Posted on 08/27/2005 9:50:24 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
Today’s New York Post (27 August) carries a story by Niles Lathem entitled “Military ‘Spied’ on Rice.” The good news is that the story ran at all. The bad news is the reporter demonstrated a brass-plated ignorance of how the Able Danger program operated.
The lede from this article says, “Cyber-sleuths working for a Pentagon intelligence unit that reportedly identified some of the 9/11 hijackers before the attack were fired by military officials, after they mistakenly pinpointed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other prominent Americans as potential security risks....”
Able Danger is/was a computer program which does not target or “pinpoint” or “spy” on anyone. The very use of these verbs demonstrates a gross failure to understand Able Danger, and why it is a very powerful investigative tool. To use an example every reporter is well aware of, consider Google News.
This is a computer program that examines a huge data base, namely the entire output thousands of American and foreign news sources. It uses algorithms to find commonalities in that data. That’s how Google identifies the news subjects most often discussed at any time, and comes up with a lead story on that subject and hundreds of others on the same subject. Google “targets” nothing. It simply identifies patterns in the data.
Able Danger works the same way, except with a much larger data base. It might include an arrest record in Bangkok, a speech given in Hamburg, a government document in Iran. The algorithms, however, are similar – find all associations between names, subjects, dates and places. Such a program would naturally show anyone working in international relations, such as Dr. Condi Rice and Dr. Henry Kissinger, as “connected” to China and all other major foreign powers.
That does not mean that such people are “potential security risks.” Once the computer is finished, humans can enter the picture and eliminate false conclusions that the computer – not knowing Condi Rice from Mata Hari – has made. If Able Danger was shut down during the Clinton Administration for developed associations with China, the radioactive names in the data were more likely Bernard Schwarz, Loral, and Mochtar Riyadi, not Condi Rice.
It is good to see more major media examination of Able Danger – what it was, why it was shut down, and why some are trying to bury the story now. It is unfortunate that most of the press doesn’t yet understand how it worked. Think Google News. Multiply by a million. Then you have it.
John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
BTTT
"Susan Rice, who served as President Clinton's Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs"
It maybe just a minor fact, but the ChiComs have great interest in various parts of Africa. . . There might be some ties there w/ Susan Rice and the Chinese influence in the region and on the klintoons. Cross-currents there may have something to do w/ this story. Just curious.
When Able Danger first broke many freepers immediatly connected it to Chinagate. I'll have to admit, i thought they were nuts, now it appears they were right all along, and now the balls rolling and theres no stopping it (hopefully).
You are such a great reality testing breath of truth. Thanks.
See tagline.
All will be explained.
The two men who allegedly piloted the planes into the twin towers, Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, prayed in the same Hamburg mosque as did Salim and Mamoun Darkazanli, a Syrian trader who managed Salim's bank accounts and whose assets are frozen.Important data on each had been compiled by the Sudanese.
But U.S. authorities repeatedly turned the data away, first in February 1996; then again that August, when at my suggestion Sudan's religious ideologue, Hassan Turabi, wrote directly to Clinton; then again in April 1997, when I persuaded Bashir to invite the FBI to come to Sudan and view the data; and finally in February 1998, when Sudan's intelligence chief, Gutbi al-Mahdi, wrote directly to the FBI.
Gutbi had shown me some of Sudan's data during a three-hour meeting in Khartoum in October 1996. When I returned to Washington, I told Berger and his specialist for East Africa, Susan Rice, about the data available. They said they'd get back to me. They never did. Neither did they respond when Bashir made the offer directly. I believe they never had any intention to engage Muslim countries--ally or not. Radical Islam, for the administration, was a convenient national security threat.
Now...given what I found out earlier (Post 745), that Sandy Berger stole versions of the NSC's Millennium After Action Review which stated "In March 2000, the review warns the prior Administration of a substantial al Qaeda network and affiliated foreign terrorist presence within the U.S., capable of supporting additional terrorist attacks here.", which falls precisely into the timeline for the AD info. Furthermore, the after action report was never seen by the Commission...they instead relied on Sandy Berger's testimony (#769) about the 8/20/98 cruise missile bombings of Bin Laden's camp and the Sudan pharmaceutical factory.
Then I got curious about the Clarke/Kerrick memo mentioned in the above link. I found this (#784):
Clarke was nervous about such a mission because he continued to fear that Bin Ladin might leave for someplace less accessible. He wrote Deputy National Security Advisor Donald Kerrick that one reliable source reported Bin Ladin's having met with Iraqi officials, who "may have offered him asylum." Other intelligence sources said that some Taliban leaders, though not Mullah Omar, had urged Bin Ladin to go to Iraq. If Bin Ladin actually moved to Iraq, wrote Clarke, his network would be at Saddam Hussein's service, and it would be "virtually impossible" to find him. Better to get Bin Ladin in Afghanistan, Clarke declared.
They (the usual suspects) couldn't let this info get out to the public before the 2004 election. IMHO, there was NO Chinese investigation that involved Condi. Shaffer and the other AD folks have, to my knowledge, never cited this as a reason the program was shut down. However it interesting that someone is trying to throwing that theory out into the public, because Chinagate, after all, was the reason for the "Wall" created by Gorelick.
I am still trying to find out how Joe Wilson is tied into all this, but I did find an interesting bit of trivia that could provide a clue...
"The article's allegations just fall on their face," said Susan Rice, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from October 1997 until the end of the Clinton administration. Before that, Rice was in charge of Africa at the National Security Council.
Sorry, Susan...I'd believe Mansoor over you any day.
May 13, 1992 - National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger announced today the appointment of Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. He will succeed Susan Rice.
They worked in the same capacity. The Bush Library link on that website is broken, but will see if I can find another source. There you have it, the usual suspects...all Kerry advisors during the campaign...Berger, Wilson, Rice and Clarke all doing CYA to cover each other's mistakes.
INTERESTING.....
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