Live feed from ABLE DANGER Hearing here

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.house.gov/hasc/schedules/

Witnesses:

Cambone, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence
Mr. Erik Kleinsmith, Defense contractor
Mr. Tony Shaffer, Department of Defense employee
Mr. J.D. Smith, Defense contractor
The audio is to be streamed from this web page. Scroll down the page some and click on the radio image.

[reprehensor]

1. Ears are on.

Currently they are dissembling, "nobody's fault"... blah, blah.

[seemslikeadream]

3. are ya following the blog here?

http://qtmonster.typepad.com/qt_monsters_place/2006/02/able_danger_hea.html

Able Danger continues to this time under a different name thanks to Gen. Pete Schoomaker.!!!!!!

[stop the bleeding]

2. I'm stupid how or where do I look/listen for the feed?? n/t

[seemslikeadream]

4. scroll down to hereclick on the mike

2:30pm - 2118 Rayburn - Open, will Close

The Strategic Forces Subcommittee and the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee will meet to receive testimony on the Able Danger program. Saxton statement: (pdf) Everett statement: (pdf)

[stop the bleeding]

5. thank you - you rock!!! n/t

[seemslikeadream]

6. Prepared statement of Anthony A. Shaffer, Lt. Col,US Army

unclassifed draft

http://www.house.gov/hasc/schedules/2-15-06ShafferTestimony.pdf

[JPZenger]

7. Should have been more press coverage

http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/02/14/congressional_panel_considers_changes_in_whistleblower_law/

The above link is to an AP article published yesterday about testimony before a House Committee. Persons testified about high level coverups of the Abu Grab tortures, Able Danger, NSA spying and other matters. They said they were silenced and punished for trying to speak up. I am amazed this story did not receive more prominent coverage. Excerpt:

"Army Spc. Samuel Provance laid out what he considers to be a pattern of systemic abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. He said his rank was reduced for disobeying orders not to speak about mistreatment he saw at the prison.

Russ Tice, a former NSA analyst, has called attention to possible constitutional abuses and security breaches at NSA. He said he was given psychological evaluations deeming him mentally unstable, and his clearance was revoked. He's now unemployed.

Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer says the Defense Intelligence Agency has made a series of allegations against him since he disclosed information about a program known as Able Danger. He says the program identified four Sept. 11 hijackers before the attack. Government officials have raised doubts about his claims, which are the subject of another hearing Wednesday.

Richard Levernier, a retired Energy Department nuclear security specialist, said he lost his security clearance and effectively his job for giving the media an unclassified report about shortfalls in nuclear security. And former FBI special agent Michael German said the Justice Department's inspector general found his claims of a botched terrorism investigation in Florida were substantiated. He says he faced retaliatory actions, some of which the inspector general also found."

[seemslikeadream]

8. Who ran the Garlen facility?

Bob Johnson

2 or 3 weeks ago found data?

he met with unidenified person who found 300 hits name Atta and more that was supposed to be destroyed

[stop the bleeding]

9. Yeah Weldon sounds pissed n/t

[seemslikeadream]

10. Cambone

I'm not going to answer questions in open meeting on Spiker

Zelikow says he never met Shaffer

He did, he's got his business card!

Do you remember Idema that mercenary in Afganistan he knows Cambone

[DemInDistress]

27. When the safety of an individual's job becomes more important

than the safety of "us" thousands of us then its past time for us to remove them..Imagine,whomever is more fearful they'll lose their job(s) then we need to fight. But how? Lou Dobbs tonight had Weldon who is pissed
Zelikow and others have hijacked this hearing threats are hurled and potential whistle blowers are gun shy.
Who was the last good whistle blower,Sybil Edmonds? Deep Throat? Daniel Ellsberg?

[stop the bleeding]

11. Weldon sounds like he has done his homework - what is going here

Tony Shafer has Z' business card.

[seemslikeadream]

12. Here's some of the testimony

http://qtmonster.typepad.com/qt_monsters_place/2006/02/able_danger_hea.html

2:42 PM - opening statements by committee co-chair: has never heard what significance Atta's name and photo pre-9/11, what difference that knowledge would have made. Will avoid discussion of classified materials.

2:45 PM - statement by Mr. Mehan: Able Danger (AD) represented best analytical efforts at the time. Those involved in AD and members of 9-11 commission are to be commended. The Commission identified correctly many deficiences prior to 9-11. (me-this man is defending the 9-11 Commission) The purpose of today's testimony is to improve our fighting of the GWOT.

2:45 PM - Mr. Ruiz (sp?): This hearing is to explore pre-9-11 intelligence gathering. AD created in late fall 1999 by former head of the Joint Chief Of Staff. Did AD uncover Atta information? Could AD have developed information about 9-11 plot? He's listening for any more structural changes that need to be made in US intelligence gathering.

2:50 PM - Announces the witnesses.

2:52 PM Mr. Stephen Cambone, a witness: Weldon called him expressing his concern about AD. Review in the dept. was initiated about AD. Have obligation to victims and families of 9-11/Cole/embassy bombings. They undertook a lengthy review with 90 personnel involved. Review conducted dept. wide and included Orion and Raytheon. None of those doing the reviewing had any knowledge of AD. No chart were discovered. No data, hard copy of soft, was discovered. That said, we do not have any evidence to say definitely if a chart ever existed. Did not find if data was inappropriately destroyed. What was AD? It was started by head of JCOS in 1999. AD was the unclassified name, a campaign plan was started. Campaign plan is the guidance, intent of the commander. Initial focus of project was exploitation of Al Qaeda vulnerabilities. Looking for links and patterns that could warn of possible future activities. JWAC (in Virginia) was approached. LIWA (in Virginia) was approached for its support in late 1999 and early 2000 time frame. Orion responded to LIWA requirements. Orion employees were not given access to AD information-Jan to Mar 2000. This is the period when chart might have been produced. A larger plan was developed and it now has the AD heritage. Did the Dept. inappropriately destroy information? LIWA's support to SOCOM wasn't in compliance with regulations, LIWA had to develop procedures for US persons, SOCOM had Raytheon purge its data later in 2000. Information was stored improperly. US persons was intermingled with other data and data was difficult to pull apart. Did LIWA produce Atta chart? 5 people say they did. Orion used open source information. Orion did produce charts. 5 Orion people say that no picture of Atta appeared on their charts. Chart prepared for use in a training course. Additional analysis would have had to be done. Army Intelligence has done data mining on open sources for the same time period. A large volume of data was searched. These searches did not discover the Atta picture/information. Did discover an Orion chart recently, the chart does contain a variation of Atta's name. One of the witnesses say that the photo he saw was grainy. Did AD information fail to be shared with the FBI? AD personnel could have used a chat room to get the information to the FBI. Later in 2000 the US persons regulations were in place. Was the Dept. responsive to 9-11 Commission requests for information? The Afghanistan discussions resulted in document requests. Documents were given to the commission. None of the information included Atta/chart information. No DOD information was withheld. The more recent review has found additonal information.

Summary: The DOD undertook its reviews as required. No Atta chart was found. AD was purged by various systems. FBI has denied that meetings were scheduled to pass AD information.

3:13 PM: Mr. Evert: FBI is not represented. Committee lacks knowledge about AD. Yields 10 minutes to Mr. Weldon.

3:15 PM: Mr. Weldon: Shaffer was within 2 days of losing his pay and his health care. That's been corrected by Rumsfeld/England. Thanks Dr. Cambone for coming. CIA wasn't using open source data in 1999. CIA 2 years before 9-11 said they didn't need that capability. Witnesses fear for their careers. Witnesses will testify that they had (AD) 4 of the terrorists/Brooklyn cell. Employees of the FBI will be asked to give statements. Why is AD important? 9-11 Commission calls AD historically insignificant. Louis Freeh said on Meet the Press that AD was the kind of information that could have prevented 9-11. Weldon lost friends in 9-11. One of the pilots of the planes was Weldon's neighbor and he had his throat slit. Weldon thought 9-11 Commission would completely investigate the attacks. LIWA had the right model. Some of the testimony has been disingenuous. Cambone said that he hasn't talked to the director of the Garland facility. They don't know the name of the director of the Garland facility that Cambone's group talked to. None of these DOD people have even talked to Dr. Bob Johnson. Has all of the Garland data also been destroyed? Cambone told that only a fraction of the LIWA information transferred to Garland. Weldon: LIWA information was found in a file cabinet 3 weeks ago. In the last month a current employee has data mined pre 9/11 information and has found: 800 hits of Atta name, 5 hits with Mohammad Atta. Weldon has this person's name.

3:26 PM - Mr. Meehan: Asks Cambone what AD techniques have gained. What are the significant draw backs? Cambone says that the problems are that using open source information, certain inappropriate information can be gleaned. Cambone doesn't recall a meeting with Shaffer. He remembers the subject of the meeting and that it wasn't AD. Yields his time to Weldon.

3:28 PM - Mr. Weldon: This isn't about finger pointing. It's about letting the US people know what we knew before 9-11. If there are bureacrats who get embarrassed, the US people still need to know. Zelikow says he never met with Shaffer in Bagram or any other place, but Shaffer has his business card. Does Cambone agree with 9-11 Commission that AD was historically insignificant? Cambone says that the Commission did a service. A former employee of Cambone's told someone on a plane that Cambone's group had no intention of investigating AD, that there was nothing to AD. Zelikow told Shaffer that they were very anxious to meet with him. Later, they refused to meet with Shaffer. Dieter Snell is not allowed to testify by Elliot Spitzer. How could there have been a full investigation when no one even knows who runs/ran the Garland facility. All Weldon wants is the truth.

[seemslikeadream]

13. Snell

Canada Press: Promisgate: World's longest spy scandal still glossed over

World's longest spy scandal still glossed over
By David Dastych
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/dastych013106.htm

The so called PROMIS affair would never have happened if the software invented by an American computer specialist, Mr. William A. Hamilton, had been a technical failure. But this case management and data mining software, developed in the early 1980s by a small Washington D.C. company, Inslaw Inc., had proven itself to be a perfect intelligence tool. Originally made for the Department of Justice to help the country’s prosecutor offices in their case management, it drew the attention of corrupt officials and of Israeli Intelligence. Stolen by ruse from its owner, Inslaw Inc., the software was hacked and provided with a "trap door", a sort of a Trojan Horse hacker’s trick, that enabled the retrieval of information from the foreign intelligence services and banks it had been sold to on behalf of Israeli and U.S. intelligence. Without the knowledge of the software’s owner, and in violation of copyright laws, the PROMIS software was sold to over 40 countries and used in an unprecedented "sting operation", which yielded huge financial and intelligence benefits to the United States and Israel.

But "blowback" from the U.S. Government's theft of PROMIS in 1982 soon turned into a series of painful losses for U.S. national security, into criminal financial benefits for corrupt officials, and into intelligence "scoops" for the secret services of adversaries. "It’s far worse than Watergate"--commented former U.S. Attorney General and Inslaw counsel Elliot Richardson.

PROMIS sold to bin Laden

First, unnamed government sources familiar with the debriefing of Hanssen in 2001 reportedly told the Washington Times, Fox News, and the washingtonpost.com that year that someone in Russia had sold copies of PROMIS-derivative software source codes, which Hanssen had stolen from the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies for the Russians, to Osama bin Laden for $2 million and that al Qaeda had used the stolen U.S. intelligence software to access the U.S. intelligence database systems in order to evade detection and monitoring before 9-11 and to move funds undetected through the banking system.



http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight /

Peter Lance explains the latest in the Able Danger




This link chart was created by Jacob L. Boesen, an analyst contracted by DIAC: The Defense Intelligence Analysis Center. Using Analyst's Notebook, the same high-end program used to design a number of the Able Danger link charts, Boesen created the chart on August 10th, 1999. It shows a direct link between al Qaeda and the New York cell of blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the original WTC bombing and the 9/11 plots.


The chart, produced just over a year after the bin Laden financed African Embassy bombings on August 7th, 1998, is in direct contradiction to the findings of the 9/11 Commission -- per Senior Counsel Dietrich Dieter Snell -- that the original WTC bombing cell was comprised of a loosely organized group of Sunni Islamists and that Ramzi Yousef played no role in the conception of the 9/11 plots even though his uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM) was identified by the FBI in 2002 as the "mastermind."


On July 12th, 2004, per the statement of 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean and Co-Chair Lee Hamilton, Dietrich Snell rejected information from Navy Capt. Scott Phillpot, the operations director of the Able Danger unit, as not "sufficiently reliable." No mention of the ground-breaking Able Danger unit's findings was included in the 9/11 Commission's final report.


In Staff Statement #16, supervised by Dietrich Snell, the 9/11 Commission moved the origin of the al Qaeda funded 9/11 plot from Yousef and KSM in Manila in the fall of 1994 to 1996 in Afghanistan; claiming that, at the time, KSM was merely a freelancer not affiliated with al Qaeda and that he pitched the "planes operation" to bin Laden at that time.


Snell based his entire authority for this specious conclusion on the word of KSM who has been in U.S. custody since March, 2003 and subjected to torture.


By removing Ramzi Yousef from the 9/11 plot and distorting the truth behind the origin of the plot, Snell, a former prosecutor in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) exonerated the SDNY and the New York office of the FBI (NYO) from any culpability for failing to stop Yousef in the fall of 1992, during the Presidency of George Herbert Walker Bush or the early weeks of Bill Clinton's presidency just prior to the WTC bombing.


In 1000 YEARS FOR REVENGE we offer probative evidence that the FBY's NYO could have easily stopped Yousef in 1992 and early 1993 prior to that first attack on the WTC which killed six and injured 1000 on February 26th, 1993.


The evidence from the Able Danger unit which has surfaced so far from press reports and interviews with former Able Danger unit members, suggests that the U.S. intelligence community had a much clearer picture of al Qaeda and its violent designs on the United States much earlier than the 9/11 Commission determined.


Americans as politically diverse at Lt. Col. Oliver North and the Jersey Girls -- the 9/11 widows who campaigned for John Kerry -- are united in their conclusion that the 9/11 Commission's report was effectively a whitewash. As such they are calling for a full investigation of the Able Danger allegations.


Presently the Pentagon has prevented key Able Danger sources like Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, a Bronze star winner and Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott from testifying about the program in open hearings. Cong. Curt Weldon (R-PA) is leading the drive for a full vetting of the Able Danger program and its findings.


This move for full disclosure represents the last best hope of Americans to re-open the 9/11 investigation and get a full accounting of how the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies overlooked dozens of opportunties to interdict the "planes as missiles" plot in the 12 years prior to the attacks of Sept. 11th.

[stop the bleeding]

14. I'm still here and listening - thank you for the chart

Kick!

[flyarm]

23. a very good book on this is OCTAPUS..A MUST READ!! N/T

[stop the bleeding]

15. talking about the pen incident now - How is that not harassment??

Weldon is fired up

[seemslikeadream]

16. more testimony

http://qtmonster.typepad.com/qt_monsters_place/2006/02/able_danger_hea.html

3:53 PM - Mr. Weldon: Weldon says that the runs he's talking about were done in the last 2 months. In that data set there were many many Atta hits. Weldon will say who it was who did the data run when he's assured that that individual's career won't be ruined. On 2/3/2006 3 people in the DoD went into a file cabinet with AD information. Cambone's people say that the file cabinet contained no AD data. The data delivered to 9-11 Commission wasn't the same data that was in Shaffer's office. Another new retiree now agrees that he identified Atta pre-9/11. Neither administration wants the AD story to be told.

4:03 PM - Mr. Cambone: The DoD has no objection to this story being laid out to the people of the US. The personnel who investigated this are not the enemies. There have been no vendettas to destroy anyone's career. Cambone says he is a man of his word. (me: said with an attitude and arrogance)

4:05 PM - Ms. Tauscher: AD is complex, asks for whistle blower policy. She is concerned about intimidation of Tony Shaffer.

4:15 PM - Ms. McKinney: asks 3 questions as to whether Clarridge (sp?)/Zelikow/Franklin/Pearl worked on AD. She asks if there's a joint data mining operation between NSA and DIA. Cambone says that the 2 agencies share information.

4:18 PM - Mr. Weldon: AD found 5 global hot spots. Cambone agrees. After AD ID's these spots, how could anyone classify AD as historically insignificant? Sailors were killed in 1 of the 5 ID'd hot spots (USS Cole). Cambone doesn't answer. He says that for himself, that there was a lot of info from that period, and that he doesn't know that AD was the only generator of that information. 1 of the 5 ID's cells was in Aiden, Yemen. AD information was taken into other projects. Weldon doesn't know how Cambone can sit there and deny that people haven't been harrassed. Blitzer at CNN told Weldon's staff that DoD staff had called him and told him that Shaffer was having an affair with someone on Weldon's staff. How can we say that DoD hasn't tried to smear Shaffer.

4:25 PM - Mr. Langevin: asks a few questions and yields his time to Weldon.

4:28 PM - 5 minute break in recording to transfer audio file to PC.

4:33 PM - Recording resumes.

4:35 PM - Mr. Weldon: The 90 day rule was not followed. The DoD lawyer, Dr. Bob Johnson, told Weldon that Richard Shiffrin told him, don't worry how long you keep the data. That contradicts what they were told in the hearing. Reads a quote from the DIA web site, talks about having a responsiblity to discern truth.

4:36 PM - Mr. Cambone: Responds to Weldon's last statement. If there was a cavalier attitude, it was inappropriate and it shouldn't be happening. There were questions as to whether things were done properly at LIWA.

4:38 PM - End of the first panel. Cambone will participate in closed session this evening.

[seemslikeadream]

17. more testimony

http://qtmonster.typepad.com/qt_monsters_place/2006/02/able_danger_hea.html

4:39 PM - 2nd panel begins, consists of Kleinsmith, Shaffer and others.

4:40 PM - Mr. Kleinsmith: was chief of intelligence for LIWA when SOCOM requested LIWA support. LIWA wasn't an intelligence unit. His branch had 24 analysts. Had unique capabilities, supported every combatant command several times. Coordinated with SOCOM for AD. He doesn't remember Atta's name/face on a specific chart, but they were generating many many charts and tracking many people. He was told to cease activities because of data mining concerns. No one he knows can say where the cease order originated from. Was higher up than SOCOM. There was a May 2000 work stoppage. They were barred from working from any of the data. All data had to go.

4:45 PM - Lt. Col. Shaffer: AD was the right mission at the right time with the right enemy. This was not merely a planning exercise as has been characterized here previously. AD was resurrection of OSS capability. Zelikow called Shaffer back that very evening in Afghanistan. The best and brightest were brought together, this was an important project. AD was a true capability to deal with a developing enemy. He matched up LIWA and SOCOM. Used capabilities for whatever made sense. The FBI agent in question told the Jud. confirmed that Shaffer tried to meet with the FBI. Shaffer was working with the FBI in a parallel operation at the time. There were other linkages that were established (Shaffer disagrees with Cambone). Shaffer was questioned 2 days ago by the DIA. There have been issues of intimidation and Shaffer hasn't been pushed to come forward. Shaffer told today he won't have counsel in closed session. Cambone's DIA has denied him representation. He will support Congress and its efforts.

4:50 PM - Mr. Smith: detailed description of project, claims of Slade Gorton.

[0007]

22. Will this continue tomorrow?

And another question, where can I get a chart that's readable.

[pberq]

18. Weldon was on fire.

He said that there are so many unanswered questions about 9/11.

The 9/11 Commission did not do its job. In fact they did everything they could to keep the Able Danger info from getting out.

[topdog08]

19. Testimony cut short so Cambone can get back to Whitehouse?

Apparently the public testimony was cut short because Cambone said he had a 6pm appointment at the Whitehouse? What is that all about?

[pberq]

21. info on Cambone's testimony from Able Danger Blog

http://www.abledangerblog.com/

. . .Chairman Saxton has cut short testimony in the open session because Steve Cambone said he had a critical appointment at the White House at 6pm so they wanted to start the closed session earlier. The three witnesses will have to complete their testimony in closed session, off the public record. Weldon protested that the session should re-opened after Cambone testifies, but Saxton denied the request.

UPDATE: Cambone just said he can wait, but it sounds like they only got another ten minutes as a result. Then they are going to closed session.

Public testimony ended at 5:50pm. We'll have to go back to the tape to compare how long Cambone alone got to testify versus how long the other three witnesses got, but my estimate would be that it was 2 to 1 in Cambone's favor.

[reprehensor]

20. Best part...

Shaffer said a CIA op told him that CIA wouldn't cooperate with A.D. because it would...

"steal CIA's thunder"

Can you f*cking believe it?

[seemslikeadream]

24. testimony

http://qtmonster.typepad.com/qt_monsters_place/2006/02/able_danger_hea.html

4:59 PM - Kleinsmith followed the regulation and purged the data. The picture of Atta next to Rahman's (sp?) photo was extremely valuable. He showed people the chart while it was in his possession. He kept a copy of the chart in his office. The picture was grainy. Showed Atta as 3rd level terrorist linked to Rahman. Size of chart meant there could be no copies made. Created chart from Orion Magic software. Could be created if the DB still existed. He's been told that DB is gone. Shaffer says he was working with FBI special agent (female) that's been referred to here. Could she get him a point of contact. Shaffer gave that information to his deputy. She was his AD deputy. Tried 3 times to arrange a meeting. (Listen to audio here, I missed the details.) There's something about a Waco concern being the reason that the information wasn't passed to the FBI-2000 time frame. SOCOM had concerns about the Brooklyn cell because they were here legally-expanded to green card holders at the time.

5:09 PM - Mr. Ruiz: Shaffer found legal ways to bring intelligence information to SOCOM. FBI was different as they are law enforcement. Made recommendations through 2000 that AD partner with the FBI. That wasn't the feeling of SOCOM. Nothing technically prohibited this information sharing, it was a SOCOM operational call. Shaffer respected SOCOM's decision. Significant information was shared with the FBI about another target set.

5:15 PM - Announcement that a closed session witness has to appear at the White House at 6 PM. Weldon says that this panel needs to testify in open session, either now or later today. Ms. McKinney says that she wants to ask questions also. Weldon is given only 10 minutes to ask questions, also McKinney. Weldon objects strongly since Cambone was given so much time, that this panel is unfairly being cut short.

5:17 PM - Shaffer says he has met Zelikow. Shaffer was later told the commission didn't want to talk to him. (Shaffer is hampered seriously here because the DoD will not give him access to his email) Each of the witnesses state that the AD information could have prevented 9-11. Shaffer states that there was never an adequate investigation of AD. Atta's photo was from an Arab source. The 9-11 Commission never talked to Kleinsmith or Smith.

5:28 PM - Good news announced that the witness has agreed to stay.

5:28 PM - Ms. McKinney: She says it's incredible that 3 witnesses are here saying that 9-11 could have been prevented. Shaffer says that Gandy was incorrect in what he said under oath about what information could be retained by the government. The AD information could legally be retained indefinitely. A CIA operative told Shaffer that if AD succeeded it would steal CIA thunder and they would not cooperate.

5:35 PM - Gen. Lambert was very upset that his data had been purged. Weldon says that the LIWA information was destroyed because people in DC were upset about the China data. Weldon asks if there are people who want this story covered up. Shaffer/Smith all agree that there are people who will do anything to cover up this story. Smith has lost 2 jobs already. Kleinsmith cannot say. Shaffer confirms that he was extremely close to being fired. Shaffer briefed the deputy director of CIA in January 2000 and it included AD information. He left his own office and said that he couldn't see the information. Shaffer is aware of the AD/USS Cole information. 2 weeks before the Cole attack, AD found there were activities of interest in the port of Aiden. Philpott gave the information to the proper authorities and he asked that actions be taken. The Cole commander's career has been placed on hold. The commander said that he would not have tone to that port if he had had any idea of the dangers there. Kleinsmith does not remember seeing the photo of Atta on a chart, but 100's of names were coming out at that time. Kleinsmith agrees that the issue is not about a chart. Smith agrees. Smith thinks this is an embarrassment to the current establishment. The terrorist ties in the US in 1999 were unbelievable.

5:49 PM - The room will be swept. The closed session will begin in about 30 minutes.

[reprehensor]

25. MP3s of the hearing.

Here are MP3s of today's hearing;

http://qtmonster.typepad.com/qt_monsters_place/2006/02/audio_of_able_d.html

(The second file is where the action is.)

[pberq]

26. And the denials start - in response to hearing

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060216/ts_nm/security_abledanger_dc;_ylt=AuMlU0KJoHNVrb99z9XrsLZZ.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

Pentagon denies data program gave September 11 clues

By Vicki Allen1 hour, 34 minutes ago

The Pentagon on Wednesday said it found no evidence that a computer data-mining program it operated before the September 11 attacks uncovered information that could have thwarted the attacks if it had been acted on.

But a defense intelligence officer and two contractors who worked on the secret program told a congressional committee the secret data-mining operation called "Able Danger" revealed intelligence on September 11 mastermind Mohammed Atta and others that should have been a tip-off of the attacks.

Rep. Curt Weldon (news, bio, voting record), a Pennsylvania Republican who has spearheaded a probe of whether intelligence from Able Danger was wrongly brushed aside, blasted the Pentagon's review as incomplete.

"It's the fact that people are going to have egg on their face" over what should have been done with the intelligence, Weldon said at a House of Representatives Armed Services subcommittee hearing. . .