Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00


Recommended Posts

Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00

By DOUGLAS JEHL

Published: August 9, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 - More than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress.

In the summer of 2000, the military team, known as Able Danger, prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to the military's Special Operations Command that the information be shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the congressman, Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, and the former intelligence official said Monday.

The recommendation was rejected and the information was not shared, they said, apparently at least in part because Mr. Atta, and the others were in the United States on valid entry visas. Under American law, United States citizens and green-card holders may not be singled out in intelligence-collection operations by the military or intelligence agencies. That protection does not extend to visa holders, but Mr. Weldon and the former intelligence official said it may have reinforced a sense of discomfort common before Sept. 11 about sharing intelligence information with a law enforcement agency.

A former spokesman for the Sept. 11 commission, Al Felzenberg, confirmed that members of its staff, including Philip Zelikow, the executive director, were told about the program during an overseas trip in October 2003 that included stops in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But Mr. Felzenberg said the briefers did not mention Mr. Atta's name. The report produced by the commission last year does not mention the episode.

Mr. Weldon first spoke publicly about the episode in June, in a little-noticed speech on the House floor and in an interview with The Times-Herald in Norristown, Pa. The matter resurfaced on Monday in a report by GSN: Government Security News, which is published every two weeks and covers issues related to domestic security. The GSN report was based on accounts provided by Mr. Weldon and the same former intelligence official who was interviewed on Monday by The New York Times in Mr. Weldon's office....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/politics...artner=homepage

Ugh, I feel sick...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hrm, two threads on this... and nobody responded to either one? Bush can't be blamed for this one I guess.

I wonder what will happen. YOu think the 9/11 commision will change their reports to blame the Clinton admin? I doubt it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bush can't be blamed for this one I guess.

586375805[/snapback]

You mean there are things in the world that aren't Bush's fault? OMG SHOCK & AWE!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No Evidence Pentagon Knew of Atta, Panel Says

9/11 Probers Reject Claims on Lead Hijacker

By Dan Eggen

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, August 13, 2005; Page A03

Investigators for the Sept. 11 commission have found no evidence to support allegations by a House Republican that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta was identified by a classified Pentagon program before the 2001 attacks, according to a commission statement issued last night.

Commission leaders Thomas H. Kean [R] and Lee H. Hamilton [D] said in the joint statement that panel staff members have found no documents or other witnesses to back up claims made by a U.S. Navy officer, who told the commission staff in July 2004 that he recalled seeing Atta's name and photograph on a chart prepared by another officer. Panel officials also said they have found no evidence to support similar claims made to reporters by a second person, a former defense intelligence official.

"None of the documents turned over to the commission mention Mohamed Atta or any of the other future hijackers," the commission statement said. "Nor do any of the staff notes on documents reviewed in the [Defense Department] reading room indicate that Mohamed Atta or any of the other future hijackers were mentioned in any of those documents."

......

The commission statement raises significant doubts about the likelihood that Able Danger could have identified Atta or other Sept. 11 hijackers as al Qaeda operatives and placed them in Brooklyn in 1999 or early 2000. Atta never lived in New York and did not enter the United States until June 2000, and two other key hijackers mentioned by the intelligence officer in media interviews were not in the country until 2001, the statement said.

The Washington Post

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
No this can't be. Bush has to be blammed!! Dont you relise he single handidly made the hole in the ozone and he was also the cause of Cancer?

586443220[/snapback]

very true(ignoring the sarcasm) and replacing ozone and cancer with

ozone - not cutting back the emissions

cancer - cutting funding for scientific research and also the stem cells issue

:p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Intelligence knew about certain individuals but had their hands tied due to laws regarding invasion of privacy, etc etc. Hence why they needed to modify certain aspects by creating the Patriot Act which we all know and love.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.