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Senate Hearing concerning Pentagon Able
Danger Operation
September 25th 2005
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Senator Arlen
Specter |
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The Pentagon has reversed its
decision and will allow five witnesses to testify at a new public
Senate committee hearing concerning operation Able Danger. The
hearing is scheduled for October 5th. On Wednesday the
Pentagon had prohibited these witnesses, including members of the
secret military intelligence team code-named Able Danger.
Able Danger, a shut down
data-mining operation, was highly classified and used powerful
computers to sift through public data looking for clues on a variety
of topics. The Able Danger team had identified Mohamed Atta and
three other hijackers as al Qaeda cell members a full year before
the September 11th 2001 attacks.
It appears Able Danger tried to
pass the information three times to FBI for further investigation
but was forced to cancel the meetings by Pentagon lawyers.
"Our position has not changed,"
Defense spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters. "This is a
classified program and there are still aspects of it that are not
appropriate for an open hearing. And that's what we have told the
committee."
These five people that Arlen
Specter and other committee members would like to testify have said
they recall and intelligence chart that identified Atta as a
terrorists inside the US one year before the attacks, according to
the Washington Post. The Pentagon claims they can not find the
chart or evidence that it ever existed. Much of the information was
destroyed in 2000 according to an army officer who testified on
Wednesday. .
Members of Congress from both
sides of the aisle have suggested the Pentagon may be trying to
cover something up. Arlen Specter said the Pentagon could be guilty
of obstructing congressional proceedings. The Pentagon may fear the
hearings will show that the attacks in New York and Washington could
have been prevented.
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By
Dan Wilson
Best Syndication Staff Writer
Books on war
against terror
Keywords and misspellings: Al Quaeda Qada Quada
Queda terror teror
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