Dear friends,
The Senate's
stymied investigation of the Pentagon's Able Danger program is a clear example
of how powerful factions within the U.S. government are blocking efforts to
reveal failures of intelligence which led to the 9/11 attacks. Below is
a compilation of excerpts from major media news stories covering this most
important case. Links to the original media articles are included. The articles
are listed in reverse date order, with the most recent articles listed first.
The media
lately has dropped this most important story. Let us call on both the media
and our political representatives to pressure the Pentagon to allow this important
investigation to move forward. You can play an important role now by forwarding
this information to your friends and colleagues. And for an abundance of other
vital, reliable information on 9/11, see our 9/11
Information Center. Though this information may be disturbing, it is also
a powerful opportunity for us all to work together towards a brighter
future.
With best
wishes,
Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info
Team
Former language interpreter
for Presidents Bush and Clinton
Note:
Congressman Curt Weldon's stirring
speech to Congress, though quite recent, is the final item listed below
as it summarizes the Able Danger case so well and inspires action. Even if
you have limited time, this courageous speech is well worth reading. For
the most current articles (including all below) related to Able Danger see:
http://www.WantToKnow.info/abledanger911
Pentagon
Revokes 9/11 Officer's Clearance
September 30, 2005, ABC/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1173334
An officer who
has claimed that a classified military unit identified four Sept. 11 hijackers
before the 2001 attacks is facing Pentagon accusations of breaking numerous
rules, charges his lawyer suggests are aimed at undermining his credibility.
The alleged infractions by Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, 42, include obtaining
a service medal under false pretenses, improperly flashing military identification
while drunk and stealing pens, according to military paperwork shown by his
attorney to The Associated Press. Shaffer was one of the first to publicly link
Sept. 11 leader Mohamed Atta to the unit code-named Able Danger. Shaffer was
one of five witnesses the Pentagon ordered not to appear Sept. 21 before the
Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the unit's findings. The military revoked
Shaffer's top security clearance this month, a day before he was supposed to
testify to a congressional committee.
Republicans
See Signs That Pentagon Is Evading Oversight
September 29, 2005, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/politics/29intel.html
Republican members
of Congress say there are signs that the Defense Department may be carrying
out new intelligence activities through programs intended to escape oversight
from Congress and the new director of national intelligence. The warnings
are an unusually public signal of some Republican lawmakers' concern about overreaching
by the Pentagon, where top officials have been jockeying with the new intelligence
chief, John D. Negroponte, for primacy in intelligence operations. The lawmakers
said they believed that some intelligence activities, involving possible propaganda
efforts and highly technological initiatives, might be masked as so-called special
access programs, the details of which are highly classified.
Note: To
see an ABC News report and released government documents on the Pentagon's
past top-secret plans to foment terrorism and kill innocent Americans in the
US: http://www.WantToKnow.info/010501operationnorthwoods
Atta
known to Pentagon before 9/11
September 28, 2005, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509280150sep28,1,3686073.story
(Page 1 of 4)
http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/1193
(All four pages)
Evidence is
accumulating that a super-secret Pentagon intelligence unit identified the
organizer of the Sept. 11 hijackings, Mohamed Atta, as an Al Qaeda operative
months before he entered the U.S. Had the FBI been alerted to what the Pentagon
purportedly knew in early 2000, Atta's name could have been put on a list
that would have tagged him as someone to be watched the moment he stepped
off a plane in Newark, N.J., in June of that year. Physical and electronic
surveillance of Atta, who lived openly in Florida for more than a year, and
who acquired a driver's license and even an FAA pilot's license in his true
name, might well have made it possible for the FBI to expose the Sept. 11
plot before the fact. Anthony Shaffer...says he was asked in the summer
of 2000 by a Navy captain, Scott Phillpott, to arrange a meeting between the
FBI and representatives of the Pentagon intelligence program, code-named Able
Danger. But he said the meeting was canceled after Pentagon lawyers concluded
that information on suspected Al Qaeda operatives with ties to the U.S. might
violate Pentagon prohibitions on retaining information on "U.S. persons,"
a term that includes U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens. Asked by
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, at
a hearing last week whether Atta...was a "U.S. person," a senior
Pentagon official answered, "No, he was not."
Pentagon,
Senate committee bicker over 9/11 probe
September 23, 2005, ABC/Reuters
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1154206
The Pentagon
and the Senate Judiciary Committee squabbled publicly on Friday about whether
lawmakers could question five key witnesses in public about their claims the
U.S. military identified four September 11 hijackers long before the 20001
attacks. The panel's chairman, Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania,
said at Wednesday's hearing the Pentagon could be guilty of obstructing congressional
proceedings. Other lawmakers accused the Defense Department of orchestrating
a cover-up. On Friday, the Senate committee announced the Pentagon had
reversed its position and would allow the five witnesses to testify at a new
public hearing scheduled for October 5. The five witnesses in question
were all involved with Able Danger and contend the team identified September
11 ringleader Mohamed Atta and three other hijackers as members of an al Qaeda
cell in early 2000. One prospective witness, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer,
has said publicly that Able Danger members tried to pass the information about
Atta along to the FBI three times in September 2000 but were forced by Pentagon
lawyers to cancel the meetings. Much of the information related to Able Danger
was destroyed in 2000.
Note:
The public hearing scheduled for October 5th never happened. Any ideas why?
Military Bars 9/11 Intel Testimony
September 21, 2005, CBS/Associated Press
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/21/terror/main871800.shtml
The Department
of Defense forbade a military intelligence officer to testify Wednesday about
a secret military unit that the officer says identified four Sept. 11 hijackers
as terrorists more than a year before the attacks. In testimony to the
Senate Judiciary Committee, attorney Mark Zaid, who represents Lt. Col. Anthony
Shaffer, said the Pentagon also refused to permit testimony there by a defense
contractor that he also represents. The Judiciary Committee was hearing testimony
about the work of a classified unit code named "Able Danger." Zaid,
appearing on behalf of Shaffer and contractor John Smith [stated] that Able
Danger, using data mining techniques, identified four of the terrorists who
struck on Sept. 11, 2001 - including mastermind Mohamed Atta. "At least
one chart, and possibly more, featured a photograph of Mohamed Atta,"
Zaid said. Maj. Paul Swiergosz, a Defense Department spokesman, said Wednesday
that open testimony would not be appropriate. "There's nothing more
to say than that," Swiergosz said. "It's not possible to discuss
the Able Danger program because there are security concerns." Zaid also
charged that records associated with the unit were destroyed during 2000 and
March 2001, and copies were destroyed in spring 2004.
Panel rejects assertion US knew of Atta before Sept. 11
September 15, 2005, Boston Globe/Associated
Press
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/09/15/panel_rejects_assertion_us_knew_of_atta_before_sept_11/
Former members
of the Sept. 11 commission on Wednesday dismissed assertions that a Pentagon
intelligence unit identified lead hijacker Mohamed Atta as an member of al-Qaida
long before the 2001 attacks. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., had accused the
commission of ignoring intelligence about Atta while it investigated the attacks.
The commission’s former chairman, Thomas Kean, said there was no evidence
anyone in the government knew about Atta before Sept. 11, 2001. Kean said
the recollections of the intelligence officers cannot be verified by any document.
“Bluntly, it just didn’t happen and that’s the conclusion of all 10 of us,”
said a former commissioner, ex-Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash. Weldon’s spokesman,
John Tomaszewski, said no commissioners have met with anyone from Able Danger
“yet they choose to speak with some form of certainty without firsthand knowledge.”
Note:
If you read the New
York Times article from Aug. 11th, commission officials clearly stated
that they were warned by a uniformed military officer 10 days before issuing
the commission's final report that the account would be incomplete without reference
Able Danger and Atta, as confirmed by the commission's own chief spokesperson.
Is this more recent article a rewriting of the facts?
Congressman Says Pentagon Employee Was Ordered to Destroy Data Identifying Atta
As a Terrorist
September 15, 2005, ABC/Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1131137
A Pentagon employee
was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist
two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman said Thursday. The employee
is prepared to testify next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee and was
expected to identify the person who ordered him to destroy the large volume
of documents, said Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa. Weldon declined to identify the
employee, citing confidentiality matters. Weldon described the documents as
"2.5 terabytes" as much as one-fourth of all the printed materials
in the Library of Congress, he added.
Weldon doubts DoD on Able Danger
September 8, 2005, UPI
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20050908-122856-3635r
The congressman
who first made public claims that a secret Pentagon data mining project linked
the Sept. 11 attacks ringleader to al-Qaida more than a year before the attacks
took place says he does not believe the military's account of how the results
of the project's work came to be destroyed. "I seriously have my doubts
that it was routine," Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Penn., told United Press International.
Weldon said he had asked the Pentagon for the certificates of destruction
that military officials must complete when classified data is destroyed. He
said that there had been "a second elimination of data in 2003,"
in addition to the destruction acknowledged last week. "For some
reason, the bureaucracy in the Pentagon...didn't want this to get out,"
he said.
More remember Atta ID’d as terrorist pre-9/11
September 1, 2005, MSNBC/Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9163145/
Pentagon officials
said Thursday they have found three more people who recall an intelligence
chart that identified Sept. 11 mastermind Mohamed Atta as a terrorist one
year before the attacks on New York and Washington. But they have been unable
to find the chart or other evidence that it existed. On Thursday, four intelligence
officials provided the first extensive briefing for reporters on the outcome
of their interviews with people associated with Able Danger and their review
of documents. They said they interviewed at least 80 people over a three-week
period and found three, besides Philpott and Shaffer, who said they remember
seeing a chart that either mentioned Atta by name as an al-Qaida operative
or showed his photograph. Four of the five recalled a chart with a pre-9/11
photo of Atta; the other person recalled only a reference to his name. The
intelligence officials said they consider the five people to be credible but
their recollections are still unverified.
Naval officer says Atta's identity known pre-9/11
August 23, 2005, New York Times/San Francisco
Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/08/23/MNG66EBPJ71.DTL
An active-duty
Navy captain has become the second military officer to come forward publicly
to say that a secret defense intelligence program tagged the ringleader of
the Sept. 11 attacks as a possible terrorist more than a year before the attacks.
The officer, Capt. Scott Phillpott, said in a statement Monday that he could
not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger,
but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed
Atta, by name by early 2000. Shaffer went public with his assertions last
week, saying that analysts in the intelligence project had been overruled
by military lawyers when they tried to share the program's findings with the
FBI in 2000 in hopes of tracking down terrorist suspects tied to al Qaeda.
9/11 Commission's Staff Rejected Report on Early Identification of Chief Hijacker
August 11, 2005, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/11/politics/11intel.html
The Sept.
11 commission was warned by a uniformed military officer 10 days before issuing
its final report that the account would be incomplete without reference to
what he described as a secret military operation that by the summer of 2000
had identified as a potential threat the member of Al Qaeda who would lead
the attacks more than a year later. The officials said that the information
had not been included in the report because aspects of the officer's account
had sounded inconsistent with what the commission knew about that Qaeda member,
Mohammed Atta, the plot's leader. [Republican congressman Curt] Weldon has
accused the commission of ignoring information that would have forced a rewriting
of the history of the Sept. 11 attacks. He has asserted that the Able Danger
unit...sought to call their superiors' attention to Mr. Atta and three other
future hijackers in the summer of 2000. In a letter sent Wednesday to members
of the commission, Mr. Weldon criticized the panel in scathing terms, saying
that its "refusal to investigate Able Danger after being notified of
its existence, and its recent efforts to feign ignorance of the project...brings
shame on the commissioners." Al Felzenberg, who served as the commission's
chief spokesman, said earlier this week that staff members who were briefed
about Able Danger at a first meeting, in October 2003, did not remember hearing
anything about Mr. Atta or an American terrorist cell. On Wednesday, however,
Mr. Felzenberg said the uniformed officer who briefed two staff members in
July 2004 had indeed mentioned Mr. Atta.
Congressman Curt Weldon's Speech to Congress
October 19, 2005, Official Website of Congressman
Weldon (R-Pa)
http://curtweldon.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=35792
"I have
been in this institution 19 years. I am the vice chairman of [the Committee
on Armed Services] and chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the purchase
of our weapons systems. I am a strong supporter of our military. I am a strong
supporter of President Bush. I campaigned for him. I am a strong supporter
of Secretary Rumsfeld. I say all of that, Mr. Speaker, because...there
is something desperately wrong here. There is a bureaucracy in the Defense
Intelligence Agency that is out of control. They want to destroy the reputation
of a 23-year military officer, Bronze Star recipient, hero of our country,
with two kids because people in defense intelligence are embarrassed at what
is going to come out. I have met with at least 10 people who fully corroborate
what Tony Shaffer says. This is not [about] Republicans or Democrats. It is
about what is fundamental to this country. I would ask our constituents across
America [who] we represent to join us, to express their outrage, to e-mail,
make phone calls, write letters to the Secretary of Defense, the President
of the United States, to Members of Congress to...let the Able Danger story
finally come out to the American people. Let them understand what really
happened. Let Scott Philpott talk. Let Tony Shaffer talk. Let the others who
have been silenced have a chance to tell their story to Congress and openly
to the American people. In the end, the country will be stronger.
Note: For an abundance of vital, reliable information on 9/11, see our 9/11
Information Center
