Posted on 09/22/2005 8:56:11 AM PDT by stan_sipple
Pentagon lawyers during the Clinton administration ordered the destruction of intelligence reports that identified September 11 leader Mohamed Atta months before the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, according to congressional testimony yesterday. A lawyer for two Pentagon whistleblowers also told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday that the Defense Intelligence Agency last year destroyed files on the Army's computer data-mining program known as Able Danger to avoid disclosing the information.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
I'm not as optimistic
I alone was here on FR trying to calm people on election day because I KNEW the registration numbers and I KNEW how effective we were in OH from "flushing" polls that Bush would win OH. Over the last two elections my record as a prognosticator :) is far better than Larry Sabato or Cook's Political Report. (actually, I had the senate and house pretty much right in 2000, but had Bush winning by a bigger margin).
GOP gains at least 1.
They did everything for contributions.
Democracy lasts until:
the raises people vote for themselves destroy the economy
-OR-
political leaders take money from those that kill the people.
Boy you goota love those Klintons don't you?
The law is rather confusing on this point, and, of course, both attorneys and Congress muck things up.
The DoD lawyer testified yesterday that these types of regulations dated back to the Reagan era.
I wouldn't call Perot's '92 run a "non-factor".
But I'm getting impatient.
In addition to, rather than instead of.
I think where we have a difference of opinion is that you say the "Bush Administration" destroyed documents, whereas I would say the documents were destroyed because of a political rot left over from the Clintonistas. The line of causation connects to the disease of Clinton politics. The only place I do agree with you is I fault Bush for not making a thorough house-cleaning both in terms of personnel in many key areas (eg: Tenet as DCI, many at Justice, many at State, Pentagon, etc.) and in terms of policy. There should have been a top-down review of all policies related to national security with the assumption of cleaning out the garbage (eg: the "wall") as soon as possible. Even had this been done, it probably would never have stopped 9/11.
At 56. Sounds more like an Arkanicide than a regular heart attack. especially considering:
His relationship with the FBI, however, soured in early 1999 over a separate investigation of a Chinese woman whom the FBI suspected was a spy.
Unfortunately, by now the mass of data is beginning to be too large even for those who have been following the AD issue from the beginning. Some FReepers have suggested the need for a better "conspiracy thread" data retrieval system - we will see what can come out of that.
In the meantime let me try to clear up one issue that has been discussed previously; the fact that Ms Rice's name was included in the "Chines database".
The thread where this was discussed can be found here
Note especially the posts #162 and #198.
The eminent "sleuth"Ravingnutter found the same reference, and posted it on this thread.
In short Condoleezza Rice, in her capacity as provost of Stanford had a connection with a Chinese researcher at Stanford who exported technology that could be used for military purposes to China. There is no reason to suspect any wrongdoing by Ms Rice, although the reference in post #162 (in the link I provided) tries his utmost to throw dirt at her.
However, the fact that US citizens (not only US persons!) were data mined probably spelled the end of AD. An.American.Expatriate who apparently has experience of work in military intelligence has explained what would happen to a program where names of US citizens turned up.
Bad News - very bad news if you wanted to continue your investigation.
I tend to agree with many on previous AD threads who believe that the reason that AD was canceled was not due to malevolent orders from the circles around the President, who at the time (as if it should be necessary to spell out) was W. J. Clinton, but due the DoD bureaucracy following the lead of their legal councils - in short a F.U. of monumental order, but something that depended more on the "political climate" rather than direct orders .
However, there are still many questions that demand an answer:
Why did not the 911 Commission address the issue of Able Danger, despite being notified several times?
Although many of the "walls" causing the problems for programs like AD were designed after the Church Committee (1975), why were further walls erected in the 90s? (Gorelick!!)
Did the climate of "PC-legality" during the Clinton years hamper intelligence gathering, and protection of the US more than actually was intended by the framers of the laws and regulations - in other words did the lawyers overstep their powers?
Have the issues surrounding intelligence gathering and the connection between MI, CIA and the FBI been cleared up now, in such a way that the security of the US is protected?
There are obviously further questions to be addressed, not least about what AD actually found regarding Mohammed Atta and al-Queda. Since the data has been lost it will depend on the recollections of those that worked with the program and the persons that were briefed on their progress.
How much of these questions which can/ought to be aired in public is a question that I as a citizen of another country hardly can have an opinion on.
You must have been listening to someone else.
I listened off and on for 2.5 hours and never heard
him mention Able Danger once.
placemark
Right! 19% of the vote was not a non-Factor
IMHO, a president has the power to pardon a person after he/she has been convicted. I don't believe that a president has the power to obstruct justice in a criminal investigation or forgive someone of a crime prior to a trial? Nixon thought that he had that power and look what happened to him!
and limerick writer!
see you soon on the Great One's thread!
Seems Gen. Hugh Shelton was worthless too:
The U.S. Military Special Forces Command at McDill Airforce Base came up with a chart of Al Qaeda's entire international network in the period prior to the November 2000 election, but the recommendation, which reached the desk of Clinton Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Hugh Shelton was never implemented, according to eight-term Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
AD also identified Almidhar and Alhazmi, whom the CIA identified as al-Qaeda operatives involved previously in the bombing of the USS Cole (Kie Fallis). Shelton was in charge then too:
Members of a secret Pentagon intelligence unit known as Able Danger warned top military generals that it had uncovered information of increased al Qaeda "activity" in Aden harbor less than three weeks before the attack on the USS Cole, The Post has learned.
Anyone been able to find anything on Tony Grant?
But the diffuseness of the hijacker network means that it won't suffer significant damage until the six nodes with the most numerous and important connections -- 21 percent of the group -- are removed.
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