For Able Danger Skeptics

Tom Maguire addresses this message to Able Danger skeptics (i.e. and e.g., John):

Col. Shaffer is changing the story he told the Times and Specter’s staff. That is to say, they all misunderstood him – it was not the FBI with which he tried to liase, it was some other agency. Too many letters, I guess – very confusing.
Anyway, this comes from Strata-Sphere and Weldon’s home town paper (which first broke Able Danger, but no one cared).
Strata-Sphere: “Able Danger round-up, 8/26/05.”
Times Herald: “Senate Judiciary Committee taking up Able Danger questions.”
Just One Minute (my post): “Able Danger and psychic Strata.”

UPDATE: For Able Danger believers: Ed Morrissey’s “Able Danger: Mixed wires and Chinese fried rice.” And Edward Jay Epstein’s “Able Danger.” Epstein describes how Atta might have been identified by the cross-referencing of non-classified data and concludes:

If just this level of data mining could yield the name and photograph of Atta, the question arises: Did other US intelligence services, such as CIA, with similar data mining techniques (as well as links with informants and foreign intelligence services) have similar results? Stay tuned. The answer to the mystery of Able Danger may emerge via the hearing that the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold.

In a message this morning, Epstein adds:

Nothing makes total sense, and they may turn out to have the wrong Atta (even though they claim a visual ID). Captain Phillpott is a substantial witness. He is not likely to risk his career by giving false testimony.
The photo itself is most interesting. Only one headshot exists of Atta, as far as I know. It comes from a spare passport found in his luggage. So if Able danger has a photo, where did it come from? 3 possibilities: 1) His visa application (which in 2001 was destroyed by State Dept); 2)his flight school application forms; 3) airport security cameras in Lahore or Islabad, Pakistan (why not look at arrivals en route to Afghanistan?).

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