Able Danger chart with Atta found?! Can someone help get a screenshot?

[paulthompson]

Hi,
I stumbled across this article today:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/8/29/12430.shtml

All the NewsMax article really is is a note that part of the mysterious Able Danger chart supposedly showing Atta's face was displayed in a speech in 2002, though the pic is not clear enough to display Atta. There's a link to where one can watch a speech of Curt Weldon and see the chart. I can't see it though, because I can't play Real Player stuff on my computer. Can someone make a screenshot of the
chart and post it here?

In other Able Danger news, three more Able Danger staffers have confirmed the story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/01/AR2005090101830.html

and one more has come forward by name:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167130,00.html

So that's about five or six out of the ten or so on the Able Danger team.

But the most interesting thing of all in my opinion has been the comments Tony Shaffer, one of the Able Danger whistleblowers, said on "The Big Idea" MSNBC TV show last week. He said that he didn't have proof, but he suspected that Able Danger was shut down one month after Bush came into office because Able Danger's unique data collection methods were tying US government officials with overseas criminal activity. He said he couldn't say more, but that he hoped more about this would come out when Congressional hearings are held on the matter. Seems to me this could be yet another Bush scandal.

[paulthompson]

1. Aha!

I just discovered an obscure news article that has another whistleblower talking about the same thing Shaffer was alluding to on "The Big Idea":

WASHINGTON - The names of U.S. citizens with connections to military, political organizations and educational institutions reportedly turned up when the Pentagon collected intelligence as part of its Able Danger effort.

The names and the origin of the information turned out to be so sensitive that Smith says, "It cost me a contract and a eventually my job at the company that employed me at the time."

But the names the intelligence group investigated turned out not to be connected with al Qaida.

Sources familiar with Able Danger say the project was shut down because it could have lead to the exposure of a separate secret data mining project focusing on U.S Citizens allegedly transferring super-sensitive U.S technology illegally to the Chinese government.

http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?sid=558226&nid=251&pid=3

WASHINGTON - More information is emerging about the secret military intelligence program Able Danger that uncovered the names of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers a year before the terror attacks.

The unit that was looking for information on al Qaida uncovered the names of prominent American citizens and their questionable connections to China. Those individuals were never accused of any wrongdoing.

"But what you don't know is all the other things that we've done that haven't come to light," says Able Danger team member J.D. Smith.

http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?sid=558226&nid=251&pid=4

[paulthompson]

2. Interesting interview here

http://www.gsnmagazine.com/sep_05/shaffer_interview.html

[pauldp]

5. I think this part is amazing..

After Zelikow tells Shaffer that Shaffer's info is very important and wants to discuss it further and gives him his card, (according to Shaffer) this is what happened when he called Zelikow and the 911 commission back:

<snip>
A week goes by, no phone call back. I called them a week later and said, *Hey, what gives?*

*Yeah, we know who you are. ummmmm. Dr. Zelikow tells me that he does not see the need for you to come in. We have all the information on Able Danger.*

This is the second week of January. To my knowledge, the Able Danger documentation, which they claimed that they did get, which was about two briefcase-sized containers, didn’t show up until February or March. So, I don’t know what they were looking at or what they’d been told about, but I can tell you, from my understanding, they did not have a full set of information at that point in time.

<snip>

And then they ignore it in the report. Unbelievable.

[Spoonerian]

3. "Able Danger was shut down in part

because of concerns about intelligence on U.S. citizens that the sophisticated software dug up."

Right. Nearly every year for the last 50 years, they've written miles of new statutes, regulations, opinions, patriot acts, etc. giving them power over everything left over that the previous statute, regulation, patriot act, etc. somehow overlooked--and still that pesky bill of rights is shutting down the nice poor honest government from saving us from suicide bombers...as though they didn't always do whatever the hell they wanted to anyway and the purpose of the expansions in law books was ever anything else than just to rub it in our faces. Like government spooks are ever charged with the crime of spying on US citizens?

My current theory: This "Able Danger" episode is a limited hangout story to smooth out and/or obscure the contradictions between the government's Atta story/timeline and Hopsicker's Atta story/timeline. It kind of goes along with recent stories on madcowprod about Atta's father, the Sarasota Tribune disappearing lexus/nexus history, and the wierd story about the light skinned Atta in Key West.

From the article: "Although the Able Danger intelligence pipeline has been terminated, Smith gives the impression that the China issue is still open.

"In my personal opinion, the stovepipes are alive and well. And for those of us in the contractor world, we're very much aware of that," he said. "

Really? No more pesky Bill of Rights to worry about?

[spooked911]

20. I think the problem is that the program identified Condi Rice as a

security threat.

Seriously.

I think that should strengthen our trust in the Able Danger program, myself.

[Informed Citizen]

4. Screenshot - Heritage Foundation

Paul,

This is the closest the camara zoomed in, and the best image I could capture. I doubt its going to get much better than this unless someone has a copy of the video in an uncompressed format.

- I.C.

[pauldp]

6. The Weldon CSPAN clip has a closer shot

of what appears to be the same chart. You can recognize the photo of Atta. You may be able to get the footage from CSPAN for a higher rez still frame?
rtsp://cspanrm.fplive.net/cspan/project/ter/ter_wj081005_weldon.rm

[Informed Citizen]

7. Screenshot - CSPAN

pauldp,

Another compressed blur. I am not able to confirm Atta's picture. I've viewed the video at different sizes, many times, and I can not make out anyone but Osama. Its quite apparent that the charts are not the same. I wouldn't assume that the chart in the CSPAN video was the infamous chart in question. Something similar perhaps. I doubt that the Heritage Foundation would give us a copy of the video.

- I.C.

[paulthompson]

9. Thanks again

Is that the same thing pauldp is talking about? I can't make Atta out, either. It seems the four big pictures at the bottom are of the WTC burning and the like, so this must be some kind of post-9/11 edit.

How is it that no one can find any copies of this chart now?! I could easily believe the Pentagon "accidentally on purpose" losing their copy (or copies), but Weldon obviously has one here in 2002, after he says he gave a copy to Condi Rice's assistant Steve Hadley (whom I can also easily imagine "losing" his copy). But now Weldon loses his copy, too? Maybe there's stuff on there that no one wants revealed. After all, it's not just a matter of Atta and a couple other hijackers - there are supposedly 60 some names on the chart. Perhaps some very interesting connections would be revealed with an excellent copy of the image.

It's interesting that one of the whistleblowers says Atta's name came up in relation to the blind sheikh, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman, one of the conspirators in the first WTC bombing. I'll bet the full chart would show a lot of linkages between guys on the radar screen in the early 1990s and the hijackers. After all, the main bomber in the first WTC bombing, Ramzi Yousef, was the nephew of the 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

[paulthompson]

10. not the same chart

After examining them a bit, I have to agree they aren't the same chart. Where is this CSPAN stuff from, and when? How do you know it's supposed to be "the" chart?

[Informed Citizen]

12. CSPAN - 8/10/05

Paul,

If you read the file name in the web address, you find the date of broadcast. And I don't think that pauldb was suggesting that it was necessarily the same chart. In the CSPAN video, the camara does zoom in quite close, and pan around the chart. However, even up close, the compression blur prevents any firm recognition of faces. I haven't listened to the video, but if you will give me a few minutes, I'll be back with a brief report on anything said about the chart specifically.

- I.C.

[pauldp]

11. At 2min 48sec into the CSPAN video there is a closer shot

of ATTA . It is blurry and compressed unfortunately but you can tell it's the same picture of him that is always shown. I'd post it but my server is down.

[Informed Citizen]

13. No Atta

pauldp,

My screenshot is from just after that moment in the video. Unless you have some kind of cleaner feed, or better video technology, I can't agree that most of those fuzzy images can be entirely confirmed as specific people, with the exception of Osama. I looked very closely, and while I see a couple of blurs that suggest Atta, the resolution prevents any certainty.

- I.C.

[Informed Citizen]

15. Maybe Atta

pauldp,

From listening to the videos, (see my transcript post below), I've determined that the charts in these videos, are different versions of 'the chart' to which we are referring. Therefore, it makes it much more likely that the image that looks like Atta, is actually Atta. Of course, Weldon would not have been showing any classified materials on C-SPAN.

- I.C.

[paulthompson]

8. thanks

Informed Citizen, and pauldp, for the pics of the chart. I could see the one from Informed Citizen, but the second one sounds more promising from the description. However, I have the same Real Player incompatibility problem with the second one, I think. Can anyone post a screenshot of it?

[Informed Citizen]

14. Transcrips regarding charts

"This is the unclassified chart that was done by the Special Forces Command Briefing Center one year before 9/11. It is the complete architecture of Al-qaeda, and pan-Islamic extremism. It gives all the linkages. It gives all the capabilities. It ties it into events in the past and gives you the big picture."

Curt Weldon, May 23, 2002, Heritage Foundation



"Two weeks after 9/11 my friends in military intelligency brought me in a two foot by three foot chart that depicted the Al-qaeda cells worldwide, and included two cells in the U.S.. One in D.C, and one in New York."

"The chart shows the major cells of Al-qaeda. It shows the operations."

"To recreate the chart that I gave to Hadley, I went back to the folks at special operations and I said, 'can you give me that chart again that I gave to Hadley', and they did. You have a copy there."

Curt Weldon, Aug 8, 2005, C-SPAN

[Informed Citizen]

16. And a comment or two...

Folks,

Weldon reveals in both videos that the charts shown are some unclassified version of 'the chart' in question. However, I think we have reason to assume that each time 'his friends' at military intel print a new one, that they make it as 'clean' as necessary. The C-SPAN footage shows many details of the chart, and so this information would not likely be damaging to anyone, or reveal any new secrets. We could get a copy. In contrast, the chart shown at the Heritage Foundation may be revealing, but the video does not zoom in close enough to examine details, and we probably couldn't get a clear copy.

I highly recomment watching these videos.

- I.C.

P.S. Why can't Weldon just get us another copy? Its unclassified.

[paulthompson]

17. Yep

Shaffer said that Able Danger help uncover info on four al-Qaeda cells, only one of which was in the US. He said the info on the overseas was useful and continues to be useful, so he can't say much. Presumably that info would be on a complete version of the chart, which we're probably never going to see. But even an unclassified version could be very illuminating in revealing things that may seem obvious now, but maybe were not back in 2000. For instance, just HOW does Atta connect to the blind sheikh? That's a puzzler, though I could definitely see it happening.

[paulthompson]

18. Ah

A recently made reconstructed version of the chart. The pic of Atta on the original would be different, since the famous one is from his Florida driver's license, but that pic hadn't been taken yet in the time in question. One of the whistleblowers said that his pic came from overseas (from German goverment legal papers would be a likely guess).

[Tim Howells]

19. I agree on the most interesting thing ...

> But the most interesting thing of all in my opinion has been
> the comments Tony Shaffer, one of the Able Danger
> whistleblowers, said on "The Big Idea" MSNBC TV show last
> week. He said that he didn't have proof, but he suspected
> that Able Danger was shut down one month after Bush came
> into office because Able Danger's unique data collection
> methods were tying US government officials with overseas
> criminal activity. He said he couldn't say more, but that
> he hoped more about this would come out when Congressional
> hearings are held on the matter. Seems to me this could be
> yet another Bush scandal.

This meshes perfectly with Sibel Edmond's allegations in
two recent (post Vanity Fair fiasco) interviews. She is
dropping some very interesting hints:

From one interview:

============================

http://www.armeniangenocide.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2726&postcount=2

SE: ... What I am telling you is that this network is visible, and it is
possible to grasp what's going on. And I think to a certain extent
it's obvious that some of your neocons will be involved in these
criminal activities. You don't need me to tell you that. But too
often, they have looked in the wrong places.
CD: An example?
SE: Well, I'm wondering why in this "war on terror" they aren't
taking a look at the role of banks in Dubai, banks in Cyprus –
they've always concentrated on banks in places like, say,
Switzerland. They almost never look at these two other huge areas
for money-laundering.

==========================

In another interview she drops in another very interesting name:
Douglas Feith.

http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2005/08/110674.shtml

Tim Howells