Sanity is on the march:
The Defense Department's inspector general has concluded that a top secret intelligence-gathering program did not identify Mohamed Atta or any other hijacker before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, determining that there is no evidence to substantiate claims that Atta's name and photograph were on charts collected by military officials before the strikes.
In a 90-page report released yesterday, Pentagon officials said that the recollections of several officials involved in the "Able Danger" data-mining operation "were not accurate" and that a chart they said included a blurry image of Atta and his name never existed. The report concluded that there were no efforts to prevent contact between the Pentagon group and the FBI, a finding that challenges assertions by an officer involved in the program.
But insanity pluckily punches right back:
[Rep. Curt] Weldon [(R-Pa.)] criticized the inspector general's investigation yesterday, saying that it did not answer key questions about the importance of Able Danger and tried to minimize its historical importance. "I am appalled that the DoD IG would expect the American people to actually consider this a full and thorough investigation," Weldon said in an e-mailed statement. "I question their motives and the content of the report, and I reject the conclusions they have drawn."
And he rejects the report's margin spaces, the typeface used and the weight of the paper it was printed on! Nothing can stop this madman's reign of negation!
Alas:
Previous probes by the Sept. 11 commission, the Defense Department and others turned up no evidence to support the allegations. Dietrich Snell, a staffer on the commission, told the inspector general's investigators that the Able Danger assertions were "100 percent inconsistent with everything we knew about Mohamed Atta and his colleagues at the time."
The report concludes that [Navy Capt. Scott] Philpott may have exaggerated knowing Atta's identity because he supported using Able Danger's techniques to fight terrorism. It shows that while [Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony] Shaffer has consistently asserted that he believes he saw Atta's photograph, Philpott recanted his initial recollection.
...
According to the report, Philpott initially told the inspector general's investigators that he was certain Atta's photograph was on the chart. But months later, he told them he was "convinced that Atta was not on . . . the chart that we had." He said he believes others, including Shaffer, were "relying on my recollection . . . 100 percent."
Drat. Sanity wins again.
Every group has its nutjobs. Conservatives have people like Weldon, we have 9/11 conspiracy theorists. The only difference is we don't elect large numbers of our nutters to high office.
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