Sandy Burger said he went to the archives to prepare for the 9/11 commission. He was LOOKING for 9/11 information. Anyone who thinks he didn't see and remove the Able Danger documents has got to be nuts.

There's no evidence that Sandy burgled any Able Danger documents. Even Sandy Berger's size XXXL pants couldn't fit the 20 briefcases full of Able Danger documents Lt. Col. Shaffer claims existed. And I've seen nothing indicating that Able Danger documents would be at the National Archives, where Sandy did his burgling. They'd more likely be at a secure military location, not the Archives.

Here's what the MSM reported Sandy burgled:

The Washington Post, New York Times and AP reported in March and April that the five stolen classified documents were different versions of Richard Clarke's millennium "after action review" from early 2000. Berger also took the handwritten notes he made in the National Archives about the after action review. Berger shred three of the five versions because they were allegedly identical. Berger returned the two remaining stolen copies of the review and his handwritten notes after he was called out for stealing the documents by Archives staff.

[fire_eye]

From your lips to God's ears.

If there was intelligence information on Atta's group and their intentions prior to 9/11, the American people have the right to know exactly how it was obtained and why it was not used. Ask anyone who jumped out from the upper stories of the twin towers, for their opinion on that matter.

If the 9/11 commission deliberately suppressed the release of this information, whoever is complicit in so doing, should be taken out and shot for treason - and I'm being charitable in not suggesting that they be hung.

I'm not interested in any simpering excuses from filth like Jamie Gorelick. Her two-bit opinion, offered to defend her (rapidly depreciating) one-bit reputation, isn't worth a pinch of dog-schumer.

[Right_in_Virginia]

BTTT