
Guest Researcher Nico Haupt
ewing2001, Wed Aug 10 2005,
06:05PM
http://team8plus.org/print.php?plugin:forum.800
Team8plus is
aware of the political spin and abuse of the recent mainstream
reports about "Able Danger".
However, we are also aware, that most of the alleged 9/11 suspects
had INDEED been under observation.
In how far "Able Danger" played into these observation teams or not
(or is a carefully designed distraction), should be part of a fair
and honest investigation, and separated from the political spin of
"negligence" and "protection of Homeland".
To begin with, here are some articles, which might show us a little
bit more about how Curt Weldon could have been used as a propaganda
tool:
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3232vs_cheney_war.html
August 12, 2005 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
"...In April 2005, Regnery Publishing, Inc. released another
fractured-fairy-tale propaganda piece, promoting pre-emptive war on
Iran, this one by Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.).
Sources familiar with the book report that
Weldon was snookered by ex-CIA Director and leading neo-con war
party operative James Woolsey, and self-proclaimed "universal
fascist" Michael Ledeen, into buying fake intelligence, pushed
through a former Iranian minister under the Shah, who has more
recently been a business partner of discredited Iran-Contra gun
dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar.
Representative Weldon concealed the identity of his high-level
"source," referring to him only as "Ali." But "Ali" was soon
identified as Fereidoun Mahdavi, a former commerce minister, who
fled Iran shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and never
looked back...."
Reports: 9/11 clue hid in Tampa
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/10/Worldandnation/Reports__911_clue_hid.shtml
August 10, 2005
"... Weldon said a secret military unit known as "Able Danger"
discovered a year before the attacks that ringleader Mohammed Atta
and three other future hijackers were in the United States.
Weldon said the unit - created at SOCom under a
classified directive in 1999 to take out al-Qaida targets -
identified Atta and the others as likely members of the
organization.
In fall 2000, the unit recommended SOCom share the information with
the FBI, Weldon said in an interview Tuesday.
But lawyers at either the Pentagon or SOCom determined the men were
in the country legally, Weldon said. He said he based his
information on intelligence sources.
When members of Able Danger made their presentation at command
headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, Weldon said, the legal team
"put stickies on the faces of Mohammed Atta on the chart," to
reinforce that he was off-limits.
"They said, "You can't talk to Atta because he's here on a green
card,"...
... A former spokesman for the Sept. 11 Commission said that
members of its staff were told about the program but that the
briefers did not mention Atta's name. The commission report
produced last year did not mention Able Danger's findings.
On Tuesday, commission co-chairman Lee Hamilton said that Weldon's
information, which the congressman said came from multiple
intelligence sources, warrants a review.
He said he hoped the panel could issue a statement on its findings
by the end of the week.
"The 9/11 Commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge
prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohammed Atta or of his cell,"
said Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "Had
we learned of it obviously it would have been a major focus of our
investigation."..."
...On Tuesday, commission co-chairman Lee Hamilton said that
Weldon's information, which the congressman said came from multiple
intelligence sources, warrants a review.
He said he hoped the panel could issue a statement on its findings
by the end of the week.
"The 9/11 Commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge
prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohammed Atta or of his cell,"
said Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "Had
we learned of it obviously it would have been a major focus of our
investigation."
At least two congressional committees have begun looking into the
episode.
Rep. C.W. Bill Young, chairman of the Defense Appropriations
Subcommittee, said he, too, had asked the Pentagon for information
about the Able Danger program.
The Indian Shores Republican said that in hindsight, it was easy to
say that one thing or another could have disrupted the
hijackers.
"There should have been better sharing of information," he
said.
Young said that passage of the Patriot Act and appointment of John
Negroponte as intelligence czar, which gives one person access to
all information generated by the intelligence community, would help
resolve future problems.
"The tools weren't as good then as they are today," Young said.
Sounding agitated by what he perceived as a
missed opportunity, Weldon made a distinction between the military
lawyers and Special Operations Forces, whom he praised. Gen. Pete
Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, was SOCom commander at the
time.
The small military unit developed the information using mostly open
sources, not classified channels, Weldon said.
Weldon revealed the Able Danger findings in a little-noticed speech
on the floor of the House in June. On Monday, Government Security
News, a biweekly publication that covers homeland security,
published a cover story on the subject, generating another article
in the New York Times.
Until now, Atta had not been identified publicly as a threat to the
United States before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
According to Weldon, the military unit identified a terrorist cell
in Brooklyn, N.Y., in September 2000.
The individuals identified as members of the cell were Atta, Marwan
al-Shehhi, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhamzi.
In late 1999 or 2000, the CIA had identified Almihdhar and Alhamzi
as terrorist members who might be involved in a terrorist
operation.
The duo arrived in Los Angeles in early 2000, but the FBI was not
warned about them until spring 2001. No efforts were made to track
them until a month before the terrorist attacks.
In the article published by Government Security News, a former
defense intelligence official who worked with Able Danger said he
alerted SOCom about the unit's findings. The publication said it
interviewed the source in Weldon's office...."
NOTE: The following postings (incl. sources) might show, how
significant it is to distinguish between "9/11 plotline" and
"military operation" of 9/11.
"Able Danger", whether it's based on half fake info or not, proves
exactly what all 9/11-patsie researchers, including me, already
wrote between 2002 and 2004.
POINT 1: The patsies are leading to the real perpetrators of
9/11!
POINT 2: They all got observed.
There are confirmed names of at least 5 informants
Whether "Able Danger" was yet another observing team, is therefore
already irrelevant but has to be investigated.
POINT 3: The final military operation was planned since 1998, many
significant developments of that year point strongly on that.
POINT 4: Whether with Clinton's active or passive knowledge (or by
deception), the Clinton admin logistically prepared or allow the
PRE 9/11 homeland security, created by ANSER and some other
important logistical tools and laws.
An anti-paranoia spin on research facts is counterproductive
IMO.
POINT 5: Hugh Shelton obviously worked close with the real
perpetrators of 9/11, because he was involved in the pre-planning
of the invasion into Afghanistan. After he "retired", some months
later, he 'fell' from a ladder...
POINT 6: The coincidental significance ("Able Danger") of the tampa
connection is also important, coz that's the air base, where they
planned the final invasion of Afghanistan (Charles Holland) and
flew out some bin laden familiy members....
POINT 7: Atta was already tracked by german intel since 1998. In
1999, german CIA officer Thomas Volz tried to hire Atta's buddy
Marmoun Darkanzali as an informant, who was close to some
fake-recruiters in europe...
POINT 8: One can be sure, that the so called 4 ringleaders had been
under
the control from the real perpetrators of 9/11 and they made sure,
that these 4 patsie leaders won't be involved into the actual
planning of 9/11 itself.
I will back up ALL points ASAP.
...to be continued...
[ Edited ]

Re: "Able Danger" vs. Curt Weldon- Propaganda Hoax or Truth?
ewing2001, Wed Aug 10 2005, 06:42PM
1) At least one of the official Mohammad Atta's was involved in
some CIA cover drug operations at Huffman Aviations. See Daniel
Hopsicker at http://www.madcowprod.com
We can conclude, that the real Atta never arrived in Boston on
September 11th.
The Florida Atta was under control for the official "plotline" of
9/11.
2)
Infos on the 9/11 patsie Informants and observants
for the "plotline"
http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Informants.shtml
3)
See
http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=324
scroll to:
The 1998 pattern
By Ewing2001
4) ANSER and Homeland Security 1999
http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Anser.shtml
5) Hugh Shelton
http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Shelton,HenryH.shtml
6) Charles Holland, CENTCOM and the significance
of Tampa for Afghanistan and 9/11:
Commission in "private" meeting at CENTCOM
April 28, 2004
http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=82
7)
see
Atta contact Darkanzali arrested in
Germany
http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=889
2004/10/15
8 )
see
http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=324
The lost War/terror drill ? (Chapter
6-8)
Chapter 6: The Perpetrators
[ Edited Wed Aug 10 2005, 07:17PM ]
Re: "Able Danger" vs. Curt Weldon- Propaganda Hoax
or Truth?
ewing2001, Thu Aug 11 2005, 06:09PM
I had and still have a different take on this "some hijackers still
alive" argument, which btw. also reinforces the official story.
In my view, most of the 19 alleged suspects had been replaced by
"stand-ins" (plus actors), some worked for the CIA and some tricked
into informants.
According to various sources (incl. BBC) the following identities
had been still alive after 9/11:
Saeed Al-Ghamdi, Mohand Al-Shehri, Abdul Aziz Al-Omari, Salem
Al-Hazmi, Khalid Al-Mihdhar, Waleed M. Al-Shehri, Wail M.
Al-Shehri, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Said Al-Ghamdi, Ahmed Al-Nami
In my personal conclusion, based on all research, neither the
alleged 19 suspects or their still alive identities had anthing to
do with 9/11. I call it "plotline".
The reason to ship them in (inc. via infiltrated Saudi Visa
Consulates in Jeddah and elsewhere), was to work on a profile, but
some identities never existed and got fabricated by "stand-ins",
who sliced some credit cards etc...
Also, some sloppery revealed, that some alleged suspects had been
impersonated by multiple stand-ins at different places at same
time:
Hani Hanjour, Alomari, Atta ... (for others i have first to revise
from my own own older articles :)
Re: "Able Danger" vs. Curt Weldon- Propaganda Hoax or Truth?
ewing2001, Thu Aug 11 2005, 06:15PM
Here is a new claim by former 9/11 commissioner Felzenberg:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/11/AR2005081100684.html
August 11, 2005
"...Felzenberg said an unidentified person working with Weldon came
forward Wednesday and described a meeting 10 days before the
panel's report was issued last July. During it, a military official
urged commission staffers to include a reference to the
intelligence on Atta in the final report.
Felzenberg said checks were made and the details of the July 12,
2004, meeting were confirmed. Previous to that, Felzenberg said it
was believed commission staffers knew about Able Danger from a
meeting with military officials in Afghanistan during which no
mention was made of Atta or the other three hijackers..."
Re: "Able Danger" vs. Curt Weldon- Propaganda Hoax or Truth?
ewing2001, Thu Aug 11 2005, 06:22PM
I also recommend a translation of an analysis from respected
correspondent and german 9/11 book author Matthias Broeckers:
http://www.writersblog.de/broeckers/
http://www.freetranslation.com/web.asp
11. August 2005
Pseudo News and old squash-hats
"...F?r ein demn?chst erscheinendes Buch hat der repulikanische
Kogre?-Abgeordnete Charles Weldon Mitglieder dieser Spezialeinheit
namens ?Able Danger? interviewt, die freilich anonym bleiben
wollen. Das ist auch besser so, denn die ?News?, die sie
kolportieren, sind ein uralter Hut.
Wie sich bei Atta & Co. in der Hamburger Marienstrasse die
Schlapph?te quasi die Klinke in die Hand gaben, haben wir in
?Fakten, F?lschungen....? ausf?hrlich beschrieben, und auch, dass
es sich bei ihrem Kumpel Khalid Almidhar um einen langj?hrigen
Bekannten der CIA handelt ? offiziell wurden die Herren nat?rlich
alle nur ?beobachtet? und weil die diversen Dienste und
Poilzeistellen im Tiefschlaf waren und ihre Informationen nicht
austauschten, konnten sie sich ?ber Jahre frei in den USA bewegen
und erhielten bei Bedarf stets frische Visa...."
Re: "Able Danger" vs. Curt Weldon- Propaganda Hoax
or Truth?
freedomfiles, Thu Aug 11 2005,
07:30PM
Did DoD lawyers blow the chance to nab
Atta?
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/aug_05/dod_lawyers.html
By Jacob Goodwin
In September 2000, one year before the Al Qaeda attacks of 9/11, a
U.S. Army military intelligence program, known as ?Able Danger,?
identified a terrorist cell based in Brooklyn, NY, one of whose
members was 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta, and recommended to their
military superiors that the FBI be called in to ?take out that
cell,? according to Rep. Curt Weldon, a longtime Republican
congressman from Pennsylvania who is currently vice chairman of
both the House Homeland Security and House Armed Services
Committees.
The recommendation to bring down that New York City cell -- in
which two other Al Qaeda terrorists were also active -- was not
pursued during the weeks leading up to the 2000 presidential
election, said Weldon. That?s because Mohammed Atta possessed a
?green card? at the time and Defense Department lawyers did not
want to recommend that the FBI go after someone holding a green
card, Weldon told his House colleagues last June 27 during a
little-noticed speech, known as a ?special order,? which he
delivered on the House floor.
Details of the origins and efforts of Able Danger were corroborated
in a telephone interview by GSN with a former defense intelligence
officer who said he worked closely with that program. That
intelligence officer, who spoke to GSN while sitting in Rep.
Weldon?s Capitol Hill office, requested anonymity for fear that his
current efforts to help re-start a similar intelligence-gathering
operation might be hampered if his identity becomes known.
The intelligence officer recalled carrying documents to the offices
of Able Danger, which was being run by the Special Operations
Command, headquartered in Tampa, FL. The documents included a photo
of Mohammed Atta supplied by the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service and described Atta?s relationship with Osama
bin Laden. The officer was very disappointed when lawyers working
for Special Ops decided that anyone holding a green card had to be
granted essentially the same legal protections as any U.S. citizen.
Thus, the information Able Danger had amassed about the only
terrorist cell they had located inside the United States could not
be shared with the FBI, the lawyers concluded.
?We were directed to take those 3M yellow stickers and place them
over the faces of Atta and the other terrorists and pretend they
didn?t exist,? the intelligence officer told GSN.
DoD lawyers may also have been reluctant to suggest a bold action
by FBI agents after the bureau?s disastrous 1993 strike against the
Branch Davidian religious cult in Waco, TX, said Weldon and the
intelligence officer.
?So now, Mr. Speaker,? Weldon said on the House floor last June,
?for the first time I can tell our colleagues that one of our
agencies not only identified the New York cell of Mohammed Atta and
two of the terrorists, but actually made a recommendation to bring
the FBI in to take out that cell.?
Weldon has developed a reputation for making bold pronouncements
and, occasionally, ruffling the feathers of some of his colleagues.
His recent non-fiction book, ?Countdown to Terror,? which draws on
information from an Iranian expatriate source Weldon has dubbed
?Ali,? has drawn criticism from the CIA, others in the intelligence
community and some congressional colleagues.
A longtime champion of firefighters and first responders, Weldon
has a particular interest in this subject because he has been
openly and actively pushing since 1999 for the establishment of an
integrated government-wide center that could consolidate, analyze
and act upon intelligence gathered by dozens of U.S. agencies,
armed services and departments.
Weldon?s proposal was based on the innovative intelligence
gathering capabilities he had witnessed at the U.S. Army?s
Information Dominance Center, based at Fort Belvoir, VA, (which was
formerly known as the Land Information Warfare Assessment Center.)
This Army center had employed data mining, profiling and data
collaboration techniques before several other intelligence
agencies, and was using such cutting edge software tools as
Starlight (developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
and Spires.
For years, the CIA resisted the congressman?s recommendation,
Weldon told GSN in a telephone interview on August 1, claiming that
his plan to integrate dozens of discrete and classified
intelligence streams was both unworkable and unnecessary. Weldon
had dubbed his proposed organization the National Operations and
Analysis Hub, nicknamed NOAH, because the center was intended ?to
protect our nation from the flood of threats,? he explained.
Sixteen months after 9/11, such a ?data fusion center,? named the
Terrorism Threat Integration Center (TTIC) was indeed established
by the Bush Administration.
At the urging of the 9/11 Commission, the TTIC has since been
restructured and renamed the National Counter Terrorism Center
(NCTC).
Weldon is pleased that steps have been taken to unify the nation?s
intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities, now headed by a
newly established Director of National Intelligence, Joseph
Negroponte, but Weldon remains concerned that the ?stovepipe?
mentalities that plagued the intelligence community in the past
continue to inhibit true information sharing between intelligence
agencies.
He is also extremely frustrated by the fact that so little official
attention seems to have been paid to the intelligence failure
related to the Mohammed Atta cell in Brooklyn. Weldon contends that
few in the Bush Administration seem interested in investigating
that missed opportunity.
?If we had had that [military intelligence] system in 1999 and
2000, which the military had already developed as a prototype, and
if we had followed the lead of the military entity that identified
the Al Qaeda cell of Mohammed Atta, then perhaps, Mr. Speaker, 9/11
would never have occurred,? Weldon said during his special order
remarks.
According to Weldon, staff members of the 9/11 Commission were
briefed on the capabilities of the Able Danger intelligence unit
within the Special Operations Command, which had been set up by
General Pete Schoomaker, who headed Special Ops at the time, on the
orders of General Hugh Shelton, then the chairman of the joint
chiefs of staff. Staffers at the 9/11 Commission staffers were also
told about the specific recommendation to break up the Mohammed
Atta cell. However, those commission staff members apparently did
not choose to brief the commission?s members on these sensitive
matters.
Weldon said he was told specifically by commission members, Tim
Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana; and John
Lehman, a former secretary of the Navy; that they had never been
briefed on the Able Danger unit within Special Ops or on the unit?s
evidence of a terrorist cell in Brooklyn.
?I personally talked with [Philip] Zelikow [executive director of
the 9/11 Commission] about this,? recalled the intelligence
officer. ?For whatever bizarre reasons, he didn?t pass on the
information.?
The State Department, where Zelikow now works as a counselor to
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said he was traveling and
unavailable for comment.
?Why did the 9/11 Commission not investigate this entire
situation?? asked Weldon on June 27. ?Why did the 9/11 Commission
not ask the question about the military?s recommendation against
the Mohammed Atta cell??
Weldon is also disappointed with himself for not pushing harder
against the intelligence bureaucracy that he saw as resisting his
proposal to set up a more integrated intelligence-gathering
operation. But he saves some of his greatest ire for the lawyers
within the Department of Defense -- he is not sure if they were
working within the Special Operations Command or higher up the
organizational chart, within the Office of the Secretary of Defense
-- for their unwillingness to allow Able Danger to send to the FBI
its evidence and its recommendation for immediate action.
?Obviously, if we had taken out that cell, 9/11 would not have
occurred and, certainly, taking out those three principal players
in that cell would have severely crippled, if not totally stopped,
the operation that killed 3,000 people in America,? said
Weldon.
Shining a spotlight on this intelligence gaffe has not been easy.
Russ Caso, Weldon?s chief of staff, explained to GSN the steps his
boss has taken to shed light on the situation.
Weldon spoke with Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), the chairman of the
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, about
conversations he has had with several members of the Able Danger
intelligence unit. Weldon has urged Hoekstra to investigate the
reasons why Able Danger?s revelations were not shared with the FBI.
Hoekstra looked into the matter at the Pentagon, but after several
days of fruitless inquiries, was unable to find anyone at the
Defense Department who seemed to know anything about Able Danger or
would acknowledge the intelligence unit had ever existed, explained
Caso in a telephone interview with GSN.
Unwilling to let the matter drop, Weldon arranged for a
face-to-face meeting in late July between Hoekstra, himself and the
former intelligence officer who had worked with Able Danger, and
who outlined his former unit?s evidence and recommendations for
Hoekstra.
?Congressman Weldon has met with several people who were working on
Able Danger to identify where Al Qaeda was set up around the
world,? said Caso. ?They made the suggestion that this information
be passed to the FBI, and lawyers within the Defense Department --
whether within Special Ops or within OSD, we don?t know -- and the
lawyers said, ?No?.?
A report about some of these events appeared last June 19 in The
Times Herald newspaper, of Norristown, PA, which is located in the
Philadelphia suburbs that Rep. Weldon represents in Congress.
Re: "Able Danger" vs. Curt Weldon- Propaganda Hoax or Truth?
freedomfiles, Thu Aug 11 2005, 07:35PM
Curt Weldon is a hardline neo-conservative who doesn't shun strange
tactics to spread disinformation :
Curt Weldon's Deep Throat
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=9836
The Pennsylvania Republican?s freelance spying has
once again brought a discredited arms dealer's fabrications to the
CIA.
By Laura Rozen
Web Exclusive: 06.10.05
Print Friendly | Email Article
Countdown to Terror, Representative Curt Weldon's sensationalistic
new book about his personal struggle to combat the Iranian
terrorism threat despite the alleged resistance of the CIA, is
based entirely on the Pennsylvania Republican's freelance
communications with a secret source he code-named "Ali." Much of
Weldon's book, which will be released next week by Regnery
Publishing, consists of reproduced pages of comically overwrought
"intelligence" memos faxed from the Iranian ?migr?s Paris location
to Weldon?s office between 2003 and 2004.
?Dear Curt,? reads one memo excerpt from ?Ali? published by Weldon.
?An attack against an atomic plant by a plane, the name mentioned,
but not clear it begins with ?SEA? ? [Seattle?].? Another reads:
?Dear Curt: ? I confirm again a terrorist attack within the United
States is planned before the American elections."
But in an exclusive interview with The American Prospect, Weldon's
"Ali" -- who was identified in an April article by me and Jeet Heer
as Fereidoun Mahdavi, a frail, elderly former minister of commerce
in the shah?s government and a longtime business associate of
Iran-Contra arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar -- said he was stunned
and perplexed to learn that Weldon had used his information to
write a book, emphasizing that Weldon never even told him about the
book.
Mahdavi also said that the bulk of the information that he had
provided to Weldon was originally sourced from none other than
Ghorbanifar, the subject of a rare CIA ?burn notice? after the
agency found him to be a "fabricator" more than two decades ago
during the Iran-Contra affair.
?Many information that I have given to Weldon is coming from
Ghorbanifar,? said Mahdavi, who was reached in Paris by telephone
on June 6. ?Because Ghorbanifar used me, in fact, to pass that
stuff because I know he has problems in Washington.?
The former minister continued: ?I am well-known in Tehran. How can
I call Tehran? But Ghorbanifar is something else. He has all the
contacts within Iran. Nobody has so many information and contacts
that he has. Now if he is using that information through me to try
to buy power indirectly, that is his business. I do it because I
have known him for many years.?
Several Iranian exile associates of the pair have told the Prospect
that Mahdavi, living in reduced circumstances and caring for his
cancer-stricken wife, is in fact financially dependent on
Ghorbanifar. They have been involved in various businesses
together, from petroleum shipping to arms dealing to (more
recently) intelligence peddling, since both washed up in Paris
after the Iranian revolution in 1979.
Although Mahdavi expresses understanding of the motives of his old
pal and business partner Ghorbanifar, he says he is utterly baffled
by Weldon?s decision to use his information as the foundation of a
book that the congressman never once mentioned to him.
related
Operation Able Danger 9/11 review
Cong. Curt Weldon to probe top-secret 9-11 Cambone notes?
Rebuttal to the IG's Able Danger Report
DoD - 9/11 EncyclopediaANSER Institute for Homeland Security
Anser - 9/11 Encyclopedia