Evidence of a Cover-up in the Lead-up to 9.11

Whenever left-wing activists talk about the Bush administration's complicity in the terrorist attacks of 9.11, most people simply roll their eyes. It's not that it hasn't occurred to us--it's just that we can't go that far unless we have some kind of evidence; it' just too horrific to think about. It's bad enough if we acknowledge the incompetence and inefficiency of an administration we see demonstrating incompetence and inefficiency, daily. But there is still a glimmer of hope in most of us, I think, that makes us resist the temptation to believe that our leaders would actively enable a terrorist plot, in order to justify their predetermined course.

That said, the recent announcement that a secret intelligence group called Able Danger, was prevented from informing the FBI of 9.11 hijacker Mohammed Atta's arrival in the United States, and his ties to Al Qaeda, before 9.11, is pretty disturbing. More disturbing than that, however, is the news that the 9.11 Commission was advised of the attempt to inform the FBI about Atta, and they chose not to include it in their final report. But fortunately, a few brave men are refusing to participate in the cover-up.

Today, a Senate Judiciary Committee, headed by Republican Senator Arlen Specter, will be meeting to discuss this subject. But the military analysts and officers scheduled to testify will not be doing so. Tuesday, Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman, said the open environment of the committee was not an "appropriate" forum for a discussion of the operation known as Able Danger. (It is worth noting that Defense Department lawyers are the ones allegedly responsible for blocking Able Danger from providing information about Atta to the FBI in the first place--back in 2000--almost a full year before the tragedy of 9.11).

Here's an excerpt from today's New York Times:

F.B.I. officials, who answer to the jurisdiction of Mr. Specter's committee, have confirmed that the Defense Department abruptly canceled meetings in 2000 between the bureau's Washington field office and representatives of the Able Danger team.

The Pentagon had said that it interviewed three other people who were involved with Able Danger and who said that they, too, recalled the identification of Mr. Atta as a terrorist suspect. Mr. Specter said his staff had talked to all five of the potential witnesses and found that "credibility has been established" for all of them.

Specter plans to go ahead with the meeting today, on the off chance that it "may produce a change of heart by the Department of Defense in answering some very basic questions."

Yes, we can always hope, can't we?

--Laurie Fosner