NYT: Navy Officer Affirms Assertions About Pre-9/11 Data on Atta

[DeepModem Mom]

Navy Officer Affirms Assertions About Pre-9/11 Data on Atta
By PHILIP SHENON
Published: August 22, 2005


WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 - An active-duty Navy captain has become the second military officer to come forward publicly to say that a secret defense intelligence program tagged the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a possible terrorist more than a year before the attacks.

The officer, Scott J. Phillpott, said in a statement today that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta, by name by early 2000. "My story is consistent," said Captain Phillpott, who managed the program for the Pentagon's Special Operations Command. "Atta was identified by Able Danger by January-February of 2000."

His comments came on the same day that the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, told reporters that the Defense Department had been unable to validate the assertions made by an Army intelligence veteran, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, and now backed up by Captain Phillpott, about the early identification of Mr. Atta....

***

(9/11) Commission members did acknowledge in a statement on Aug. 12 that their staff met with a Navy officer last July, only 10 days before releasing the panel's final report, who had asserted that Able Danger, a highly classified intelligence operation, had identified "Mohamed Atta to be a member of an Al Qaeda cell located in Brooklyn."...

***

With his comments today, Captain Phillpott acknowledged that he was the officer who had briefed the commission last year. "I will not discuss the issues outside of my chain of command and the Department of Defense," he said. "But my story is consistent. Atta was identified by Able Danger in January-February of 2000. I have nothing else to say."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/22/politics/23cnd-intel.html?hp&ex=1124769600&en=ed47ced9232725eb&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Beetwasher]

1. Take Your Pick, LIHIP or MIHOP

n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

4. See this post, beetwasher -- things are poppin', things are poppin' --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1719438

[Ilsa]

2. Phillpott?

I can't help but wonder what the etiology of that name could be.

Furthermore, I wonder who briefed him on the details of Able Danger so he'd sound rational while interviewing for this claim.

[Ilsa]

3. dupe.

[Canuckistanian]

5. So, several people refute this story

Even the Republican chairman of the 9/11 committee AND the Pentagon and he just reiterates his claim?

Show us the documents, asshole.

[bpilgrim]

9. "Republican chairman of the 9/11 committee AND the Pentagon" - you trust

them now?

peace

[Canuckistanian]

14. Hahahaha, touché!

More importantly they do.

[ElectroPrincess]

17. Wow! Wanna bet any and all ...

documents relating to Atta have been burned and/or shredded. If it's NOT in writing, it's down the Memory Hole.

Don't cha love it (eyewitnesses don't count!) that the Bush Administration and the Pentagon, both make and change the rules at THEIR convenience?

[lovuian]

6. The Truth is floating to the top!!! Military underlings rebelling!!!

It can't sit well knowing thousands of Americans died in NY!!!

[stillcool]

7. Kristen Breitweiser's post 'Enabling Danger'...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-breitweiser/enabling-danger-part-one_b_5951.html

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. Phew! - I read her whole post - well written I'd say

.
.
.

Thanks Kristen - sure did your homework!



well done

[stillcool]

13. i would love to hear her let go....

on this topic...She has such a command of the subject matter and speaks with such ease...

[enough]

12. Great link, thanks (nt)

[leftchick]

19. wow! Kristen is amazing...

This is interesting...

<snip>

News reports state that the information regarding the 9/11 hijackers was not passed onto the FBI because Pentagon attorneys believed that the targets of the data-mining operation (the four 9/11 hijackers) were green card holders thereby banning the passage of this information to the FBI since laws were in place during the summer of 2000 that banned domestic surveillance of Americans by the FBI. Of course, the DOD attorneys were patently wrong in their interpretation since the four 9/11 hijackers that were identified were merely U.S. visa holders (some of which had already expired and/or were illegal). These men were not U.S. citizens—therefore, the information could have been readily passed to the FBI with no worry of breaking any rules or laws. Nevertheless, the Able Danger information did not get shared with the FBI. (The identities and whereabouts of the DOD attorneys who provided such wrong legal counsel remains unknown—which raises the obvious question as to whether these individuals are still working at DOD and making the same erroneous and deadly decisions.)

[DemNoir]

8. In what context?

Was Atta's name one of 10? one of a hundred? one of a thousand?. Was there a lot of other false positives? And the date keeps shifting in every story now it's January-February of 2000.

This still seems to be a huge load of crap.

[Postman]

11. Able Danger uncovered the fact that they were all Iraqis, right?

Thats why we're in Iraq, right?

[kurtyboy]

15. "My story is consistent" sounds a lot like

"This is no bullshit!"

[maddezmom]

16. kick and recommended

and a yahoo link to rate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050823/wl_afp/usattacksatta_050823050813;_

[Sgent]

18. NYT: Officer is second to say Atta was known pre-9/11 (Attah)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 - An active-duty Navy captain has become the second military officer to come forward publicly to say that a secret intelligence program tagged the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a possible terrorist more than a year before the attacks.

The officer, Scott J. Phillpott, said in a statement on Monday that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta, by name by early 2000. "My story is consistent," said Captain Phillpott, who managed the program for the Pentagon's Special Operations Command. "Atta was identified by Able Danger by January-February of 2000."

His comments came on the same day that the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, told reporters that the Defense Department had been unable to validate the assertions made by an Army intelligence veteran, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, and now backed up by Captain Phillpott, about the early identification of Mr. Atta.

Colonel Shaffer went public with his assertions last week, saying that analysts in the intelligence project were overruled by military lawyers when they tried to share the program's findings with the F.B.I. in 2000 in hopes of tracking down terrorist suspects tied to Al Qaeda.

<snip>

NY Times Article

[StrafingMoose]

21. These things are starting to get serious...

You don't have military staff (Lt Col's, not Pvt 1st class that is) and 'high-profile' GOP people going out in the open just to make these statements, flapping their jaws, for no reason. If they ARE BSing, then this administration has MANY ways to prove it. If these guys (Weldon, Shaffer, Philpott) weren't told to say this, they must be under tremendous pressure.

If they are under pressure, it would explain why they can't back up their claim. People ask for "documents". Well, big news. These "documents" and this "chart" are probably highly classified stuff. They can leak the "substance" of the documents, but they can't get the documents out to back their claim. UNTIL someone fills an FOIA lawsuit.

If they aren't under pressure, then they were told it's "OK" to say this, or they were maybe even asked to do so. For what purpose then?

[Gyre]

20. Even more laughable than the Warrent Report!!!

Couldn't have come from a more visibly corrupt administration. Hope they all rot in hell!

Gyre

[Supersedeas]

22. LOGICAL FOLLOW-UP: Who else within the Defense Dept. knew?

[Carni]

23. Does anyone remember that Vreeland someone or another story?

It was some Michael Ruppert spread intrigue--but wasn't the guy in the Canadian jail that supposedly warned of 911 beforehand (Vreeland I think) supposedly a naval officer for the US?

I never took the story too seriously but now in light of all this able danger business I am trying to refresh my own memory.

[stillcool]

25. the honeypot....I think he's missing....

or at least was in 'Crossing the Rubicon'.

[Barrett808]

24. Hopsicker: Able Danger Intel Exposed "Protected" Heroin Trafficking

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x149481

[Carni]

26. I also just read that earlier today

I didn't realize Hopsicker used to be a producer at NBC...that sort of shocked me. As much as he has been called a tin foiler I have read several things on his site that were confirmed later. Makes me wonder if he doesn't have the whole story dead to rights