Posted on 08/29/2005 3:53:39 AM PDT by johnny7
A copy of the Able Danger chart that identified lead 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta as a terrorist operating inside the U.S. a year before the 9/11 attacks is clearly visible in a video of a 2002 speech by delivered by Rep. Curt Weldon to the Heritage Foundation.
The Pentagon, the 9/11 Commission and the Senate Intelligence Committee are currently seeking evidence that the bombshell chart, featuring a photo Atta, ever existed - as claimed by three members of the Able Danger team, along with Rep. Weldon. But so far, no physical evidence of the controversial document has surfaced. Until now.
A third of the way through his May 23, 2002 address on data fusion techniques, the video shows Rep. Weldon unfurling a copy of the now missing document and displaying it to the Heritage audience. "This is the unclassified chart that was done by the Special Forces Command briefing center one year before 9/11," he explains. "It is the complete architecture of al Qaeda and pan-Islamic extremism. It gives all the linkages. It gives all the capabilities. . . ." Though Weldon never mentions Able Danger or Atta by name - and the video never zooms in on the chart to the point where Atta's photo is identifiable - it's clear from Weldon comments that the chart is the same one currently being sought.
Since the Able Danger story broke three weeks ago, the Pennsylvania Republican has repeatedly insisted that he gave a copy of the chart shortly after the 9/11 attacks to then-Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. In the 2002 speech, Weldon told the same story in greater detail, standing beside a copy of what he said he gave Hadley. "I went to the White House. I don't mean to embarrass this guy cause he's a good friend of mine. But I took a mini version of this chart in Nov. [2001] and I turned it over to him - Steve Hadley, who works directly for [then-National Security Advisor] Condi Rice."
Weldon said Hadley was stunned after viewing the Al Qaeda-Atta document. "This is unbelievable - where'd you get this?" he wanted to know. After being told that the chart was prepared by military intelligence a year before the 9/11 attacks, Hadley said, according to Weldon, "I've got to show this to the man" - apparently referring to President Bush.
In the same speech, Rep. Weldon also revealed that then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Hugh Shelton received a briefing on the Able Danger chart in the closing weeks of the Clinton administration.
To view Rep. Weldon's entire 2002 speech to the Heritage Foundation, go to: http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/2002archive.cfm He displays the al Qaeda-Atta chart approximately 34 minutes into the presentation.
BUMP!!!!!
Bump!
btt
Is it fair to say that both the Clinton and Bush administrations should have "some 'splainin' to do?"
Enchante - Is this report accurate?
If so, the Pentagon and the 9/11 Commission have reached a new level of sucking. If the guy who made these claims in the first place had the chart the whole time and displayed it, and you're still unable to come up with evidence of that said chart ever existing, THAT is sucking. Hell, it redefines sucking.
BUT, IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY ABLE DANGER WAS ENDED... [John Podhoretz]
...it may have been due to the fact that its "data-mining" work led it to name Condi Rice as a potential Chinese agent -- evidently due to the fact that she had provost of Stanford University.
That's according to my paper, the New York Post: "Cyber-sleuths working for a Pentagon intelligence unit that reportedly identified some of the 9/11 hijackers before the attack were fired by military officials, after they mistakenly pinpointed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other prominent Americans as potential security risks, The Post has learned. The private contractors working for the counter-terrorism unit Able Danger lost their jobs in May 2000. The firings following a series of analyses that Pentagon lawyers feared were dangerously close to violating laws banning the military from spying on Americans, sources said.
"The Pentagon canceled its contract with the private firm shortly after the analysts — who were working on identifying al Qaeda operatives — produced a particularly controversial chart on proliferation of sensitive technology to China, the sources said.
"Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, the veteran Army officer who was the Defense Intelligence Agency liaison to Able Danger, told The Post China 'had something to do' with the decision to restructure Able Danger.
"Sources said the private contractors, using sophisticated computer software that sifts through massive amounts of raw data to establish patterns, came up with a chart of Chinese strategic and business connections in the U.S.
"The program wrongly tagged Rice, who at the time was an adviser to then-candidate George W. Bush, and former Defense Secretary William Perry by linking their associations at Stanford, along with their contacts with Chinese leaders, sources said."
This will, I am sure, launch a thousand conspiracy theories, but here we have the downside of "data mining," not to mention super-secret programs that surface years later with explosive allegations.
Now, really, this is my last Able Danger post of the weekend. I swear.
Posted at 08:53 AM
It defines corruption to a criminal level. Its called perjury.
bump bump btt
I hope this holds up
"This will, I am sure, launch a thousand conspiracy theories . . ."
Me too.
Has anyone checked Sandy Burglar's pants?
btt
I agree. It's just going to get very, very muddled before we know the truth - if we ever know the truth.
LOL! I do think that the investigators used too much speculation to be credible, once these allegations emerged.
I would interpret this as referring not to Bush but a person who would know how to handle the situation like Clarke. In other words, a Dem holdover, a possible coverup in the making.
Hadley should have gone to Rice and that ain't a man.
And the 'really bad information'(illegal) contains the necessary information in order to connect-the-dots.
Quite a nut-buster... and the stuff that cover-ups are made of???
Gosh, by virtue of Condi Rice being at Stanford University, that automatically makes her a suspect as a Chinese agent????
LOL! I learn so much every day!
Have a happy day! :-)
..the Pennsylvania Republican has repeatedly insisted that he gave a copy of the chart shortly after the 9/11 attacks to then-Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.
Ok...so where did Weldon keep the original then and...
where is he keeping it now?
Could the chart have fit in Sandy Berger's pants?
It figures.
Must protect the traitorous Clintons at all cost.
It boggles the mind what they're getting away with. And I, for one, have no confidence in our govt because of it.
BTTT
Hillary's losing her edge. Too many folks are talking and she's left far too many loose ends.
No, the program worked perfectly. It was the human factor that didn't. The system merely spews out info. It's up to the humans to study and understand the info.
:-) So true!
:-) Fair comment - programs will only do as they are told, and will do it exactly.
But, consider that the "Chinese connection" (linking officials to Chinese influence) that this data mining found was also (more importantly) establishing HILLARY CLINTON associates and campaign donors with the Chinese.
Remember, at the time of the chart and the presentations and the 9/11 planning (when the Islamic terrorists already got in-country and were attending flight training), it was STILL Clinton in office.
There is no such chart. It does not exist. It was shredded as soon as it became a subject of contention.
Right, here's the problem.
Clinton's thrive on old school wild accusations campaigning. So that no matter what horrible thing that they have done, it gets turned on its head. It's just too incredible that they did half of the things that they are alleged to have done, yet it may be true that they did do at least half of them.
It won't stick.
Here's another take, and I defer to the technology experts to correctly answer this question. We know that the Chinese were/are data mining. So isn't it possible that this data mining included jobs or executables that would make the system or computer containing the information do the search and then launch the findings to China? If so, this may create an audit trail that would appear to implicate the victim and cover up the aggressor.
A sign of insanity is to repeat behavior and expect a different result. But there's good crazy and bad crazy
:-)
Openly charging some democrats as perps has backfired in the past, so other means of stopping the bad acts need to be found.
grammar police alert
Clinton's = possessive, not plural
should have been "Clintons"
Off to the pokey. :-)
That says that there is not a sticky post over Atta's photo.
????? If Weldon had the chart, why didn't he give it to the Commission?
Curiouser and curiouser...
It is more than the Republicans making charges and attacking Crat misdeeds. The Republicans actively resist discovery and cover up those misdeeds just as eagerly as do the Crats.
First, the program did not come up with Rice & Perry while data-mining on al-Qaida but on Chinagate.
Second, data-mining doesn't determine the guilty or even the suspencts, but like old fashion jawbone & gumshoe investigative techniques it comes back with name of those "at the scene". Human been would have to then sifted through that raw data and determine who had a good reason to be there and who didn't before anyone would be "tagged".
More simply, Rice & Perry may have had good reason to be associated with those in Chinagate, BUT Atta could only have had bad reasons to be associated with al-Qaeda.
If this was the reason Able-Danger was shutdown, it's transparently pretextual.
As Rush says, it's all about power - and therefore money. Republicans are as suceptible to wanting to hold onto power as are Dems, and it all leads to corruption.
Good place to start: Clinton Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Hugh Shelton --- who didn't retire with the change of administration in January 20001, but on September 30, 2001. (source link)
Below is PART of Condi's testimony in regards to this memo (I assume).
Clarke mentions sleeper cells. There is no recommendation or anything that needs to be done about them. And the FBI is pursuing them. And usually when things come to me it's because I'm supposed to do something about it, and there is no indication that the FBI was not adequately pursuing the sleeper cells.
Since this is only part of the testimony, interpretation is a bit difficult. Was Clarke referring to Sleeper cells within the US? Was he more specific? This says FBI. Did the Able Danger info get to the FBI despite the Pentagon saying it never got there? Or did they BOTH have the cell(S) under scrutiny in separate undertakings?...
One hand doesn't know what the other is doing?????? Damn, this is confusing.
Hm. I don't see that, but if it's happening, it should be prosecuted.
Here is a link to the web site. http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/2002archive.cfm
The title of the speech is "Breaking the Stovepipes: Improving Intelligence Sharing for Homeland Security" and was given May 23, 2002. The chart is displayed about 33 minutes into the speech.
It sure prompts a lot of questions.
Gorelick said MANY TIMES: "We have the documents that we want".
“According to Weldon, staff members of the 9/11 Commission were briefed on the capabilities of the Able Danger intelligence unit within the Special Operations Command, which had been set up by General Pete Schoomaker, who headed Special Ops at the time, on the orders of General Hugh Shelton, then the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Staffers at the 9/11 Commission staffers were also told about the specific recommendation to break up the Mohammed Atta cell. However, those commission staff members apparently did not choose to brief the commission’s members on these sensitive matters.”
Prosecuted? by whom?
But I give him kudos for speaking out against weasley clark.
If someone covers for a crime, would there not be an obstruction of justice? Or am I in need of more caffeine to gain greater clarity on your point? :-)
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