9/11: Atta Papers (2.5 terabytes) Destroyed on Orders

[asim99]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050916/ap_on_go_co/sept11_hijackers
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9342936/
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1131137&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

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 identify the person who ordered him to destroy the large volume of documents, said Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa.

Weldon declined to identify 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 Senate Judiciary Committee aide said the witnesses for Wednesday hearing had not been finalized and could not confirm Weldon's comments.

Army Maj. Paul Swiergosz, a Pentagon spokesman, said officials have been ``fact-finding in earnest for quite some time.''

``We've interviewed 80 people involved with Able Danger, combed through hundreds of thousands of documents and millions of e-mails and have still found no documentation of Mohamed Atta,'' Swiergosz said.

He added that certain data had to be destroyed in accordance with existing regulations regarding ``intelligence data on U.S. persons.''

Weldon has said that Atta, the mastermind of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, 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.

have yet to find links on what was testimony was about

[asim99]

some follow-up:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5306021,00.html

Senate Panel Postpones 9/11 Hearing

Tuesday September 27, 2005 6:31 PM

By KIMBERLY HEFLING

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Citing next week's Rosh Hashanah observances, the Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed its scheduled hearing on what a highly classified military intelligence unit code-named ``Able Danger'' knew about the 9/11 hijackers.

But an attorney for a military intelligence officer who was expected to appear said the Defense Department's refusal to allow such testimony - not the Jewish holiday - was the real reason for the delay.

``It sounds better than the truth, which is that DOD is not cooperative,'' said Mark Zaid, attorney for Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, who has said the unit used data mining to link ringleader Mohamed Atta and three other hijackers to al-Qaida more than a year before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Zaid said he was informed on Monday that Shaffer would not be allowed to testify at the hearing scheduled for Oct. 5. Observance of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins Monday, Oct. 3.

Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who is Jewish, released a statement Friday saying the Pentagon was allowing five key witnesses to testify. The statement came two days after Specter, during a hearing, accused military officials of obstructing his committee by not allowing them to testify.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman reiterated Tuesday that Defense officials had not agreed to such a hearing, but were discussing the matter with the committee.

``They have an ongoing interest in this Able Danger project and we're working with them to provide them with the kinds of information they seek to have on this,'' Whitman said.

The Pentagon has acknowledged that employees recall seeing an intelligence chart identifying Atta as a terrorist before the attacks. But they said none have been able to find a copy of it.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., was the first to come forward to discuss Able Danger's purported intelligence findings. If correct, the intelligence would change the timeline on when government officials first became aware of Atta's links to al-Qaida.

Shaffer was prepared to testify last week that he tried on three different occasions to meet with the FBI to discuss Able Danger's findings. He was barred from doing so by military attorneys who were worried about legal concerns.

Specter said one reason he convened the hearing was to determine whether the federal Posse Comitatus law needs to be amended. The law, passed in 1878, restricts the military's law enforcement role in the United States.

William Reynolds, Specter's spokesman, said the senator would be observing Rosh Hashanah in Philadelphia.

[Ziggy007]

Jesus christ, they had 2.5 Terrabytes on one person?

[Paksis]

Some people should really consider the use of a little theory called Occam's Razor (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/OCCAMRAZ.html) a very useful concept that many in investigative fields use. Something that might escape those who see Reds under every bed, wait a minute didn't someone in the Fifties who was a Senator do the same thing. See vast conspiracies that required a lot of hallucinagenic drugs to come up with.

Unfortunately many people fail to face facts even after their faces are rubbed in them.

[d_jedi]

Jesus christ, they had 2.5 Terrabytes on one person?
I don't think so... at least not 2.5TB of documents as the name "Atta Papers" sort of implies.. the only way they could have close to 2.5TB is if they had hours of audio and video surveillance.

Also,
Mark Zaid, attorney for Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, who has said the unit used data mining to link ringleader Mohamed Atta and three other hijackers to al-Qaida more than a year before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Which seems to imply that they collected a tonne of information (relevant or not to anything), and from that they (supposedly) managed to extract knowledge of some of the 9/11 attackers a few years before the terrorists struck.

As to the accuracy of these allegations, it's quite possible.. we've already seen that the US intelligence community was not as vigilant as they should have been pre-9/11 against terrorists.