9/11 Commission Ignored Key information

The NY Times reports today on what should become a huge story. The 9/11 Commission ignored important information gathered by a secret military unit in 1999 and 2000 called "Able Danger" regarding terrorist Mohammed Atta, the 9/11 lead hijacker.

Mr. Weldon has accused the commission of ignoring information that would have forced a rewriting of the history of the Sept. 11 attacks. He has asserted that the Able Danger unit, whose work relied on computer-driven data-mining techniques, sought to call their superiors' attention to Mr. Atta and three other future hijackers in the summer of 2000. Their work, he says, had identified the men as likely members of a Qaeda cell already in the United States

The team had recommended that Atta and three others be deported but the information was not shared with law enforcement officials because of "the wall" that had been raised even higher by then Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, who just happened to be on the 9/11 commission. Basically information could not be shared between agencies thanks to the wall and Gorelick issued memo reaffirming that policy back in 1995.

What is so outrageous is that the commission says it disregarded the information because it "did not mesh" with what they knew of Atta. Shouldn't any data gathered concerning the hijackers been thoroughly investigated?

"He wasn't brushed off," Mr. Felzenberg said of the officer. "I'm not aware of anybody being brushed off. The information that he provided us did not mesh with other conclusions that we were drawing" from the commission's investigation.

Mr. Felzenberg said staff investigators had become wary of the officer because he argued that Able Danger had identified Mr. Atta, an Egyptian, as having been in the United States in late 1999 or early 2000. The investigators knew this was impossible, Mr. Felzenberg said, since travel records confirmed that he had not entered the United States until June 2000.

"There was no way that Atta could have been in the United States at that time, which is why the staff didn't give this tremendous weight when they were writing the report," Mr. Felzenberg said. "This information was not meshing with the other information that we had."

Maybe the 9/11 commission should be less concerned with congratulating each other on what a great job they did and focus on investigating every piece of data they are handed. And if not for Congressman Curt Weldon of PA determination to get this information out for the last 3 months we may never had know about any of this.

Some great comments from Ed Morrisey about how this information, if it had been investigated and included in the 9/11 Report, would have completely changed the basis of their findings. So this information was left out for convenience sake.

Check out Michelle Malkin for lots more information and links.