NYT/AP: 9/11 Panel Decided to Omit a Reference to Atta

[DeepModem Mom]

9/11 Panel Decided to Omit a Reference to Atta
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 11, 2005
Filed at 7:10 p.m. ET


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Sept. 11 commission knew military intelligence officials had identified lead hijacker Mohamed Atta as a member of al-Qaida who might be part of U.S.-based terror cell more than a year before the terror attacks but decided not to include that in its final report, a spokesman acknowledged Thursday.

Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the commission's follow-up project called the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, had said earlier this week that the panel was unaware of intelligence specifically naming Atta. But he said subsequent information provided Wednesday confirmed that the commission had been aware of the intelligence.

The information did not make it into the final report because it was not consistent with what the commission knew about Atta's whereabouts before the attacks, Felzenberg said.

The intelligence about Atta recently was disclosed by Rep. Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees. The Pennsylvania Republican has expressed anger that the intelligence never was forwarded by the military establishment to the FBI.

The discourse project, Pentagon and at least two congressional committees are looking into the issue. If found accurate, the intelligence would change the timeline for when government officials first became aware of Atta's links to al-Qaida....


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Sept-11-Hijackers.html?hp&ex=1123819200&en=75c8bf9eafed684c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[LisaM]

1. Translation: Because of the upcoming election

the Republican-headed committee decided to omit the information.

[rzemanfl]

2. My question is why they would have done that when it was a

golden opportunity for them to blame 9/11 on the Democrats?

[LisaM]

3. I don't see it that way

the Clinton administration provided plenty of information that the incoming administration chose to ignore. This was probably part of this information.

[rzemanfl]

8. Who knows? The truth is hard to come by in Bushworld. n/t

[Pirate Smile]

5. The terrorism expert on MSNBC - he worked with Richard Clarke

(I'm blanking on his name) just said on Hardball that a lot of what is coming out of Congress is CRAP and he wasn't putting much credence into this information yet because it conflicted with other information they had regarding where Atta was at that time.

So :shrug:

He was on at the same time as Kristen Breitweiser.

[ChiciB1]

4. When Will OUTRAGE Be...

OUTRAGEOUS enough?? This stuff just keeps going on and on, and this one points to that one and that one points to this one!!

Talk about a FLIP-FLOP game!! Such total POOP!!

[bvar22]

6. I wonder what else didn't make it into the report.

*

[htuttle]

7. Considering that Stephen Hadley, Condi's deputy, headed the research staff

...I'd say a lot was left out.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. a.m. kick -- Anyone else have thoughts on this?

[Supersedeas]

10. rhut-rho Shaggy....You mean the Commission report first denied, then

tries to cover-up.