Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Al-Qaeda in 2000

Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00

In the summer of 2000, the military team, known as Able Danger, prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to the military's Special Operations Command that the information be shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the congressman, Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, and the former intelligence official said Monday.
..
"Ultimately, Able Danger was going to give decision makers options for taking out Al Qaeda targets," the former defense intelligence official said.

He said that he delivered the chart in summer 2000 to the Special Operations Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., and said that it had been based on information from unclassified sources and government records, including those of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

"We knew these were bad guys, and we wanted to do something about them," the former intelligence official said.
..
He said the original chart, like the new one, had included the names and photographs of Mr. Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, as well as Mr. Mihdhar and Mr. Hazmi, who were identified as members of what was described as an American-based "Brooklyn" cell, as one of five such Al Qaeda cells around the world.
..
According to the commission report, Mr. Mihdhar and Mr. Hazmi were first identified in late 1999 or 2000 by the C.I.A. as Qaeda members who might be involved in a terrorist operation. They were tracked from Yemen to Malaysia before their trail was lost in Thailand. Neither man was put on a State Department watch list before they flew to Los Angeles in early 2000. The F.B.I. was not warned about them until the spring of 2001, and no efforts to track them were made until August 2001.

Anything else we can glean from this article?

EDIT: Follow up - Report: U.S. traced Atta before 9/11
EDIT: Further Follow up - 'Secret military unit tracked hijackers before 9/11'
EDIT: More - Hijackers 'identified pre-9/11'

Was just gonna post this

Was just gonna post this link, beat me to it.

On an unrelated note - any chance you can sort out your RSS newsfeed, there's only one entry and it links to your old blog.

the proper link for the RSS

the proper link for the RSS feed is:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/911Blogger

let me know if that works!

"The report produced by the

"The report produced by the commission last year does not mention the episode."

Item #2496 not mentioned in the "9/11 Report".

This is just another piece

This is just another piece of the puzzle of mole protection of 9/11 patsies. The NY Daily News article note that the dossier described Atta's relationship to Bin Laden, but they were ordered to pretend he didn't exist. Unbelievable. For the general picture on this, check out Webster Tarpley's book.

Now the BBC has picked up

Now the BBC has picked up the story. Interestingly, there's an accompanying video report from several months ago, and 9/11 Commission member John Lehman says there was an "almost willful effort to ignore the warning signs that were there."

dz: Yup that works fine,

dz: Yup that works fine, cheers.