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August 09, 2005

Comments

kim

Probably what Berger was purloining.
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Syl

Reading something like this doesn't alarm me, quite the opposite. Neither does it make me angry and outraged (unless there was purposeful suppression by or to the commission). What was, was, and I simply accept the fact of the legal situation and atmosphere re intelligence gathering and dissemination prior to 9/11.

Now we are aware. Now we have broken the wall between agencies. Legally at least.

What makes me feel a bit better is that, indeed, someone had noticed Atta and a few of his cohorts AND recognized them as al Qaeda.

I would be feeling much worse if they hadn't blipped on anyone's radar at all.


kim

I can grumble Berger sotto voce for almost any provocation.
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Walter

Could anyone explain how a situation such as this would be handled under current intelligence handling/security procedures?

TM

Could anyone explain...

(a) write CYA memo;(b)leak to Times...

Appalled Moderate

TM:

You read the New York Times in the way Kreminoligists used to read Pravda.

Sometimes, a news story exists because there is a little hunk of data that has not been mined before about something that might interest the public. I have a hunch your book-promotion angle is correct; but I don't really have a problem with the front page placement. (It is a slow news day after all, and the NYT seems fresh out of Plame fare.)

Ah well, if your obsessions really bothered me, I guess I'd stop reading and annoying you with my comments.

TM

Appalled - I may have miscommunicated my ambivalence about this story. I'll accept that the Times had enough to front-page it, especially on a slow day. However, I don't know if I believe it (and I'm not sure they do, either).

Seven Machos

I don't understand why we continue to have these fusses about who knew what before September 11. 2001. Nobody knew anything.

However, if you listen to the Left in this country, you'd think that pre-September 11, the Left was clamoring to invade Afghanistan and get serious about foreign policy, while the Right was dithering on about school uniforms, free medicine, and other domestic initiatives.

Somehow, I remember the era differently.

Parker

The NYT piece is a news story that does not form conclusions, freely admitting that there are facts in dispute. It may never go anywhere. But such a story is preferable to pieces like Judith Miller's in 2003 that offered conclusive proof where none actually existed. Douglas Jehl understands that he is a reporter, not a columnist on the Opinion page.

Appalled Moderate

The New York Times would be an even better paper if just included links. The following are cited in the Times story, and actually might help TM with figuring out the story.

Norristown Pa Times-Hearld Interview with Weldon.

GSN Magazine article reporting on the allegations .

< a href = "http://curtweldon.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=32111"> Weldon's little noticied speech

SteveMG

Ahh, but what did Able Danger find out about John Roberts' two adopted children?

A future Krugman column in this, I'm sure.

SMG

boris

I always said the Gorelick commision was a joke ... but this looks bad bad bad.

As far as I can tell from what's on the net so far, it looks pretty solid that a military intelligence unit identified Atta and 3 other 911 terrorists in 2000. Lots of other grit, speculation and "diversionary static" swirling around the story but it's all mox nix if that one thing is true.

megapotamus

Even at this late date it is worth repeating: Gorelick should have been BEFORE the commission, not riding herd. I am confident though that the truth will out. It may take a mighty long time but even the Romans were unable to keep their secrets... and THEY had a memory hole!

BumperStickerist

Somehow, I remember the [Summer of 2001]era differently.

Shark attacks, man -- There were shark attacks.

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kim

Hey Big River, Berger and Gorelick were hand in glove, or should I say foot in sock.
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ThomasJackson

The question that comes to mind is why such restrictions on the sharing of intelligence were ever instituted and why they were retained. The Churches, Clintons, and Kennedys have much to answer for.

capitano

Curt Weldon? Jamie Gorelick? Lee Hamilton? Screw them! We need experts.

What does Kristin Breitweiser say about military intelligence?


Patrick R. Sullivan

' "But (intelligence officials) were told that, because the men had green cards, they couldn't touch them," Weldon said in an interview in Washington, D.C.'

But, they didn't have green cards.

kim

Given the state of INS the Army probably couldn't tell if they had green cards or not. Har de har farce.
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Crew v1.0

Atta was never in Prague, and this is now proven beyond any doubt -- that is, unless Mo' actually was meeting with Cheney. In that event, 'twas Cheney that picked up the check; and applying the step transaction doctrine, this proves that we taxpayers sprang for Atta's refreshments.

Red herring attack.

Seven Machos

Crew: What? Huh? Are you trying to be funny?

kim

I think he's smokin' out those with no nose for jocosity.
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kim

The restaurants along Atlantic Avenue were stellar. Many had no liqour license so you could buy wine retail nearby and they'd serve it as if it were from the house.
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Milhouse

A few points, from a Brooklynite:

1. The Arab community that is now centred around Atlantic Ave used to be in the Radio district of Manhattan. It was moved to Brooklyn around 1970, when the whole area was taken by eminent domain (see how I tie this to current events?), in order to build... you guessed it, that monstrosity which most New Yorkers didn't learn to love until they no longer had to look at it, or hike across its awful sterile windswept plaza.

2. There was also the Algerian cell that was plotting to blow up the Atlantic Ave/Pacific St subway station, back in 1996 or so. I remember when they were busted - the apartment where they were planning all this was only a few blocks from my place, and I saw the police roadblocks during the raid. That was scary. Though the train I usually take doesn't pass through that station, most Brooklyn trains do.

3. Oh, and in case that Crew nutter comes back here, how exactly has it been "proven beyond any doubt" that Atta wasn't in Prague? Because his mobile was used in the USA while he was supposed to be away? I suppose it had one of those safety locks that they want to put on guns, so it couldn't be used by anyone else. Give me a break.

Forbes

Why is the 9/11 commission going to look into this? Why is the 9/11 commission still in business? Hasn't their funding expired along with their mandate?

The Gorelick ethics problem, along with all the mugging the members did for the cameras and the weekly TV gab-fests was bad enough, but this looks like a CYA job for commission incompetence.

Crew v1.0

The viral claim that Mo Atta met on April 8, 2001 with Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani in a Prague cafe -- according to the former government of Nobel scribbler Vaclav Havel -- has been rubbished, because Gorelick says so. Y'all had best just accept it. The cognoscenti, however, can peel back an onion a skin or two, and not cry-baby in the process. It is a crucial "tell" that the poker-playing W. is mum when confronted by charges that it was in fact Dracula Cheney, and not al-Ani, with whom Atta sat, under the veritable noses of Havel's BIS snoops.

To be sure, Atta believed he was dealing with the infamous Iraqii NOC spymaster. In fact, however, it was Cheney impersonating al-Ani, wearing Ray-Bans and performing a passable imitation of the Paki gent from "Seinfeld," while plying the cranky Egyptian with Islam-observant juice (no caffeine, please), sweet Czech cookies, cash, operational support and the promise of a jillion virgins. Not that a Pakistani sounds much like an Iraqii except in a L.A. improv class, but it was close enough for guvment work, because Atta bought it, the proof of the proposition being the hijacked jets flown into the WTC and Pentagon on 11-S. As we all know, this was the green light for Bush to invade Iraq at noon the next day, with orders to Navy SEALS to detonate mosques, destroy art and maximize civilian deaths. Yes, yes, the bodacious casus belli for Bush, who had been planning the incineration of Iraq since Saddam's IIS agents (on Saddam's orders) had tried to blow up the entire Bush clan in Kuwait back in April '93. It was at that precise moment when the owner of the Texas Rangers baseball franchise vowed revenge on Saddam and his Mukhabarat, and swore he would (a) run for President and (b) thereafter engineer a super-scary, high-casualty attack on the U.S. homeland, preferably in the first term of his Presidency, in order to (c) narcotize public opinion and pave the way for (d) Operation Iraqii Freedom.

Red herring attack.

kim

Smokin'
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boris

crack

kim

Crackin' jokes. Finest preserved fish for fun, frolic, and foolery.
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sophy

Please do not hesitate to have Hellgate London Palladium . It is funny.

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