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| How Able Danger Might Have Identified the Hijackers |
| 2005-08-23 |
| An article by Edward Jay Epstein on his own web log. ... First, if Able Danger obtained from airline manifests the names of Arab males who flew to Pakistan in 1999 and the names of Arab males who applied for a U.S. visa with a newly issued passport, it could cross-referenced both lists. Comparing the dates of the trip to Pakistan and the new passport, it could derive a list of Arabs who had gotten replacement passports for themselves before applying for a US visa. Presumably, the Arabs on that list would include people seeking to hide trips to al-Qaeda facilities in Pakistan and Afghanistan from US authorities. And, it would have the names of Atta and al-Shehhi. Next, if the list of possible visitors to al-Qaeda camps was cross-referenced with applicants to US flight schools, Atta's name would come up 31 times, as he applied to 31 flight schools. The reason Able Danger might elect this criteria was the 1998 accounts that Osama Bin Laden planned to train pilots for crop dusting and other agriculture tasks. On that short list now would be Atta and Shehhi. If Able Danger had a liaison with German intelligence, it could further learn the address both men used, 54 Marienstrasse in Hamburg, had been under police surveillence for possible extremist Islamic activities. Finally, if the short list had been cross referenced with US visa applications in 2000– Able Danger would have turned up the person that Atta and al-Shehhi gave as their point of contact in America. If that name had also been given by other suspects, Able Danger would have reason to consider that Atta and al-Shehhi were coming to America to join a conspiracy. The visa applications could also explain how Able Danger had Atta’s photograph on its chart of the cell, as described by Captain Phillpott. (The 911 Commission had no opportunity to examine Atta and al-Shehhi’s visa applications because in 2001 they were destroyed "according to routine document handling practices" by the Department of State.) .... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #2 Why do I get this gut feeling that even if Able Danger had been able to provide the information to the FBI, anything would have been done, in light of other information the Buearu was alerted to and ignored? |
| Posted by: Whineck Cleremp7490 2005-08-23 11:08 |
| #1 Ref my comment in the other thread that Epstein doesn't understand data mining. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-08-23 10:48 |