Able Danger: Did They ID Atta Before He Got Here

Captain's Quarters ^ | August 22, 2005 | Captain Ed

[bobsunshine]

One of the reasons why the 9/11 Commission claim they dismissed the information regarding Able Danger is because the claims made by Col. Tony Shaffer and Captain Scott Phillpott did not match the known travel timeline for Mohammed Atta. That timeline had Atta arriving for the first time in the US in June 3, 2000, on a flight from Prague to Newark. However, according to Shaffer, he recalled seeing Atta on a chart as early as spring 2000, and Phillpott today said that Able Danger ID'd Atta in January-February 2000.

That poses an interesting question. If the Commission timeline holds up, could Able Danger have ID'd Atta as an AQ operative while he was still overseas? Or did the 9/11 Commission use faulty data to construct a completely incorrect timeline for Atta?

The Commission report gives the following data for Atta's travel during the early months of 2000 (page 167-168 of the Commission report):

After leaving Afghanistan, the four began researching flight schools and aviation training. In early January 2000, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali — a nephew of KSM living in the UAE who would become an important facilitator in the plot — used Shehhi’s credit card to order a Boeing 747-400 flight simulator program and a Boeing 767 flight deck video, together with attendant literature;Ali had all these items shipped to his employer’s address. Jarrah soon decided that the schools in Germany were not acceptable and that he would have to learn to fly in the United States. Binalshibh also researched flight schools in Europe, and in the Netherlands he met a flight school director who recommended flight schools in the United States because they were less expensive and required shorter training periods. In March 2000,Atta emailed 31 different U.S. flight schools on behalf of a small group of men from various Arab countries studying in Germany who, while lacking prior training, were interested in learning to fly in the United States. Atta requested information about the cost of the training, potential financing, and accommodations.

This information came from interrogations of Ali and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. However, that puts Atta and the gang squarely in Hamburg for the period in which Able Danger team says the four men had been identified as potential AQ threats. That can mean have one of three different explanations:

1. Shaffer, Phillpott, and Smith all lied, and went out of their way to lie to the Commission not once but several times, despite the Pentagon themselves today noting the "respected" service of the two officers.

2. The Able Danger team identified the cell overseas before they traveled to the US.

3. The Commission got their timeline wrong, or incomplete, and Atta and his team had already been in the United States.

None of these explanations sound promising. The first could have been plausible when none of Weldon's sources would come forward publicly, but now we have three of them openly stating their case, at least one and probably two of whom appear to have worked directly on the project.

The second has a flaw built into it, although not a show-stopper: had Able Danger identified Atta and his henchmen as AQ while in Hamburg, they could have simply informed the State Department of their suspicions about him. That would have kept Atta from getting a visa for entry into the US, and more importantly, it wouldn't have set off any bells regarding coordination between foreign counterintelligence investigations and domestic law-enforcement, such as the policy in place with the 1995 Gorelick memo at OIPR and the DoJ.

Would the Pentagon attorneys still have stopped Able Danger from talking to State? Probably not, but another possibility exists: the generals might not have wanted to explain how Able Danger came up with the names of potential terrorists -- the program appears to have been a black-box operation at the time -- or else simply didn't trust the product of the analysis. However, the Able Danger team specifically wanted to coordinate with the FBI, which points to Atta being in the US at the time of identification.

That leaves option 3. How good was the data for the Atta timeline, and how solid did the Commission nail down his movements? Looking at the data on pages 167 and 168 of the report, it appears that all of the information that the Commission used to establish travel timelines for the Atta cell came from interrogations of Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. These two AQ officers later also discounted Atta's travel to Prague in April 2001, despite the insistence of Czech intelligence that he met with the Iraqi envoy and an IIS agent at that time.

It seems most likely that Atta and his team may have traveled to the US, either under their own names or variants, and performed some scouting for suitable locations before moving themselves to the US for good. The Able Danger squad has insisted that their requests to coordinate with the FBI got denied on the basis that Atta had become a resident of the US. Binalshibh and KSM could have created a disinformation scenario for the FBI; only the interrogators there know for sure how reliable the pair's information proved to be.

If the timeline for Atta's travels proves incorrect or incomplete, this casts serious doubt on the insistence that Atta never went to Prague, as it is based on the same intelligence. We need to know when and where Able Danger first ID'd Atta, and whether their data has better evidence of his travels in and out of the US than that given by two co-conspirators with plenty of motivation to mislead American investigators. Congress needs to act now to do what it should have done itself the first time -- find out what the hell went on before 9/11.

[Mia T]

bump!

WHY DID BILL CLINTON IGNORE TERRORISM?
Was it simply the constraints of his liberal mindset, or was it something even more threatening to our national security?


Why hillary clinton should never be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office... or any position of power--THE SERIES
REASON 1: MISSUS CLINTON HIRED JAMIE GORELICK

While it is true that The Gorelick Wall was the convenient device of a cowardly self-serving president, The Wall's aiding and abetting of al Qaeda was largely incidental, (the pervasiveness of the clintons' Nobel-Peace-Prize calculus notwithstanding).

The Wall was engineered primarily to protect a corrupt self-serving president. The metastasis of al Qaeda and 9/11 were simply the cost of doing business, clinton-style.

Further confirmation that the Wall was cover for clinton corruption:

• Gorelick's failure to disclose the fact that she authored the memo that was the efficient cause of 911
  
• Gorelick's surreal presence on the 911 commission investigating Gorelick's Justice Department, a maneuver that effectively removes from the universe of witnesses a central witness, Gorelick, even as it uniquely positions a central player, Gorelick, to directly shape the commission's conclusions. (Is there any question which two people are responsible for Gorelick's insertion on the commission?)

Conversely, that it never occurred to anyone on the commission that Gorelick's flagrant conflict of interest renders her presence on the commission beyond farce calls into question the commission's judgment if not its integrity. Washington's mutual protection racket writ large, I suspect....

The Gorelick Wall is consistent with, and an international extension of, two essential acts committed in tandem, Filegate, the simultaneous empowering of the clintons and disemboweling of clinton adversaries, and the clinton Putsch, the firing and replacement of every U.S. attorney extant.

... Once the clintons' own U.S. attorneys were in place, once the opposition was disemboweled by the knowledge that their raw FBI files had been in the possession of the clintons, once domestic law enforcement was effectively blinded to foreign data by Gorelick's Wall, the clintons were free to methodically and seditiously and with impunity auction off America's security, sovereignty and economy to the highest foreign bidder.

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE)

Reverse Gorelick
by Mia T, 4.15.04
QUINN IN THE MORNING (ESSAY DISCUSSED)
(MP3, REAL, WINDOWS MEDIA, WINAMP)

 

[Mia T]

bump!

WHY DID BILL CLINTON IGNORE TERRORISM?
Was it simply the constraints of his liberal mindset, or was it something even more threatening to our national security?


Why hillary clinton should never be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office... or any position of power--THE SERIES
REASON 1: MISSUS CLINTON HIRED JAMIE GORELICK

While it is true that The Gorelick Wall was the convenient device of a cowardly self-serving president, The Wall's aiding and abetting of al Qaeda was largely incidental, (the pervasiveness of the clintons' Nobel-Peace-Prize calculus notwithstanding).

The Wall was engineered primarily to protect a corrupt self-serving president. The metastasis of al Qaeda and 9/11 were simply the cost of doing business, clinton-style.

Further confirmation that the Wall was cover for clinton corruption:

• Gorelick's failure to disclose the fact that she authored the memo that was the efficient cause of 911
  
• Gorelick's surreal presence on the 911 commission investigating Gorelick's Justice Department, a maneuver that effectively removes from the universe of witnesses a central witness, Gorelick, even as it uniquely positions a central player, Gorelick, to directly shape the commission's conclusions. (Is there any question which two people are responsible for Gorelick's insertion on the commission?)

Conversely, that it never occurred to anyone on the commission that Gorelick's flagrant conflict of interest renders her presence on the commission beyond farce calls into question the commission's judgment if not its integrity. Washington's mutual protection racket writ large, I suspect....

The Gorelick Wall is consistent with, and an international extension of, two essential acts committed in tandem, Filegate, the simultaneous empowering of the clintons and disemboweling of clinton adversaries, and the clinton Putsch, the firing and replacement of every U.S. attorney extant.

... Once the clintons' own U.S. attorneys were in place, once the opposition was disemboweled by the knowledge that their raw FBI files had been in the possession of the clintons, once domestic law enforcement was effectively blinded to foreign data by Gorelick's Wall, the clintons were free to methodically and seditiously and with impunity auction off America's security, sovereignty and economy to the highest foreign bidder.

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE)

Reverse Gorelick
by Mia T, 4.15.04
QUINN IN THE MORNING (ESSAY DISCUSSED)
(MP3, REAL, WINDOWS MEDIA, WINAMP)

 

[JustDoItAlways]

Atta's 2 roommates from Hamburg, also 9/11 terrorists, entered the US on January 15, 2000 (Los Angelos) after attending a meeting with Kalid Shiek Muhammad in Kuala Lampour.

This is from the 9/11 Commission and was reported long before the Commission started its work.

No doubt, DOD was looking for KSM at the time and it wouldn't have been hard to connect the dots to Atta from this information if you had access to it and were actually looking for terrorists (unlike the FBI and the Clintons.)

[Sacajaweau]

All you had to hear at the hearings was the questioning of Condi. It was pretty obvious that they wanted to trap her into saying what the TRUTH they wanted to hear....and no more. With due diligence, Condi insisted on fulfilling her oath.

That's the difference between the TRUTH and THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH". Those last eight words weren't added to an oath by accident or to make it sing-songy.

[Mia T]

bump!
(We used to execute rapists and traitors. Today we elect them president?)

[An.American.Expatriate]

Nice analysis, but still flawed.

Able Danger may well have "identified" Atta & Co as early as Jan/Feb 2000 but only later "confirmed" suspicions and attempted to take the info to the FBI (raw intelligence vs. final product). Thus, Able Danger's initial mining lead them to believe that Atta & Co were "suspicious", but at the time they wanted to approach the FBI, Atta & Co were already here and "Gorelick's Wall" prevented any further investigation.

When you think about it - if this really was "data mining", information regarding Atta & Co was already available in 1999 (and earlier) for it to even be included in the database!! It wasn't until early 2000 that the links started making a picture, and mabe until mid to late 2000 before that picture was coherent enough to warrent action.

[yoswif]

Atta sending an email is proof of his being in Hamburg in March of 2000?

Isn't it possible Able Danger tracked Atta from Germany to Canada where he was picked up and driven to NY and used someone's computer there? Then went back to Canada and flew back Germany just prior to his "official" entry into the U.S. in June. Just like Atta's bus trip from Hamburg to Prague, Atta would have practiced a secret trip if he really did make the unobserved trip to Prague between April 4 2001 and April 11 2001.

[Mia T]

sandy berger haberdashery feint
(the specs, not the pants or the socks)


WHY DID BILL CLINTON IGNORE TERRORISM?
Was it simply the constraints of his liberal mindset, or was it something even more threatening to our national security?


Why hillary clinton should never be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office... or any position of power--THE SERIES
REASON 1: MISSUS CLINTON HIRED JAMIE GORELICK

[elbucko]

Would the lawyers stop Able Danger from speaking to say....oh...I don't know...the...ah...er..SECRET SERVICE?

The Secret Service is part of the Treasury Dept., not Dept of Justice. Their responsibilities are the protection of the president and investigating the counterfeiting of US currency. Had info from Able Danger been presented to the "SS", they would have just shrugged the info off and replied: "It's not our job, Man!"

[JediForce]

Just thinking out loud. You would think that a terrorist cell identified in N.Y. might be a danger to the President. One might also think that phone records or emails might prove that there was a warning about terrorists in the country pre-9/11. This would be interesting information in hearings on the matter of Able Danger. So perhaps there are some records to be had at the Treasury Department.

Again....just thinking out loud.

JEDI.

[elbucko]

So perhaps there are some records to be had at the Treasury Department.

Perhaps. Your point is well taken.

[jpl]

I think that the so-called 9/11 Commission actually recognizes and admits that Atta took two known trips to Prague, but then makes the rather preposterous argument that he couldn't possibly have made that one extra trip to Prague because his cell phone was used in America during that time, even though his cell phone wouldn't have worked in Prague, he would have no reason to take it there with him, and nobody has any way of knowing that it was actually him using the cell phone.

[JPJones]

One of the reasons why the 9/11 Commission claim they dismissed the information regarding Able Danger is because the claims made by Col. Tony Shaffer and Captain Scott Phillpott did not match the known travel timeline for Mohammed Atta. That timeline had Atta arriving for the first time in the US in June 3, 2000, on a flight from Prague to Newark.

If Prague to Newark flight is in the 911 commission report, doesn't that verify the Czech gov's assertion that Atta met with Iraqi's in prague.?

[TADSLOS]

Congress needs to act now to do what it should have done itself the first time -- find out what the hell went on before 9/11.

That's easy.

[bobsunshine]

Good Point. However, I'm sure the Commission will only say that ATTA came from Prague and not that he met anyone there.

I believe he DID met the Iraqi's there and I think as the story of Able Danger continues to unfold, it will be proved.

[JPJones]

Good Point. However, I'm sure the Commission will only say that ATTA came from Prague and not that he met anyone there. I believe he DID met the Iraqi's there and I think as the story of Able Danger continues to unfold, it will be proved.

Now there's two sources that puts Atta in Prague, the Czech gov which says he met with Iraqi agents, and now the 911 commission. It would seem very likely he was there and the czech's story is correct.