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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 12:52 PM
Original message
Specter Wants Answers About 'Able Danger'
Edited on Wed Sep-21-05 12:53 PM by seemslikeadream
Wednesday, September 21, 2005


WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (search) said Wednesday he wants answers from the Defense Department about Able Danger, a secret military unit that is said to have identified four of the Sept. 11 hijackers more than a year before the terrorist attacks.

Pentagon officials blocked five key witnesses from testifying in the Able Danger (search) hearings on Capitol Hill Wednesday, citing security concerns.

"I think the Department of Defense owes the American people an explanation about what went on here," Specter said. "The American people are entitled to some answers."

The testimony was expected to offer information on the secret military unit and its identification of Mohamed Atta (search) — the lead hijacker during the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer (search) said in written testimony through his attorney that the Pentagon refused to allow him to testify before the committee. His attorney, Mark Zaid, also said that the Pentagon prevented testimony from a defense contractor that he also represents.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169991,00.html



Thanks Fox but it's not gonna hurt Clinton cause Clinton was never TOLD!
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Roachman Donating Member (120 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 12:56 PM
Response to Original message
1. Where can I find more about Able Danger?
I've seen this in the 9/11 thread, but I could not find it with full explanation of where it came from and what it means. Does someone have an extensive article they could link to?
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jsamuel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 12:59 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. Here is a thread about it from late August
Edited on Wed Sep-21-05 12:59 PM by jsamuel
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Verve Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 01:00 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. Here's a more recent post.
One of the first posters has more articles pasted on to read.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1795221
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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 01:01 PM
Response to Reply #1
6. Thanks for asking Roachman
BUDDY BUDDY
http://www.gsnmagazine.com.nyud.net:8090/images/aug_05/atta.jpg
DO THE MATH

24 MINUTES

THERE MUST HAVE BEEN A MILITARY ORDER


http://www.bushflash.com/buddy.html WATCH THIS 3 MINUTE VIDEO


http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/24/124834/678


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.



MUST READ - RE: ABLE DANGER INFO
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4447706

Hopsicker: Able Danger Intel Exposed "Protected" Heroin Trafficking
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x149481


Able Danger: Short Time-line
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4441903

Was Able Danger Shut Down After It Detected Condi-PRC Spy Ring?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4494524



Senate May Hold Hearings on Able Danger, Info Sharing
Thursday, August 25, 2005


Able Danger (search) is the code name for a military-intelligence unit that apparently learned a year before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta (search) and other terrorists were already in the United States.

One of the central Able Danger claims — that military lawyers blocked the sharing of the Atta information from the FBI in the late summer and early fall of 2000 — will be a focus of the committee's if a hearing takes place, FOX News has confirmed.

Some analysts involved with Able Danger have recently gone public with their findings, saying they were discouraged from looking further into Atta, and their attempts to share their information with the FBI were thwarted, because Atta was a legal foreign visitor at the time.

"This story needs to be told. The American people need to be told what could have been done to prevent 3,000 people from losing their lives," said Rep. Curt Weldon (search), R-Pa.

Weldon drew attention to Able Danger by speaking about it on the House floor and publicly calling for the Sept. 11 commission to explain why the intelligence information wasn't detailed in its final report.

Some Able Danger analysts, including Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer (search) and Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott (search), claim that in October 2003, they told commission staffers of the presence of Al Qaeda operatives in the United States in 2000.


more
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,166800,00.html


Senate May Hold Hearings on Able Danger, Info Sharing
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1727804&mesg_id=1727804




Condi in Middle of Able Danger ‘Cover Up’"

Weldon is now saying that the Pentagon cover up of able danger “will shake the country to its roots."

...

If the claims made by the Able Danger participants and Rep. Weldon are confirmed, former National Security Adviser Rice and other Bush Administration officials will face a barrage of questions. First would likely be an inquiry into why the administration unceremoniously axed the Able Danger project in May of 2001.

During an August 20th interview on C-Span’s Washington Journal, Able Danger member Lt. Col. Schaffer posed a question of his own:

"The American public should ask themselves: Why would the leadership of DoD shut down, terminate, a project which was aimed at targeting al-Qaeda offensively? ...

"Why would they shut that down, four months before 9/11? That’s the big question right now, we have to ask that. I don’t know the answer to that question because I know my side of the story, I know that when a 2 star general got in my face and said, “I’m a 2 star general and you are not. You are to stop your support of Able Danger.” That’s what I know personally. But the question has to be: Who told him to do that? ...

"And why did the rest of the project, I’m talking about Special Operations Command and the Army portion of this, why was that terminated?

"Those are the questions that need to be asked."


more...

http://www.theinternationalpost.com/z30082005.html

Congressman Weldon -- Why now? Why ever?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4500623

Three more assert Pentagon knew of 9/11 ringleader By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three more people associated with a secret U.S. military intelligence team have asserted that the program identified September 11 ringleader Mohammed Atta as an Al Qaeda suspect inside the United States more than a year before the 2001 attacks, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

The Pentagon said a three-week review had turned up no documents to back up the assertion, but did not rule out that such documents relating to the classified operation had been destroyed.

Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott and Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer last month came forward with statements that a secret intelligence program code-named "Able Danger" had identified Atta, the lead hijacker in the attacks that killed 3,000 people, in early 2000. Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Curt Weldon (news, bio, voting record), vice chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, also went public with the allegations.

Pat Downs, a senior policy analyst in the office of the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, told reporters that as part of the review, the Pentagon interviewed 80 people.

Downs said that three more people, as well as Phillpott and Shaffer, recalled the existence of an intelligence chart identifying Atta by name. Four of the five recalled a photo of Atta accompanying the chart, Downs said.

Pentagon officials declined to identify the three by name, but said they were an analyst with the military's Special Operations Command, an analyst with the Land Information Warfare Assessment Center and a contractor who supported the center.

Downs said all five were considered "credible people."

But officials said an exhaustive search of tens of thousands of documents and electronic files related to Able Danger failed to find the chart or other documents corroborating the identification of Atta. Phillpott has said Atta was identified by Able Danger by January or February of 2000.

"We have not discovered that chart," Downs said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050901/pl_nm/security_attacks_pentagon_dc


Three more assert Pentagon knew of 9/11 ringleader
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1744982&mesg_id=1744982
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QuettaKid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 03:38 PM
Response to Reply #6
18. BIGGEST KICK POSSIBLE !!!
:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:
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LetsGoMurphys Donating Member (564 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 09:08 PM
Response to Reply #6
42. Lt. Col Shaffer was on Michael Smerconish this morning...
sounded very convincing and distured as he was not allowed to testify today at the Able Danger hearings. Smerconish is turning a lot lately and today he was absolutely furious and said if the whole Bush Administration has to go down so be it.
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OregonBlue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-23-05 01:53 PM
Response to Reply #1
47. Wayne Madsen Report - the plot thickens!!
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/Bushsaudidrugs.htm

Mohammed Atta and Prince Nayif: the Saudi drugs dealers who helped finance the 911 attack

Released confidential documents point to financing of 911 attacks tied to Bush family drug network
By Wayne Madsen

© 2005 Wayne Madsen Report.com. All Rights Reserved
In 1999, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) broke open a major conspiracy involving a Saudi prince’s Colombian cocaine smuggling from Venezuela to support some “future intention” involving Koranic prophecy. The DEA operations were contained in a “Declassification of a Secret DEA 6 Paris Country Office” memorandum dated June 26, 2000, a date which coincided with the height of Israeli art student and 911 hijacker activity in the United States. In June 1999, 808 kilograms of cocaine were seized in Paris. At the same time, the DEA was conducting a major investigation of the Medellin drug cartel called OPERATION MILLENNIUM.

Through an intercepted fax, the Bogota Country Office of the DEA learned of the Paris cocaine seizure and linked the drug smuggling operation to the Saudis. The DEA investigation centered around Saudi Prince Nayif al Saud, whose alias was El Principe (the Prince). Nayif's full name is Nayif (or Nayef) bin Fawwaz al-Shaalan al-Saud. In pursuit of his international drug deals, Nayif traveled in his own Boeing 727 and used his diplomatic status to avoid customs checks. The DEA report stated Nayif studied at the University of Miami, Florida, owned a bank in Switzerland, speaks eight languages, was heavily invested in Venezuela’s petroleum industry, regularly visited the United States, and traveled with millions of dollars of U.S. currency. Nayif is also invested in Colombia's petroleum industry.
Nayif was also reported to have met with drug cartel members in Marbella, Spain, where the late Saudi King Fahd and the Saudi royal family maintained a huge palatial residence. The report states that when a group of cartel members traveled to Riyadh to meet
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Verve Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 12:58 PM
Response to Original message
2. Hmmm..Interesting source.
Why do you think faux news is covering this? Did Katrina change their perception of the Bush Administration?
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kainah Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 01:23 PM
Response to Reply #2
10. the right likes Able Danger because
they think it will lay the blame for 9/11 on Clinton.
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OnionPatch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 04:55 PM
Response to Reply #10
28. My thoughts exactly
A year before the highjackings: Clinton was president. My first instinct was that they are hoping to blame him.
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TheFarseer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 01:00 PM
Response to Original message
4. Remember bush dissolved this group
right after his inauguration. If they want to beat on Clinton with this, I can't see how it will work unless of course we ignore 88% of the facts and charge ahead with the 12% that support the position we want them to support. OK, now I see how it will work :)
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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 01:04 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. Richard Clarke was never told so President Clinton didn't know
How I know Richard Clarke wasn't told, he NEVER mentioned it at the 9/11 hearings.

9/11 Commission didn't know cause Zelikow didn't allow the info to get to them.

Schoomaker didn't allow the info to get to Clarke
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 03:52 PM
Response to Reply #7
23. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 04:01 PM
Response to Reply #23
25. Transcript of Sen. Dayton's remarks on NORAD
Friday, July 31, 2004 at Congressional hearings on "The 9/11 Commission Report"

(Transcribed by Kyle Hence of 9/11 Citizens' Watch)

Senator Dayton: Thank you Madame Chairman, and I , I also want to commend you for holding this hearing in quick response to the 9/11 Commission's Report. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Co-chairman, I want to say again to you that we are all indebted to you, to the other eight members of the Commission and the staff for this critically important work that you have provided the nation.

It is a profoundly disturbing report because it chronicles in excruciating detail the terrible attack against our homeland, the despicable murder of so many American citizens and the horrible destruction to countless other lives and liberties throughout this nation.

And because of the utter failure to defend them by their federal government, by their leaders, and the institutions that were entrusted to do so and because of serious discrepancies between the facts that you've set forth and what was told to the American people, to members of Congress, and to your own Commission by those, some of those authorities.

There's way too much to cover here but I will begin.

According to your report the first of the four airliner hijackings occurred on September 11th at 8:14 Eastern time. At 10:03 AM, almost two hours later, an hour and forty-nine minutes to be exact, the fourth and last plane crashed before reaching its intended target, the U.S. Capitol, because of the incredible heroism of its passengers, including Minnesota native Thomas Burnett Jr. During those entire 109 minutes to my reading of this report this country and its citizens were completely undefended.

Yes, it was a surprise attack. It was unprecedented. Yes, it exposed serious flaws and as you noted our imagination, our policies, capabilities and our management designs but what I find much more shocking and alarming were the repeated and catastrophic failures of the leaders of the leaders in charge, and the other people responsible, to do their jobs.

To follow established procedures.

To follow direct orders from civilian and military commanders.

And then they failed to tell us the truth later.

It doesn't matter whether they were Republicans, Democrats or neither, it matters what they did or did not do. According to your findings, FAA authorities failed to the inform military command, NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, about three of the four hijackings until after the planes had crashed into their targets at the second World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the ground in Pennsylv÷in Pennsylvania which was not their target.

The direct FAA notification of the military regarding the first plane twenty-three minutes after it was hijacked and only nine minutes before it struck the first World Trade Tower.

NORAD then scrambled one of only two sets of fighter planes on alert in the entire eastern third of the country, one in Massachusetts and one in Virginia but it didn't know where to send them; because the hijackers has turned off the plane's transponder so NORAD couldn't locate them on their radar and they still looking for it when it exploded into its target at 8:46AM.

The second hijacking began, according to your report, one minute later. NORAD wasn't notified until the same minute the same plane struck the second World Trade tower. It was five more minutes before NORAD's mission commander learned about that explosion; which was five minutes after thousands of Americans saw it on live television. By this time the third plane's transponder was off; communication had been severed, yet it was fifteen minutes before the flight controller decided to notify the regional FAA center which in turn did not inform FAA headquarters for another fifteen minutes.

So at that point 9:25 AM FAA's National Command Center knew that there were two hijacked planes that had crashed into the two World Trade Centers and a third plane had stopped communicating and disappeared from its primary radar yet no one in FAA headquarters asked for military assistance with that plane either. NORAD was unaware that the plane had even been hijacked until after it crashed into the Pentagon at 9:34.

This is just unbelievable negligence. It doesn't matter if we spend $550 billion annually on our national defense, if we reorganize our intelligence or if we restructure congressional oversight if people don't pick up the phone to call one another. If we're not told if somebody needs a new radar system and doesn't stall it when it's provided. And this was not an occasional human or failure. This is nothing but human error and failure to follow established procedures and to use common sense.

Unfortunately, the chronicle is not over. The NORAD mission commander ordered his only three other planes on alert in Virginia to scramble and fly north to Baltimore. Minutes later when he was told that a plane was approaching Washington he learned that the planes were flying East over the Atlantic Ocean away from Baltimore and Washington so that when the third plane struck the Pentagon NORAD's fighters were 150 miles away, farther than they were before they took off.

By then FAA's Command Center had learned of the fourth hijacking and called FAA Headquarters specifically asking that they contact the military at 9:36AM and at 9:46AM the FAA Command Center updated FAA headquarters that United Flight 93 was "29 minutes out of Washington, D.C." Three minutes later your document records this following conversation between the Command Center and FAA headquarters.

Command center - 'Uh, do we want to, uh, think about scrambling aircraft?' - FAA headquarters - 'Oh God, I don't know.' - Command center - 'Uh, that's a decision somebody's going to have to make probably in the next 10 minutes.' - FAA headquarters - 'Uh, yeah, you know, everybody just left the room."

At 10:03 United Flight 93 crashed into the Pennsylvania farm soil and nobody from the FAA headquarters had contacted the military. NORAD didn't know that this fourth plane was hijacked until after it crashed 35 minutes later. The fighter planes that reached Washington seven minutes after that crash they were told by the Mission Commander, "negative clearance to shoot the aircraft" over the Nation's Capitol.

Yet one week, yet one week after 9/11, in response to initial reports that the military failed to defend our domestic airspace during the hijacks NORAD issued an official chronology that stated that the FAA notified NORAD of the second hijacking at 8:43, wrong, FAA notified NORAD of the third hijacking at 9:24, according to your report wrong, FAA notified NORAD of the fourth hijacking at an unspecified time and that prior to the crash in Pennsylvania Langley F-16 combat air patrol planes were in place, remaining in place, to protect Washington, D.C..

All untrue.

In public testimony before your 9/11 Commission in May of 2003 NORAD officials stated, I assume under oath , that at 9:16 they had received the hijack notification of United Flight 93 from the FAA. That hijacking did not occur until 9:28; there was a routine cockpit transmission recovered at 9:27.

And in that testimony before you NORAD officials stated also that at 9:24 they received notice of the hijacking of the third plane, American flight 77, also untrue according to your report; which states that NORAD was never notified that flight was hijacked.

NORAD officials testified that they scrambled the Langley, Virginia fighters to respond to those two hijackings yet taped recordings of both NORAD and FAA both reportedly documented that the order to scramble was a response to an inaccurate FAA report that American Flight 11 had not hit the first World Trade tower and was headed to Washington. That erroneous alert was transmitted by the FAA at 9:24AM, thirty-eight minutes after that airplane had exploded into the World Trade tower. Yet NORAD's public chronology of 9/18/01 and their Commission testimony 20 months later covered up those truths. They lied to the American people, they lied to Congress and they lied to your 9/11 Commission to create a false impression of competence, communication, coordination and protection of the American people.

And we can set up all the oversight possible at great additional cost to the American taxpayers and it won't be worth an Enron pension if the people responsible lie to us; if they take the records and doctor them into falsehoods, and if they get away with it. For almost three years now NORAD officials and FAA officials have been able to hide their critical failures that left this country defenseless during two of the worst hours in our history.

And I believe that President Bush must call them, those responsible for those representations to account. If the Commission's accounts are correct, he should fire whoever at FAA, at NORAD or anywhere else who betrayed the public trust by not telling us the truth.

And then he should clear up a few discrepancies of his own.

Four months after September 11th on January 27th 2002, the Washington Post's Dan Balls and Bob Woodward authored an insider's retrospective on top administration officials' actions on 9/11 and thereafter. They reported that very shortly after the Pentagon was struck at 9:34 quote Pentagon officials ordered up the airborne command post used only in national emergencies; they sent up combat air patrol in the Washington area and a fighter escort for Air Force One. Secretary Rumsfeld was portrayed as "taking up his post at the National Military Command Center." And all that reportedly occurred before 9:55AM. Right thereafter "Bush then talked to Rumsfeld to clarify the procedures military pilots should follow before firing on attack planes. With Bush's approval Rumsfeld passed the order down the chain of command."

This was supposedly taking place according to that article before the fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania at 10:03. Looks very impressive. The President acting swiftly and decisively; giving orders to the Secretary of Defense and on down the chain of command, combat air patrol planes are patrolling Washington directed by an airborne command post all before 10:03AM; however, according to your commission, President Bush spoke to Secretary Rumsfeld for the first time that morning shortly after 10AM. Based on White House notes and Ari Fleischer notes of the conversation the Commission's report states that it was a brief call in which the subject of the shootdown authority was not discussed.

The Commission then states that the Secretary of Defense did not join the NMCC's conference call until just before 10:30AM. The Secretary of Defense himself told the Commission he was just gaining situation awareness when he spoke with the Vice-President at 10:39AM. That transcript is on page 23, page 43. My time is out but it reflects the Vice-President's honest mistaken(ly) belief that he had been given an order, after talking with the President, to shoot down any plane that would not divert, yet incredibly÷the NORAD commander

Senator Collins (Chairwomen): The Senator's time has expired.

Senator Dayton: I am just going to finish this if I may. Yet incredibly the NORAD commander did not pass that order to the fighter planes because he was "unsure how the pilots would or should proceed with this guidance." As you say Mr. Chairman, 'the situation is urgent' but we don't get protected in those circumstances but it's even worse when it's covered-up.
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20040805095600503



BUDDY BUDDY
http://www.gsnmagazine.com.nyud.net:8090/images/aug_05/atta.jpg
DO THE MATH

24 MINUTES

THERE MUST HAVE BEEN A MILITARY ORDER


http://www.bushflash.com/buddy.html WATCH THIS VIDEO
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Monkey see Monkey Do Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 10:24 AM
Response to Reply #23
34. yup, those pesky jews are at it again
I mean COME ON. Really, really glad to see Michael Collins Piper's "the mossad killed Kennedy" meme is spreading.
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QuettaKid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 11:49 AM
Response to Reply #34
37. whatever......facts is facts.
Edited on Thu Sep-22-05 12:27 PM by QuettaKid
"Greetings from Abu Ghraib!!"

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Mistress Quickly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 01:12 PM
Response to Reply #4
8. Didn't they testify today it was dissolved
in 2000? May, june, something like that?
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Mistress Quickly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 03:24 PM
Response to Reply #8
15. The documents destroyed in 2000
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5293493,00.html

snip>>>
Erik Kleinsmith, a former Army major who worked on Able Danger, said he destroyed documents pertaining to Able Danger in 2000 because he was required to do so under Army regulations.
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ignatzmouse Donating Member (327 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 07:48 AM
Response to Reply #15
32. Blaming It On Nosy Liberal Oversight
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/21/abledanger.hearings/

snip>>...Also testifying Wednesday was a former defense intelligence analyst, Erik Kleinsmith, who said he helped support Able Danger in 1999 and 2000. He testified that in April 2000 his work became "severely restricted and ultimately shut down due to intelligence oversight concerns," which led to the destruction of very large amounts of data about Able Danger, including information about Atta and other terrorists.

You can extract from the testimony of the guy they let talk that they intend to spin the document destruction as a response to liberal nosiness and regulations, i.e. the intent is to put it on Clinton. The kicker is that they'll use it as an example of secrecy in the war on terror as the best and most prescient policy. It'll be used to justify Patriot Act II and the whole she-bang of civil liberty erosions without accountability. The repukes can rattle on talk radio and Fox News about weak, red-tape, ACLU-card carrying liberals blindly forcing all this to happen. Weldon is banking on pushing that scenario, and it has probably been discussed at length by all those who stand to be exposed by the scandal.
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Mistress Quickly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 10:05 AM
Response to Reply #32
33. Exactly the spin will be
it ALL happened before * took office, blame Clenis!

Watch and see.
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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 11:14 AM
Response to Reply #33
36. CLINTON WAS NEVER TOLD RICHARD CLARKE WAS NEVER TOLD

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.


http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/24/124834/678
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Mistress Quickly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 07:30 PM
Response to Reply #36
39. LOL! Don't yell at me!
I know, it's the frustration. But I don't know why anyone would think this would be different than any other * mishappenstance. We'll get mad, tell as many people as we can, they'll pat us on the head, tell us its ok, and they'll continue on like nothing's wrong.

Maybe its because I live in a red state?

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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 07:38 PM
Response to Reply #39
40. I'm so sorry Mistress Quickly
Really didn't mean to yell at ya






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Mistress Quickly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 09:23 PM
Response to Reply #40
43. I know
I could feel your frustration.

:hi:
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EC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 01:23 PM
Response to Original message
9. I wonder if Specter is sicker than he lets on
he's been doing some awfully daring stuff lately...I don't think he brought this up to slam Clinton...I think he knows it's his party, this administration that hid this and I think he has an idea as to why they hid it...could these terrorists have been in the employ of the CIA or DOD?
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ToolTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 02:08 PM
Response to Reply #9
12. Sure, it could have been the intell community.
And with the full cooperation of the Saudi. That's about all that would make sense. Maybe the fraying of Able Danger around the edges is why the Saudis have just today feigned a split with bushco on Iraq policy. To provide some cover that they were and are actually aligned exactly on Iraq, Iran, OPEC, and Carlisle Group.
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electropop Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 03:26 PM
Response to Reply #9
16. Specter has been doing some pretty ballsy stuff.
I hope he lives long enough to see some results from it. Let's hope his health holds up.
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maryallen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 04:31 PM
Response to Reply #16
27. Because Specter is still atoning for ....
The "Magic Bullet" theory, per the John F. Kennedy assassination probe.
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BamaBecky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 10:53 AM
Response to Reply #27
35. That's right!...n/t
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oxbow Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 01:46 PM
Response to Original message
11. I wish we could do something to help Specter. nt.
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converted_democrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 02:25 PM
Response to Reply #11
13. Call his office, thank him for what he is doing...............n/t
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Octafish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 02:39 PM
Response to Original message
14. UPI: Pentagon gags 'Able Danger' team
Gee. The UPI scrubbed this story from their web site. It was on there a couple of hours ago.

Just another coincidence, I guess.



Pentagon gags 'Able Danger' team

By SHAUN WATERMAN

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Defense Department lawyers have blocked members of a data-mining intelligence team from testifying Wednesday before a congressional committee probing their claims that they identified the ringleaders of the Sept. 11 hijackers more than a year before the attacks.

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary sought testimony from several members of the team -- code-named Able Danger -- as part of their investigation into claims that the project identified Mohamed Atta and three of the other 18 hijackers as linked to al-Qaida in early 2000, according to Senate staffers.

Mark Zaid, an attorney representing a liaison to the team, Army reserve Col. Tony Shaffer, told United Press International that a letter to his client gave no reasons for blocking the testimony.

The letter was signed by the principle deputy general counsel for the Defense Intelligence Agency, Robert Berry.

SNIP...

He said that the team leader, Navy Capt. Scott Philpott, a civilian analyst named James Smith and other members of the team had all been denied permission to testify.

SNIP...

"We're not allowed to collect that type of information."

SOURCE:

http://about.upi.com/products/perspectives/UPI-20050920-091827-1362R



Weird how many coincidences there are when it comes to the BFEE, huh?

Anyone want the whole story, drop me a PM.
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electropop Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 03:27 PM
Response to Reply #14
17. Yup, file not found.
Crap this shit is scary.
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QuettaKid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #17
19. NPR just ran a story on it on All Things Considered.
see if it disappears from their archives.
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stickdog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 04:06 PM
Response to Reply #14
26. It's still on the Washington Times site, for now at least.
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texpatriot2004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 03:41 PM
Response to Original message
20. Thank you Sen. Specter, your're right about this
"I think the Department of Defense owes the American people an explanation about what went on here," Specter said. "The American people are entitled to some answers."
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Opusnone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 03:44 PM
Response to Original message
21. ACCOUNTABILITY!!
Someone (either R or D) is accountable.
Can you name, besides whistle blowers, any US bureaucrats, intelligence, state department, air traffic control, military, airport, immigration, federal, state or local officials who have been fired, demoted, tried or convicted for failures on 9-11?
No, because no one is being held accountable.
We pay these peoples paychecks. The people of the United States. This is OUR country! They work for us. Don't let them forget that.

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adaada Donating Member (55 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 03:51 PM
Response to Original message
22. Spector seems to be that rarest of breeds: American 1st, Republican 2nd
Too bad there aren't more. Kudos to him. And thanks to the OP for posting this.
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0007 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 03:52 PM
Response to Original message
24. How can the pentagon dictate to the Senate. It appears that
they have been going around and over the legislators.
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drummo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-21-05 07:26 PM
Response to Reply #24
29. That's a good question.
How can any executive department deny the constitutionally guaranteed
oversight authority of the Congress? Specter has subpoena power. Why doesn't he use it? He knows the people involved, Weldon said he knows who they are. So? Why does it matter what the Pentagon says?
How can this be legal? What is the law that allows the Pentagon to do this?
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texpatriot2004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 12:59 AM
Response to Reply #29
30. That is a good question. n/t
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pbartch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 01:13 AM
Response to Original message
31. LET'S HOPE CLINTON WAS NOT TOLD
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wallwriter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 01:03 PM
Response to Reply #31
38. Who cares? I value the truth more than I value Clinton.
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TheCentepedeShoes Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 07:45 PM
Response to Reply #38
41. I'm with you, ww n/t
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5thGenDemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-22-05 09:32 PM
Response to Reply #38
44. Me too
Let the truth be told though the heavens fall.
John
Or something like that.
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Mitt Chovick Donating Member (321 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-23-05 08:33 PM
Response to Reply #38
51. Let the chips fall where ever they may
3,000 Americans died that day and I want the truth. Whatever it is.


You don't suppose both parties would cover it up, if it turned out that Clinton was implicated and Shrubby has been covering for him?
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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-23-05 08:55 AM
Response to Original message
45. Rummy didn't pull the plug - Cheney "The Cobweb" did?
Early today I watched the 'Spector House' Able Danger hearings on CSPAN.

I watched closely, because at 8am, my cell was buzzing, a call from a friend. I had asked him to get some clarification on Shaffer's story that Rummy told 'em not to testify. The word I got from him was that contrary to popular knowledge, Rummy didn't pull the plug on the witnesses, it came from "Cobweb", which is just a little - OK, a lot higher up the chain.


Secret Service Codenames:


Cobweb: Vice President's office


How could the Pentagon silence an FBI witness?


topdog08's diary :: ::
This update was posted today:



So why "Cobweb's" involvement?

That's unknown, I can only speculate, although Tom Mcguire speculates that only the VP would wield power over both the Pentagon and FBI witnesses.

By the way, I have that "Cobweb" influence on very good source, so I trust it.

Yet as in show business the hearings will go on, they have to. There's too much attention to them now. But they'll go on for years.

The old Washington ploy - long drawn out hearings until another "heat cycle" in the MSM when everything else is buzzing then the hearings will close and the findings will be found on page 15b or somewhere.

more
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/22/14849/9206

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Octafish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-23-05 11:12 AM
Response to Reply #45
46. There's a level above "Cobweb."
And I'm not talking about the monkey house.

Able Danger demonstrates the existence of the Secret Government many presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy have opposed.

Need a link?

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mod mom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-23-05 01:59 PM
Response to Reply #46
48. above cheney? a link would be helpful-thanks.
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Octafish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-23-05 05:45 PM
Response to Reply #48
49. It'd be the people who run the BFEE.


Hired Gun.

Know your BFEE: Reinhard Gehlen

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4863411&mesg_id=4863411


Know your BFEE: Poppy Bush Armed Saddam

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4813493


Know your BFEE: Killer Businessmen who put Power and Profit before Country

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4401300


Know your BFEE: Nixon Threatened to Nuke Vietnam

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3953519


Know your BFEE: Corrupt Craftsmen Hoover and Dulles

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3908104


Know your BFEE: Poppy’s CIA Made Saddam Into the Butcher of Baghdad

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3853409


Know your BFEE: Hitler’s Bankers Shaped Vietnam War

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3832033&mesg_id=3832033&page=


Know your BFEE: Merchants of Death

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3743890


Know your BFEE: R. James Woolsey, Turd of War

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3699042


Know your BFEE: Sneering Dick Cheney, Superturd-Superrich-Supercrook

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3627538


Know your BFEE: Bush Lied America into War

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3601654


Know your BFEE: James R Bath – Bush – bin Laden Link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3571293&mesg_id=3571293&page=


Know your BFEE: War Profiteers

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3493251


Know your BFEE: Dead Men Tell No Tales

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3389867


Know your BFEE: Rev. Sun Myung Moon OWNS Poppy Bush

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3355939


Know your BFEE: Homeland Czar & Petro-Turd Bernie Kerik

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2788428


Know your BFEE: American Children Used in Radiation Experiments

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3312956


Know your BFEE: Eugenics and the NAZIs - The California Connection

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2511192


Know your BFEE: The Barreling Bushes

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2472759


Know your BFEE: A Crime Line of Treason

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2748315


Know your BFEE: How Smirko Got Rich

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2529964


Know your BFEE: George W Bush did "community service" at Project P.U.L.L.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2956067


Know your BFEE: Vote Suppressor Supreme, the Turd Bill Rehnquist

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2414083


Know your BFEE: George W Bush Knew 9-11 Was Coming and Did NOTHING!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2404049


Know your BFEE: Oliver North, Drug Dealer

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2396787


Know your BFEE: Pat Robertson Incorporated a Gold Mine with a Terrorist

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2397004


This one’s not labeled “Know Your BFEE,” but it’s meant in the same spirit:

Poppy Bush Involved in JFK Assassination -- BFEE's Spooked!


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3274455


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Robeson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-23-05 05:50 PM
Response to Original message
50. Don't get too excited. Specter is the master cover-up artist....
...this may be all planned, so he can work his magic...
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