Hijackers were Tracked in US One Year Before 9-11
August 9th 2005

Government officials allege that US defense intelligence officials identified ringleader Mohammed Atta and three other September 11^th hijackers. Republican Congressional Representative Curt Weldon of the 7^th district of Pennsylvania and chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees said the al-Qaida cell was identified back in 1999 but military intelligence did not pass the information along to law enforcement agencies.

A year before the 2001 terror attacks the Pentagon was using a data-mining operation called Able Danger to identify potential threats.  This week detailed accounts of this were offered by Representative Weldon.  This is the first assertion by any government officials that Mr. Atta was identified as a potential threat.

Mr Weldon asked “Why, then, did they not proceed? That is a question that needs to be answered… with all the good work that the 9/11 Commission did, why is there nothing in their report about Able Danger? Why is there no mention of the work that Able Danger did against al Qaeda? Why is there no mention… of a recommendation in September of 2000 to take out Mohammed Atta's cell which would have detained three of the terrorists who struck us?”

According to Reuters the classified eight-member "Able Danger" team produced a chart with photographs of Atta and three other hijackers in 2000 and unsuccessfully sought to pass the information on to the FBI.

The pentagon offered no comment on the assertions made by Weldon.  When asked on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he could not comment on Able danger. He knew nothing of the operation, Rumsfeld added.

Even if the information was pass along, it is unclear what could have been done with the information.

If you have any comments or corrections please email me.

By Dan Wilson
Best Syndication Staff Writer

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Keywords and misspellings: Ata Al quaeda qada Kita queda quada