"Right after I left SOCOM (Special Operations Command), I asked my successor to put together a small team, if he could, to try to use the Internet and start trying to see if there was any way that we could track down Osama bin Laden or where he was getting his money from or anything of that nature," Shelton said Tuesday in an interview. ...
In Washington, sometime between 1999 and 2001, Shelton received a more extensive briefing from Defense Intelligence Agency officers involved in the program.
Shelton said he doesn't recall hearing or seeing Atta's name in those briefings or at any time before the Sept. 11 attacks.
"To be candid, there were not many specifics in it," Shelton said of the later briefing. "There were no names that surfaced that had not surfaced before through normal intelligence channels. There was no identification of any new players, or anything of that type."
Shelton, though, said that a CIA representative and an FBI representative were present at the second briefing. And he said, "I know for a fact that I was told that they had been a part of the effort" to track al-Qaida through computer data-mining."
So he said, "Yeah I knew about it, ran it, got a couple of briefings....even had the FBI and CIA in on one of the briefings....but.....Nope....Never saw Atta on a Chart! Heck no, not before 9/11, hell no!"
Well, it's a step, and one which I called for from the outset, but Shelton isn't putting his pension out on this one.
Can't wait to see the FBI/CIA response to Shelton's remarks. No wait,"ex-operatives speaking on condition of anonymity."
VIPITY-DO-DA-VIPITY-AYE, My O' My what will they have to say?
Cpt Ed with more.
UPDATE: Per Mike of Able Danger Blog, in the comments of this post, it looks like Plame's ex-flame, Larry Johnson was out stomping on Able Danger in August of this year. (Disclaimer: so was I, but I've repented!), as well as on an Air Amerika broadcast, basically fitting Ltc. Schaffer for a tinfoil hat.
Still, I'm looking for even more from Larry and the gang if this story gets into the "Hearing" phase. Bet on it.
iraq Politics News murtha Able Danger Curt Weldon
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