Sept. 11 commission rejects Atta claim

Miami Herald ^ | September 14th | Devlin Barrett

[bw17]

Sept. 11 commission rejects Atta claim

DEVLIN BARRETT Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Former members of the Sept. 11 commission on Wednesday dismissed assertions that a Pentagon intelligence unit identified lead hijacker Mohamed Atta as an member of al-Qaida long before the 2001 attacks.

The ex-commissioners also criticized the government for not putting in place changes recommended last year in homeland security and emergency response. They pointed most notably to the failure to improve communication systems, which they said might have saved lives after Hurricane Katrina.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., had accused the commission of ignoring intelligence about Atta while it investigated the attacks. The commission's former chairman, Thomas Kean, said there was no evidence anyone in the government knew about Atta before Sept. 11, 2001.

Two military officers, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott, claimed a classified military intelligence unit, known as "Able Danger," identified Atta before the attacks. Shaffer has said three other hijackers were identified, too.

Kean said the recollections of the intelligence officers cannot be verified by any document.

"Bluntly, it just didn't happen and that's the conclusion of all 10 of us," said a former commissioner, ex-Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash.

Pentagon officials said this month that they could find no documents to back up the claims.

According to Weldon, members of "Able Danger" identified Atta and three other hijackers in 1999 as potential members of a terrorist cell in New York City. Weldon said Pentagon lawyers rejected the unit's recommendation that the information be turned over to the FBI in 2000.

Weldon's spokesman, John Tomaszewski, said no commissioners have met with anyone from Able Danger "yet they choose to speak with some form of certainty without firsthand knowledge."

[wolfcreek]

There's been commission after commission as long as I can remember and all there for is ass covering.

[Roccus]

Remember one thing. The ruling elite, be they career politicians, entrenched bureaucrats or behind the scene movers and shakers,will NOT be outed! IMHO it will take an armed revolution to get to the bottom of this and other 'mysteries' in our history.

[sono]

Slade Gorton should be tested for the Alzheimer's gene.

[thegreatbeast]

What the hell are these guys still doing as an organized entity? Why won't the 9/11 Commission die? Who the fudge is paying for its torturous afterlife? Are we still on the hook as taxpayers? Is this another diabolical creation of George Soros?

I am p*-o* that so much money was spent on the first go-round. Their work was no less bipartisan than anything churned out by the Congress Critters. No mas!

[Dat Mon]

YOU SAID..."Weldon's spokesman is absolutely right. I hope they have a copy of that chart with Atta's name on it, because I'd like to see Gordon, Gorelick, ben Veniste, Kean and others choke on the darn thing."

PAGING STEPHEN HADLEY....

Please report to the press room, and bring your copy of the CHART... the one Weldon gave you two weeks after 9-11.

Thank you

[Anti-Bubba182]

STEPHEN HADLEY needs a subpoena.

Missing Able Danger 'Atta' Chart in 2002 Video

"..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..."

Hadley Should be able to verify what Weldon gave him.

[jdhljc169]

The ex-commissioners also criticized the government for not putting in place changes recommended last year in homeland security and emergency response. They pointed most notably to the failure to improve communication systems, which they said might have saved lives after Hurricane Katrina.

They have some nerve pointing fingers. Trying to divert attention from their failures, I would say.

[Mia T]

At the 9/11-commission-sans-Jamie-Gorelick press conference on 9-14-05,
FoxNews asked the 9/11 commissioners about Able Danger.

Basically, the lot of them said it didn't happen because they had no documentary proof, no chart...
and because it conflicts with their other premises and conclusions. (Great logic, eh?)

The follow-up from FoxNews (at which point they all proceeded to go into their extreme-buffoon mode):
'But since we know that the Able-Danger documentation was destroyed,
how can you base your conclusion on the absence of documentation???'(paraphrase)

Clinton's failure to grasp the opportunity to unravel increasingly organized extremists, coupled with Berger's assessments of their potential to directly threaten the U.S., represents one of the most serious foreign policy failures in American history.

Clinton Let Bin Laden Slip Away and Metastasize
MANSOOR IJAZ
December 5, 2001

sandy berger haberdashery feint
(the specs, not the pants or the socks)
by Mia T, 8.23.05


(viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)



WHY DID BILL CLINTON IGNORE TERRORISM?
Was it simply the constraints of his liberal mindset, or was it something even more threatening to our national security?
by Mia T, 8.18.05

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)
thanx to jla and Wolverine for the audio

DISCUSSION

"I remember exactly what happened. Bruce Lindsey said to me on the phone, 'My God, a second plane has hit the tower.' And I said, 'Bin Laden did this.' that's the first thing I said. He said, 'How can you be sure?' I said 'Because only bin Laden and the Iranians could set up the network to do this and they [the Iranians] wouldn't do it because they have a country in targets. Bin Laden did it.'

I thought that my virtual obsession with him was well placed and I was full of regret that I didn't get him."

bill clinton
Sunday, Sept 3, 2002
Larry King Live

"Mr. bin Laden used to live in Sudan. He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in '91 and he went to the Sudan.

We'd been hearing that the Sudanese wanted America to start dealing with them again. They released him [bin Laden].

At the time, '96, he had committed no crime against America, so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America.

So I pleaded with the Saudis to take him, 'cause they could have; but they thought it was a hot potato. They didn't and that's how he wound up in Afghanistan."

bill clinton
Sunday, Aug. 11, 2002
Clinton Reveals on Secret Audio:
I Nixed Bin Laden Extradition Offer