Able Danger: Critical Analysis

Jim Geraghty and Captain Ed restates and reframes the arguments in light of what we know and don't know. He states information that supports a wider probe along with information that would suggest much ado about nothing. There's just enough to keep people digging for more information, like a second military officer going public with his recollections of the program.

The second officer, Navy Captain Scott J. Phillpott, issued the following statement:

[...] that he could not discuss details of the military program, which was called Able Danger, but confirmed that its analysts had identified the Sept. 11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta, by name by early 2000. "My story is consistent," said Captain Phillpott, who managed the program for the Pentagon's Special Operations Command. "Atta was identified by Able Danger by January-February of 2000."

This comes on the heels of the Pentagon releasing a statement saying that it could not corroborate any of the details provided by Rep. Weldon, Col. Shaffer, and now Capt. Phillpott.

Geraghty also posts a snippit from the transcript of the National Geographic special on 9/11 that has been airing this week. It did make reference to the Able Danger program, though not by name.

“AT THIS AIR FORCE BASE IN TAMPA (Picture of Entrance Gate to MacDill Air Force Base), MEMBERS OF THE U.S. ARMY SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND ARE REVIEWING AN UNUSUAL CHART THAT REPORTEDLY IDENTIFIES BOTH ATTA (picture ID of Atta shown) AND AL-SHEHHI (picture ID of Al-Shehhi shown) AS LIKELY MEMBERS OF AN AL-QAEDA TERROR CELL OPERATING WITHIN THE U.S. THE OFFICIALS DECIDE THEY CANNOT PASS THIS INFORMATION ALONG TO THE FBI, IN PART BECAUSE THE MEN ARE HOLDING VALID U.S. VISAS AND MAY BE OFF LIMITS FROM INTELLIGENCE GATHERING BY THE MILITARY.” The next segment discussed terrorist training camps in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Powerline continues to urge caution, but thinks that there is definitely a story to tell here. John notes:

I've urged caution on this story because, when it first started to develop, it was based on anonymous sources. Now, as one Able Danger participant after another has come forward under his own name, the story is starting to take on real substance. There is all the difference in the world between a news story based on an anonymous leak, where there is no way to verify who the source is, whether he knows what he is talking about, and whether he is pursuing a political agenda, and what is developing now--real people, with no reason to fabricate, presenting themselves for questioning and accountable for what they say. In other words, I'm starting to get excited about the story. For a lot of reasons, but let's start with this: if Mohammed Atta really was in the United States in early 2000, he was traveling under another name--big shock, right?--and the September 11 commission's carefully constructed timetable under which, among other things, he couldn't possibly have traveled to Prague to meet with an Iraqi intelligence agent in 2001, is shot to hell.

No kidding. And one of the reasons that the Commission has been discounting the Able Danger story (after denying that it even knew Able Danger existed) is that its data conflicted with its existing timeline.

Mainline media has been picking up different aspects of the story, including CNN which brings us the 'news' that Captain Phillpott has come forward with corroborating details of Able Danger.

Regional Intelligence Centers
The Talahassee Democrat has a story today about intelligence centers that are being established around the country ahead of a 2007 deadline for all states to have regional terrorism information centers, and links the work at those centers to the kind of work done at Able Danger.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress in 2003 authorized the National Counterterrorism Center, a federal model of interagency sharing.

Sharing information is crucial, authorities say, pointing to big misses in the past. The New York Times reported recently that a secret military intelligence unit known as Able Danger mined computer data in 1999 and 2000, tracking terrorism suspects inside the United States. Able Danger identified four of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers as al-Qaida operatives, including two pilots, more than a year before the attacks, The Times reported. But the group's information was not passed on to the FBI.

Each state tailors its fusion center to its own vulnerabilities. In Kansas, potential targets include vast rural areas at risk for agri-terrorism, as well as Fort Riley and big events such as NASCAR races.

Bunting said compiling bits of information from incident reports into a roundup of alerts is the best way to give officers all over the state a quick daily update.

"Our primary concern is that ... law enforcement people on the street have as much information as possible of emerging threats," he said.

Civil liberties groups are concerned, and the article cites the Heritage Center among those who worry about how the information will be gathered and used.