Atta known to Pentagon before 9/11 (Able Danger)

[sabra]

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/chi-0509280150sep28,0,6613474.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

Atta known to Pentagon before 9/11

WASHINGTON -- Four years after the nation's deadliest terror attack, evidence is accumulating that a super-secret Pentagon intelligence unit identified the organizer of the Sept. 11 hijackings, Mohamed Atta, as an Al Qaeda operative months before he entered the U.S.

The many investigations of Sept. 11, 2001, have turned up a half-dozen instances in which government agencies possessed information that might have led investigators to some part of the terrorist plot, although in most cases not in time to stop it.

...

Had the FBI been alerted to what the Pentagon purportedly knew in early 2000, Atta's name could have been put on a list that would have tagged him as someone to be watched the moment he stepped off a plane in Newark, N.J., in June of that year.

...

The FBI has reviewed the voluminous records of its extensive Sept. 11 investigation and can find no mention of Atta before Sept. 11, a senior FBI official said. If the Pentagon knew about Atta in 2000 and failed to tell the FBI, the official said, "It could be a problem."

[UpInArms]

1. Atta was on one of Abramoff's casino boats one week prior to 9/11

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:1UeufYqqE6IJ:www.bonitanews.com/01/09/florida/d678875a.htm+%E2%80%9CSunCruz+Casinos+turns+over+documents+in+terrorist+probe.%E2%80%9D++&hl=en

Thursday, September 27, 2001

By VICKIE CHACHERE, Associated Press

TAMPA — SunCruz Casinos has turned over photographs and other documents to FBI investigators after employees said they recognized some of the men suspected in the terrorist attacks as customers.

Michael Hlavsa, chairman of the gambling cruise company, said Wednesday two or three men linked to the Sept. 11 hijackings may have been customers on a ship that sailed from Madeira Beach on Florida's gulf coast.

The cruise line also is turning over to the FBI video from a Port Canaveral cruise ship of a man that an employee says also resembled one of the suspected terrorists.

<snip>

One name on the passenger list from a Sept. 5 cruise is the same as one of the suspected terrorists', Hlavsa said. A cash advance was taken out on that passenger's credit card, he said.

The ship's extensive security systems, in place to protect its gaming operations and customers, will help confirm identifies, Hlavsa said.

...more...

Is this the missing link? Atta/Abramoff/BushCo/911?

[sabra]

2. wow, there's been alot of attention of the two (Abramoff & Able Danger)

Is something big about to emerge?

[UpInArms]

3. I do hope that Abramoff is singing like a bird

because he probably has the goods to spill.

[bahrbearian]

4. Maybe he will find his long lost Conscience

[StrafingMoose]

5. Unfortunately, I don't think so

Everyone will try to turn this into a 'failure' because no one wants to pin the 'blame' on someone. IMO, basicaly Weldon knows something's wrong and he's got to fix it before this 'failure' turns into a situation where you can't differenciate incompetence from complicity.

Just like Canada's Air India bombings of '85.

[UpInArms]

6. I wonder where DeLay fits in with all of this?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&e=8&u=/ap/20050928/ap_on_go_co/delay_profile

excerpt:

The House ethics committee admonished him on three separate occasions last year and a Senate panel is pursuing his ties to Jack Abramoff, a high-powered Republican lobbyist and fundraiser under investigation for his lobbying activities on behalf of Indian tribes and his role in paying for overseas trips for DeLay. DeLay has denied knowing Abramoff paid the expenses.

DeLay consistently has dismissed the carping about ethics as just politics, but the 11-term congressman faces more than just partisanship as a Texas grand jury indicted him and two political associates on Wednesday on charges of conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme.

An indicted majority leader must resign his leadership post under House rules. Last November, Republicans changed the rules to allow DeLay to hold onto his leadership job if indicted, but a spate of critical newspaper editorials forced them to back down and return to the original rules two months later.

<snip>

Then, in 1998, he led the charge in impeaching Clinton over the sex scandal involving a White House intern.

...more...

[brentspeak]

7. I didn't see anywhere in the article

where it identified Atta as being on one of Abramoff's boats.

[sabra]

8. there's a link in the post to the article

[UpInArms]

9. well, Atta etal were purportedly identified

in Las Vegas -

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/12/28/terror_threats_loom_over_las_vegas/

Still, this isn't the first brush Las Vegas has had with possible terrorist activity. Images of the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, the world's largest hotel with 5,034 rooms, were seen on a videotape seized from members of an alleged Al Qaeda sleeper cell in Detroit in 2002. And five of the hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks met here in June 2001, including purported ringleader Mohamed Atta, the FBI has said.

so it would be hard to connect the same gambling hijackers at another gambling establishment.

[seemslikeadream]

10. Abramoff - Al-Arian - Grover Norquist

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4911332&mesg_id=4911548