8. Why was the Able Danger chart allegedly destroyed immediately after 9/11 (and prior to your decision to attack Iraq)? Who is responsible for the alleged destruction of this chart and other vital documents relating to this successful, cutting edge program? Who were the Congressional officials and Executive Branch officials present in this meeting? Are any of the targets allegedly contained on the Able Danger chart still within this country and planning or participating in terrorist acts?
9. In March 2001, an internal debate ignited at the Justice Department and the FBI over wiretap surveillance of certain terrorist groups. Prompted by questions from Royce C. Lamberth, the Chief Judge of the FISA court, the Justice Department opened an inquiry into Michael Resnick, an FBI official who coordinated the FISA acts applications. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Robert Mueller (then deputy Attorney General) ordered a full review of all foreign surveillance authorizations.
Justice Department and FBI officials have since acknowledged the existence of this internal investigation, and said that the inquiry forced officials to examine their monitoring of several suspected terrorist groups--including al Qaeda. And while senior FBI and Justice Department officials contend that the internal investigation did not affect their ability to monitor al Qaeda, other officials have acknowledged that the inquiry might have hampered electronic surveillance of terror groups pre-9/11.
TWO QUICK ASIDES:
1. Regarding the 9/11 Commission's comment that they did not include Able Danger in their report because it was "historically insignificant." The 9/11 Commission had best read its own recommendations. The largest and most comprehensive one being the re-organization of our intelligence community with a DNI placed at the very top.
If Able Danger existed and was wrongfully terminated, going forward any future special operations akin to Able Danger run off of SOCOM (that would be the Pentagon) should be overseen by the DNI. Alarmingly, last summer, the 9/11 Commission specifically acquiesced to the removal of SOCOM (and other Department of Defense Commands) from the DNI's jurisdiction.
Clearly, had a DNI existed prior to 9/11 and had jurisdiction over such special operations like Able Danger, perhaps Able Danger would not have been wrongfully shut down before bearing the fruits of its labor (i.e. taking out the cells). At a bare minimum, we would at least have one person to hold accountable (the DNI) for the wrongful termination of a program that would have prevented 9/11.
2. It has come to my attention that the one terrorist we currently have in custody and connected to the 9/11 attacks--Zacarias Moussaoui-- is being tried for the death penalty because he lied to the FBI in August 2001 (his lie? in short, "i am not a terrorist. i am just interested in flying planes.") So the argument goes, had Moussaoui not lied to the FBI, the FBI would have been able to thwart the 9/11 attacks. Did you get that? In other words, if Moussaoui told the truth to the FBI in August 2001 (said in effect, "yes, i am a terrorist and i am here to hijack planes and fly them into buildings), the FBI would have been able to prevent 9/11. But, since he didn't we are putting him to death for his intentional withholding of information that would have prevented the attacks.
If this is to be the threshold to put an individual to death--the intentional withholding of information that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks--there are arguably many individuals (quite alarmingly some of whom are in our own government) who could meet that requirement and potentially be tried for death. Will the Moussaoui penalty phase hearing set such a precedent?
Given, it will be argued that Moussaoui had the mens rea--in other words, the state of mind to commit the act in that he knew that such withholding of information might necessarily cause the death of people. But, let me ask a question. If a former DCI made a decision to intentionally withhold information from the FBI--information about two known al Qaeda killers who had already participated in the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors and were currently inside the United States planning terrorist acts, namely the 9/11 attacks--does that not meet the mens rea requirement? How could someone like a former DCI deny that his withholding of such information from the FBI about these two terrorists for 18 months would not likely contribute to at least one death? Such a DCI would have known by January 01 that 17 sailors had died compliments of these two killers--al Mihdhar and al Hazmi. Should such a DCI be tried for the death penalty, too?
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