By John Crewdson and Andrew Zajac — Washington Bureau
Wed Sep 28, 9:40 AM ET
Four years after the nation’s deadliest terror attack, 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.
(more…)
[snip]
…why are Defense officials so adamant about keeping the lid on?
[snip]
“We’ve all kind of talked amongst ourselves on this and there seems to be something else, something bigger here, that maybe we’re just so close to that we can’t see.”
[Able Danger team member Lt. Col. Shaffer]
[snip]
By Rory O’Connor
AlterNet — September 28, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/26095/
Those on-again, off-again Senate Judiciary Committee hearings concerning a once-secret military intelligence unit called “Able Danger” are off, again.
Citing national security concerns, top Defense Department officials refused to allow key witnesses to testify last week, setting off a firestorm of criticism from both the right and the left. Those same unnamed officials abruptly reversed course this week — their previous concern over our (their?) security presumably vaporized — and decided the witnesses could appear before the Committee, at new hearings set for October 5.
But the hearings were then “postponed” — supposedly in deference to the forthcoming Jewish holidays — and have yet to be rescheduled.
(more…)
Hijackers rented rooms in New York
Officials mum on details of 2000 visit by Mohamed Atta, another
By PAT MILTON, Associated Press – timesunion.com
First published: Sunday, December 9, 2001
NEW YORK — Mohamed Atta, suspected ringleader of the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackings, rented rooms in New York City in the spring of 2000 with another hijacker, a federal investigator says.
(more…)
Terror Alert Wks. Before Cole Attack
Niles Lathem – NY Post
September 17, 2005 — WASHINGTON — 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.
(more…)
THE NEWS TRIBUNE — AP — September 24th, 2005 02:40 AM (PDT)
A Senate committee said Friday that the Pentagon has dropped its refusal to let five people with knowledge of a highly classified intelligence program testify about it publicly, but a Pentagon spokesman said it remained opposed to such testimony.
In a news release, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the five will testify at an open hearing Oct. 5 about “Able Danger”
(more…)
http://www.nycbordc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70&Itemid=26
New York City suffered greatly in the attacks of September 11 but that doesn’t mean New York residents were going to idly stand by while the government used the specter of future attacks to strip their rights and freedoms. New Yorkers know a scam job when they see it.
(more…)
[Not exactly current - however, only Pentagon news conference on this subject to date --Ed.]
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Last Updated 8:52 am PDT Friday, September 2, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) – 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.
Last month, two military officers, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Navy Capt. Scott Philpott, went public with claims that a secret unit code-named Able Danger used data mining – searching large amounts of data for patterns – to identify Atta in 2000. Shaffer has said three other Sept. 11 hijackers also were identified.
By Jacob Goodwin — Global Security News
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/sep_05/shaffer_interview.html
In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with GSN on August 23, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, the military intelligence operative who collaborated with Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) to draw worldwide attention to the Able Danger intelligence unit, described Able Danger’s origins, explained how it tracked terrorists as they visited individual mosques around the world, discussed the CIA’s refusal to cooperate with the program, acknowledged the supporting technical role played by the Raytheon Company, and described Able Danger’s ultimate demise.
Shaffer said Able Danger was begun in 1999 at the request of General Hugh Shelton, then the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and under the direct supervision of General Pete Schoomaker, then the commander of the Special Operations Command (SOCOM), based in Tampa, FL. Shaffer described how he was personally recruited to the newly-created unit by General Schoomaker.
(more…)
Claim Atta Was Named Debated
Security Chief Denies Getting Chart Identifying Hijacker
By Dan Eggen — Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 24, 2005; A06
National security adviser Stephen J. Hadley yesterday denied receiving a Defense Department chart that allegedly identified lead terrorist Mohamed Atta before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, dealing a blow to claims by a Republican congressman that have caused a political uproar in recent weeks.
Rep. Curt Weldon (Pa.) wrote in his book, “Countdown to Terror,” earlier this year that he provided a chart to Hadley produced in 1999 by the Pentagon’s “Able Danger” program, a secret effort to identify terrorists using publicly available data. Weldon said the chart identified Atta in connection with a Brooklyn, N.Y., terrorist cell.
(more…)
WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said Wednesday he wants answers from the Defense Department about Able Danger, a secret military unit that is said to have identified four of the Sept. 11 hijackers more than a year before the terrorist attacks.
Pentagon officials blocked five key witnesses from testifying in the Able Danger hearings on Capitol Hill Wednesday, citing security concerns.
“I think the Department of Defense owes the American people an explanation about what went on here,” Specter said. “The American people are entitled to some answers.”
(more…)
Powered by WordPress