Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00. They let them stay....

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00

By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: August 9, 2005
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 - More than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress.

In the summer of 2000, the military team, known as Able Danger, prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to the military's Special Operations Command that the information be shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the congressman, Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, and the former intelligence official said Monday.

The recommendation was rejected and the information was not shared, they said, apparently at least in part because Mr. Atta, and the others were in the United States on valid entry visas. Under American law, United States citizens and green-card holders may not be singled out in intelligence-collection operations by the military or intelligence agencies. That protection does not extend to visa holders, but Mr. Weldon and the former intelligence official said it might have reinforced a sense of discomfort common before Sept. 11 about sharing intelligence information with a law enforcement agency.

Continued

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/politics/09intel.html?th&emc=th

[punpirate]

1. This might be true, or it might be...

... bullshit. First of all, the source is Curt Weldon, Mr. Untrustworthy himself.

Second, the reason why we know that Cheney's assertions about Atta meeting an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague were untrue is that at the time that meeting supposedly occurred, the FBI had been tracking Atta from calls made on his cellphone and put his position on the east coast between Florida and Virginia, where he was reportedly headed for a meeting.

If the FBI knew of him and were investigating him, then any information military intelligence had that pertained to Atta's activities out of the country could have been transmitted to the FBI--or the CIA.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

2. I posted it because little by little info will come out that elements

in the government knew perfectly well that they were here.

What I find interesting is the name of the operation...Able Danger.

[punpirate]

3. Keep in mind...

... that Weldon has an agenda--and one item on it is the sale of his book. He's also been one of the people who's been doing a great deal to promote the view that the CIA screwed up on Iraq intelligence.

You might have a look at this before you consider if a press release from Curt Weldon is credible news:

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=9836

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

5. Is Douglas Jehl the" 9/11 Judith Miller" for the NYTimes????

Thank you. I didn't have a clue about that.

[bribri16]

4. All designed to shift focus and blame for 9/11. Don't be fooled.

This has nothing to do with what is going on in Iraq right now and what Cindy Sheehan is protesting!