Posted on 08/29/2005 3:53:39 AM PDT by johnny7
A copy of the Able Danger chart that identified lead 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta as a terrorist operating inside the U.S. a year before the 9/11 attacks is clearly visible in a video of a 2002 speech by delivered by Rep. Curt Weldon to the Heritage Foundation.
The Pentagon, the 9/11 Commission and the Senate Intelligence Committee are currently seeking evidence that the bombshell chart, featuring a photo Atta, ever existed - as claimed by three members of the Able Danger team, along with Rep. Weldon. But so far, no physical evidence of the controversial document has surfaced. Until now.
A third of the way through his May 23, 2002 address on data fusion techniques, the video shows Rep. Weldon unfurling a copy of the now missing document and displaying it to the Heritage audience. "This is the unclassified chart that was done by the Special Forces Command briefing center one year before 9/11," he explains. "It is the complete architecture of al Qaeda and pan-Islamic extremism. It gives all the linkages. It gives all the capabilities. . . ." Though Weldon never mentions Able Danger or Atta by name - and the video never zooms in on the chart to the point where Atta's photo is identifiable - it's clear from Weldon comments that the chart is the same one currently being sought.
Since the Able Danger story broke three weeks ago, the Pennsylvania Republican has repeatedly insisted that he gave a copy of the chart shortly after the 9/11 attacks to then-Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. In the 2002 speech, Weldon told the same story in greater detail, standing beside a copy of what he said he gave Hadley. "I went to the White House. I don't mean to embarrass this guy cause he's a good friend of mine. But I took a mini version of this chart in Nov. [2001] and I turned it over to him - Steve Hadley, who works directly for [then-National Security Advisor] Condi Rice."
Weldon said Hadley was stunned after viewing the Al Qaeda-Atta document. "This is unbelievable - where'd you get this?" he wanted to know. After being told that the chart was prepared by military intelligence a year before the 9/11 attacks, Hadley said, according to Weldon, "I've got to show this to the man" - apparently referring to President Bush.
In the same speech, Rep. Weldon also revealed that then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Hugh Shelton received a briefing on the Able Danger chart in the closing weeks of the Clinton administration.
To view Rep. Weldon's entire 2002 speech to the Heritage Foundation, go to: http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/2002archive.cfm He displays the al Qaeda-Atta chart approximately 34 minutes into the presentation.
hno - can you grab a screen shot of the chart and post?
Check out the link in post #75.
The program had been shut down since 2000 and there is no reason for the GOP to be squeamish since Bush was not inaugerated until Jan 20 and had no standard transition since the RATS had been trying to steal the election and sabotaged the incoming administration as best they could.
There will be no ducking this for the GOP since there is no dirt that can be stuck to it for its actions.
Schoomaker... and most of all Gen. Hugh Shelton who ordered the group formed in 1999 would be the people to question.
bump
I don't want any credit but I wish they'd give FREE REPUBLIC the credit!! Freepers rule!
A third of the way through his May 23, 2002 address on data fusion techniques, the video shows Rep. Weldon unfurling a copy of the now missing document and displaying it to the Heritage audience.
"This is the unclassified chart that was done by the Special Forces Command briefing center one year before 9/11," he explains. "It is the complete architecture of al Qaeda and pan-Islamic extremism. It gives all the linkages. It gives all the capabilities. . . ."
Though Weldon never mentions Able Danger or Atta by name - and the video never zooms in on the chart to the point where Atta's photo is identifiable - it's clear from Weldon comments that the chart is the same one currently being sought.
NewsMax provides its own interpretation, some of it contradictory. Notice they mention that Weldon noted that this was the "unclassified chart." Rather than get into a long discussion of the NewsMax interpretation, it is more important to focus on the substance of Weldon's presentatioin, which is remarkably consistent with what he is saying now. His story has not changed.
right you are. and lets not forget this is not about dr. rice. things like that are press head fakes. if the system used was not kosher than sue sombody later. right now it's about the reams of personal information someone had on atta and his pals , only hours after the attacks. also j.pod as some said will have to double down on his first able/danger guessings, as this thing unfolds.
Atta is the big deal because, of all the Islamic names on that list, his sticks out. It's very Western-sounding, very easy to remember, and it's not surprising that they might have remembered it from a list of a couple of dozen names.
Ah, well. More NewsMax. If it were the same chart, wouldn't Weldon have pointed this out to us, without NewsMax putting the pieces together? Flush this "story" down the memory hole.
Strange. According to Condi, the memo mentions "cells" AND THE FBI pursuing these terrorists. What it doesn't show is whther the cell were in the USA or abroad. IF this memo was SOOOOOOOOOO important, why wasn't it directed directly from Clarke to Condi? Who wrote Condi in? Hadley? Clarke? BERGER?.....and WHY??
From what I've heard since Saturday, Able Danger identified a lot more people than just Condi Rice. I would love to know who they are. I think the silence in the MSM speaks volumns.
Who is going to bring the charges?
After the lawyers stopped the recommendation in Sept 2000 that action be taken against the Atta cell Able Danger became for all practical purposes inoperative. By December it was not considered significant by the Clintons' or at worst a danger to themselves.
Its final end came within weeks of the new administration's inaugural when no one incoming to DoD knew what it was capable of and there was no briefing by the outgoing touting its value. Given the tremendous number of small units, projects etc. at DoD this is hardly a shock. Particularly when there was no one to speak on AD's behalf.
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