Third Source Backs 'Able Danger' Claims About Atta

FOX NEWS ^ | Friday, August 26, 2005 | FOX NEWS

[Enchante]

"I am absolutely positive that he [Atta] was on our chart among other pictures and ties that we were doing mainly based upon [terror] cells in New York City," Smith said.

.... Rep. Curt Weldon (search), R-Pa., arranged the media roundtable with Smith. Weldon drew attention to Able Danger by speaking about it on the House floor months ago and has publicly called for the Sept. 11 commission to explain why the intelligence information wasn't detailed in its final report.

Besides Smith, Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer (search) and Navy Captain Scott Philpott (search) have also gone on the record, saying they were discouraged from looking further into Atta, and their attempts to share their information with the FBI were thwarted because Atta was a legal foreign visitor at the time.

....

[Enchante]

Smith has been mentioned but I believe this is the first time he has been interviewed in detail, and certainly the first time that he has emphatically affirmed that Mohammed Atta was identified among terror cells connected to New York..... the dam is bursting -- how long can the MSM continue to resist this incredibly important story?

[Moral Hazard]

But which Mohammad Atta was identified? Supposedly there were 3 of them.

[tiredoflaundry]

kewl.........

[linkinpunk]

Boy. Great PR team we have.

We wait until Friday night to bring this up?

[Enchante]

Smith goes on the record and insists that ABLE DANGER had Mohammed Atta's name and photograph in chart of terror cells linked to the "blind Sheik" and New York.....

The MSM is running for the hills. Not sure why Weldon had to break this on a Friday afternoon, but it seems like he is giving the 'Rats and the MSM a sort of drip torture, letting it out piece-by-piece as they continue to try to pretend there's nothing there.

[Enchante]

I've only heard about two - where was the 3rd? Kausfiles claimed that because there was a Mohammed Atta known to have been involved with the Abu Nidal terror gang in the '80s, it might have been that Atta who was flagged. BUT, that's a specious argument when it comes to what should have prevented 9/11, because however they got the name, if authorities had been beating the bushes before 9/11 looking for a "Mohammed Atta" then they would have come across the 'correct' Atta involved in the 9/11 plot.

[Peach]

As Weldon says, by the time this is over, the 9/11 Commission will have egg on their faces.

It must be the drip drip torture method for the left. I love it.

[Purrcival]

And in the meantime, all we hear from the media is

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But REAL news, like Able Danger?

<*crickets chirping*>

[MikeD]

Third source? Isn't that exactly three more than Rather had?

[Moral Hazard]

I believe Kaus mentioned a third one that was in Poland around the time of the supposed meeting between Atta and the Iraqi spy dude. Supposedly that Atta was a Pakistani businessman (if I remember correctly).

It might be the case that they would have stumbled on to the actual 9/11 plot while looking for the wrong Mohammed Atta, but it wouldn't jive with the criticism. The criticism of the federal government (CIA, Pentagon, whatever) is that they had knowledge of one of the 9/11 hijackers being a terrorist but did nothing about it. It doesn't seem fair to criticize anyone for failing to stop 9/11 by accident.

[samadams2000]

How about my gut instinct? ...is that 4 sources?

[maestro]

...I believe Kaus mentioned a third one that was in Poland around the time of the supposed meeting between Atta and the Iraqi spy dude. Supposedly that Atta was a Pakistani businessman (if I remember correctly).

?...What 'is' a Pakistani 'businessman'.....?

/"INS"

[lmr]

bump

[maestro]

...How about my gut instinct? ...is that 4 sources?

Knowing the 'trail'......YOU BET!

[Moral Hazard]

"Maguire notes that the presence of two Mohamed Attas in Prague--the 9/11 hijacker and a Pakistani businessman with the same name--within days of each other (May-June 2000) helped confuse investigators after 9/11. But that means, of course, that there were not "Two Attas" but Three Attas potentially on Able-Dangeresque data-mining radar screens prior to 9/11: 1) the future 9/11 hijacker; 2) the Abu Nidal terrorist extradited to Israel; 3) the Pakistani businessman who flew to Prague from Saudi Arabia. ... 11:10 A.M. link"

http://slate.msn.com/id/2124546/&#thirdatta

[gov_bean_ counter]

Stumbled across something the other day on FR. The discussion was about how Ben-Veniste helped run out the clock when Bruce Lindsey and Web Hubbell were being grilled at Senate (I think) hearings. The questions were turning to Lippo and Huang. Ben-Veniste used procedural stuff to gum up the works.

The one of the questioners who had the two sweating and had the lowdown on the Clintons was none other than Michael Chertoff. He knows much.

[Dat Mon]

This is a critical piece of collaboration...the CHART.

Excerpt of a prior post from wagglebee...

"Two weeks after the 9/11 the attacks, the Bush administration was told that a special military intelligence unit code named Able Danger had developed actionable intelligence two years earlier that could have foiled the 9/11 plot, a member of the Able Danger team revealed on Wednesday.

Among the Able Danger evidence shared with the Bush National Security Council: a chart put together before 9/11 featuring a picture of lead hijacker Mohamed Atta. Asked why he didn't go public before this week with the news that his group had been tracking Atta during the Clinton administration, Able Danger team member Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer told ABC radio host Sean Hannity:

"Within two weeks of the attack, this colleague of mine ... she took that very poster [with Mohamed Atta] to Congressman [Curt] Weldon," Shaffer said. "And I have to say he took it right to Michael Hadley, I believe, over at the NSC."

"It's my understanding that he gave him that chart and Hadley had a great deal of interest in it," he added.

Once the Bush administration had been briefed, Shaffer said, he thought the information would be handled properly. "[I felt] that we were good to go - that everything was going to be solved," he told Hannity. "

This means that there is no wiggle room for the Pentagon to try to escape the fact that info on Atta existed pre-911. They would have to make all of these folks out to be complete liars...hence...Weldons warning shot across the bow the other day.

You can add this briefing to Hadley at the NSC in with the Able Danger events timeline I posted to you previously. Hadley is certainly one person who knew that the 9-11 commission report was incomplete. I wonder if he ever reviewed the completed report and briefed the WH?

[montag813]

Someone tell the Leprechaun about this. He trivialized it last night and brushed off Col. Shaeffer on behalf of Hillary and her benefactor Rupert Murdoch.

[Peach]

OOooooh. I did not know that. How veddy, veddy interesting.

[arasina]

That's their technique, all right. Clever little devils, aren't they? :o)