Able Danger: The Drumbeat Goes On

[Annie]

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005462.php

Links at site:

September 17, 2005
Able Danger: Closed Hearings?

AJ Strata notes that the Senate Judiciary Committee has come under pressure from the Pentagon to close its Able Danger hearings to the public, just when it has finally acknowledged finding three additional witnesses that corroborate the identification of Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers over a year before the attacks. Why would the Pentagon want the hearings closed? Curt Weldon apparently knows one reason:

Witnesses from the Pentagon are expected to testify at that hearing; that's why they want it classified. FOX News has learned that committee Chairman Arlen Specter's office is vigorously resisting the request.

Some former Able Danger analysts and Rep. Curt Weldon (search) say the formerly clandestine intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta (search) and three other of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers one year before the attacks that left over 3,000 people dead. They also claim that their repeated requests to turn over the information to the FBI were ignored.

Weldon said a former Army officer will testify next week that he was also ordered to destroy data that included reference to Atta.

"In the summer of 2000, he was ordered and, or, he would go to jail if he didn't comply," the Pennsylvania Republican said. "He was ordered to destroy 2.5 terabytes of data specific to Able Danger, the Brooklyn [terror] cell and Mohammad Atta. He will name the person who ordered him to destroy that material."

Other witnesses will include an FBI agent who will testify that she set up three meetings in 2000 between the FBI's Washington field office and the Able Danger, but each was cancelled at the last minute, Weldon said.

The Pentagon has changed its position on this story, from originally questioning the very existence of Able Danger (search) to now confirming that the Defense Department has identified five former members of the unit who all say they remember Atta's picture or name, on a chart in 2000.

Why worry about whether this gets discussed in open session of Congress? The Pentagon now admits the program existed, that it mined open-source information, and that it identified Atta and others as al-Qaeda operatives. What they don't want discussed is what the Pentagon did with the data -- and what else Able Danger may have found. Some of that data, the part that focused on overseas threats, still exists and might still be in use. Col. Tony Shaffer made that clear in his interview with Government Security News earlier this month.

AJ Strata wonders who ordered the destruction of the data, and notes that the Pentagon's exclusion of military lawyers from that order somehow strikes an ominous note. He and I differ on this point. Under normal circumstances, the lawyers wouldn't make that decision anyway. Destruction of classified material gets handled through the normal chain of command, and receiving "orders" to destroy data on a closed program like Able Danger may not really be that unusual. If the lawyers had demanded it, I think that would lend itself to a more political explanation.

Now, if I had more faith in Weldon as a source, his pinpointing of the destruction in spring/summer 2000 would have more impact, as AJ notes in his blog. It would have been right when Atta made his move to the US. However, no one up to now has offered that kind of timeline for the destruction of the data. Shaffer noted that he had kept the Able Danger archive until February 2004, almost four years later, and that only after he went to the Commission did his security clearances get interrupted and his files removed. He provided AD data to other intelligence resources focusing on overseas targets. None of the other witnesses mentioned the destruction of data in 2000.

However, clearly something changed at the Pentagon which forced them into conceding almost every point Weldon ever made except in producing the documentation. What that change might have been could reveal itself during the course of the Judiciary Committee hearings. Since both the Pentagon and the 9/11 Commission have undermined their credibility severely over the last month on Able Danger, I think that it behooves Senator Specter to keep the hearings open to the public and allow all of us to find out why this crucial finding got ignored by both the military/intelligence bureaucracies and the 9/11 Commission later on.

UPDATE: AJ Strata has stayed on this like a bulldog today. The New York Post now reports that Able Danger tipped off the Pentagon that al-Qaeda planned on attacking out of Yemen three weeks before the suicide bombing on the USS Cole in October 2000:

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.

In the latest explosive revelation in the Able Danger saga, two former members of the data-mining team are expected to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee next week that they uncovered alarming terrorist activity and associations in Aden weeks before the Oct. 12, 2000, suicide bombing of the U.S. warship that killed 17 sailors.

Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, the Defense Intelligence Agency's former liaison to Able Danger, told The Post that Capt. Scott Phillpott, Able Danger's leader, briefed Gen. Peter Schoomaker, former head of Special Operations Command and now Army chief of staff, about the findings on Yemen "two or three weeks" before the Cole attack.

"Yemen was elevated by Able Danger to be one of the top three hot spots for al Qaeda in the entire world," Shaffer recalled.

This would explain why the Pentagon doesn't want the Able Danger hearings to go public. If this account can be verified, it makes the question of why the program got shut down. A successful prediction of terrorist activity should have resulted in an expansion of the program, not a disavowal of it. The intelligence that led to the prediction may also still have validity, which a public hearing might jeopardize -- but that seems highly unlikely after five years.

However, it also means that the documentation and the 2.5 terabytes of data that Weldon claimed got destroyed in the spring or summer of 2000 had to have been still extant, at least through September 2000, for the Able Danger unit to make this determination. It provides a real problem for that earlier allegation, unless the destruction only involved that data which applied to domestic cells of al-Qaeda. Could that data get separated from the information that accurately identified Yemen as the site of the next AQ attack? Perhaps, but again, it seems unlikely.

These hearings should be interesting indeed.
Posted by Captain Ed at September 17, 2005 10:42 AM

 

[StoptheMadness1]

So, an army officer was ordered to destroy the data on Atta...

This is not the only case of the destruction and/or confiscation of evidence regarding the events of 9/11.

The FAA destroyed the flight recording tapes.

"WASHINGTON -- Air traffic controllers who handled two of the hijacked flights on Sept. 11, 2001, recorded their experiences shortly after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center but a supervisor destroyed the tape, government investigators said Thursday."

The FBI confiscated the tapes that supposedly show the aircraft hitting the pentagon.

John O'niell, the FBI agent who was hot on the trail of the 9/11 plot had his evidence destroyed, multiple times, and at every turn had his investigations stopped.

Finally, Judicialwatch.org filed a FOIA for documents concerning Bin Laden and alqaeda, what they received may surprise you..

"In a September 24, 2003 declassified “Secret” FBI report obtained by Judicial Watch, the FBI invoked Exemption 6 under FOIA law on behalf of bin Laden, which permits the government to withhold all information about U.S. persons in “personnel and medical files and similar files” when the disclosure of such information “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6) (2000))"

Is Alqaeda doing all of this? is Alqaeda covering their tracks? I don't think so..

Perhaps Turkish intelligence was correct in stating that:

"Amid the smoke from the fortuitous fire emerged the possibility that al-Qaeda may not be, strictly speaking, an organization but an element of an intelligence agency operation."

These are huge red flags folks.....

Why would our government invoke a right to privacy for bin laden and alqaeda

He/they arent even US citizens.....

 

[StoptheMadness1]

Anyone want to comment on the information in my post?

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Anyone want to comment on the information in my post?

Gee, the government covering it's ass? I heard Sandy Berger tried to stick an aircraft control tower in his pants.

They're all travellers man.

Bush still done good In Iraq and the tax cuts.

 

[StoptheMadness1]

The government is covering its ass you say?

I thought it was telling you the truth.

Why have those instances of destruction of evidence not been investigated?

Could you get away with destroying evidence in your criminal trial?

Why do you think the government is covering up evidence?

Why are we allowing this government to get away with this....

Do you like being deceived?

 

[rtwngAvngr]

The government is covering its ass you say?

I thought it was telling you the truth.

Why have those instances of destruction of evidence not been investigated?

Could you get away with destroying evidence in your criminal trial?

Why do you think the government is covering up evidence?

Why are we allowing this government to get away with this....

Do you like being deceived?

They're covering up the infamous Jamie Gorelick wall. The Pubs are covering for the dems in this case. In return, we're "ass fucking the nation" which is what you call sound foreign and economy policy. We get to do what's good for the country by covering for dem incompetence. See?

 

[rtwngAvngr]

OR it could be the reason as stated in the initial article:
"Witnesses from the Pentagon are expected to testify at that hearing; that's why they want it classified. "

 

[StoptheMadness1]

..........What the hell?

Our government is covering up what really happened on 9/11 for our own good?

That is the most distorted, twilight zone kind of answer i have ever seen.

 

[StoptheMadness1]

As i have said, the official story is a lie, as Morgain Reynolds (former member of our current president's cabinet) says, the evidence points towards an "inside job" scenario.

 

[Annie]

Anyone want to comment on the information in my post?

How about a link?

 

[Annie]

How about a link?

Found one:

http://www.fourwinds10.com/news/05-...05-18-04-controllers-911-tapes-destroyed.html

and another:

http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=475

Personally, I think I'll let history sort this one out, it will...

 

[rtwngAvngr]

..........What the hell?

Our government is covering up what really happened on 9/11 for our own good?

That is the most distorted, twilight zone kind of answer i have ever seen.

Why cuz the government never lies or covers up? You're high on popsicles.

 

[kurtsprincess]

Do you like being deceived?

No.

I don't like the fact that the previous administration deceived us and tried to cover up their mistakes and I don't like this administration covering up their mistakes. What I dislike even more is this new era of "shame and blame" that has cropped up in our culture. If we, as a nation, concentrated more on correcting the mistakes discovered instead of worrying about who, what or why and what party did it, I think this country would be more united.

What I do expect is that every administration will take extraordinary steps to protect this country and sometimes that means we don't need to know all there is to know.

 

[kurtsprincess]

As i have said, the official story is a lie, as Morgain Reynolds (former member of our current president's cabinet) says, the evidence points towards an "inside job" scenario.

Please define "inside job", and why I should believe this person's account over anyone else?

Not trying to be controversial, just wanting more facts.

 

[Adam's Apple]

The Senate hearings on Able Danger began today. The Washington Times expects it to be quite a show.

Probing Able Danger
TODAY'S EDITORIAL, The Washington Times
September 20, 2005

Tomorrow's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Pentagon's top-secret military intelligence unit known as Able Danger should be quite a show. Rep. Curt Weldon, who deserves most of the credit for bringing the formerly forgotten unit to public attention, is promising as much with a list of potential witnesses who he says will be able to testify that Able Danger identified ringleader Mohamed Atta and several other terrorists inside the United States at least a year before the September 11 attacks.

The list includes:
• Naval Capt. Scott Philpott, an Able Danger team leader, according to the Pentagon, who approached the September 11 commission with what he knew about Atta in 2004.
• Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, the Defense Intelligence Agency employee who acted as liaison with Able Danger team members. Col. Shaffer was the first to come forward with allegations that Pentagon lawyers rebuffed his attempts to coordinate a meeting between Able Danger analysts and the FBI.
• An FBI agent, who, according to Mr. Weldon, will testify under oath that she organized the meetings between the FBI and Able Danger analysts to discuss Atta.
• A Pentagon employee, who will testify that he was ordered to destroy 2.5 terabytes of information Able Danger had compiled, which is roughly equivalent to one-fourth of all the printed material in the Library of Congress. According to Mr. Weldon, this person, as yet unidentified, will also name the officer who gave the order.

As the Pentagon acknowledged earlier this month, destroying sensitive intelligence is not in itself unusual, because the Pentagon is forbidden to spy on Americans.

"In a major data-mining effort like [Able Danger], you're reaching out to a lot of open sources and within that there could be a lot of information on U.S. persons," said Pat Downs, a senior policy analyst in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense.

We can only assume that the Able Danger chart identifying 60 known terrorists including Atta was lost in this destruction. So far, this chart is the only known material evidence that would corroborate Mr. Weldon's claims. The Pentagon has found similar charts, but none which include Atta.

However, as with nearly everything related to Able Danger, there is some confusion. The employee who will testify that he destroyed the data will apparently also allege that a Special Operations Command general, who was in the Able Danger chain of command, was "incensed when he found out that material that he was a customer for was destroyed without his approval," said Mr. Weldon. If true, this might mean that the order to destroy the Able Danger data came from elsewhere in the Pentagon, which could lead one to speculate that it was not part of normal procedure.

We hoped the Pentagon would clarify some of the particulars regarding Able Danger, and so it has. It has acknowledged that Able Danger existed as well as discovered three other defense employees who recall the unit's identification of Atta before the September 11 attacks. Its confirmation of Able Danger, the existence of similar charts and Mr. Weldon's witness list, do, however, place further pressure on the September 11 commissioners to explain why they didn't mention the unit in their final report.

A new thread concerning the worst attack on U.S. soil is beginning to come to light. Although it is far too soon to conclude that this is a major scandal, it should be pursued with vigor and complete transparency.

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050919-085409-1193r.htm

 

[ScreamingEagle]

2.5 terabytes of data is a WHOLE LOT of data on terrorist activity that was destroyed. I wonder who gave that order?

A terabyte is a measure of computer storage capacity and is 2 to the 40th power or approximately a thousand billion bytes (that is, a thousand gigabytes).

If 9-11 could have been prevented, someone needs to answer for this.

 

[Adam's Apple]

I was just wondering how much of the truth will come out in the hearings. We'll see. The 9/11 Commission was made up of pretty adept politicians who have been pretty skillful in talking about what they knew/didn't know about Able Danger and when they knew/didn't know it.

 

[Annie]

I was just wondering how much of the truth will come out in the hearings. We'll see. The 9/11 Commission was made up of pretty adept politicians who have been pretty skillful in talking about what they knew/didn't know about Able Danger and when they knew/didn't know it.

I won't be surprised to see a motion for closed doors and second.