Review finds no pre-9/11 Atta file

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A Pentagon investigation has found no evidence that Able Danger, a secret military intelligence operation, identified September 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta as a terror cell member more than a year before the attacks.

Larry Di Rita, chief Pentagon spokesman, said investigators have failed to find a chart that Able Danger supposedly created before the winter of 2000 that listed Atta as a member of an al Qaeda cell in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer has told reporters and cable news shows that Able Danger had created such a chart and that Pentagon attorneys in 2000 had blocked moves to provide the information to the FBI.

Rep. Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania Republican and vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has backed Col. Shaffer's assertion.

But Mr. Di Rita said investigators have not found any evidence that such a chart existed.

"We have been very aggressive," Mr. Di Rita told The Washington Times. "We haven't been able to find anything that would corroborate the kind of detail Lt. Col. Shaffer and Congressman Weldon seem to recall."

Mark Zaid, Col. Shaffer's attorney, said yesterday that his client stands by his assertion.

He also said: "There are at least two other Able Danger team members who are coming forward and are specifically confirming what Mr. Shaffer has been saying in that they had identified several of the hijackers, including Atta, prior to September 11," Mr. Zaid said. "The Pentagon is either looking in the wrong places or not talking to the right people to confirm this same information."

The national commission that investigated the September 11 attacks first learned of Able Danger in 2003 and requested information from the Pentagon before releasing its report last year. Commission staff met with Col. Shaffer in Afghanistan but say he never mentioned Atta's name.

Mr. Di Rita said the Pentagon's review, spearheaded by Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, confirmed that relevant data on Able Danger was turned over to the commission in 2003 and 2004.