An active-duty Navy captain has become the second military officer to come forward publicly to say that a secret defense intelligence program tagged the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a possible terrorist more than a year before the attacks.This goes a long way towards validating the Able Danger story. Still, some documentation would be handy...but I don't think the Pentagon is going to find any...they don't want it found for some reason (which is odd because that would identify a compentency in the military that their civilan counterparts do not have...)
The officer, Scott J. Phillpott, said in a statement today that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta, by name by early 2000. "My story is consistent," said Captain Phillpott, who managed the program for the Pentagon's Special Operations Command. "Atta was identified by Able Danger by January-February of 2000."
His comments came on the same day that the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, told reporters that the Defense Department had been unable to validate the assertions made by an Army intelligence veteran, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, and now backed up by Captain Phillpott, about the early identification of Mr. Atta.
Colonel Shaffer went public with his assertions last week, saying that analysts in the intelligence project had been overruled by military lawyers when they tried to share the program's findings with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2000 in hope of tracking down terror suspects tied to Al Qaeda.
Mark's Remarks
Matt, you may have hit the nail without meaning to. Your last couple of sentences, talking about the military should want to say, hey, we had this info. However, if they do so, then they pretty much admit they knew of Atta and his issues, and still no one did anything about it. I know what will be said--they were told they could not, etc., but what about leaking to the press, to someone? We can leak Abu Gharib photos, why not information that we know of a terrorist in the nation, or something? You see, I think the Pentagon is hiding this not because it makes Clinton or Bush look bad, but it shows the Pentagon as being somewhat powerless. That will be the way it is spun.
Also, who knows what certain people who were involved in the Able Danger poopooing may have done? The first soldier source says all his files have been wiped, so one wonders, could some of the Pentagon lawyers be covering this up? Could it be more CYA to protect their jobs, their reputation? Interesting thought. We will have to wait and see.
