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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-08-10

Huh. We Might Have Been Even Dumber Than We Thought

More than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress.

Now, let me interject a little skepticism: a Congressman and an anonymous source right off the bat. Okay--let's not drink the cool-aid just yet on this one.

In the summer of 2000, the military team, known as Able Danger, prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to the military's Special Operations Command that the information be shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the congressman, Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, and the former intelligence official said Monday.

The recommendation was rejected and the information was not shared, they said, apparently at least in part because Mr. Atta, and the others were in the United States on valid entry visas. Under American law, United States citizens and green-card holders may not be singled out in intelligence-collection operations by the military or intelligence agencies.

I wonder if that information was not shared because everybody ran into this giant wall that Jamie Gorelick helped construct between intel and law. Just wondering.

Now, it's entirely possible that even knowing Atta and the other men might not have brovided us with the edge to stop 9/11.

But don't you think the odds might have been better?
Posted by: Michael / 8/10/2005 01:04:00 AM

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