"NOYB" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
NOYB wrote:

This "Able Danger" story is growing legs, and even the news media is
starting to ask questions again as to why so many important items were
left
out the 9/11 report.

From the Washington Times:

Review finds no pre-9/11 Atta file
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 23, 2005

A Pentagon investigation has found no evidence that Able Danger, a secret
military intelligence operation, identified September 11 hijacker Mohamed
Atta as a terror cell member more than a year before the attacks.
Larry Di Rita, chief Pentagon spokesman, said investigators have failed
to find a chart that Able Danger supposedly created before the winter of
2000 that listed Atta as a member of an al Qaeda cell in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer has told reporters and cable news
shows that Able Danger had created such a chart and that Pentagon attorneys
in 2000 had blocked moves to provide the information to the FBI.
Rep. Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania Republican and vice chairman of the House
Armed Services Committee, has backed Col. Shaffer's assertion.
But Mr. Di Rita said investigators have not found any evidence that such
a chart existed.
"We have been very aggressive," Mr. Di Rita told The Washington Times.
"We haven't been able to find anything that would corroborate the kind of
detail Lt. Col. Shaffer and Congressman Weldon seem to recall."
Mark Zaid, Col. Shaffer's attorney, said yesterday that his client
stands by his assertion.
He also said: "There are at least two other Able Danger team members who
are coming forward and are specifically confirming what Mr. Shaffer has been
saying in that they had identified several of the hijackers, including Atta,
prior to September 11," Mr. Zaid said. "The Pentagon is either looking in
the wrong places or not talking to the right people to confirm this same
information."
The national commission that investigated the September 11 attacks first
learned of Able Danger in 2003 and requested information from the Pentagon
before releasing its report last year. Commission staff met with Col.
Shaffer in Afghanistan but say he never mentioned Atta's name.
Mr. Di Rita said the Pentagon's review, spearheaded by Stephen Cambone,
undersecretary of defense for intelligence, confirmed that relevant data on
Able Danger was turned over to the commission in 2003 and 2004.
"We, to the best of our understanding now, developed the information
that was available at that time for the commission, and the commission
factored it in as it felt appropriate," Mr. Di Rita said.
Former Commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean and Vice Chairman Lee H.
Hamilton said Aug. 12 that information on Able Danger was not significant
enough to include in the panel's lengthy report.
Able Danger was essentially a data-mining operation aimed at obtaining
more information on terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and Islamic
terrorist cells.
Mr. Di Rita said Able Danger compiled some information on suspected
cells in this country, but that investigators have found no evidence that
the operation identified Atta or other September 11 hijackers.
Col. Shaffer has said that he was told about the Atta chart by Able
Danger team members. He has said it identified Atta as being in the U.S. in
early 2000. But the September 11 commission said Atta did not enter the
country until late 2000 and was not identified by the U.S. as a terror
suspect.
"We have to wonder whether [the chart] did exist," Mr. Di Rita said.
"It's a bit of a phantom search here."
He said investigators debriefed Col. Shaffer, who acknowledged that he
does not have a copy of the chart and had based his statements on what
others told him.
Mr. Di Rita said the probe is continuing, but will end "soon" unless new
evidence materializes.
"We have not been able to determine the information Lt. Col. Shaffer and
Congressman Weldon described actually existed," Mr. Di Rita said.
Mr. Zaid said Col. Shaffer was on active duty when working as a liaison
between the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency and the Able Danger team.
He then became a civilian analyst at DIA. He was suspended in March 2004.
The DIA is in the process of revoking Col. Shaffer's security clearance,
Mr. Zaid said, for what he called "trivial matters." They include
reimbursements for mileage and telephone charges, and whether he properly
received an award for his Able Danger work.
Mr. Zaid said the Army promoted Col. Shaffer from the rank of major
during the time of his paid suspension.