Difference between revisions of "Able Danger"

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==Doubt==
 
==Doubt==
 
"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, [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_08/006886.php ''Washington Monthly'', August 11, 2005].
 
"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, [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_08/006886.php ''Washington Monthly'', August 11, 2005].
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==[[blowback|Blowback]]?==
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"Weldon's intended target seems to be the [[CIA]] and [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]], but not so fast, it certainly is far more enlightening and complicated than [http://www.gsnmagazine.com/aug_05/dod_lawyers.html first appears]. Just another gadfly theory of his, or ... does this present a rare opportunity for some truth outing? You bet it does.
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"Weldon's arrant stinger missile, 'Able Danger', is looping right back to Bush & Co. already in hyper damage control mode.
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"[[Philip Zelikow]] is now ground zero in [both the] 911 cover-up and 'mything' the coming [[war in Iran|war with Iran]]." --Hector Solon, [http://lawnorder.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/11/13632/3359 ''Daily Kos'', August 11, 2005].
  
 
==Curiosities==
 
==Curiosities==

Revision as of 20:22, 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]

Doubt

"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.

Blowback?

"Weldon's intended target seems to be the CIA and Clinton, but not so fast, it certainly is far more enlightening and complicated than first appears. Just another gadfly theory of his, or ... does this present a rare opportunity for some truth outing? You bet it does.

"Weldon's arrant stinger missile, 'Able Danger', is looping right back to Bush & Co. already in hyper damage control mode.

"Philip Zelikow is now ground zero in [both the] 911 cover-up and 'mything' the coming war with Iran." --Hector Solon, Daily Kos, August 11, 2005.

Curiosities

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]

Related: Niles Latham, "Pentagon Tool a Hi-Tech Fiend-Finder," New York Post (CRM Knowledge Base), August 18, 2005.

False "Validation"

Media Matters for America reported August 24, 2005, that the New York Times and Fox News "falsely reported that second military official backed up Shaffer's Able Danger claim." See story links:

Atta "Green Card"

In his January 2005 speech to the U.S. House of Representatives, Weldon asserted that lawyers in the administration said that the FBI could not pursue contact against the terrorist cell because Mohamed Atta was in the U.S. on a green card, lawnorder posted August 13, 2005, on the Daily Kos.

Justin Raimondo wrote August 12, 2005, that "Something about this doesn't quite ring true: none of the hijackers had a green card. Most came in on tourist visas: some had made easily detectable false statements on their visa applications, and might have been legally deported."

"Justin then points to a 9/11 commission statement on the hijackers means of entry in America where we indeed confirm that all of them but 1 had sought - and most got - tourist visas. It also reveals that Atta often violated rules on his tourist visa (extended stay, entering with wrong visa), which makes Curt Weldon's contention that lawyers vetoed the arrest of Atta based on his green card a blatant lie. ... So why the lie, why now?" [7]

Blame the Clinton administration

Related SourceWatch Resources

External Links

Documents

Weldon Background on Claim

Articles & Commentary

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