Avoiding Able Danger

This story is over twenty-four hours old, but I think it's worth revisiting.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman said Thursday.

The employee is prepared to testify next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee and was expected to name the person who ordered him to destroy the large volume of documents, said Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa.

Weldon declined to name the employee, citing confidentiality matters. Weldon described the documents as "2.5 terabytes" _ as much as one- fourth of all the printed materials in the Library of Congress, he added.

...A message left Thursday with a Pentagon spokesman, Army Maj. Paul Swiergosz, was not immediately returned.

Weldon has said that Atta, the mastermind of the attacks of Sept. 11, and three other hijackers were identified in 1999 by a classified military intelligence unit known as "Able Danger," which determined they could be members of an al-Qaida cell.

On Wednesday, former members of the Sept. 11 commission dismissed the "Able Danger" assertions. One commissioner, ex-Sen. Slade Gorton, R- Wash., said, "Bluntly, it just didn't happen and that's the conclusion of all 10 of us."

Weldon responded angrily to Gorton's assertions.

"It's absolutely unbelievable that a commission would say this program just didn't exist," Weldon said Thursday.

Pentagon officials said this month they had found three more people who recall an intelligence chart identifying Atta as a terrorist prior to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Two military officers, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott, have come forward to support Weldon's claims.

Members of the defunct 9/11 commission continue to obfuscate the Able Danger matter.

Why? Why bother?

If there's nothing to hide, why do they keep hiding? They are avoiding the truth like the plague.

More witnesses are coming out to support Curt Weldon's accusations. An employee is going to name the person who ordered him to destroy loads of documents that named Atta.

I'm sure the employee didn't use the Sandy Berger document destruction technique of taking scissors to paper, based on the volume of documents involved.

I really don't understand this cover-up. Atta was identified as a possible al Qaeda member in 1999. That knowledge alone wouldn't necessarily have been enough to prevent the 9/11 attacks.

Why are the 9/11 commission members so touchy about acknowledging anything to do with Able Danger?

Is this all about CYA?

If so, then they are in the process of destroying the integrity of their commission and their report. By continuing to dodge the facts, they are pulverizing their findings into dust.

I think the cover-up could be worse than the crime in this case. Nonetheless, I find it very strange that for some reason, someone tried to wipe Able Danger off the record. Someone persists in trying to keep it off the radar screen.

With individuals giving testimony to support Weldon's claims, the commission members need to fess up now to save what's left of their honor.