Posted on 08/12/2005 10:46:59 PM PDT by Libloather
9/11 Commissioners Defend Intel Omission
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 59 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The leaders of the 9/11 commission late Friday disputed a congressman's criticism that the panel did not adequately investigate a claim that four hijackers were identified as al-Qaida members more than a year before the attacks.
In a joint statement, former commission chairman Thomas Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton said a military official who made the claim had no documentation to back it up. And they said only 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta was identified to them and not three additional hijackers as claimed by Rep. Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees.
"He could not describe what information had led to this supposed Atta identification," the statement said of the military official.
They also said no else could place the other three hijackers with Atta in a purported terror cell code-named "Brooklyn" during the time period cited by Weldon.
The pre-Sept. 11 intelligence on Atta was disclosed recently by Weldon, who said a secret military unit called "Able Danger" had identified the four hijackers as part of terrorist cell. He said the information should have been forwarded by the military to the FBI.
In response to the statement by Kean and Hamilton, Weldon accused the commission of purposely omitting information on Able Danger. He said in a statement that he will continue to push for a "full accounting of the historical record."
If proves correct, the intelligence would change the timeline for when government officials first learned of Atta's links to al-Qaida. The Pentagon and at least two congressional committees are looking into the issue.
The other three hijackers mentioned by Weldon as being part of the terrorist cell were Khalid al-Mihdhar, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Marwan al-Shehhi.
Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the commission's follow-up project called the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, said this week the panel was unaware of intelligence specifically naming Atta. On Wednesday, he retracted the statement and confirmed the commission had been made aware of the intelligence.
During the July 12, 2004, meeting with the military official, the officer said he recalled seeing Atta's name and photo on an analyst's chart made by the secret Able Danger unit, the statement released by Kean and Hamilton said.
The relevant data discussed by the officer showed Atta to be a member of an al-Qaida cell in New York City from February to April 2000, the statement said.
But the commission knew that according to travel and immigration records, Atta first obtained a U.S. visa on May 18, 2000, and first arrived in the United States on June 3, 2000, the statement said.
Kean, a former Republican New Jersey governor, and Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, said records had been sought from the U.S. Special Operations Command and none mentioned Atta or any other Sept. 11 hijackers. They were requested after staff members from the commission were told about Able Danger during a meeting in Afghanistan.
Weldon said Friday that Atta's name was specifically mentioned during the Afghanistan meeting, but Kean and Hamilton denied that Friday in the statement.
I feel vindicated that I shelved my copy of the 9/11 report with a copy of the Warren Commission report.
what a bunch of bullsh*t. anything to keep clinton from being the bad guy
It should have been a Motorola or AMD omission.
You should see if you can get your money back...
To quote Indiana Jones:
"Fools. Bureaucratic fools."
Gee, that makes it so much better. *sarcasm*
The 9/11 Commission trying to spin its way around this is flat out disgusting. They screwed up, the Clinton administration screwed up, and it's time for these clowns to be honest about what happened. Tom Kean is rapidly losing respect in my book with behavior such as this. If he and the rest of the bozos in this so-called commission had any decency, they'd just admit that they screwed up by not mentioning the Able Danger situation or missing it during their investigation, and they'd move on.
These people don't care about 9/11. They care about their own political power. That's the only thing that can explain their prioritization of covering each other's asses (see Gorelick) over that of finding out the problems that led to 9/11 itself.
I feel vindicated that I shelved my copy of the 9/11 report with a copy of the Warren Commission report.
--
That's a helluva set of book ends ya got there. ;-)
Time to produce the officers for sworn testimony.
The big deal is that is changes the NYT headline, retrospectively, to 'CLINTON (AND WIFE) KNEW' from the one the hildebeest held up.
August 9th:
"The Sept. 11 commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohammed Atta or of his cell," said Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "Had we learned of it obviously it would've been a major focus of our investigation."
Changed his tune completely, didn't he?
Think the MSM would pick up that little detail? Me neither.
It gets worse: I also have the full WC volumes and about fifty more books on the Kennedy assassination of all stripes of opinion; but these are hardly to be noticed among thousands of books on history, politics, science, and other mostly nonfiction subjects.
Fortunately, I got the 9/11 report used, for mere pocket change.
They are liars.
What is new? The major media won't report any of this.
So here we are...
He would have had accomplices,but the Gorelick wall stood in his way,just ask the commissioners!/s
Such drivel from Kean and Hamilton.They need to do alot better than that.
My wife could give ya a run for your money.
She has what seems like thousands of books mostly romance and saga stuff.
I gave up reading a few years back for the most part except when I travel which is rare these days, altho I will be taking Book 10 in the Corps series by WEB Griffin with on a cruise next month..
Most of my small collecton is history, military, science and religion. I still have a bunch of Clancy novels to catch up on as well.
Somehow FR and the 'net swallows up my reading time.. imagine that. ;-)
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