Killing Time

Sean Osborne writes:

Do you remember the strange actions of President Clinton’s national security adviser Sandy Berger during the 9/11 Commission investigation when he removed highly classified terrorism documents that should have been turned over to that independent commission?

Did you ever wonder what Berger was attempting to hide and even more importantly, why?

Did you also wonder why, even though he committed a felony, he received nothing more than a slap on the wrist while various political and intelligence officials played down his actions, wanting them to disappear as quickly as possible?

It appears that we just might have discovered the answers to these and other troubling questions: Able Danger

What is Able Danger you might ask?

Able Danger is the code name of a secret team of U.S. Army military intelligence operatives created in 1999 under a directive signed by General Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to assemble information about al Qaeda networks around the world.

In mid-2000, the Able Danger team discovered the existence of the key 9/11 terror cell of Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawar al-Hamzi inside the U.S. and recommended to their military superiors that the FBI be called in to ‘take out that cell’.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States that probed the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks was told twice about “Able Danger,” a military intelligence unit that had identified Mohamed Atta and other hijackers a year before the attacks.

The commision apparently did not investigate Able Danger and tried to cover up it up. Rep. Curt Weldon , R-Pa states:

The commission’s refusal to investigate Able Danger after being notified of its existence, and its recent efforts to feign ignorance of the project while blaming others for supposedly withholding information on it, brings shame on the commissioners, and is evocative of the worst tendencies in the federal government that the commission worked to expose.”

The military intelligence officer who attended that meeting with commision staffers “kept notes of that meeting and will testify under oath that he not only told” the staffers about Able Danger’s mission, but about Mohamed Atta.

Commission co-chairman Lee Hamilton, former Democrat congressman from Indiana, stated yesterday:

The Sept. 11 commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohammed Atta or of his cell. Had we learned of it obviously it would’ve been a major focus of our investigation.

Obviously, some one is lying. My bet is that it is the 9/11 Commision members.

More coming on this huge story.

Update: Weldon Responds to Ommision of Able Danger

“The 9/11 Commission has released multiple statements over the past week, each of which has significantly changed – from initially denying ever being briefed to acknowledging being briefed on both operation ABLE DANGER and Mohammed Atta. The information was omitted primarily because they found it to be suspect despite having been briefed on it two times by two different military officers on active duty. Additionally, the 9/11 Commission also received documents from the Department of Defense on ABLE DANGER. ”

Meanwhile, the 9/11 Commission staffers are covering their collective asses by releasing this statement on 08/13/2005:

The commission defended its decision not to include in its report the claims of a Navy officer that a secret intelligence program called Able Danger had identified lead hijacker Mohammed Atta as part of an al Qaeda cell in the United States before 2000.

“The Commission staff concluded that the officer’s account was not sufficiently reliable to warrant revision of the report or further investigation,” said the statement by Thomas H. Kean and Lee Hamilton, chairman and vice chairman of the commission and its successor, the 9/11 Public Discourse Project.

Question: Why is a Navy intelligence officer with access to eavesdropping tapes and photographs of four of the future 9/11 hijackers not ‘reliable’.

Answer: IMHO The 9/11 Commision is trying to protect the Clinton administration and Jamie Gorelick, President Clinton’s number two official in the Justice Department (hand selected by Hillary Clinton) from any blame for the 9/11 disaster.