Another Republican accusation shot down in flames. When is their credibility going to bottom out?



http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/p...12/1033/NEWS01

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Intelligence panel rejects claim about 9/11

Contention U.S. knew some hijackers false
By GREG MILLER
LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON - Rejecting one of the most disturbing claims about the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes, the Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded as untrue a congressman's contention that a team of military analysts identified Mohamed Atta or other hijackers before the attacks, according to a summary of the panel's investigation obtained by the Los Angeles Times. See story below ADVERTISEMENT OAS_AD('Middle');
The findings repudiate assertions by Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., and a handful of military officers that U.S. national security officials ignored startling intelligence available in early 2001 that might have helped to prevent the attacks.

In particular, Weldon and other officials have repeatedly claimed that the military effort, known as "Able Danger," produced a chart that included a picture of Atta and identified him as being tied to an al-Qaida cell in Brooklyn.

Weldon has also said that the chart was shared with officials in the White House, including Stephen Hadley, then deputy national security adviser.

But after a 16-month investigation, the Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded that those assertions are unfounded.

"Able Danger did not identify Mohammed Atta or any other 9/11 hijacker at any time prior to Sept. 11, 2001," the committee concluded, according to an eight-page letter sent last week to members of the panel by the top Republican and Democrat on the committee.

Weldon, who is also the focus of a Justice Department corruption probe, was defeated in November in his campaign for a 11th term, even though his suburban Philadelphia district has a large GOP majority in voter registration.

Attempts Sunday to reach a spokesman for Weldon and an attorney representing him in the Justice Department investigation were unsuccessful.

The Senate panel, known formally as the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, launched its investigation of Able Danger in August 2005, after Weldon and others close to the program went public with their claims.

At the time, Weldon was the vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee.

The recently completed probe also dismissed other assertions that have fueled conspiracy theories surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks.

The panel said it found "no evidence" to support claims by military officers connected to Able Danger that Defense Department lawyers prevented the team's analysts from sharing their findings with counterterrorism officials at the FBI before the attacks.

Nor was the alleged chart or any information developed by Able Danger improperly destroyed at the direction of Pentagon lawyers, a charge that has stoked claims of a cover-up.

"Able Danger" was the unclassified name given to a program launched in 1999 by the U.S. Special Operations Command as part of an effort to develop military plans targeting the leadership ranks of al-Qaida and other terrorist networks.

Military analysts assigned to the effort did create charts with pictures of al-Qaida operatives whose identities were known publicly at the time, the committee found.

But the committee concluded that none of those charts depicted Atta, and that the unfounded claims made by Weldon and others may have been due to confusion

I have heard many times the cons using this argument to bolster their claim that Clinton is to blame for everything.
Not anymore.

Not until you can find sources better than www1.pressdemocrat.com, heh heh

It would be like me using Ann Coulter's blog as a source...gimme a break.

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both the link I provided and the originator of the news story are legitimate souces. You admitting it or not is just another example of your lameness.
You using Ann Coulters blog is your problem. But if your going to spew BS you might as well go directly to the source. Are you saying that news stories printed in the Sonoma Co Press Democrat or authored by printed by the Los Angeles Times are not credible sources?
Is Fox New the only real credible source?

Who needs it? There's plenty of other stuff to blame on Clinton.

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"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq." Condoleeza Rice, January 11, 2007

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"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

I do not dwell on past presidents possible achievements or lack there of. I dwell on current presidents current and future achievements and lack there of. It is certainly more relevant to what is happening in our lives TODAY.

Oh I see the problem..Its the LA Times and their reporting in their usual muddled manner.

Ok here we go......

SO the committee rejected the belief by some (notably for you a Republican) that the able danger operaton had identified Atta prior to the atacks on 9/11. Yep..

OK great.

That means they also rejected the long held rhetoric of the Far Left..most likely including you. You can no longer cliam Bush KNEW.

UH OH...miss that part.

You should read what you post more carefully.

Nowhere in that news article did it say that Bush didn't ignore Briefing memos while he was on his record month long vacation just prior to the attacks on 911. Briefing memos stating "OSAMA BIN LADIN determined to attack within the continental US."
Did it say that anywhere? Or are you in desperation just imagining it and just wishing it did?

THAT particular information had been around since about 1995 or 1996. Which, BTW, would have been PLENTY of time for the President then to ACT. Pres. Bush got the information literally a few days before 9/11----hardly enough time to make all the necessary changes that should have been made years earlier.

But good try anyway.

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"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq." Condoleeza Rice, January 11, 2007