No Pentagon official has told Zaid they were concerned with classified info getting out.
That makes sense because it was all open source documentation. No government data bases were used or classified information.
Eric Clidesmith, Lockheed Martin Company, extensive resume in intel world. Army Commendation medal and others being listed. National Defense Service medal. Member of Army until 2001 with rank of Major to speak next.
second set of notes
Zaid says the main focus should be "where are the other terrorists identified on those charts".?
Kyle establishes the fact that the witnesses themselves should be allowed to testify.
Maj Erik Kleinsmith, retired, Former Chief of Intelligence, Land Information Warfare Analysis testifies. Explains how data mining can assist in intelligence gathering.
Special Operations approached him to support Able Danger. We were able to map Al Queda as worldwide threat within 4 months. they were shut down because of concerns about
oversight concerns, dictated by Intelligence Oversight rules we had to live by.
Specter asks what knowledge he has about destruction of documents. Kleinsmith says I'm the guy. I destroyed data. all of it classified and unclassified. all charts, all soft and hard copy destroyed or deleted.
We May, JUne 2000 is when documentation was destroyed.
We got instructions, Tony Gentry ordered it all destroyed. Army 381-10 regulation regarding keeping info on private citizens no longer than 90 days.
"Delete this info or you guys will go to jail," Gentry told Kleinsmith"
Specter is most interested in finding out if all this is connected to Posse Commitattttas. spector is a one trick pony, on Posse C. Gentry says no, it's not Posse C, it's army regulations. Specter is disappointed..that's his main interest.
Kleinsmith believes Shaeffer, and Philpott IMPLICITELY. Kleinsmith doesn't remember seeing Atta himself, but he believes Shaeffer and Philpott when they say they saw Atta and remember seeing his picture.
Kleinsmith said every night I say, if we had not been shut down, we would have been able to help prevent 9-ll. we think we might have helped prevent it....me and the members of our team all believe that.
thank God! Senator Sessions showed up!!!
Kleinsmith says I could have convveniently forgotten to delete the information, but that would have violated the specific army regulation.
Kleinsmith consulted legal advice before he deleted Able Danger.
Sessions ask if Army regulation should be changed? Kleinsmith says my recommendation would be to investigate how helpful open data mining can be in fighting terrorists.
Sessions says we get after the mililtary for breaking regulations, now we are after them for keeping them.
Lawyer Zaid tells Sessions private contractors are under no regulations to prevent them from open data gathering. Says the Army got into trouble over helping .local law enforcemtn at Waco.
Zaid says as he understands the laws, Able Danger would not have crossed the line of being in violation of the Army regulation, or Posse C.
Those within Able Danger wwere confident they didn't cross the legal line, Zaid says.
What happened is when Atta was connected to Brooklyn, that made legal eagles think he was a private citizen.
Specter identifies Schaeffer and J. D. Smith The DoD has prohibited them from testifying, explains Zaid. Schaeffer specifically, and Smith becsause I advised him not to until we get specific instructions, because he still works for DoD.
J.D. Smith's contract with Orion at the Pentagon had no link to classified information.
Zaid says no information involved here is classified. Zaid says there is no reason why they should be prevented from testifying today.
Atta's photo was not a government provided photo. It was from private source. Smith remembers it because of the evil look.
Zaid is good, doing excellent job in explaining background of how 9-ll Commission staff got briefing on Atta, but never followed up. (I missed the name of the 9-ll Commission Deputy who got the briefing from Schaefffer). Sometime between the time Schaeffer briefed the 9-ll staff and the publication of the Report, someone made the decision for the Commission to ignore Able Danger.