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.
BUMP!!!!!
Bump!
btt
Is it fair to say that both the Clinton and Bush administrations should have "some 'splainin' to do?"
Enchante - Is this report accurate?
If so, the Pentagon and the 9/11 Commission have reached a new level of sucking. If the guy who made these claims in the first place had the chart the whole time and displayed it, and you're still unable to come up with evidence of that said chart ever existing, THAT is sucking. Hell, it redefines sucking.
BUT, IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY ABLE DANGER WAS ENDED... [John Podhoretz]
...it may have been due to the fact that its "data-mining" work led it to name Condi Rice as a potential Chinese agent -- evidently due to the fact that she had provost of Stanford University.
That's according to my paper, the New York Post: "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, The Post has learned. The private contractors working for the counter-terrorism unit Able Danger lost their jobs in May 2000. The firings following a series of analyses that Pentagon lawyers feared were dangerously close to violating laws banning the military from spying on Americans, sources said.
"The Pentagon canceled its contract with the private firm shortly after the analysts — who were working on identifying al Qaeda operatives — produced a particularly controversial chart on proliferation of sensitive technology to China, the sources said.
"Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, the veteran Army officer who was the Defense Intelligence Agency liaison to Able Danger, told The Post China 'had something to do' with the decision to restructure Able Danger.
"Sources said the private contractors, using sophisticated computer software that sifts through massive amounts of raw data to establish patterns, came up with a chart of Chinese strategic and business connections in the U.S.
"The program wrongly tagged Rice, who at the time was an adviser to then-candidate George W. Bush, and former Defense Secretary William Perry by linking their associations at Stanford, along with their contacts with Chinese leaders, sources said."
This will, I am sure, launch a thousand conspiracy theories, but here we have the downside of "data mining," not to mention super-secret programs that surface years later with explosive allegations.
Now, really, this is my last Able Danger post of the weekend. I swear.
Posted at 08:53 AM
It defines corruption to a criminal level. Its called perjury.
bump bump btt
I hope this holds up
"This will, I am sure, launch a thousand conspiracy theories . . ."
Me too.
Has anyone checked Sandy Burglar's pants?
btt
I agree. It's just going to get very, very muddled before we know the truth - if we ever know the truth.
LOL! I do think that the investigators used too much speculation to be credible, once these allegations emerged.
I would interpret this as referring not to Bush but a person who would know how to handle the situation like Clarke. In other words, a Dem holdover, a possible coverup in the making.
Hadley should have gone to Rice and that ain't a man.
And the 'really bad information'(illegal) contains the necessary information in order to connect-the-dots.
Quite a nut-buster... and the stuff that cover-ups are made of???
Gosh, by virtue of Condi Rice being at Stanford University, that automatically makes her a suspect as a Chinese agent????
LOL! I learn so much every day!
Have a happy day! :-)
..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.
Ok...so where did Weldon keep the original then and...
where is he keeping it now?
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