Posted on 08/14/2005 8:03:47 PM PDT by NathanBookman
Mike Kelly, a columnist for the Bergen Record of New Jersey, had Curt Weldon’s staff arrange an interview with a member of Able Danger.
He uncovers a few tidbits we haven't heard before:
For a year before the 9/11 attacks, the Wayne Inn was home to Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaida mastermind behind the hijacking plot that killed almost 3,000 people...
A former member of the military intelligence team told me in an interview that it had enough data to raise suspicions. "But we were blocked from passing it to the FBI."
The connect-the-dots tracking by the team was so good that it even knew Atta conducted meetings with the three future hijackers. One of those meetings took place at the Wayne Inn. That's how close all this was - to us and to being solved, if only the information had been passed up the line to FBI agents or even to local cops.
The story begins a year before the attacks. A top-secret team of Pentagon military counter-terror computer sleuths, who worked for a special operations commando group, was well into a project to monitor al-Qaida operations.
The 11-person group called itself "Project Able Danger." Think of them as a super-secret Delta Force or SEAL team. But instead of guns, they relied on advanced math training as their key weapons. And instead of traditional spying methods or bust-down-the-door commando tactics, the Able Danger group booted up a set of high-speed, super-computers and collected vast amounts of data.
The technique is called "data mining." The Able Danger team swept together information from al-Qaida chat rooms, news accounts, Web sites and financial records. Then they connected the dots, comparing the information with visa applications by foreign tourists and other government records.
From there, the computer sleuths noticed four names - Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Khalid al-Mihdar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.
All four turned out to be hijackers. Atta and al-Shehhi took a room at the Wayne Inn. They rented a Wayne mail drop, too, and even went to Willowbrook Mall. Al-Mihdar and al-Hazmi took rooms at a motel on Route 46 in South Hackensack.
What is interesting about this information now is that a CIA team, working separately from the Able Danger Team, had set its sights on al-Mihdar and al-Hazmi. The two were already on a CIA terror watch list and still had managed to obtain U.S. visas.
The CIA feared al-Mihdar and al-Hazmi might try to slip into the United States. But the CIA lost track of them after they left a terror meeting in Malaysia in early 2000 for Bangkok. Worse, the CIA waited until the summer of 2001 to tell the FBI that two suspected terrorists had visas to enter the United States - and might be here…
By mid-2000, the Able Danger team knew it had important information about a possible terrorist plot. Because of a peculiar series of computer links that went through Brooklyn, the team began referring to the four future hijackers as the "Brooklyn cell." Their movements and communications were raising too many suspicions.
But there’s an interesting wrinkle at the end:
Perhaps just as alarming, even the Able Danger team understood its limits. When lawyers blocked Able Danger's request to approach the FBI, the team simply went back to its work and kept quiet - even after the 9/11 attacks occurred.
Why? If the Able Danger team was so concerned about U.S. security, why didn't it approach Congress or even the press to sound an alarm?
When I posed that question in my interview with the Able Danger team member, he fell silent. Listening on a speaker phone, a congressional staffer interrupted: "Have you ever seen what happens to whistleblowers?"
Again, the Able Danger member had no answer.
Back in my wire service days, I used to cover Washington for the Bergen Record. I never dealt with Kelly, but my understanding is that he’s been at the paper for nearly three decades, and been a columnist about half that time. He’s no green rookie. And I can say from my experience with the Record that the editors were not lackadaisical. The North Jersey communities they cover were hard hit by 9/11. I doubt the editors would permit a columnist to quote an unnamed source, throwing out allegations as explosive as this, if they didn’t find him credible. If he gave off any whiff of nuttiness, I have a feeling this column would have been written quite differently.
In my previous post, I had stated that the accounts of Weldon’s guy and the 9/11 Commission were so different that this can’t be a simple misunderstanding – somebody’s lying. And an account with a lot of details (like the Commission’s Friday release) tends to seem more plausible than a vague one. Well, this account offers a lot of details. Anybody in North Jersey want to contact the Wayne Inn? They remember anybody who looked like Atta staying a year? Do they still have their pre-2001 guest records?
It still would be helpful if any one of these eleven guys in Able Danger could come forward and answer these questions publicly, not just with print reporters. I realize they have careers to think of, but as the tag line for “Patriot Games” said, “Truth needs a soldier.”
[Posted 08/14 05:52 PM]
Nope. He said he "brought some back and destroyed duplicates."
How much do you want to bet the democrats were deep into Oil for Food (remember China and Buddhist Gate), and that's why the Clinton's never did a damn thing about Islamic terrorism. They looked the other way every time, including the build up to 9/11. They made sure people didn't talk to each other, so one hand had no idea what the other hand was doing.
Even in the old Yugoslavia Clinton took the side of the radical Muslims. He also took the side of the Palestinians.
When the OFF scandal first broke, the press reported names of predominate Americans were on the receiving list. Wilson and Plame were also involved in European Muslim businesses tied to terrorism.
Geeze. The story just sort of keeps getting bigger and bigger.
I'd love to see something really happen here...but it's that 'good ole' boys club (girls included)' with its stronghold in DC...nothin' much happens to the cheaters and criminals in beautiful Washington, DC...it's called covering each others ass... (Look at what happened to Sandy Burglar...NOTHIN' MUCH)
"Can someone tell me the location of this Wayne Inn?"
Here is the link to the satellite image. Don't know when the image was taken.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=535+State+Route+23,+Wayne,+NJ+07470&spn=0.003551,0.010131&t=k&hl=en
(I am not smart enough to post actual pic)
It was a congressional staffer, who probably wouldn't have been a commission staffer.
Opps. Sorry. Yes, That's what I meant.
It sounds like a threat, doesn't it?
In the article, I believe the Congressional staffer was reponding to the reports question of "Why didn't this Able member speak up earlier". The Staffer was implying that if the Able member did, it may affect his career negatively. The staffer was not threatening the person, he was actually answering for him.
BUMP
"Time Magazine tried to smear Weldon today, and Podhoretz at NRO's the Corner bought it hook, line and sinker."
Call him up and say "GET OFF THE BLOG YOU BIG DOPE"!!
Any other insights?
Not really. I tend to agree with the post following yours that the staffer was answering for him rather than threatening him.
This is getting more interesting by the minute.
If anything this article shows how easy it is for the terrorists to operate in this country.
Add to the story the whistleblowers from the flight school in a suburb near Mpls who were brushed off as well.
And with the increasing numbers of illegals and non-English speakers, it gets easier every day.
I'm sure there are Arab men here in Mpls. staying in motels. Heck, there are Somalians here who have broken the law and are not deported.
I don't think that we are in any better shape security-wise post 911.
I understand how the Gorelick Wall would have prevented domestic LE agencies from being notified, but what about the chain of command? Who did these officers report to, and did they pass the information to them?
This information either got to the President, or else someone below Her in the chain of command decided not to pass it on.
Bush's "compassion" is going to kill us.
How far is the location of where the Anthrax letters were mailed from Wayne?
bump
'Bush's "compassion" is going to kill us.'
In what way?
bttt and bflr.
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