9/11 Commission to Look Into Atta Claim

[cal04]

The Sept. 11 commission will investigate a claim that U.S. defense intelligence officials identified ringleader Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers as a likely part of an al-Qaida cell more than a year before the hijackings but didn't forward the information to law enforcement. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa. and vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, said Tuesday the men were identified in 1999 by a classified military intelligence unit known as "Able Danger." If true, that's an earlier link to al-Qaida than any previously disclosed intelligence about Atta.

Sept. 11 commission co-chairman Lee Hamilton said Tuesday that Weldon's information, which the congressman said came from multiple intelligence sources, warrants a review. He said he hoped the panel could issue a statement on its findings by the end of the week.

"The 9/11 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." The Sept. 11 commission's final report, issued last year, recounted numerous government mistakes that allowed the hijackers to succeed. Among them was a failure to share intelligence within and among agencies.

According to Weldon, Able Danger identified Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Khalid al-Mihdar and Nawaf al-Hazmi as members of a cell the unit code-named "Brooklyn" because of some loose connections to New York City. Weldon said that in September 2000 Able Danger recommended that its information on the hijackers be given to the FBI "so they could bring that cell in and take out the terrorists." However, Weldon said Pentagon lawyers rejected the recommendation because they said Atta and the others were in the country legally so information on them could not be shared with law enforcement.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBSR2JQ6CE.html

[The Night Owl]

1. Maybe this time around, the 9-11 Commission will be smart enough...

Maybe this time around, the 9/11 Commission will be smart enough to...

1. Get chimp to testify without chimp handler present.

2. Get chimp under oath before he testifies.

Anyway, I'm sure the 9/11 Commission will find new ways to say everyone is to blame and no one is to blame.

[stepnw1f]

12. Boy O' Boy is This Administration in Trouble

How much shit can the MSM keep from the public? Not much... Not if I can help it.

[DFWdem]

19. RELATED THREAD HERE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1692961&mesg_id=1692961

[MasonJar]

2. That commission was a joke. They decided that they were not

supposed to find anyone guilty (we all know why that is), but rather were to make recommendations to avoid another incident.

[Al-CIAda]

3. Daniel Hopsicker - M. Atta & the 9.11 Coverup in Florida

Windows-
http://www.madcowprod.com/vfcwmv.html

Quicktime-
http://www.madcowprod.com/vfcqt.html


---

Site-
http://www.madcowprod.com/

[Al-CIAda]

4. .

[BrendaStarr]

5. The commission did point out that the Republican controlled Congress

hurt counterterrorism in the late 90s with their constant scandalmongering.

Instead of trying to impeach and remove the president because he had sex they could have been looking into whether our intelligence agencies were functioning adequately.

Also there was the fact that the investigation of everything Clinton took up the time of up to 200 FBI agents at any one time and $70 million taxpayer dollars that could have been used to improve our national security.

Or Bush could have simply passed on the alerts he was getting in the summer of 2001 to the airlines, airports,and the public, like Clinton did in December 1999, when his people stopped the millenium attacks. That one simple possible act was fingered by the 9/11 commission as a possible block to the entire 9/11 operation. But then Bushie would have hurt the airlines bottom line (though they were much more damaged after 9/11). (The Bush people claimed to have alerted the airlines and airports, but Logan airport for one says they were given no warnings or alerts all summer.)

You will hear, or read possibly that Jamie Gorelick is responsible for the inability of the CIA to investigate Americans while they are within the US, but that's not true. The wall refusing to let CIA investigate Americans and (green card and visa holders as defined later) was created when the CIA was created to keep the CIA from being like Hitler's SS. Porter Goss sponsored a bill to break down that wall about a month before his appt. to the CIA post. The Bushies definitely want to be able to use the CIA to spy on Americans, and have wanted that for a while. Jamie Gorelick wrote a memo on the wall that constrains the FBI, but she did not create the block on the FBI. A Congressional bill did that c. a couple of decades before.

As I see it this sudden revelation will be used to do 2 other things as well though.

First, it will make everything that the 9/11 commission found suspect (though it was the Pentagon that hid the information), and second to keep the Congress busy so that they don't have time to get into investigating the obstruction of justice of the members of the Bush administration.

Now we can sit here and watch all this go by just like the Downing Street Memos, and Karl Rove or we can get out and keep the important facts in front of the eyes of Americans.

[RamboLiberal]

6. Look tomorrow for the Transcript of Countdown

The terrorism expert Keith often has on, Evan K. (sorry my wine addled brain forgot the last name) debunked this NYT story and Curt Weldon tonight. (Tues)

[Roy]

7. DAMN!!! and they thought the coverup was thorough .......

don't worry they'll get this whitewashed in a jiff, just like all the other stuff.

Then they will check to make sure there is no more negative information about this admistration lying around.

[KansDem]

15. BLAST FROM THE PAST!!!

they'll get this whitewashed in a jiff, just like all the other stuff

Remember this (from July 8, 2000)?

While we obtained our information from the official Texas Driver License Detail records, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety subsequently said the records contained an error; that Texas drivers' licenses have eight numbers, not nine. We made a note of that in a follow-up article, although it leads to more questions when it comes to the DL numbers of other Bush family members. Which number gets dropped since the records showed all had nine, not eight?

We recently heard from two Texas readers, one a Bush supporter and the other a Democrat, who contend that no Texas DL begins with 00, since there is no region in Texas with those digits. Again, we obtained George W.'s DL number – which is preceded by seven or eight zeroes (depending on the validity of what the Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman told us) and ends with a 5 – and the numbers of the holders of DL numbers 00000001 (or 000000001), issued to a person born in 1918, through 00000012 (or 00000012), all from the official records.

If we are to get to the truth, dear readers, it is up to you to raise a noise so loud that the corporate media can't ignore it. Our fellow Americans are not getting the information they need to make an informed decision about who will best serve them as president, thanks to the corporate media and those they serve.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Media/Redux/redux.html

As I recall, Bush had certain information scrubbed that could have been accessed through his driver's license records. This was the first time "rumors" about his cocaine conviction surfaced. He was issued a "new license" with a "new number" when he became governor of Texas, essentially erasing all past records.

[Moderator]

8. kick

[dooner]

9. AP: 9/11 Commission Wants Atta Claims Pursued (everyone mad as hell)

By KIMBERLY HEFLING,
Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 10, 4:43 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Members of the Sept. 11 commission want to know whether defense intelligence officials knew four of the hijackers were part of an al-Qaida cell but failed to tell law enforcement. Lee Hamilton, co-chairman of the now-disbanded commission, said Tuesday that members of the panel could issue a statement by the end of the week after reviewing claims that officials had identified ringleader Mohamed Atta and three other hijackers.

"The 9/11 commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohamed 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."

A group of 9/11 widows called the September 11th Advocates issued a statement Wednesday saying they were "horrified" to learn that further possible evidence exists, and they are disappointed the 9/11 Commission report is "incomplete and illusory." "The revelation of this information demands answers that are forthcoming, clear and concise," the statement said. "The 9/11 attacks could have and should have been prevented."

<snip>

If the team did identify Atta and the others, it's unclear why the information wasn't forwarded. The prohibition against sharing intelligence on "U.S. persons" should not have applied since they were in the country on visas and did not have permanent resident status. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he was unaware of the intelligence until the latest reports surfaced.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050810/ap_on_go_co sept_11_hijackers;_ylt=AqMmWE7rNgqKJBZruLkD6U9G2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[wakeme2008]

10. Frank's command in Tampa Hid Atta data

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/10/Worldandnation/Reports__911_clue_hid.shtml

[wli]

13. yeah, because Atta was one of their agents

[oscar111]

11. failure began under clinton and extended under bush?

is that right?

both will be tarred by this, right?

[davekriss]

14. By 1999, the coup...

...leading to the installation of figurehead Bush was by then well underway. Appearances (who gets "tarred") mean nothing. A Congress does not go after a sitting President for a sexual dalliance and a very minor entrapped lie as rapaciously as the Congress of 1998 -- then, after consolidation of power, sit back without a squeak while Bush lied us into Iraq -- if the intention was not to usurp power and deploy their Pearl Harbor. Bush's handlers granted the Dumbya the cover of his trifecta in order to advance the corpo-fascist, neo-imperial agenda without the bothersome nuisance of negative public opinion.

/end rant Hey, this could be fodder for a wonderful new Costa-Garvas film, hey?

[oscar111]

20. Kriss, unsure what you are saying

please restate it.. in short words and short sentences, so this dummy can "get it". LOL

thanks

[davekriss]

21. short sentences

Bush bad. But dumb. He figurehead. Bush handlers very bad. Big Boss behind handlers very very bad. View us as nuisance numbers on wrong side of P&L statements (oops, too many words!). Bent on improving their margins. At our cost.

Same Boss behind Congress late ninties. That Congress bent on destroying Clinton. Spent $70 million on Whitewater. Yielded nothing, said first special prosecutor. So Congress puts in a Starr (Ken Starr, not Brenda Starr -- too bad, me sad, think of the sex play if it was Brenda, sultry journalist ever on the job).

Ken entraps poor Bill in lie. A lie about a minor sexual dalliance. House impeaches. Senate acquits. Damage done. Coup well underway. Coup victorious on December 12, 2000. Power consolidated thereafter. Reads like a central American CIA operation from the eighties. Hey, first thing Bush does is reinstate to positions of power the whole gang -- Elliot Abrams, Otto Reich, John Negroponte, John Poindextor -- all operatives from those dark days known in some parts as the American Holocaust (oops, again with the too many words!!).

Clinton says Al Qaeda American enemy number one. But Bill kept very very busy. Fights onslaught from Republithugs from day 1. Things left undone. Tries to pass on to Bush. Bush goes on vacation. Jets fly into WTC. Very very bad. Bush declares a "trifecta". Huh, this is good? WMD, yellow-cake, aluminum tubes, balsa wood planes spewing anthrax over Kansas, Atta meets Iraqi in Bonn, yadayadayada. Lies, all; everyone of them. Manufacturing consent is all. Military and oil stocks outpace S&P average 10 to 1. Bush Base very very happy. Mission truly truly accomplished. We truly screwed. Again. (Same as it ever was.)

In a few longer sentences: We're all here familiar with PNAC's 2000 document, "Rebuilding America's Defenses" and within it the cry for a new Pearl Harbor. We all know that the Bush Doctrine of preventative war as spelled out in the NSS published in September 2002 builds upon PNAC positions. But how many realize that "Rebuilding America's Defenses" includes by reference and builds upon the Defense Policy Guidance draft prepared by Libby and Wolfowitz for then Secretary of Defense Cheney in 1992?

Yes old crashcart had plans to play out a neo-imperial wet dream way back in 1992, but much to his chagrin (probably caused his heart attacks), Perot spoiled the party by splitting the Republithug vote, allowing Clinton to squeak by with a 43% plurality. Grown emboldened by the success of years of tax cuts and deficit spending, by the success of the program to fleece taxpayers through the savings & loan scandal, by successfully baiting Iraq into invading Kuwait and thereby allowing the USG to setup "permanent" bases in Saudi Arabia (ahead of Hubbert's Peak -- better to be prepared, they think) -- so emboldened, they saw nothing wrong with tearing down a popular President, even accusing him of wagging the dog when Clinton bombed Al Qaeda training camps in 1998. From that point on what could Bill do but hold his breath, talk to his lawyers, and finally get out of town? He was lame duck squared and squared again.

So in this mix the Defense Department elects in 1999 not to pull in Atta and his crew, leaving them free for that fateful day in 2001. So surely the Rovian Wurlitzer, the right-wing chattering class, will repeat over and over again how 9-11 was Clinton's fault.

However, why would anyone thing Clinton, in 1999, politically bloodied as he was, had serious control over the Defense Department, the FBI, influence over the Republican Congress? All he had left was a muted bully pulpit (because he remained a popular president). Further, if the handlers of Congress goaded them on to impeach (over laughably insignificant charges), might not the (same) handlers of the Pentagon be controlling "special intelligence cases"? If LIHOP/MIHOP turns out to be true, planning for it probably started a good 5 years before the event. I don't think Clinton was in on the Defense Department plans (I also don't think Bush was, thus he froze while listening to that story of a pet goat -- he wasn't prepared, and his handlers were content to keep him out of the way while events unfolded).

So bring us to today. The DIA sat in information that, if shared by the FBI, could've prevented 9-11. It just shows you how entrenched the Octopus is. It takes an Octafish (where's Octafish for this thread?) to win over an Octopus (from an old Captain Beefhart song).

Now surely that's clearer, eh oscar111? ;)

[oscar111]

23. thanks kriss: so in sum, GOP preoccupied Clinton with the hunting

of clinton.

I agree. Had they not beleagured clinton with their foolish assault, clinton likely would have had better control of the agencies that dropped the ball.

{enjoyed the humor, BTW}

[Media_Lies_Daily]

17. Are you trying to tell us that the NeoCons in the Pentagon in 1999...

...shared any of this information about Atta with the Clinton White House??

LOL!! What a hoot!!

Think about this sequence for a second:

1. Members of the NeoCon PNAC working in the Pentagon approached Clinton in 1998 about attacking Iraq. Clinton old them th forget it.

2. In 1999, the PNAC NeoCon Pentagon intelligence group uncovers a group of people plotting spectacular attacks inside the U. S.

3. In September 2000, the PNAC releases a report entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses. Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century" which basically outlines the NeoCon gameplan to have the U. S. dominate the world economically, politically, and militarily. But for the American people to buy off on a quick execution of their plan, they wrote the following on page 51 (page 63 of the .pdf version):

"Further, the process of transformation,
even if it brings revolutionary change, is
likely to be a long one, absent some
catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a
new Pearl Harbor. Domestic politics and
industrial policy will shape the pace and
content of transformation as much as the
requirements of current missions."

4. In December 2000, the NeoCons gain control of the centers of U. S. power based on widespread election fraud and a 5-4 vote of the U. S. Supreme Court.

5. The NeoCons act quickly to loosen the surveillance on people suspected of being capable of terrorist acts in the U. S. One of those groups of people is one that is led by Atta. What better way to achieve your political and military objectives than to allow a major attack to take place on American soil?

6. Immediately following the attacks on September 11, 2001, the NeoCons move swiftly to consolidate their political power, and to consolidate their military power by getting the Patriot Act passed ultra-quickly through Congress.

[Supersedeas]

16. According to Weldon, haven't they already looked at this?

[YvonneCa]

18. This administration's handling and use of intelligence...

...is beginning to come under scrutiny. Remember John Kerry's DSM Letter of June, 2005? Kerry (and others...note the signers below) are questioning the use of pre-Iraq War intelligence in the letter below. Hopefully the Senate Intelligence Committee will eventually complete Part 2 or the investigation and investigate overall Bush policy on handling and manipulating of intelligence.




>>June 22, 2005
The Honorable Pat Roberts, Chairman
The Honorable John D. Rockefeller, IV, Vice Chairman
United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
SH-211
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Roberts and Senator Rockefeller:
We write concerning your committee's vital examination of pre-war Iraq intelligence failures. In particular, we urge you to accelerate to completion the work of the so-called "Phase II" effort to assess how policy makers used the intelligence they received. Last year your committee completed the first phase of a two-phased effort to review the pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Phase I-begun in the summer of 2003 and completed in the summer of 2004-examined the performance of the American intelligence community in the collection and analysis of intelligence prior to the war, including an examination of the quantity and quality of U.S. intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and the intelligence on ties between Saddam Hussein's regime and terrorist groups. At the conclusion of Phase I, your committee issued an unclassified report that made an important contribution to the American public's understanding of the issues involved. In February 2004-well over a year ago-the committee agreed to expand the scope of inquiry to include a second phase which would examine the use of intelligence by policy makers, the comparison of pre-war assessments and post-war findings, the activities of the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group (PCTEG) and the Office of Special Plans in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and the use of information provided by the Iraqi National Congress. The committee's efforts have taken on renewed urgency given recent revelations in the United Kingdom regarding the apparent minutes of a July 23, 2002, meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and his senior national security advisors. These minutes-known as the "Downing Street Memo"-raise troubling questions about the use of intelligence by American policy makers-questions that your committee is uniquely situated to address. The memo indicates that in the summer of 2002, at a time the White House was promising Congress and the American people that war would be their last resort, that they believed military action against Iraq was "inevitable." The minutes reveal that President "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

The American people took the warnings that the administration sounded seriously-warnings that were echoed at the United Nations and here in Congress as we voted to give the president the authority to go to war. For the sake of our democracy and our future national security, the public must know whether such warnings were driven by facts and responsible intelligence, or by political calculation. These issues need to be addressed with urgency. This remains a dangerous world, with American forces engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other challenges looming in Iran and North Korea. In this environment, the American public should have the highest confidence that policy makers are using intelligence objectively-never manipulating it to justify war, but always to protect the United States. The contents of the Downing Street Memo undermine this faith and only rigorous Congressional oversight can determine the truth. We urge the committee to complete the second phase of its investigation with the maximum speed and transparency possible, producing, as it did at the end of Phase I, a comprehensive, unclassified report from which the American people can benefit directly.

Sincerely,
John Kerry
Co-signers: Sens. Tim Johnson, Jon Corzine, Jack Reed, Frank Lautenberg, Barbara Boxer, Edward Kennedy, Thomas Harkin, Jeff Bingaman, Richard Durbin

>>>>


:patriot:

[Supersedeas]

24. don't hold your breath for Senator Roberts to do anything w/out Party

approval

[Al-CIAda]

22. .