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| 2005/8/12-15 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton] UID:39103 Activity:low |
8/12 I'm surprised this hasn't already been posted, but:
A military intelligence unit (Able Danger) identified a cell of the
9/11 highjackers a year before 9/11, but was blocked from passing
the info on to the FBI by Clinton Administration attorneys. Even
more surprising, the 9/11 commision was apparently never briefed on
this, although their staff was informed.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165268,00.html
http://csua.org/u/d0a (NYTimes)
\_ You know, this really isn't a partisan issue. It's probably a CYA
issue. Gorelick was criticized for conflict of interest because of
the "wall" memo during the commission, but stayed on.
\_ Canadian Yachting Association?
\_ Cover Your Ass
\_ Doesn't that seem like it would cast more doubt on the value
of the commision report?
\_ Absolutely. And that was the reason people objected to
Gorelick's remaining on the commission. It seems like they
should have another commission to investigate the first one.
\_ Who cares? Yeah Clinton messed up, but BUSHCO didn't do a bang
up job either.
\_ Who cares? The commision set up to fully investigate the
circumstances leading up to the greatest terrorist attack on
American soil ever completely misses the single failure that
could have prevented the attack, and your response is, "Who
cares?" Perhaps you'd rather talk about Mrs. Sheehan?
\_ What difference does it make NOW? So Clinton didn't
take action to prevent 9/11. So what? We already
knew that Clinton didn't care, otherwise he would
have acted after USS Cole.
If this info was SO important, why didn't they give
it to BUSHCO? There was a 6-8 mo window.
We need to get past the blame game and start dealing
w/ the real problem which is that a large portion of
the world is out to bring down democratic civilization.
\_ 12 October 2000, USS Cole. A Yemeni court charged
six people with carrying
out the October 2000 bombing.(The USS
Cole bombing occurred one month
before the 2000 presidential election,
so even under the best of
circumstances it was unlikely
that the investigation could have been
completed before the end of President
Clinton's term of office three months
later.)
six people with carrying out the October 2000
bombing. The USS Cole bombing occurred one month before
the 2000 presidential election, so even under the best of
circumstances it was unlikely that the investigation
could have been completed before the end of President
Clinton's term of office three months later.
\_ http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/12/01/uss.cole
They moved _quickly_. PP is a dumbfuck.
\_ I'm not talking about lame prosecutions.
They should have struck AQ and struck them
hard worldwide. But they didn't.
\_ While people should care, I don't think it's realistic
for the FBI to be briefed on every possible threat that
the U.S. as a whole comes across. In 20/20 hindsight it's
always easy to blame someone, but let's face it, during
the Clinton administration terrorism wasn't a real big
priority for either the public or the government. Should
it have been? Probably, given that the WTC had been
unsuccessfully attacked before and muslim terrorists
blew a big hole in the side of one of our military ships,
but since the collapse of the USSR we just didn't really
care all that much. I mean, for crying out loud, we
half-heartedly gave our tacit approval to the Taliban
government even when it was obvious that it was extremist,
backwards, and violated human rights left and right.
So the whole thing is like crying over spilt milk. No
administration is going to be able to prevent all future
threats to this country because essentially we're always
fighting yesterday's wars.
\_ While it's true that the FBI cannot take all threats
seriously, Able Danger knew that these guys were real
terrorists, and tried 3 times(!) to get the the
info to the FBI with a request to break up the cell.
\_ Pentagon lawyers != Clinton administration attorneys
\_ Read farther in the Fox article. I'm a little wary of the
quote myself, but that's what the guy says. -op
\_ It's pretty clear to me it's Pentagon lawyers, and his logic
is, since they were there at the time Clinton was in charge,
ergo Clinton administration lawyers
cares?" Don't you think you're taking partisan cynicism a
little far? I never said Bush was great, but that's a big
deal.
\_ I'm disinclined to believe that Pentagon lawyers would be
concerned "about the political fallout that occurred after
Waco ... and the Branch Davidians." That sounds more like
administration than Pentagon.
\_ Yeah, even if administration lawyers weren't involved,
I'll go along with it being consistent with the
pre-9/11 philosophy of having a wall in regards to
passing intelligence between the military and domestic
security.
pre-9/11 philosophy of making it difficult to pass
intelligence between military and domestic security
services.
\_ Any bet that Weldon will die within the year?
\_ Well, you know suicide is very common in these sorts of high
stress situations....
\_ Sure. I will bet you any amount you care to wager. -ausman
\_ Right wing column claiming Gorelick was warned that 'the Wall'
would cost lives:
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/51737.htm
\_ Good article. Clinton-appointee Mary Jo White was right:
Not having a wall when it comes to terrorism was the better
policy.
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password postyuck |
| 4/4 |
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| www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165268,00.html Defense Department documents show that the information, developed by a cl assified defense intelligence unit dubbed "Able Danger," wasn't handed o ver to the FBI because of concerns about pursuing information on foreign ers admitted to the country for permanent residence. search), co-chairman of the now -disbanded commission, said he wanted to know whether defense intelligen ce officials knew of the Al Qaeda-linked attackers' activity but failed to tell law enforcement. In an interview with FOX News, Hamilton said there should be a comprehens ive review by Congress and the Pentagon into the claims. He said this po tentially cruicial information could change the way history sees Sept. search) did not learn of any US governmen t knowledge prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohammed Atta or of his cel l," said Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "Had we learned of it obviously it would've been a major focus of our investiga tion." In June, Weldon displayed charts on the floor of the US Senate showing that Able Danger identified the suspected terrorists in 1999. The unit r epeatedly asked for the information to be forwarded to the FBI but appar ently to no avail. Weldon told FOX News on Wednesday that staff members of the Sept. He also said some phone calls made by military officials with Able Dan ger to the commission staff went unreturned. Was there some deliberate attempt at the staff level of the 9/11 commission to steer the commissioners away from Able Danger because of where it might lead?" "The revelation of this information demands answers that are forthcoming, clear and concise," the statement said. It was "inconceivable" that staffers would have missed such a reference, Hamilton told FOX News. According to the source who spoke with FOX News, none of the staffers bel ieve they were ever told specifically about Atta having been identified by defense intelligence before the 2001 attacks. But after the October 2003 trip, the commission staff members pursued Abl e Danger further and asked the Pentagon to produce documents related to the unit, which they were, FOX News has also learned. Still, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said this week that he was unawa re of the intelligence until the latest reports surfaced. The source said three key questions need to be answered: Did defense inte lligence identify Atta before the attacks? If so, was this information e ver passed onto the commission? Was Rumsfeld ever briefed by his predece ssor, Bill Cohen, on the unit and its findings? That is why we are going back to the archives to check our work, but at this time, staff do not believe t his information was ever made available to them," the source said. The commission's report on the terrorist attacks, released last year, tra ced government mistakes that allowed the hijackers to succeed. Among the problems the commission cited was a lack of coordination between intell igence agencies. "I can tell you right now, there are investigations going on right now t rying to get answers," Weldon told FOX News on Wednesday. search) as members of a cell Able Danger code-named "Brooklyn" because of some loo se connections to New York City. Weldon said that in September 2000, the unit recommended on three separat e occasions that its information on the hijackers be given to the FBI "s o they could bring that cell in and take out the terrorists." However, W eldon said Pentagon lawyers rejected the recommendation, arguing that At ta and the others were in the country legally so information on them cou ld not be shared with law enforcement. "Lawyers within the administration and we're talking about the Clinton administration, not the Bush administration said 'you can't do it,'" a nd put post-its over Atta's face, Weldon said. "They said they were conc erned about the political fallout that occurred after Waco ... Defense Department documents show that the Able Danger team was set up in 1999 to identify potential Al Qaeda operatives for US Special Operati ons Command. search) pointed to a possible Al Qaeda cell in Bro oklyn. However, because of concerns about pursuing information on "US persons" a legal term that includes US citizens as well as foreigners admitt ed to the country for permanent residence Special Operations Command d idn't give the Army information to the FBI. It is unclear whether the Ar my provided the information to anyone else. The command instead turned its focus to overseas threats. The documents provided no information on whether the team identified anyo ne connected to the Sept. The prohibition against sharing intelligence on "US persons" should not have applied since they were in the country on visas and did not have p ermanent resident status, said Weldon. Able Danger was largely using open-source information that was available on the Internet and in other public media, he added. com's story on open-source information and the War on Terror. Bob Graham, former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told FO X News on Wednesday that Congress not only needs to investigate the Able Danger claims but also needs to investigate other related issues, such as how German intelligence agencies alerted the United States that membe rs of the Hamburg Al Qaeda cell were coming to America. What also needs to be investigated further, Graham said, is how two Sept. The FBI is not saying what the informa nt told the agency about those terrorists, he said. will be getting on to their job with a great dea l of commitment and expertise in this area. I hope it doesn't end with t his one instance of why we didn't know about Atta," said Graham, author of "Intelligence Matters." "There's not just one mystery here there's a series of mysteries about why we didn't learn about this plot early enough to break it up," he add ed. FOXNews' Catherine Herridge and Liza Porteus and The Associated Press con tributed to this report. |
| csua.org/u/d0a -> www.nytimes.com/2005/08/11/politics/11intel.html?ex=1281412800&en=3c4c0f2346a58391&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss What Was Known About the 9/11 Plot: An Amendment The officials said that the information had not been included in the repo rt because aspects of the officer's account had sounded inconsistent wit h what the commission knew about that Qaeda member, Mohammed Atta, the p lot's leader. But aides to the Republican congressman who has sought to call attention to the military unit that conducted the secret operation said such a con clusion relied too much on specific dates involving Mr Atta's travels a nd not nearly enough on the operation's broader determination that he wa s a threat. The briefing by the military officer is the second known instance in whic h people on the commission's staff were told by members of the military team about the secret program, called Able Danger. The meeting, on July 12, 2004, has not been previously disclosed. That it occurred, and that the officer identified Mr Atta there, were acknowle dged by officials of the commission after the congressman, Curt Weldon o f Pennsylvania, provided information about it. Mr Weldon has accused the commission of ignoring information that would have forced a rewriting of the history of the Sept. He has a sserted that the Able Danger unit, whose work relied on computer-driven data-mining techniques, sought to call their superiors' attention to Mr Atta and three other future hijackers in the summer of 2000. Their work , he says, had identified the men as likely members of a Qaeda cell alre ady in the United States. In a letter sent Wednesday to members of the commission, Mr Weldon criti cized the panel in scathing terms, saying that its "refusal to investiga te Able Danger after being notified of its existence, and its recent eff orts to feign ignorance of the project while blaming others for supposed ly withholding information on it, brings shame on the commissioners, and is evocative of the worst tendencies in the federal government that the commission worked to expose." Al Felzenberg, who served as the commission's chief spokesman, said earli er 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 Felze nberg said the uniformed officer who briefed two staff members in July 2 004 had indeed mentioned Mr Atta. Both Mr Weldon's office and commission officials said they knew the name , rank and service of the officer, but they declined to make that inform ation public. The Pe ntagon and the Special Operations Command have declined to comment, sayi ng they are still trying to learn more about what may have happened. Maj Paul Swiergosz, a Pentagon spokesman, said Wednesday that the milita ry was working with the commission's unofficial follow-up group - the 9/ 11 Public Discourse Project, which was formed by the panel's members whe n it was disbanded - to try to clarify what had occurred. Mr Felzenberg said the commission's staff remained convinced that the in formation provided by the military officer in the July 2004 briefing was inaccurate in a significant way. "He wasn't brushed off," Mr Felzenberg said of the officer. The information that he provided us did not mesh with other conclusions that we were drawing" from the commissi on's investigation. |
| archives.cnn.com/2000/US/12/01/uss.cole -> archives.cnn.com/2000/US/12/01/uss.cole/ ADEN, Yemen (CNN) -- The case against six suspects in the bombing of the USS Cole may go to the prosecution in Yemen this weekend, Yemeni of ficials told CNN, although any trials in the case likely won't begin unt il early next year. The suspects are being held in the Yemeni port of Aden in connection with the October 12 suicide attack on the Navy destroyer, in which 17 US s ailors were killed and 39 injured. Prosecutors will consider the case against the suspects and decide whethe r to bring formal charges against them, the officials said. USS Cole attack If the suspects are brought to trial, it would probably begin in January, after the conclusion of Ramadan, Islam's holiest month, which began thi s week. Yemeni officials said US investigators want to delay the trial until th e investigation into the bombing is finished. Yemeni law allows a trial to begin as soon as enough evidence is collected, a Yemeni government of ficial said. US and Yemeni officials signed an agreement on Wednesday that will allo w US investigators to submit questions during interviews with suspects and witnesses. Until now, US investigators have not been allowed to p lay a role in those interviews. Repair bill goes up In another development, the Navy has raised its estimate of how much it w ill cost to repair the Cole. The tab is now $240 million, according to a revised estimate sent by the Navy to Congress this week, Navy officials said. The original estimate of $150-$170 million only covered the rebuilding of the ship's superstructure, and did not account for the cost of replacin g equipment, supplies and weapons damaged in the bombing, and water dama ge to the ship, the officials said. The Cole is being transported to Mississippi for repairs, and is expected to arrive in about a week. |
| www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/51737.htm By DEBORAH ORIN August 12, 2005 -- IT'S starting to look as if the 9/11 Commission turned a blind eye to key questions that could embarrass one of its own member s Clinton-era Justice Department honcho Jamie Gorelick. This week brought the stunning revelation that elite military spies pinpo inted Mohammed Atta and three... Log in below to your online account: Email Address: Password: Login Forgot your password? |
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