WAR: Pentagon Finds More Who Recall Atta Intel, page 1

Officials at the Pentagon have indicated that they have found three more people who remember an intelligence chart that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist one year before the September 11th attacks. However, they have been unable to locate the chart. The statement comes one month after two military officers said that a secret unit code named Able Danger had identified Atta and three other September 11th hijackers through data mining.

news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON - Pentagon officials said Thursday they have found three more people who recall an intelligence chart that identified Sept. 11 mastermind Mohamed Atta as a terrorist one year before the attacks on New York and Washington. But they have been unable to find the chart or other evidence that it existed.

Last month, two military officers, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Navy Capt. Scott Philpott, went public with claims that a secret unit code-named Able Danger used data mining — searching large amounts of data for patterns — to identify Atta in 2000. Shaffer has said three other Sept. 11 hijackers also were identified.

In recent days Pentagon officials have said they could not yet verify or disprove the assertions by Shaffer and Philpott. On Thursday, four intelligence officials provided the first extensive briefing for reporters on the outcome of their interviews with people associated with Able Danger and their review of documents.

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According to the officers, military lawyers prevented the unit from sharing the information because they feared the consequences of collecting data on someone legally in the country. Not that it is any revelation that the ball was dropped prior to the attacks, but this one could have been a show stopper. The question is will they find the chart? I doubt it, but the Pentagon has said that the witnesses who claim to have seen the chart are "credible". Why even try to collect the information if the lawyers were not going to allow you to use it?