Posted on 09/10/2005 4:51:51 AM PDT by Perdogg
A Defense Department employee will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 21 that civilian superiors in 2000 ordered him to destroy a huge cache of data from a classified program that tracked al Qaeda, a congressman said Thursday.
"Another witness will testify that he was ordered to destroy 2.5 terabytes of data related to Able Danger and al Qaeda," said Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., referring to a now widely publicized "data-mining" program that gathered information about people from a host of sources to establish links and patterns that would not otherwise come to light. The amount of data obliterated is equivalent to 125,000 trees made into paper and printed, or a quarter of the print volumes in the Library of Congress.
"He was ordered to destroy the data or he would lose his job or go to jail," Weldon said of the Defense official, whom he did not name. "What were their motives? I think we have to find out."
News of the coming testimony about the destruction of Able Danger data is the latest development about the controversial and once-classified program. Five people who were connected to Able Danger said the program identified Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as a potential threat more than a year earlier. Weldon and some of these people also said the Defense Department did not share with the FBI what it learned about al Qaeda as a result of Able Danger prior to the attacks.
"We have identified the FBI employees in the Washington field office who arranged three meetings [with Able Danger personnel] that were canceled," Weldon said.
"It was a very serious breach not to pass that information on and to have it shared," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., in an Aug. 31 statement about the Pentagon's withholding of Able Danger information from the FBI. "The consequences of not identifying them was that 9-11 might have been avoided."
Because the destruction of Able Danger data occurred prior to both Sept. 11 and the 2005 disclosure of Able Danger's existence, no one suggests the data was eradicated to cover up what the Pentagon knew about al Qaeda. But senior members of Congress from both parties are determined to learn why the Pentagon would destroy a massive trove of information about terrorism when it was even then a critical concern of U.S. national security agencies.
Destroyed Data Pentagon officials acknowledged at a Sept. 2 briefing that they destroyed the data. They said it was done as a matter of routine to protect the identity of "U.S. persons" citizens and those who were visiting the country legally.
But Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, an Army intelligence officer who worked on the program, said Thursday that before the Able Danger data was destroyed, he had briefed senior officials in the Pentagon and White House on ways to excise U.S. persons' names without losing the entire database. He said the Pentagon must have obliterated the data for another reason that it is not disclosing.
I'm looking forward to AD picking up steam again.
Link saved.
With regard to sensitive data "U.S. Person" has specific meaning.
It has to do with who or what the person is representing and can include some non-citizens and exclude some citizens.
My guess is that in the quoted passage it implies that the data was destroyed using the now worn and oft disgraced allegation that it might reveal information on sources.
My insightful guess is that the database could turn up prominent Washington folks with curious foreign connections. This was done in 2000. Why would you want a database like that around for the next Administration to look at?
The segment just talked about Able Danger and how they uncovered information about the cell through "data mining" but weren't allowed to share the data with the FBI because the group held valid visas.
the story the MSM wishes would die on the vine.
Bump
bttt
BUMP!
Clinton Legacy bump
"Can some insightful Freeper please hypothesize about what was really going on here?"
Gorelick and Clinton built a wall between domestic and foreign intelligence. There was always such a divide created by law---to protect US citizens from the "bad boys" in the CIA, etc. However, Gorelick went way beyond the law to build the wall to extreme heights, crippling our security. The probable motive of the organized hard left people who control Bill and Hillary was, in my opinion, to facilitate terrorism.
The Able Danger group stumbled on Mohammed Atta as a very suspicious Arab in the US that might be a terrorist. They were not sure about it or anything. They didn't see 9-11 right around the corner or anything. But they had huge suspicions and wanted to investigate, watch him, etc.
They were completely prohibited from doing so by Pentagon lawyers. It was upsetting, but they went on with their lives and sort of forgot about it (hoping for the best). Then 9-11 came and they realized what had happened.
While the main burden of this falls on the Clinton administration, the level of current coverup seems to clearly indicate that the Bush administration must have also made some mistakes related to this case. Hence, the complete coverup.
Thankyou!
ping
Thanks for the ping......
The Clintonazis/Leninists' Politburo rewrites history with planted stories aided by the Clinton coprophagiac media darlings. Sandy Cheese Bergler got caught in his attempt and only paid with embarrasment, cash and losing his security clearnace until Hitlary can return to master us again. She'll pick her next Mt. Carmel target to remind us that she is back in control of us; it worked at Waco.
Able Danger ping
You're welcome.
There is one statement, I should point out, that is completely beyond the FR mainstream:
"The probable motive of the organized hard left people who control Bill and Hillary was, in my opinion, to facilitate terrorism."
the rest is a reasonable, FR view.
I think more likely they wanted to impede justice to support their cronyism.
I also wonder why W has been turning a deaf ear to the previous administration's shenanigans. I do not believe, as you suggest it is to keep their own misdeeds from being exposed. I believe it is simply because he is an ethical gentleman and does not want to be involved with prosecuting his predecessor.
Here on FR, they might call me a Bushbot for that. But there a lot of sleeper DUmmies here with older signup dates.
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