What is Able Danger?

[politick]

They keep talking about it at FreepKingdom (and I haven't even googled it yet...)

Anyone know?

[lvx35]

1. It was a military group codename that warned of 9/11

and was ignored that came out...At least I think.

[ReadTomPaine]

2. From Wiki:

"Able Danger was a small, highly-classified U.S. Army intelligence program under the command of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC). It was created as a result of a directive in early October 1999 by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hugh Shelton, to USASOC to develop a campaign plan against transnational terrorism, "specifically al-Qaida." According to claims made by at least 5 eye-witnesses deemed by the Pentagon as "credible"<1>, and supported by Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA), Able Danger had identified the 9/11 attack leader, Mohamed Atta, and three other 9/11 hijackers as possible members of an al Qaeda cell operating in the United States by mid-2000, more than a year before the attack. The claim appears to contradict the official conclusion of the 9/11 Commission that surmised American intelligence agencies had not identified Atta as a terrorist prior to the attack, resulting in political controversy."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Danger

[politick]

6. So

why are freepers excited about this?

[politick]

8. MAybe

because the links to Atta were ascertained in 2000, under Clinton's watch.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/08/17/sept.11.hijackers/

Which would explain all the other negligence -- at best -- that BushCo is directly responsible for in the attack.

I see...

[ReadTomPaine]

11. Ask a freeper!

I really can't give you much insight as to why they hold any of their views. You just never know what's going to fly out of their mouths when they open them.

[politick]

12. I am...

;)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. Freeper-like spelling

Perhaps you could post a smaller picture in your signature. It contains a freeper-like spelling mistake and makes your posts tiny in comparison because you make the picture so big. I don't care if it is fake Bush gore, there has been so much gore in Iraq and New Orleans lately that it is nauseating to have more blood and guts shoved in our face so many times.

[political_invader]

3. here is a link I found

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/8/18/101813.shtml

[ReadTomPaine]

7. Welcome to DU!

FYI, Newsmax isn't well regarded here at DU - its hard right wing affiliations tend damage any credibility in its reporting.

[political_invader]

14. ty I am aware of this ..

It was the first link I had pulled from my bookmarks on the subject knowing any other information given on this subject would not be from newsmax. I usually do not reference newsmax, I use it only to piss off my dad.

[oasis]

10. If right wingers are pushing it, then it's likely distorted information.

Customized by Rove.

[DemInDistress]

4. I dont know why Able Danger is such a big deal..

If Atta was in the USA in 2000 why be shocked..Atta also left the
country in Jan 2001 for 10 days and returned unchallenged.He again
went overseas in April 2001 and returned in late April 2001.I cant
see the importance of Able Danger...

[applegrove]

5. I remember watching 60 Minutes when Clinton was still Pres. They

went to some CIA compound to show off the building and showed OBL as #1 on the list of dangers to the U.S.A.

I wonder if he kept his position after Bush was elected.

[politick]

9. I think they switched it around

from No 1 most wanted to
No 1 most awesome dude

[applegrove]

13. I agree that this is not news though. We all had public examples of

terrorism & hijackings. And nobody in the public quite put two & two together either.

The U.S. had been lucky up to that point. Every other western nation in the world had faced terrorism of one kind or another for decades. In Canada 300 people where exploded in a jet over the Irish sea in the mid 1980s. It really was only a matter of time before someone tried to hit New York again. New York was even on the list of most likely places since terrorists had tried with the twin towers before.

What a sad thing.

[flyarm]

15. Was Able Danger Shut Down After It Detected Condi-PRC Spy Ring?

Was Able Danger Shut Down After It Detected Condi-PRC Spy Ring?
Mon Aug-29-05 10:18 AM

DID DOD SHUT DOWN ABLE DANGER AFTER IT DETECTED CONDI’S CONNECTION WITH A PRC SPY RING?

Copyright 2005, Mark G. Levey

According to official accounts, the Pentagon shut the Able Danger project down several months after the Bush Administration took power in 2001. There is now a report that the Defense Intelligence Agency was using the project's data-mining technology to investigate other national security threats in addition to al-Qaeda cells detected inside the U.S.. The program may have revealed details of suspected espionage that got too close to the White House, leading to the termination of the program.

Laura Rozen, who has been closely tracking the Able Danger story, says in her War and Piece.com. blog on Aug. 27:http://www.warandpiece.com /

"This New York Post report on Able Danger is the most revealing so far. I had heard as well that Able Danger was shut down after it submitted papers for its budget review that included a huge China analysis that had the Pentagon review general scratching his head. But I had not heard about the Condoleezza Rice stuff, which would go a long way to explaining why Able Danger may have been shut down:"

"The private contractors working for the counter-terrorism unit Able Danger lost their jobs in May 2000. The firings following a series of analyses that Pentagon lawyers feared were dangerously close to violating laws banning the military from spying on Americans, sources said.

"The Pentagon canceled its contract with the private firm shortly after the analysts — who were working on identifying al Qaeda operatives — produced a particularly controversial chart on proliferation of sensitive technology to China, the sources said.

"Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, the veteran Army officer who was the Defense Intelligence Agency liaison to Able Danger, told The Post China "had something to do" with the decision to restructure Able Danger.

"Sources said the private contractors, using sophisticated computer software that sifts through massive amounts of raw data to establish patterns, came up with a chart of Chinese strategic and business connections in the U.S.

"The program wrongly tagged Rice, who at the time was an adviser to then-candidate George W. Bush, and former Defense Secretary William Perry by linking their associations at Stanford, along with their contacts with Chinese leaders, sources said.

"The program also spat out scores of names of other former government officials."

Rozen asks,"So Able Danger's data mining results seemed more all over the board, a kind of tinfoil hat producing adventure better left to freepsters and google?"

While Rozen seems to dismiss the suggestion that Condi was actually involved in any wrongdoing with the Chinese, the subject of PRC espionage and diplomatic efforts to obtain US dual-use technologies has long been a source of great concern at the Pentagon.

I am also skeptical that AD was shut down for spying on Condi's suspected involvement with Chinese espionage. Not because I trust Condi, but because the events referred to in The NY Post article above happened years before AD was reported to have started operating. Still, it shouldn't be dismissed entirely out of hand.

Here's an interesting early 2001 article that goes into the story - I'm not vouching for its sources or conclusions, but it gives one some idea about the issue that might have been bugging Pentagon counterintelligence about Condi.

[flyarm]

16. 'Able Danger' Shut Down In February 2001

http://www.legitgov.org/9_1_1_oddities.html

'Able Danger' Shut Down In February 2001 (Can't blame Bill Clinton, folks!) 13 Aug 2005 Ten days before publication of the 9/11 Commission report, commission staff discounted information from a military officer linking Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta to a terror cell believed to be operating in New York City more than a year before the terrorist attacks. According to a statement released Friday by The 9/11 Public Discourse Project, the two commission staff members who interviewed the officer in July 2004 concluded his story about a Defense Department intelligence counterterrorism program, called Able Danger, that worked to identify and target al-Qaida and other terrorists, was not credible. As a result, the information was not included in the commission's final report published July 22, 2004... A small group of Defense Intelligence Agency employees ran the Able Danger operation from fall 1999 to February 2001 - just seven months before the terrorist attacks - when the operation was unceremoniously axed, according to a former defense intelligence official familiar with the program. The former official asked not to be identified.

Address to receive newsletter: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg
Please write to: [e-mail] for inquiries. lrp/mdr

CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, General Manager. Copyright © 2005, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.


NO WONDER THE BUSHITS ARE NOW SAYING IT DIDN'T HAPPEN..THEY AXED THE PROGRAM!!!

[flyarm]

17. able danger

Must Read! The Neo-Con Able Danger Scandal -- Atta Coverup!
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.

(more)

<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/24/124834/678 >

[flyarm]

18. ABLE DANGER : a pandoras box??

robertpaulsen


Able Danger is a Pandora's Box that will blow up in the RW's face.
Re-open the 9/11 investigation? BRING IT ON! Here's why:

So the responsibility for stopping DIA program Able Danger, which had Identified Atta and 3 other hijackers and linked them to 56 other al-Queda terrorists overseas, has been laid at the feet of Bill Clinton--except he and Richard Clarke were never told about it at all.

That's right. Bill Clinton was never told about Able Danger and the ID of Atta because Richard Clarke was never told about AD. How do I know? He never wrote about it in his book, nor did he testify about it's existence before the 9-11 Commission!

You see Richard Clarke was known for being obsessed with Osama Bin Laden and HE was the guy the neo-con moles did not want to find out about Atta and the gang. Schoomaker and the neo-cons knew telling the FBI would inform Clarke and then Mr. Laser Beam himself, President of the United State William Jefferson Clinton, would have gotten involved--and the Pearl Harbor-type attack would never take place (the neo-cons talked about the need for a Pearl Harbor-type attack before the PNAC Plan would be accepted by the American people--so when one presented itself, they let it happen).

General Pete Schoomaker, who were later heavily rewarded by the neo-cons in the Bush Administration, blocked the upward motion of the DIA information by having Shaffer and Philpott meet with Pentagon lawyers opinions--lawyers who were rubberstamping ridiculous legal opinions to carry out the neo-con plan. These certain people were neo-cons in the Clinton Administration, covertly carrying out the PNAC plan to let a Pearl Harbor-type attack occur so Iraq and 6 other countries could be invaded.

more
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