The Mahablog: Danger Abled

Conspiracy theorists across the political spectrum are having a field day with the new "Able Danger" revelations. Able Danger, as you probably have heard, was a data mining project initiated during the Clinton Administration to help track al Qaeda cells. Three individuals who say they worked on the project claim that 9/11 highjacker Mohamed Atta, among other terrorists, had been identified and located in the U.S. by Able Danger.

The Able Danger story has become a crusade for Republican Congressman Curt Weldon as part of his larger campaign to shift the blame for bad 9/11 intelligence to Bill Clinton.

Able Danger is controversial because (1) the 9/11 Commission was told about Able Danger but left it out of its final report; and (2) it is claimed that in 2000military lawyers prevented the Atta information from being shared with the FBI.