NYT: Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00

[DeepModem Mom]

Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00
By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: August 9, 2005


WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 - More than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress.

In the summer of 2000, the military team, known as Able Danger, prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to the military's Special Operations Command that the information be shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the congressman, Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, and the former intelligence official said Monday.

The recommendation was rejected and the information was not shared, they said, apparently at least in part because Mr. Atta, and the others were in the United States on valid entry visas. Under American law, United States citizens and green-card holders may not be singled out in intelligence-collection operations by the military or intelligence agencies. That protection does not extend to visa holders, but Mr. Weldon and the former intelligence official said it may have reinforced a sense of discomfort common before Sept. 11 about sharing intelligence information with a law enforcement agency.

A former spokesman for the Sept. 11 commission, Al Felzenberg, confirmed that members of its staff, including Philip Zelikow, the executive director, were told about the program during an overseas trip in October 2003 that included stops in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But Mr. Felzenberg said the briefers did not mention Mr. Atta's name. The report produced by the commission last year does not mention the episode.

Mr. Weldon first spoke publicly about the episode in June, in a little-noticed speech on the House floor and in an interview with The Times-Herald in Norristown, Pa. The matter resurfaced on Monday in a report by GSN: Government Security News, which is published every two weeks and covers issues related to domestic security. The GSN report was based on accounts provided by Mr. Weldon and the same former intelligence official who was interviewed on Monday by The New York Times in Mr. Weldon's office....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/politics/09intel.html?hp&ex=1123560000&en=e9cdef079cdc7331&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[htuttle]

1. Well, I guess it was Clinton's fault after all...

:sarcasm:

Actually, I've been reading for years that Mohammed Atta was under FBI surveillance (of a sort) leading up to 9/11. That's how they know Atta wasn't at that non-existant meeting in Prague. They were watching him in Florida at the time that it supposedly happened.

[leveymg]

30. It looks more like a DoD/CIA operation. FBI may have been out

of the loop -- or, more accurately, the Bureau's hands were tied. That's why John O'Neil resigned in disgust and took the job as the WTC Security Director rather than to stay in and fight the attempt to frame him. He knew what the target was -- all the top people did. Why did the White House order everyone to keep their hands off the UBL cells?

We already knew that the head of the CIA Counterterrorism Center, Cofer Black, ordered the FBI liaison to hold back a cable to the Bureau's New York CT office about the entry of al-Hazmi and al-Midhar. After 9/11, Black was later rewarded for keeping his mouth shut by being appointed as head of State Dept, Counterterrosrism, with Ambassadorial rank and immunity.

Also, if I were in the DoD, I'd want to know why the Pentagon's own security people apparently weren't notified. It appears that Rummy ordered the Special Ops unit either shut down or to shut up.

That giant sound you hear are the leaks. This is going to lead to Bush-Cheney's impeachment.

I'm going to volunteer for Jury Duty here in Alexandria, VA.

[knitter4democracy]

55. It explains why Clinton told Bush about al Qaeda, though.

Bush was warned, and there were ongoing investigations--and it still happened because Bush dropped the ball.

[wli]

2. al Qaeda is paid by BushCo; why would they turn in their own agents?

[nolabels]

3. Maybe to pay the bar tab?

:rofl:

I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell too!


from page 1

The discrepancies call into question the credibility of the FBI’s basic chronology of the terrorist conspiracy.

On two of the last four days before the attack, for example, the report paints ringleader Mohamed Atta as someone with the apparent ability to be in two places at once.

Written with the cooperation of the FBI, the staff report states that Atta was shuttling between Baltimore and Boston—rather than in the Miami area, as has been widely-reported—on two of the last three days before the attack.

This despite dozens of reports in the major media placing Atta in the Miami area on two of those dates: drinking in Fort Lauderdale on September 7, and returning a rental car in Pompano Beach Sept 9.

We had entered some parallel reality like the one in 1984. Wrong was Right. War was Peace. And Atta was in Baltimore, even though we had proof he was in Miami
(snip)
http://www.madcowprod.com/mc6122004.html

[wli]

5. what about the CIA payment funnelled to al Qaeda through the ISI?

AFAICT this is BushCo paying guys in Afghanistan for 9/11.

[nolabels]

7. That's another good one, the General \ Dictator of Pakistan

that was elected stuffing ballot boxes says paraphrase 'there are no terrorist organizations operating out my country'. Like who are these people really trying to fool anyway? Do they think people are deaf, dumb, blind and can't read or something :shrug:

[peacetalksforall]

25. And four or six of the 19 are dead and alive at the same time. And

that is the type of information that is not being investigated by this administration.

9-11 was a criminal act against the U.S. just as the first WTC bombing was. The first was covered in the courts of the U.S.

The second one wasn't.

The Bush Admin has only allowed an investigation of intelligence.

There is nothing NOTHING NOTHING in the form of criminal investigations?

Put options? Ashcroft poofed it. Gone! Was it even there? This is the POOF ADMINSTRATION - the 43rd President is the POOF President. Everything disapears.

[agincourt]

4. Down in the polls,

ecomony in the crapper, people don't like the war, what are you going to do? Dig up some spooks to smear Clinton, works like a charm. Just like Sudan trying to hand over Bin Laden three times.

[Supersedeas]

63. Exactly -- this is the ONE Rove has been saving to play

[JDPriestly]

6. This explains

the discussion at the 9/11 Commission Hearings about the legal impediment to the FBI doing domestic intelligence and sharing certain information obtained in criminal investigations within its own ranks and with the CIA. I'm not sure I am defining the issue properly because I am not really familiar with the underlying regulations. But I recall that something of that kind was a major issue. I only vaguely understood why at the time because I did not have these facts to hook the discussion to. The communication about these four would have been prohibited by restrictions existing before 9/11 I believe. I could be wrong about this.

The failure to share the information would not have been Clinton's fault. It would have been the result, the "fault" of those restrictions. Now, I believe the restrictions have been lifted. Their lifting is unfortunate in terms of the civil liberties of those of us who are not terrorists because of the loss of our protection against abuse of the sharing of FBI cr, but it may have been necessary in light of what happened.

[wli]

8. interesting that the "9/11 investigation" didn't investigate who did it

Those "lifting of restrictions" were useless.

The restrictions that mattered were all the playing of politics throughout law enforcement, not protections of citizens' rights.

[nolabels]

10. It's an obscene joke and a conspiracy theory

Even a seasoned airline pilot would of had a hard time being as precise as them planes hit WTC and Pentagon plane would have been impossible. They can't even prove them were the planes because no black boxes were found for the planes (yea right). I would think there were no boxes on purpose for the WTC's planes (if those were the planes anyway).

They find one of the supposed hi-jackers passports but no black box ?


http://www.911inplanesite.com/911synopsis.html

[wli]

12. the supposed hijackers in the passports were found alive and well IIRC

i.e. the list of purported hijackers was fabricated.

There's no conspiracy theory, there is a crime and a coverup. What is known that proves the "official story" false is not conspiracy theory, it's an independent investigation.

[leveymg]

31. Read the entire article. Zelikow spiked the 9/11 Commiss report.

He's known all about this for at least two years. If I were a prosecutor, I'd look into charging him with obstruction of justice, and suborning perjury.

[Carolab]

48. Very damning.

The former intelligence official said the first Able Danger report identified all four men as members of a "Brooklyn" cell, and was produced within two months after Mr. Atta arrived in the United States. The former intelligence official said he was among a group that briefed Mr. Zelikow and at least three other members of the Sept. 11 commission staff about Able Danger when they visited the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in October 2003.

The official said he had explicitly mentioned Mr. Atta as a member of a Qaeda cell in the United States. He said the staff encouraged him to call the commission when he returned to Washington at the end of the year. When he did so, the ex-official said, the calls were not returned.

Mr. Felzenberg, the former Sept. 11 commission spokesman, said on Monday that he had talked with some of the former staff members who participated in the briefing.

"They all say that they were not told anything about a Brooklyn cell," Mr. Felzenberg said. "They were told about the Pentagon operation. They were not told about the Brooklyn cell. They said that if the briefers had mentioned anything that startling, it would have gotten their attention."

As a result of the briefing, he said, the commission staff filed document requests with the Pentagon for information about the program. The Pentagon complied, he said, adding that the staff had not hidden anything from the commissioners.

"The commissioners were certainly told of the document requests and what the findings were," Mr. Felzenberg said.

[SittingBull]

54. Right

Zelikow with his Neococ-connections and ties to lying Condi...

[libodem]

9. I still say it was an inside job

someone within this country was coordination and obtaining financing and betcha they left on those planes that sneeked the Saudis out of the country the day after 9/11. What disinformation we buy into; we peons will never have any clue about setting up a 'Pearl Harbor' for Dick Cheney to get his stock options hoppin'.

[wli]

13. we must demand 9/11 truth after getting the neocons out of office

There must be some records or witnesses left behind.

[Goldmund]

29. I think this article only strengthens the idea that it was an inside job.

[leveymg]

32. You may have hit it: "coordination and obtaining financing"

There was an ongoing multi-agency investigation into the Saudis financing of terrorism and WMD proliferation.

That was the ongoing operation that they were trying to protect when they kept the FBI "gumshoes" from tricpping across the DoD/CIA operation. But, someone with knowledge of this compartmentalization, along with insider data on the 9/11 simulations and exercises, actually planned the 9/11 attack.

[Zorra]

11. My first thought: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and maybe Feith? n/t

[leveymg]

34. That's a good first thought. But, operationally, think foreign intel

agencies.

[RamboLiberal]

14. Don't believe this crap - Curt Weldon's a whack job

ala Zell Miller. Guess the NYT has found a new version of Judith Miller to peddle this crap. Weldon's got his own version of Curveball called Ali. Curt is peddling this book.

Countdown to Terror: The Top-Secret Information that Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America... and How the CIA has Ignored it

Could the next September 11 be nuclear? This is no theory, says Congressman Curt Weldon, in his shocking new book Countdown to Terror. It is a fact as real as the arrest of Muslim terrorists who planned to crash a plane into the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire in 2004. What’s even more stunning, Congressman Weldon tried to warn American intelligence about the attack—but no one in America’s intelligence community would listen. How did Congressman Weldon know about it? Because of a secret source, an intelligence contact code-named Ali who has been a treasure trove of reliable intelligence—intelligence that, despite Congressman Weldon’s strenuous efforts, has been routinely ignored by the CIA and the rest of America’s intelligence services. But in Countdown to Terror, Congressman Weldon lets you know what the CIA doesn’t want to know. You’ll learn, straight from Ali’s actual reports: · Why Iran will decide the next terror strike on America · How a major planned terror strike was called off because the terrorists thought it would help President Bush politically · Why Iran, not al Qaeda, is the command post of radical Islamic terror · Who is undercutting American efforts to create a peaceful, stable Iraq · Why Iran is like the Soviet Union in the 1980s: extremely dangerous, the iron glove behind all our enemies—yet on the verge of internal collapse · The Iranian nuclear program: red-hot and more advanced than you think Congressman Weldon’s sharing of vital intelligence with you, the reading public, is unprecedented. But it is necessary so that the American people can be informed and pressure our government to do what needs to be done to protect our country, fix our still broken intelligence services, and win the war on terrorism. Countdown to Terror is a frightening book—but it is all true. And if we act now, we can avoid its grimmest scenarios.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0895260050/qid=1123587519/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_sbs_1/002-3799168-3214420?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[anotherdrew]

45. good point - no confirmation.. just Weldon's story here?

[leveymg]

47. Read the story. Confirmed by a ranking military officer. n/t

[RamboLiberal]

53. Give me a break - after Curveball, Judith Miller, Chalabi,

the spinning neocons, Atta in Prague meeting with Saddam's agents - DU'ers are going to believe this crap. Remember how the NYT with Judith Miller led us down the primrose path to war. And now just cause some ranking military officer says it's true. We buy it?

This Intelligence group sounds like something from the TV show 24.

I don't believe Weldon. He has his own Curveball named Ali. He's trying to lead us to war with Iran.

[Peace Patriot]

15. Can we believe ANYTHING the New York Times prints any more--

especially on any 9/11 or Iraq war subject? They've proven themselves to be the worst of liars and they probably colluded with Judith Miller and the Bush Cartel on outright treason (the outing of a CIA covert agent and an entire WMD covert monitoring and non-proliferation project, twenty years in the making, disabling all projects and putting all covert contacts at great risk).

I used to believe that they at least got raw numbers right--like, 2 dead in a fatal accident. But after the 2004 election, I realized that I can't even count on basic facts any more, from them or from any of the news monopolies. But the NYT's role in promoting the Iraq war makes them especially not believable--and I imagine it's true of their 9/11 coverage as well (which I didn't read).

[leveymg]

35. Believe this one. n/t

[papau]

16. Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00 (info ignored under Bush

More than a year before 9/11, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit, using data-mining techniques modeled after those used in the Information Dominance Center, at Fort Belvoir, Va. (formerly called the Land Information Warfare Assessment Center) on non-classified publically available information, identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA). Weldon's book "Countdown to Terror: The Top-Secret Information That Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America and How the C.I.A. Has Ignored It." has been disputed by CIA spokespersons.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/politics/09intel.html

Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00
By DOUGLAS JEHL
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 - More than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress.

In the summer of 2000, the military team, known as Able Danger, prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to the military's Special Operations Command that the information be shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the congressman, Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, and the former intelligence official said Monday. <snip>

The report produced by the commission last year does not mention the episode.<snip>

[lostnfound]

17. I hate to say it, but this was under Clinton.

Bush inaugural after the 2000 election would have been January 2001. So Clinton was in office in summer of 2000.
But I'm still just as p***** off about it, regardless of who was pres.

WTF? I've been fuming about this all morning.

[papau]

18. Making it's way up the chain of command and Berger's transition meeting

that begged Bush to consider Osama his number one problem - a thought echo'd by Clinton in speaking to Bush.

Followed by a Bush risk team formation in March that did not meet until a few days before 9/11.

Afraid this is not a Clinton error -

[lostnfound]

21. He did do the right thing by creating the intelligence team to start with.

So I hope you are right. But when, and why, did this particular information get blocked from going to the FBI? I don't believe the line in the article that it relates to the law against gathering specific intelligence on "US citizens and green card holders".

[peacetalksforall]

22. lostnfound - Number 1 - Weldon is not your normal right wing operative.

You can assume that he would lift a ton of blame sitting on the heads of the Bush administration and personally shift it to the head of Clinton in an inside-the-beltway minute.

So this small military intelligence unit tried to pass it to the FBI? Just the FBI? Not the NSC? You have to ask yourself if Clarke was informed. If not, why not and if yes, what did he do with it.

The Clinton administration appeared to do a lot about national security including passing off all the information they had stressing the importance of addressing terrorist activities when the admins were changed. They gave written and verbal reports and personally asked Rice if they could brief her.

Don't fuss that much. Know who your players are. You are safe in suspecting anything Weldon says, does, or looks at - for accuracy, motive, twist, lie, or organized attack and offensive. Then, take a second look at what he is saying.

[lostnfound]

24. Thanks very much.

Weldon hasn't quite been "on my radar screen" before, but he will be now.

Generally I do suspect everything that comes from the 'other side', but this particularly story seemed to be too damaging to * to be worth inventing. I.e., he had 9 months in office after these guys were identified; and clearly there was enough intelligence available to take action, and action was certainly required in light of the Aug 9th PDB. Plus the fact that it was left out of the 9-11 report. But thanks for clueing me in.


It WOULD be great to get Clarke's comments on this story.

[papau]

26. I hope someone in the media does get Clarkes comments on this!

:-)

[leveymg]

50. 08/06 PDB mentions only FBI surveillance. What happened to DoD?

Either someone ordered this operation closed down or there were other briefings. Either way, someone at or near the very top is going to get hammered.

[leveymg]

49. We'll be hearing a lot more from Clarke, and others, soon.

Unless this was an an all DoD operation that Rummy put the lid on real tight. Don't think so - CIA was involved with surveilling Al-Midhar and Al-Hazmi, along with Atta and Jarrah. Once they entered the US, DoD could have surveilled them legally, but taps would have required FISA warrants. There's been no record released that FISA warrants were sought for these Four.

[leveymg]

46. Did Clinton close Able Danger down? Betya, NO.

That operation was carried forward. Sorry, but 9/11 happened on Bush's watch. The Buck stops there.

[librechik]

19. of course the report didn't mention it

there is far more information left OUT of the report than allowed in--it was a whitewash, cover to cover.

[grasswire]

20. Did Gary Hart know about this operation?

I wonder. He had been appointed by Clinton to study the threat of terrorism and had tried to give his work to the new Bush administration. I wonder if he knew of Shelton's work.

I gotta say that Clinton was on the ball. It was Bush that set aside known information. It was Bush that ignored PDB containing direct threat in order to chop brush and golf.

LIHOP

[leveymg]

44. This proves the 08/06/01 PDB wasn't the only notice Bush got -

that PDB references only FBI surveillance operations against UBL cells. This one was DoD. Only two explanations - either Able Danger was ordered shut-down (which would have required presidential approval), or else there were other briefings given Bush.

This is impeachable -- the lying and cover-up until after the election was over is going to get Bush-Cheney all thrown into prison.

[lockdown]

56. Very good point I think n/t

[conservdem]

64. Why would Weldon be putting this out if it hurt Bush?

[anotherdrew]

23. this is news? I thought this was known for years?

Oh, only "conspiracy theorists" knew about this huh?

'Valid' entry visa's run through the CIA machine in Saudi Arabia perhaps?

[papau]

27. Our media is very good at playing stupid/forgetful so that they do not

get yelled at by the GOP.

[wli]

59. eh? they're marching on orders from the GOP

When Rove orders a blackout on an issue, they comply. They're all owned by defense contractors and probably have planted intelligence operatives too (for Operation Mockingbird or some newer equivalent).

[leveymg]

51. This confirms most everything I've been writing for 3 years

www.democraticunderground.com/ articles/03/03/01_crimes.html

[peacetalksforall]

28. It's time again for the NYT to be examined. If anyone has doubts about

the NYT being the first in line for right wing operations and propaganda - please raise your hand.

Krugman is the exception.

[The_Casual_Observer]

33. That's not chimps fault!, thats not chimps fault!

It's the only thing that's important to the rw bastards.

[johnnie]

36. NY Times Report: Military Knew 9/11 Hijackers Before Attacks

A startling report appeared in the New York Times Tuesday about how much the federal government knew about Sept. 11 more than a year before it happened, NewsChannel5 reported.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/wews/20050809/lo_wews/2871162


Sorry if this was posted. I looked but didn't see it on LBN.

[jerryman814]

37. Steve Coll's Ghost Wars...

That books delves deeper into the Bin Laden Connection and the rise of the Taliban. He also talks about how much we actually knew about the hijackers too... Enjoy!

[charlie]

38. Stupid Yahoo

The missing "click here" link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/politics/09intel.html

[johnnie]

40. Thanks n/t

[Carolab]

39. Here's the link. The Yahoo site doesn't have it.

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/4828421/detail.html

[BabboonBush]

41. Keep this post front and center...WOW

:kick:

[johnnie]

42. OK

It was reported here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1686958&mesg_id=1686958

But I like this headline better. LOL

[Jackpine Radical]

43. Another crack in the wall.

So the 9-11 Commission did a little bone-burying, but those bones have a way of resurfacing...

[leveymg]

52. Zelikow's ass is grass.

Suborning perjury, obstruction of justice, conspiracy -- it just goes on and on.

[Old and In the Way]

57. Where's the line drawn?

Between ignorance and/or incomptence in heeding the warnings and a cynical plan to allow the events to occur.

We know that Bush had Executive Orders on his desk awaiting signature to take action against the Taliban when he returned from vacation. We know that they wanted to take on Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia to push the New American Century. All they were missing was a "Pearl Harbor" event to get it underway.

Given what we all knew now and what we didn't know on 9/11/01, I go back to Bush's curious throw away line...."I was watching that 1st plane hit the WTC on TV and I thought, that's one terrible pilot". Is that what he was really thinking? Did he really forget about that 8/6/01 PDB that said terrorists were determined to nit landmarks in NY using planes as bommbs? And is that why they fought like hell to keep that PDB information from being released.

Impeachment Time for all the terrorists.

[leveymg]

60. That's for a jury to decide.

To convict on a murder charge, intent is a necessary element of the crime that needs to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Such a showing is not required for lesser included offenses, including reckless endangerment, manslaughter, and negligent homicide. On the basis of what we know now about events leading up to 9/11, I'm convinced a jury would convict Bush and his national security team of the lesser felony offenses.

A trial of Bush, Cheney and the others for 3,000 counts of negligent homicide, perjury, and obstruction of justice would be satisfactory.

See, specifically, The Crimes of 9/11, parts 1 and 2: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0302/S00079.htm

[leveymg]

61. Self-delete - Dupe

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

58. In other words no excuses

Chimpy should have known about the danger these guys presented. Unless he didn't want to know.

[meganmonkey]

62. This seems to have legs

apparently (according to a thread in GD) trumping the shuttle landing as top story in various news sources last night...

:popcorn: