Reply #139: Tech problem fixed, Able Danger articles are back...

[JackRiddler]

http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20050830191215604

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10 Salient Points About Able Danger

1) In early 2000 the secret Able Danger program under the US Special Operations Command supposedly identified four men as Al-Qaeda operatives working in the United States. Their names were Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi. The US government has named Atta as the overall ringleader of the 9/11 hijackers. Atta and al-Shehhi came to the United States from Germany in 2000 and at times lived together in Florida, where they attended the same flight schools. They have been named as the pilots of the two World Trade Center crash planes. They were members of the al-Qaeda "Hamburg Cell," which the government says also provided the alleged suicide pilot of Flight 93, Ziad Jarrah. Almidhar and Alhazmi are considered to have played an important role in organizing personnel for the attack, and are said to have been among the Flight 77 hijackers.

2) Able Danger used sophisticated electronic "data-mining" or "matrix" techniques to locate potential terrorists. But according to a former Pentagon contractor who worked on the program, James D. Smith, Able Danger obtained Atta''s name and photograph from "a private researcher in California, who was paid to gather the information from contacts in the Middle East." (NYT, 8/23/2005) Who was this private reasearcher?

Atta''s photo was added to a wall chart plotting "Brooklyn Cell" connections, which included the other three suspects so far named. The chart was ordered destroyed after objections from Defense Department lawyers, according to the officers who have come forward (Col. Anthony Shaffer and Capt. Scott Phillpott). But a spokesman for the Special Operations Command, of which Able Danger was a part, says "that ''we have negative indications'' that destruction of such a chart was advised by military lawyers." (Reuters, 9/1/01) In that case, who did advise it, and why?

3) The original Times story contains a blanket statement that hides the most important facts of all: "The account is the first assertion that Mr. Atta, an Egyptian who became the lead hijacker in the plot, was identified by any American government agency as a potential threat before the Sept. 11 attacks."

This is the heart of the "limited hangout." The Times statement is false for at least two reasons:

- Already in September 2001, German authorities told their own press that the CIA had Atta and the Hamburg Cell under observation from Jan. to June 2000, while they were still in Germany. (This counts as an "assertion.") The German authorities say the CIA did not inform them of its activities, and that they only found out after the attacks. (See Berliner Zeitung, 9/24/01, archived as third article here, among many other German reports at that time.) According to the German authorities and the FBI, Atta received a travel visa from the US Consulate in Berlin in May, and first left for the United States via Prague in June 2000.

- How did the CIA get on Atta''s tail in the first place? It could be because in March 1999, "German intelligence officials gave the Central Intelligence Agency the first name and telephone number of Marwan al-Shehhi, and asked the Americans to track him." And that is how the New York Times itself reported it ("C.I.A. Was Given Data on Hijacker Long Before 9/11," NYT Feb. 24, 2004). In late 1999, the CIA attempted to recruit Mamoun Darkazanli, an associate of the "Hamburg Cell" members. (Chicago Tribune, 11/16/2002, archived here.)

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http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20050830191215604

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ALSO:
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20060302155139342

Thursday, March 2 2006
'Mystery Woman' Told Military of Atta Long Before Sept. 11

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In the latest wrinkle, blog reporter Rory O'Connor (Mar 1, archived below) says a Pentagon inspector general's investigation has identified the person who provided Able Danger with Atta's name and photo. Atta's photo was incorporated into the "Brooklyn Cell" within a chart of alleged al Qaeda activities in the United States. The brass who later shut down surveillance of Atta and Co. ordered the Able Danger operatives to cover the photo with a yellow stickie, and finally had the chart and the data that went into it destroyed altogether.

The source of the photo, O'Connor now writes, is "a female contract employee of defense contractor Orion Scientific," nowadays a data-mining subsidiary of SRA with heavy Homeland Security involvements. This would appear to confirm an earlier assertion by Orion employee James D. Smith, who had also worked with Able Danger, "that Mr. Atta's name and photograph were obtained through a private researcher in California who was paid to gather the information from contacts in the Middle East." Since that story was already in the New York Times of Aug. 23, 2005, we wonder why it should take until now for a Pentagon inspector-general to "identify" someone who was working for the Pentagon in the first place.

O'Connor does not name his source for the story, but his blog makes clear that he is in contact with Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA), the public champion of the Able Danger whistleblowers. Weldon is known for his aggressive approach to Iran and strong support for the unrestricted use of data-mining surveillance. Some observers have therefore voiced suspicions that claims of Able Danger's successes may be designed as a commercial for more Orwellian programs of the "Total Information Awareness" type.

Yet Able Danger's real success in rooting out the 9/11 suspects was apparently thanks to the as-yet unnamed woman and her contacts in the Middle East. Score another one for human intelligence. The question now is, who was this "mystery woman," and how did she find out about Atta and Co.? Who were her contacts? And what exactly did they know?

http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20060302155139342