Reply #18: Here's some more info [View All]

[DFWdem]

A secret US military intelligence team identified the September 11 hijack leader Mohammed Atta and three of his accomplices as probable al-Qa'eda terrorists a year before the attacks.

But its suspicions were never shared with the FBI because the military was nervous about breaking restrictions on spying on US territory imposed after the Watergate scandal.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/10/watta10.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/10/ixworld.html

Atta escaped arrest even though investigators in an Army intel program called Able Danger got the goods on him and recommended the FBI be called in to "take out that cell."

A hands-off order was slapped on the cell because, at the time, intelligence agencies were prohibited from spying on Americans, and the military believed that prohibition extended to foreigners with green cards, the Government Security News said in a story posted on its Web site.

A former Able Danger officer corroborated the details of Weldon's claims for GSN. He recalled carrying documents to the offices of Able Danger, which was being run by the Special Operations Command, headquartered in Tampa.

"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.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/335744p-286804c.html

But Mr Weldon's remarks will fuel controversy over the opportunities that were missed by US government agencies to prevent the 9/11 attacks.

He 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.

He says the unit prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to Special Operations Command that the FBI be informed.

The course of action was said to have been rejected in part because the men were in the US on valid entry visas.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4135400.stm

However, Weldon said Pentagon lawyers rejected the recommendation because they said Atta and the others were in the country legally.

"In fact, I'll tell you how stupid it was, they put stickies on the faces of Mohammed Atta on the chart that the military intelligence unit had completed and they said you can't talk to Atta because he's here on a green card," Weldon said.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0809Sept11Hijackers09-ON.html