Able Danger

Able Danger was the "small, highly classified military intelligence unit" which identified Mohammed Atta and "three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States ... more than a year before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to Curt Weldon, Republican Congressman and Representative of Pennsylvania, and former defense intelligence official.

"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," Weldon said August 15, 2005.

"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."

The New York Times reported that Al Felzenberg, former spokesman for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, "confirmed that members of its staff, including Philip Zelikow, the executive director, were told about the program on 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."

Related SourceWatch Resources

• intelligence community

External Links

• Douglas Jehl, "Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00," New York Times, August 9, 2005.
• Douglas Jehl and Philip Shenon, "9/11 Commission's Staff Rejected Report on Early Identification of Chief Hijacker," New York Times, August 11, 2005.
• "Source: 9/11 Panel Staffers Probing Documents on 'Able Danger'," Fox News, August 11, 2005.
• "'Able Danger' Could Rewrite History," Fox News, August 12, 2005.
• Douglas Jehl, "9/11 Panel Explains Move on Intelligence Unit," New York Times, August 13, 2005.
• "Weldon not buying 'Able Danger' dismissal. Accuses 9-11 commission of changing its story on Atta info," WorldNetDaily, August 13, 2005.
• "Lawyers barred unit from informing FBI of 9/11 terrorist," Associated Press (USA Today), August 16, 2005.
• Philip Shenon, "Officer Says Military Blocked Sharing of Files on Terrorists," New York Times, August 17, 2005.
• Roxanna Hegeman, "Agent Details BTK Killing Spree at Hearing," Associated Press (The Stamford Advocate), August 17, 2005.
• Gil Spencer, "Suddenly, there is a name (beside Curt Weldon’s) to put with the allegation that a secret military intelligence unit called Able Danger identified Mohammed Atta more than a year before he led 9/11 attacks against America. The name is Tony Shaffer," The Daily Times, August 17, 2005.
• "Officer: 9/11 panel didn't receive key information," CNN, August 17, 2005: "A former member of a classified Pentagon intelligence unit told CNN on Wednesday that information he tried to provide to the commission investigating the September 11, 2001, attacks never made it to the panel's members."
• "'Able Danger' specialist: I briefed 9-11 staff. Army officer involved in gleaning Atta intel in 2000 speaks out," WorldNetDaily, August 17, 2005.
• "Agent Defends Military Unit's Data on 9/11 Hijackers," Fox News, August 17, 2005.
• "A Pentagon review of a defunct defense operation said to have linked a Sept. 11 hijacker to a terrorist cell in New York City, could shed new light on why Defense Department officials shut down the secret program, 'Able Danger,' more than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks," Times Herald (Philadelphia), August 17, 2005.