Senators Accuse Pentagon of Obstructing Inquiry on Sept. 11 Plot

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September 22, 2005

Senators Accuse Pentagon of Obstructing Inquiry on Sept. 11 Plot

By DOUGLAS JEHL

 

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 - Senators from both parties accused the Defense

Department on Wednesday of obstructing an investigation into whether a

highly classified intelligence program known as Able Danger did indeed

identify Mohamed Atta and other future hijackers as potential threats

well before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

 

The complaints came after the Pentagon blocked several witnesses from

testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a public hearing

on Wednesday. The only testimony provided by the Defense Department

came from a senior official who would say only that he did not know

whether the claims were true.

 

But members of the panel, led by Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of

Pennsylvania, said they regarded as credible assertions by current and

former officers in the program. The officers have said they were

prevented by the Pentagon from sharing information about Mr. Atta and

others with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

 

A Pentagon spokesman had said the decision to limit testimony was

based on concerns about disclosing classified information, but Senator

Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said he believed the reason

was a concern " that they'll just have egg on their face. "

 

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, accused the

Pentagon of " a cover-up " and said, " I don't get why people aren't

coming forward and saying, 'Here's the deal, here's what happened.' "

 

The Pentagon has acknowledged that at least five members of Able

Danger have said they recall a chart produced in 2000 that identified

Mr. Atta, who became the lead hijacker in the Sept. 11 plot, as a

potential terrorist, but they have said that others with knowledge of

the project do not remember that.

 

" Did we have information that identified Mohamed Atta? " said William

Dugan, an assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld for

intelligence oversight, restating a question put to him. " I've heard

the testimony presented, but I don't know. "

 

Among those who testified about Able Danger was Representative Curt

Weldon, Republican of Pennsylvania, who has mounted an aggressive

campaign to call public attention to the program, which used computers

to sift through volumes of unclassified data in an effort to identify

people with links to Al Qaeda.

 

Another witness, Mark S. Zaid, a Washington lawyer, testified on

behalf of two clients whom the Pentagon barred from speaking at the

hearing. The clients, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, an Army Reserve

officer, and J. D. Smith, a former contractor on the project, were in

the audience.

 

Erik Kleinsmith, a former Army major who was involved in early stages

of Able Danger, told the committee that, by April 2000, the program

had collected " an immense amount of data for analysis that allowed us

to map Al Qaeda as a worldwide threat with a surprisingly significant

presence within the United States. " Mr. Kleinsmith said that his

affiliation with the project ended about that time and that he had no

recollection of information that identified Mr. Atta.

 

But Mr. Kleinsmith told the committee that he had been " forced to

destroy all the data, charts and other analytical product " in

compliance with Army regulations that prohibit keeping data related to

American citizens and others, including permanent residents who have

legal protections, unless the data falls under one of several

restrictive categories.