Please DU: Take Action: Demand Coverage of Able Danger

[NVMojo]

Take Action: Demand Coverage of Able Danger
"What could be the biggest scandal of our lifetime." -- Lou Dobbs, CNN

The House Armed Services Committee recently held a hearing about the controversial Able Danger data-mining program. The secret intelligence program, which used advanced computerized link and pattern analysis techniques, purportedly identified four 9/11 hijackers a year before the worst terror attacks on American soil.


Analysts associated with the secretive Able Danger program, including Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer and Navy Captain Scott Phillpott also say their team passed on warnings to high officials at both Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and Central Command (CENTCOM) about al Qaeda activity in Aden, Yemen before the October 2000 attack there on the USS Cole. Seventeen US military personnel were killed and thirty-nine wounded in the terror attack.


Republican Congressman Curt Weldon believes that the National Commission's work investigating the 9/11 attacks has proven “to be a disappointment and a failure, especially as it pertains to Able Danger.” Possible explanations for this, says Weldon, include “gross incompetence either on the part of the Commissioners or the Commission staff, or both,” or more alarmingly, “a deliberate cover-up that would make the Watergate scandal pale in comparison.”


“The origin of the plot is the key to the 9/11 Commission investigation,” says journalist Peter Lance, who wrote the best seller Cover Up. "I believe the Commission fix was in, however, and that a decision and a deal was made to limit the damage across three administrations to avoid blame and obscure accountability for massive intelligence failures…. The 9/11 Commission is looking more and more like the Warren Commission of our time—an official body that purposely limited the scope of its investigation, cherry-picked evidence, and allowed political considerations on the left and the right to influence its final conclusions."

Up until this point CNN's Lou Dobbs is one of the few in the mainstream media to cover this issue! Click below to send a message to the major news networks demanding that they cover "What could be the biggest scandal of our lifetime."

http://www.democracyinaction.org/mediachannel/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2631

[Doctor_J]

1. Biggest scandal of our lifetime?

more like SmirkCo has gotten away with a lifetime full of scandals in 5 years. This won't fly any more than the others.

[pberq]

13. See post #9 below - this has a lot of potential

[JackRiddler]

2. k&r

!!!

[CoffeeCat]

3. Lou Dobbs was not letting go of Able Danger, the other day...

He was just hammering away at this issue and totally attacking anyone the talking head who was attempting to whitewash the issue.

Dobbs was fierce and he was livid.

I think the best bet we have--in seeing Able Danger covered--is by emailing Dobbs. He truly cares about this issue, and correspondence from like-minded viewers will only fuel his commitment to this issue.

I've been incredibly impressed with Dobbs lately. He's been obliterating BushCo and totally cutting through the crap. He does not let the talking heads get away with BS--like the Sunday morning talk-show hosts do. He puts the screws to them.

I'd say emailing Dobbs is the way to increase coverage.

[punpirate]

4. I have to ask, once again...

... why Able Danger is of such importance, when the record shows that some agencies, including the FBI, knew of Mohammed Atta well prior to the attacks?

There's lots of info available now strongly suggesting that federal agencies knew of Atta without Able Danger, and there's also strong suggestion that Weldon has been using this as a means of placing blame elsewhere, and exculpating the Bushies from responsibility.

Look here for what was known of Atta prior to 9/11:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?id=1521846767-2295

Look here for, specifically, the time period in which Atta was suspected of being in VA in the spring of 2001:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/item.jsp?item=a0201norfolkatta

The above time period is when the FBI said it was tracking Atta from cell phone calls.

Yes, it's entirely possible that the Able Danger group knew of him earlier than 9/11/2001. It's also entirely possible that so did other agencies independently of Able Danger, from the reports above, and yet, nothing was done. Why is Able Danger of such critical importance if other agencies also knew of him?

Cheers.

[pberq]

6. What you say is absolutely correct.

However, in this case I think we should be happy with any means that has the potential to expose the truth of 9/11.

See this excellent post by flyarm about Weldon and Able Danger:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x426561#427371

What makes Able Danger of such critical importance is the blatant attempts to silence those who are trying to tell the truth. This begs the question, What are they trying to hide? If and when this question is pursued, the whole house of cards will come tumbling down.

Here's another thread to check out:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5117269

[punpirate]

14. Having looked over the arguments...

... in both those threads, I'm not convinced that there's anything more here than Weldon's attempt to push blame elsewhere.

Here's why I say that. There had to have been more than just one or two people involved with Able Danger, and yet, Weldon continues to champion just two people, best as I can see, as the whistleblowers, and both of them have some shit smeared on them (I'm not presuming to know the whys of that, just that they are compromised sources). Beyond that, the two sources have provided allegations, but not evidence that can be corroborated. An administrative error which provides a few copies of classified information to a discharged person is evidence of administrative laxity, not of a cover-up. For a particularly engaging series of articles on precisely this point, see Robert Parry's X-Files articles.

Second, it's entirely possible that the cover-ups suggested may have more to do with illegality of the Able Danger effort itself than with a Pentagon or an adminstration who dropped the ball. After all, there's ample existing evidence that the administration did drop the ball, without the need to have the Able Danger evidence to prove that. The supposed Able Danger info is therefore just so much additional fodder.

What I would need to see for it to be impressive, and don't see in those posts, is the clear chain of evidence that Able Danger changes the calculus, that Able Danger adds new information to the arguments made already and elsewhere. Otherwise, I'm just persuaded that there's a political agenda at work here. That possibility cannot be discounted, and the ways of that agenda may not yet be known. What is known is that Weldon himself is an untrustworthy presenter of evidence, and a rabid and not particularly discriminating defender of military spending. For those reasons, my first inclination is to think Weldon expects to gain something from this. What that is, I don't yet know.

Cheers.

[pocket]

5. the neocons were pushing this hard a few months ago

esp National Review

I call BS.

[seemslikeadream]

9. no no BS BUDDY BUDDY

BUDDY BUDDY
http://www.gsnmagazine.com.nyud.net:8090/images/aug_05/atta.jpg
DO THE MATH

24 MINUTES

THERE MUST HAVE BEEN A MILITARY ORDER WATCH THIS VIDEO

http://www.bushflash.com/buddy.html


http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/24/124834/678


DIA Agents were ordered to put yellow Post-its over Atta's face and the face's of 3 other 9/11 terrorists

"We were directed to take those 3M yellow stickers and place them over the faces of Atta and the other terrorists and pretend they didn't exist," the intelligence officer told GSN."

Intel agents Michael Shaffer and Scott Philpott have confirmed Rep. Weldon's claims that a chart with Atta's face, soon the photos of 3 other members of the 9-11 terror team, were known to DIA team Able Danger by early 2000.

This diary will show that Pete Schoomaker and Philip Zelikow are two of the main Perpetraitors in this scandal, that they deliberately withheld information from the President of the United States that would have prevented 9/11, that they and their neo-con rulers Let It Happen On Purpose.

Of this there can no longer be any doubt.



MUST READ - RE: ABLE DANGER INFO
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4447706

Hopsicker: Able Danger Intel Exposed "Protected" Heroin Trafficking
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x149481


Able Danger: Short Time-line
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4441903

Was Able Danger Shut Down After It Detected Condi-PRC Spy Ring?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4494524



Senate May Hold Hearings on Able Danger, Info Sharing
Thursday, August 25, 2005


Able Danger (search) is the code name for a military-intelligence unit that apparently learned a year before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta (search) and other terrorists were already in the United States.

One of the central Able Danger claims — that military lawyers blocked the sharing of the Atta information from the FBI in the late summer and early fall of 2000 — will be a focus of the committee's if a hearing takes place, FOX News has confirmed.

Some analysts involved with Able Danger have recently gone public with their findings, saying they were discouraged from looking further into Atta, and their attempts to share their information with the FBI were thwarted, because Atta was a legal foreign visitor at the time.

"This story needs to be told. The American people need to be told what could have been done to prevent 3,000 people from losing their lives," said Rep. Curt Weldon (search), R-Pa.

Weldon drew attention to Able Danger by speaking about it on the House floor and publicly calling for the Sept. 11 commission to explain why the intelligence information wasn't detailed in its final report.

Some Able Danger analysts, including Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer (search) and Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott (search), claim that in October 2003, they told commission staffers of the presence of Al Qaeda operatives in the United States in 2000.


more
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,166800,00.html


Senate May Hold Hearings on Able Danger, Info Sharing
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1727804&mesg_id=1727804




Condi in Middle of Able Danger ‘Cover Up’"

Weldon is now saying that the Pentagon cover up of able danger “will shake the country to its roots."

...

If the claims made by the Able Danger participants and Rep. Weldon are confirmed, former National Security Adviser Rice and other Bush Administration officials will face a barrage of questions. First would likely be an inquiry into why the administration unceremoniously axed the Able Danger project in May of 2001.

During an August 20th interview on C-Span’s Washington Journal, Able Danger member Lt. Col. Schaffer posed a question of his own:

"The American public should ask themselves: Why would the leadership of DoD shut down, terminate, a project which was aimed at targeting al-Qaeda offensively? ...

"Why would they shut that down, four months before 9/11? That’s the big question right now, we have to ask that. I don’t know the answer to that question because I know my side of the story, I know that when a 2 star general got in my face and said, “I’m a 2 star general and you are not. You are to stop your support of Able Danger.” That’s what I know personally. But the question has to be: Who told him to do that? ...

"And why did the rest of the project, I’m talking about Special Operations Command and the Army portion of this, why was that terminated?

"Those are the questions that need to be asked."


more...

http://www.theinternationalpost.com/z30082005.html

Congressman Weldon -- Why now? Why ever?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4500623

Three more assert Pentagon knew of 9/11 ringleader By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three more people associated with a secret U.S. military intelligence team have asserted that the program identified September 11 ringleader Mohammed Atta as an Al Qaeda suspect inside the United States more than a year before the 2001 attacks, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

The Pentagon said a three-week review had turned up no documents to back up the assertion, but did not rule out that such documents relating to the classified operation had been destroyed.

Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott and Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer last month came forward with statements that a secret intelligence program code-named "Able Danger" had identified Atta, the lead hijacker in the attacks that killed 3,000 people, in early 2000. Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Curt Weldon (news, bio, voting record), vice chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, also went public with the allegations.

Pat Downs, a senior policy analyst in the office of the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, told reporters that as part of the review, the Pentagon interviewed 80 people.

Downs said that three more people, as well as Phillpott and Shaffer, recalled the existence of an intelligence chart identifying Atta by name. Four of the five recalled a photo of Atta accompanying the chart, Downs said.

Pentagon officials declined to identify the three by name, but said they were an analyst with the military's Special Operations Command, an analyst with the Land Information Warfare Assessment Center and a contractor who supported the center.

Downs said all five were considered "credible people."

But officials said an exhaustive search of tens of thousands of documents and electronic files related to Able Danger failed to find the chart or other documents corroborating the identification of Atta. Phillpott has said Atta was identified by Able Danger by January or February of 2000.

"We have not discovered that chart," Downs said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050901/pl_nm/security_attacks_pentagon_dc


Three more assert Pentagon knew of 9/11 ringleader
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1744982&mesg_id=1744982

Specter Wants Answers About 'Able Danger'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1796658&mesg_id=1796658


NYT/Reuters: Pentagon Blocks Testimony at Senate Hearing on Terrorist
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1795221&mesg_id=1795221

NOW - ON CAPITOL HILL - Able Danger Inquiry CSPAN3 9:30am et
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4836496

Able Danger ties Condi Rice to Chinese espionage! (really!)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4846388&mesg_id=4846388

VIDEO-the Senate Judicial Committee ABLE DANGER saga
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?

Official: (Curt Weldon) Attack on Cole foreseen (ABLE DANGER)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1915365&mesg_id=1915365

New 9/11 Timeline update, with new Able Danger page
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?

Weldon seeks Defense testimony on al-Qaida
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1931300

Weldon rips 9/11 commission over intelligence failures
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1959226

General gave OK for Able Danger (confirms al-Qaida mission prior to 9/11)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1973724

Live feed from ABLE DANGER Hearing here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x430652

[pberq]

7. Kick & Nominated - Let's support Dobbs

[pberq]

8. Contact page for Lou Dobbs Tonight

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?9

[John Barrett]

10. Lou Dobbs Hits Bulls Eye

This is my first post.

In my little view of the world and the USA, Lou Dobbs hits the bullseye on almost every issue he discusses. These are the issues that most Americans feel very strongly about. The Democratic Party leaders could do themselves very well by piggy backing on his show. I would suspect that 60-75% of Americans would strongly back most of the concerns he discusses.

Able Danger is something that needs fully investigated...but my gut feeling is that those in power (and it could be on both sides of the aisle) don't really want it to see the light of day. I don't care whether it hurts Clinton or whether it hurts Bush as long as it is the truth and nothing but the truth. The 9-11 Commission was implemented to ensure that major power players weren't politically hurt or blamed.

[jarnocan]

11. I agree and welcome to DU

There is some shared dubious history between the Clintons and Bushes. Right now the BU**SH** regime is our big problem - all the lies....cover ups...etc.

[pberq]

12. Welcome to DU! - excellent post.

[NVMojo]

15. welcome to DU and I appreciate your thoughtful post! Support Dobbs!