Humint Events Online: Confirmation: Atta Was Identified by "Able Danger"

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Confirmation: Atta Was Identified by "Able Danger"

Second Officer Says 9/11 Leader Was Named Before Attacks:
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."
Wow. This is big. Phillpott seems HIGHLY credible.


UPDATE: The Village Voice chimes in on Able Danger and notes how it is being used by the right-wing to distract from Bush's troubles. I say, if the right-wing wants to revisit questions about 9/11: BRING IT ON!

The Clinton administration can get some blame, but it is absurd and offensive to blame 9/11 solely on the Clinton administration. I just hope whoever is defending the Clinton administration on TV talk shows goes beyond simply disputing the Able Danger charges and questions what the Bush administration did. I'm sure that is too much to expect, however. The Village Voice piece at least points out some unresolved 9/11 issues at the end.

Importantly, the only reason to think that Clinton is to blame for the failure of the Able Danger people to pass their Atta info onto the FBI relates to the idea that it would be a scandal if the military was found investigating citizens and Green card holders. Thus, the right-wing would claim the Clinton people squelched Able Danger because of political expediency and thus allowed Atta to go free and to carry out 9/11 (which is a gross over-simplification of 9/11 to begin with). However, this totally misses the critical question of "WHO SAID ATTA HAD A GREEN CARD AND WHY"? Since Atta never had a Green card, THIS is the scandal-- that someone in the military was protecting Atta from scrutiny by saying he had a Green card when he didn't.

Again, WHO SAID ATTA HAD A GREEN CARD AND WHY?

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Powered by Blogger