Difference between revisions of "Able Danger"

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==Curiousities==
 
==Curiousities==
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===Charts===
 
"On a related subject, former 9/11 commissioner [[Tim Roemer]] thinks there's something screwy about the Able Danger timeline. Supposedly, the Able Danger team produced a chart that included Mohamed Atta's name and picture, but according to [[Fox News]], Roemer wondered 'how Able Danger got a photo of Atta in 2000 for its alleged chart of terrorists when he had not yet applied for a U.S. visa.'" [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_08/006942.php]
 
"On a related subject, former 9/11 commissioner [[Tim Roemer]] thinks there's something screwy about the Able Danger timeline. Supposedly, the Able Danger team produced a chart that included Mohamed Atta's name and picture, but according to [[Fox News]], Roemer wondered 'how Able Danger got a photo of Atta in 2000 for its alleged chart of terrorists when he had not yet applied for a U.S. visa.'" [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_08/006942.php]
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===Data Mining===
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"Now, this information was not obtained through human sources, radio intercepts, or any other confidential communication. Able Danger operated a data mining operation. It accessed 'publicly available information from government immigration agencies, from Internet sites and from paid search engines like [[LexisNexis]].' In other words, Atta's name must have come up as data through this mining, presumably repeatedly in some sort of pattern in order for his name to have any significance to the miners.
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"So there must be data referring to Atta then — right? If so, where is it?  There must be documents where Atta's name came up, frequently enough so that Atta would stick out among all the other names which come up in through the data mine. And curiously, not one document with Atta's name has yet come to light." [http://martinirepublic.com/item/2102]
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"Which is odd, to say the least. Assuming that Shaffer's account is accurate, there would have to be data somewhere which led to Atta's identification. If the [[Pentagon]] has the mined data which led to Atta, why didn't it turn it over to the 9/11 Commission. If it did turn it over, what happened to it? And the Pentagon must have retained the data, even if it turned it over, right? 
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"So where is it?" [http://martinirepublic.com/item/2102]
  
 
==From the "Right": Blaming the Clinton administration==
 
==From the "Right": Blaming the Clinton administration==

Revision as of 19:29, 24 August 2005

Able Danger, according to Curt Weldon, Republican Congressman and Representative of Pennsylvania, and former defense intelligence official, was a "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. [1]

According to Weldon

"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." [2]

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." [3]

Quotes

"Bottom line: This is an intriguing story, but my guess is that Weldon and his source may be considerably embroidering the scope and reliability of what the Able Danger team actually uncovered in 2000 — as people are often wont to do after the fact." --Kevin Drum, Washington Monthly, August 11, 2005.

Curiousities

Charts

"On a related subject, former 9/11 commissioner Tim Roemer thinks there's something screwy about the Able Danger timeline. Supposedly, the Able Danger team produced a chart that included Mohamed Atta's name and picture, but according to Fox News, Roemer wondered 'how Able Danger got a photo of Atta in 2000 for its alleged chart of terrorists when he had not yet applied for a U.S. visa.'" [4]

Data Mining

"Now, this information was not obtained through human sources, radio intercepts, or any other confidential communication. Able Danger operated a data mining operation. It accessed 'publicly available information from government immigration agencies, from Internet sites and from paid search engines like LexisNexis.' In other words, Atta's name must have come up as data through this mining, presumably repeatedly in some sort of pattern in order for his name to have any significance to the miners.

"So there must be data referring to Atta then — right? If so, where is it? There must be documents where Atta's name came up, frequently enough so that Atta would stick out among all the other names which come up in through the data mine. And curiously, not one document with Atta's name has yet come to light." [5]

"Which is odd, to say the least. Assuming that Shaffer's account is accurate, there would have to be data somewhere which led to Atta's identification. If the Pentagon has the mined data which led to Atta, why didn't it turn it over to the 9/11 Commission. If it did turn it over, what happened to it? And the Pentagon must have retained the data, even if it turned it over, right?

"So where is it?" [6]

From the "Right": Blaming the Clinton administration

Related SourceWatch Resources

External Links

Documents

Weldon Background on Claim

Articles & Commentary

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