DOD lawyers blow the chance to nab Atta?

[savage4presiden]

This is the definitive story of the WTC bombers. The 9/11 commission is negated due to this new found information. You can't rely on your local paper anymore.

This story was first broke by Government Security News (GSN). Basically, there was a military intelligence operation, named Able Danger, that discovered three of the WTC bombers years before the attack on 9/11. Able Danger was created by a top military General. Due to constitutional restrictions on the military to bring in these bombers they needed to "pass the torch" along to the FBI. However, there were two lawyers, appointed by Clinton, in the Defense Department that prohibited the case transfer because the future bombers had green cards and were here legally. The lawyers denied Able Danger's request three times.

Here's the point: These lawyers should be tried for treason and the murder of the 3000 New Yorkers that died on 9/11. Another point: The Clinton's appointed these lawyers which means Hillary "Rodman" Clinton should have a helluvah time explaining that one when election time comes around.

Here's the link to the actual story:
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/aug_05/dod_lawyers.html

Call your representitives and demand answers and consequences for this treasonous criminal act.

[pkagel]

Not the 1st time this has happened.

[savage4presiden]

Don't you understand? Those [email protected]$tard lawyers could have prevented 9/11 simply by allowing Able Danger to pass the case along to the FBI in order to bust their terrorist cell. Aren't you furious? It's not the first time this has happened, but it's the first time that it has killed 3000 people. And that blood is on the hands of those lawyers.

[Stonie]

Don't you understand? Those [email protected]$tard lawyers could have prevented 9/11 simply by allowing Able Danger to pass the case along to the FBI in order to bust their terrorist cell. Aren't you furious? It's not the first time this has happened, but it's the first time that it has killed 3000 people. And that blood is on the hands of those lawyers.

Don't be ridiculous, the blood is on Atta's hands.

You can blame, blame, and blame some more until you're blue in the face, but the simple fact remains is that the terrorists outwitted & outmaneuvered U.S. intelligence and law enforcement every step of the way.

[pkagel]

Don't bet on that one either.

Yea, I'm mad, but I'm older and more cynical so I don't loose my composure over it.

but it's the first time that it has killed 3000 people

[retired]

Don't you understand? Those [email protected]$tard lawyers could have prevented 9/11 simply by allowing Able Danger to pass the case along to the FBI in order to bust their terrorist cell. Aren't you furious? It's not the first time this has happened, but it's the first time that it has killed 3000 people. And that blood is on the hands of those lawyers.

Congressman Weldon recently published a book alleging that Iran is hiding Osama bin Laden, is preparing terrorist attacks against the United States, and is the chief sponsor of the Sunni-led insurgency in Iraq. Many of the allegations are based on information from a source who has been discounted by the CIA as a fabricator.

[savage4presiden]

So, maybe the lawyers should be given a Presidential medal of freedom? After all, they did stand up for atta's "civil rights."

[savage4presiden]

Congressman Weldon recently published a book alleging that Iran is hiding Osama bin Laden, is preparing terrorist attacks against the United States, and is the chief sponsor of the Sunni-led insurgency in Iraq. Many of the allegations are based on information from a source who has been discounted by the CIA as a fabricator.

retired, that congressman has nothing to do with this case except for the fact that he is trying to make it public. He did not break the cover up. And he definitely has nothing to do with whether it is true or not. The case's veracity has nothing to do with whatever Weldon says. Your connection between the two is simply bogus.

[retired]

retired, that congressman has nothing to do with this case except for the fact that he is trying to make it public. He did not break the cover up. And he definitely has nothing to do with whether it is true or not. The case's veracity has nothing to do with whatever Weldon says. Your connection between the two is simply bogus.

What I was pointing out to you all knowing one, is that his information is suspect. Perhaps there isn't a cover-up as you suggest? Your allegations about green cards and Clinton attorneys is bogus.

[savage4presiden]

What I was pointing out to you all knowing one, is that his information is suspect. Perhaps there isn't a cover-up as you suggest? Your allegations about green cards and Clinton attorneys is bogus.

Ok, sure thing.

I guess these are all untrue:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165414,00.html

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003234.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...081100684.html

Not to mention that one of the attorneys who might have been involved was later volunteered to be on the 9/11 commission. Sounds like a little CYA was going on.

What else can I say? All of this is true. It's not just some made up story. It's the story of the year and the media is covering it up. How can we let those lawyers run our country like that? Who gave them the power to choose who we investigate? How can we let them get off easy when they could have prevented 9/11? What do you gain by defending them? Don't you want a little justice for once? What hope is there for America when lawyers can do things like this without consequence?

retired, don't take my word as the gospel truth. Read up on this issue yourself.

[retired]

retired, don't take my word as the gospel truth. Read up on this issue yourself.

It's very hard for me to not take what you say as gospel truth, but I'll try.

Here is another spin on the issue.


August 12, 2005

Congresman Weldon's Preemptive Strike Against the CIA

by Mark G. Levey

Republican Cong. Curt Weldon's disclosure that U.S. Army Intelligence watched four al-Qaeda hijackers inside the U.S. before 9/11 is a GOP attempt to deflect a long-expected report by the CIA's Inspector General's office. Like the FBI IG report into the Bureau's pre-9/11 "intelligence failure" released in June, the CIA's internal audit is expected to contain shocking new details of errors and negligence by senior Bush Administration officials that led to the "catastrophic success" of the al-Qaeda attacks.

Weldon's widely-publicized campaign of disinformation has spun the story so that blame is laid at the feet of the Clinton Administration for the 9/11 attacks eighteen months after the CIA and DoD failed to notify the FBI about the presence inside the U.S. of terrorists known to have entered the country in late 1999 and early 2000.

The CIA IG report is reportedly complete, and is currently being reviewed by former DCI George Tenet and other Agency officials who are the subject of highly damaging accusations that the CIA withheld information and misled U.S. law enforcement about the 9/11 hijackers.

Cong. Weldon's remarks have fueled controversy over responsibility for the failure by US government agencies to prevent the 9/11 hijackings.

Weldon first spoke publicly about the issue on 27 June in a little-noticed speech on the House floor, and to a local paper in his Pennsylvania constituency.

According to a front-page New York Times report published on August 10, a US Army intelligence unit prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to Special Operations Command that the FBI be informed. (also, see, How Bin Laden and Mohamed Atta Escaped Gen. Franks)

Weldon claims that course of action was rejected in large part because the four al-Qaeda operatives were in the US on valid entry visas.

He asserts Pentagon lawyers rejected the recommendation because they said Atta and the others were in the country legally.

That claim is simply inconsistent with the law as it existed at the time. That was not and is not government policy. For one thing, the Pentagon's lawyers whom Weldon claims made the decision to withhold information from FBI knew full well that the four suspects were not "U.S. persons" (citizens or lawful permanent residents, aka "green card" holders.)

The matrix the Army Able Danger unit had compiled was based on data from entry records provided by INS, which clearly showed the four al-Qaeda operatives had all entered the U.S. as non-immigrants with visas.

Warrant requirements under the Foreign Intelligence Survellance Act (FISA) and information-sharing restrictions simply did not apply to the 9/11 hijackers. This is basic national security and immigration law. Anyone who's familiar with FISA warrant and information sharing guidelines in place at that time knows Weldon's version is a most implausible cover story.

In fact, CIA, DOD and other intelligence agencies could do all the electronic monitoring they wanted on the al-Qaeda suspects, AND SHARE IT WITH THE FBI, because the subjects of wiretaps were all non-resident aliens, exempt from FISA warrant requirements.

Certainly, DoD lawyers didn't get that one wrong. Not for the reason being offered by Weldon and other GOP operatives.

Weldon's account does not explain why Post-It stickies might be applied to photos of Atta before the matrix could be shown outside the DoD. The story being spread by Weldon and the GOP is a flimsy, almost laughable CYA cover now being resurrected to blame Clinton.

It is time that the public learns why things got complicated, and stickies might have been applied. In 2000, the surveillance of the incoming al-Qaeda cells was just part of an enormous, ongoing multi-agency monitoring operation of international terrorism, WMD proliferation, arms and drug dealing, political influence peddling, and money laundering. The Army's Able Danger Intelligence unit apparently had indiscriminate access to a lot of this data, which also included data gained from warrantless NSA taps of the communications of US persons and non-US persons, alike.

Intelligence analysts are supposed to separate this out, and obtain FISA warrants where US persons are involved to authorize continuation of these intercepts. But, the agencies by and large didn't bother to seek warrants -- which is a violation of the law. That made this data the fruit of illegal searches, and the FBI didn't want to touch it, for fear that it would ruin its criminal investigations that overlapped the CIA and DIA's domestic operations.

Meanwhile, over at the J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI national security managers were attempting to cover a maelstrom of terrorist groups, Saudi financiers, Israeli espionage agents, corrupt politicians, and corruption within the US intelligence agencies. This is what Sibel Edmonds has tried so hard to blow the whistle about. This job was immensely complicated by the fact that the al-Qaeda ranks were riddled with double-agents serving multiple intelligence agencies, all of which were simultaneously spying on each other inside the U.S. The whole thing got too hot, and the bureaucracy overloaded. Bad decisions were made to allow operations to continue for fear of stepping on the toes of the CIA and foreign agencies working both with and against U.S. interests.

After the 2000 election, national security managers put the brakes on investigative lines that were touching on subjects that might get people fired. For its own reasons, the Bush Administration shut down much of the remaining counter-terrorism apparatus. By early 2001, it was widely known within law enforcement and intelligence circles that some strange things were going on at DoD, the FISA court, and within FBI counter-terrorism. The number of FISA warrant requests actually declined during the 18 months leading up to the 9/11 attacks, and few new applications were filed during the summer before the attacks. Recall, this is at a time that Tenet's hair was said to be "on fire". For more on the chaos of US counterterrorism in 2001, please see: "THE CRIMES OF 9/11 (Part 4):
Bush White House, CIA, FBI Bungled Risky Warrantless Surveillance Operation - 3,000 Died."

9/11 could have been avoided. The al-Qaeda cells could have been rolled up, if the order had been given by President Bush. Without that order, nobody was going to be arrested.

Finally, everyone knew there was a serious problem and nobody wanted to create more of paper trail than they had to. Warrants create paper trails, which might get people fired, subpoenaed before hostile committees, and indicted by grand juries. As a result, given the choice, people stopped requesting warrants. Had the agencies complied with the law regarding FISA warrants, Mohamed Atta and his buddies would have had to be arrested, given what was being learned from illegal wiretaps and consensual monitoring. This is an area, not surprisingly, the 9/11 Commission didn't even begin to touch on.

The CIA Inspector General's Report does not exonerate Tenet and other Agency officials for withholding information from the FBI on the basis that Cong. Weldon claims. The law clearly allowed CIA, DoD and FBI to share information about Mohamed Atta and the Al-Qaeda suspects who would carry out the hijackings. They did. The so-called FISA Wall did not cause the failure of US counterterrorism that led to their "catastrophic success" on 9/11.

Weldon's accusations are what's known as a "limited hangout" in intelligence jargon. It is an attempt to poison the well of public discourse for the far more damaging revelations about Bush Administration incompetence and obstruction of U.S. counter-terrorism that is about to be made public.

Instead, the CIA report will detail a much more complex picture of bad decisions by Agency policymakers who tried to comply with Bush White House orders that interfered with management of a mounting crisis.

[savage4presiden]

You do know that Mark G. Levey is far from an impartial/objective journalist, don't you? He is often featured in www.democraticunderground.com which is, if you look on their site, a laughable attempt at journalism. And his article is far from impartial.

Anyway, the attempt to pin congressman Weldon as a nutjob isn't working very well. What does he have to gain by forcing this issue? And why aren't major news sources like the washington post and GSN (major source for government) telling the story like the small time Mark G. Levey?

[djack16]

Yes, and Michelle Malkin and Fox News are the epitome of unbiased and objective "journalism" if you can call it that with a straight face. Aye caramba.

[savage4presiden]

I just thought I would breath new life into this issues (as if it ever had any ) and give everyone an update.

Currently, there are congressional hearings being conducted with the objective of determining exactly what went wrong inside the DOD. Sens. Arlen Spector (rep. and chairman) and Joseph R. Biden (dem.) are working cooperatively to determine if the allegations that DOD lawyers blocked the transmission of vital intelligence from the Army intelligence to the FBI are true. Certainly, an agrigious error was committed by DOD lawyers that should have been included in the 9/11 report. However, the 9/11 commission failed to investigate the issue even upon consultation by key players involved leading many to believe that the 9/11 commission is attempting a last ditch 'cya' act.