More on the Able Danger saga in the NY Post today:
A veteran Army intelligence officer said yesterday the elite military intelligence unit known as Able Danger might have been able to prevent the 9/11 attacks — if it had been allowed to alert the FBI that Mohamed Atta was living in the country.
“My first reaction was, ‘We had him.’ It was a sinking feeling in my stomach,” Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer told The Post in an interview yesterday, describing how he felt after learning that Atta was one of the hijackers.
Shaffer said that before the attacks, in 2000, Able Danger used complex computer analysis to identify two of the 9/11 terror cells, including one centered around the mastermind, Atta.
But Pentagon lawyers wouldn’t let them sound the alarm with law enforcement agencies, he said.
“I believe there was a potential — had the information been passed from Special Operations Command to the FBI — that our information may have been one of the keys, if not the key, to pull together and make sense of the data they already had,” Shaffer said.
Read the whole thing- I don’t know where this is going.
BinkyBoy
Its going to a place where space and time are warped around minds that have Clenis on the brain. Where only the Clenis can be responsible for the royal f-up that brought about 9/11. After all, Bush was only on the job for 11 months, how can he be expected to defend the US against identified terrorists in so short of a time?
cd6
I’ve heard conservatives say that Sheehan is only making news because the media is doing something to fill the void that is “August”
Somebody tell me why all this “news” from 1999 is coming out now? I mean, decades from now, are my grandchildren going to be exposed to this “blame Clinton” crap too?
Rick
Just as in the Valerie Plame business, we must await developments. But everyone seems to want to rush to judgement.
Cordially…
Conservabastard
Why didn’t Able Danger warn us about Cindy Sheehan?
She deserves the death penalty for betraying our Leader.
Stormy70
Rushing to judgment is our stock in trade here, Rick.
Why didn’t the sainted 9/11 commission {cough bipartisan hacks cough} take their time and investigate, instead of posing for the cameras, and flirting with the media? Morons.
John S.
Whether serious or sarcastic, I got a good chuckle out of this.
Steve
I remember there were quite a few folks in Washington who didn’t even want to extend the 9/11 Commission’s original deadline. At first the White House was opposed, and then they changed their position but mysteriously Denny Hastert became opposed at the same time, virtually out of nowhere! It was quite the soap opera. Fortunately the courageous White House fought hard and managed to secure the extension they had wanted all along, just as they had to fight tooth and nail to create the Department of Homeland Security over the objections of treasonous Democrats.
Pug
As I understand it, Mr. Able Danger (the Lt. Colonel) is having trouble identifying exactly who it was that said he couldn’t share his info with the FBI.
First, it was some lawyers, he can’t remember who, and now it is some mid-level general, he can’t remember who. I think it might be a good idea to wait for further developments here and see if his memory improves and, if it does, see if his story checks out.
O’reilly has proclaimed it to be true, though, so Fox News is now on the story that 9/11 was all Clinton’s fault. Sort of like the WMD story, this one is settled in the mind of the Fox News viewer. It’s truth. Done deal.
Kirk Spencer
For a fascinating twist – worth much pondering – I recommend this article ( http://www.slate.com/id/2124546/ ) in Slate. Basically, Mickey Kraus followed up on Tom Maquire’s good idea: If Able Danger is all about open source, what happens if you do a search for Mohammed Atma prior to 9/11?
Answer, if you use a NEXIS search you find Mohammed Atma – ANOTHER Mohammed Atma, known terrorist, member of the Abu Nidal organization, arrested in 1987 by the FBI, naturalized US citizen. A different person from the graduate student who was a member of Al Qaeda, in the US on a green card.
The article presents several ways this explains some of the odd lumps of other things we “know” – it’s worth the read.
Bob
This guy’s been writing about this for years:
http://64.70.236.57/
Always curious when mainstream media is a couple of years behind “conspiracy theorists.”
Kirk Spencer
sigh – an apology for the above. It’s not Kraus’s hard work, it’s Tom Maguire’s. See his blog for a lot more. To include, in the comments, some of the weaknesses of the position.
Kirk Spencer
Bob, no, read the links. I’ve seen that wierdness before as well. What Tom Maguire notes is the confusion of two similarly named individuals. Heck, he points out that this same problem caused some confusion in early news reporting — “How dare the US allow a known terrorist [abu Atta] to re-enter the nation on a green card [talking of qaeda Atta].” (he’s got the snopes linke for that)
Tim F
WTF
Shaffer goes public and declares that…some other guys who he won’t name might have told him that Atta’s name was on the mythical chart. Thanks for clearing that up chief.
JoeTx
There is alot of information out there about 9/11. Most of it is well documented, but never reported in the media. There are many things about 9/11 that do not pass the smell test. If you really want to blame somebody, you can go back to Reagan and his funding via the CIA of Bin Ladin in his fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Do a google search on “9/11 timeline”. You may say its tin-foil hat conspiracy theory, but there is alot there that really makes you go “hmmmmm”
It really goes alot deeper than just the Democrats or Republicans fault, thats just partisan sniping. And the fact that Bush I and Clinton are “good friends” now just proves it runs alot deeper than most people want to believe.
aaron
Media Matters once again destroys the right-wing talking points. The “wall” “created” by Gorelick DOESN’T EVEN EFFECT THE ENTITIES IN QUESTION. Go to Media Matters….yes it is a “liberal” site…but the truth is neither liberal nor conservative.
Kimmitt
Heh, I knew the 9/11 Commission’s credibility would be shattered on the wingnut right the moment that someone found a way to blame the Clenis that the Commission had rejected.
Tim F
Everything is always Clinton’s fault. The party of personal responsibility wouldn’t know personal responsibility if it bit them in the ass.
Mark-NC
I’m trying to figure out if Steve’s post is satire or not.
Let’s see – Steve says: “Fortunately the courageous White House fought hard and managed to secure the extension they had wanted all along, just as they had to fight tooth and nail to create the Department of Homeland Security over the objections of treasonous Democrats.”
I’m guessing satire!!
In the real world, Bush fought against both the creation of the 9/11 commission and its extension and also against Homeland Security, but Daschle basically rammed it down his throat. Then, when polls showed that most of America wanted better security, Bush reversed course and suddenly was FOR Homeland Security.
The fun part was watching the “liberal media” let Bush get away with reframing the debate. The Republicans wrote the bill in a way that trashed Union contracts – well aware that Democrats would fight that part of the bill. Then, the Republicans said Dems don’t want the bill and used this as a campaign issue.
If the media allows you to get away with this level of dishonesty – sure makes it easier to win elections!
Otto Man
They almost recognized it as personal responsibility, but then they thought it was the Clenis poking them instead. Damn you, Clenis!
jahyarain
oh yeah? well, we’re still bogged down in Kosovo because of Clinton. he destroyed the intergity of the President of the U.S. with his lies. he divided the country on whether you should spray the dress or tonsils. he allowed outragous fuel prices. you simply can’t do much worse than Clinton.
Tim F
we’re still bogged down in Kosovo because of Clinton.
Parody or genuinely dumb? I’m taking bets.
Tim F
Let’s say starting odds are 70-30 in favor of parody. I’ve genuinely never heard a wingnut claim Kosovo as a military disaster before.
Kirk Spencer
It’s the gas prices comment that make me wager it’s parody.
Bob
Kirk Spencer, Regarding the “two Attas theory,” from bouncing around the links I find it unconvincing that the guy being tracked in 2000 was a different guy from the fellow who was involved in 2001 in the 9/11 thing. I’ll have to do lots more reading on this, though.
There is another explanation for this. In some intelligence operations a name is used by several operatives. In THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (one of the two best books about the JFK assassination) it turns out that at least one other intelligence officer used Oswald’s alias, Alec Hidell (which itself was spelled more different ways than “Shakespeare”). Also, if you read the Warren Report and its critics, you find that Oswald is in Mexico City the same time that Oswald was allegedly at a shooting range in Dallas talking about how he’d like to plug Kennedy. Also, when Oswald was in the USSR, I think in ’59, someone was using his name to swing a deal in Florida to buy trucks for Castro’s people in Cuba (I think the revolution was still going on at the time). Obviously, as great a shot as he allegedly was, no one has suggested that he could be in two places at once.
So Atta may have been a name assigned to several different people who were doing intelligence work, either with one or more of our intelligence services, with Saudi intelligence, or with both.
This latest refloating of the Atta and his green card story (which is bogus) being floated to somehow pin the blame on Clinton is only a sliver of the story.
Remember the money from the Saudi ambassador that was going to those 9/11 fellows living in Southern California. What little I’ve seen about these guys points to a guiding hand moving and shielding these guys inside the US. Hey, who would Osama know in the US government?
By the way, there was an article called “Whitewash” in HARPERS within the last six months which ripped the 9/11 Commission from the Left, for all of you on the Right who think you’re the only ones with complaints about them.