I don’t see anything up about this right now but sorry if its a duplicate of an earlier diary.. well, let’s just let good ole Raw Story say it.  I’ll just say holy fucking shit.

The writer of article: Nafeez Ahmed who is Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development in London, and a Doctoral Candidate in International Relations at the University of Sussex, Brighton.

[snip}..”five of the alleged hijackers received training in the 1990s at secure US military installations”, including Mohamed Atta who attended International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

The US Air Force later argued that they “might not” be the same persons, due to some “biographical discrepancies” – which of course were never revealed to the public. When Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) tried to investigate, shocked at the possibility that Pensacola Naval Air Station could have hosted and trained Saeed Alghamdi, Ahmed Alghamdi, among others, he was told by the FBI – after several weeks – that they were trying to work through something “complicated and difficult.”

Daniel Hopsicker, a former Producer at PBS Wall Street Week and investigative report at NBC News, decided to investigate. [snip]…It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that these people were, for reasons undisclosed, protected

More below.
If seeing this for the first time (unlikely but here ya go):

Exactly one year before 9/11, a highly classified US Army intelligence unit known as “Able Danger” had already pinpointed four of the 9/11 hijackers. Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Khalid Almidhar, and Nawaf Alhamzi were identified as members of a “Brooklyn” al-Qaeda cell on a detailed chart that included visa photographs.

Get ready for the “liberal civil liberties advocates caused this intel failure” ad nauseum argument. Expect Rush the Lush to pound in that talking point.  And maybe that argument-to-be explains loon Congressman Curt Weldon’s reasons for outing this coverup of intel failures and likely worse:  setting the stage for an American declaration of a military state.  Just in time before losing Congress in ’06?

The law [that prevented the Pentagon from going to the FBI] supposedly provided a disincentive for sharing intelligence with law enforcement.

The law [that prevented the Pentagon from going to the FBI] supposedly provided a disincentive for sharing intelligence with law enforcement. [Get ready for the “civil liberties caused this intel failure” ad nauseum.]

The law, it was claimed, bars US citizens and green-card holders from being targeted for intelligence-collection operations

The explanation was disingenuous. “Mohammed Atta and his terrorist cohorts were clearly and factually established as Al-Qaeda functionaries of a foreign government [Taliban of Afghanistan] with Al-Qaeda itself being a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (DFTO)”, noted Sean Osborne of the US Army’s Program Executive Office – Command, Control, Communications Tactical (PEOC3T) within the Special Project Office (SPO).

“Designated terrorist’s do not receive and retain ‘green card’ status, and any card so previously attained would have to be considered a priori fraudulent, null and void,” Osborne stated.

In fact, there are 13 exceptions within Executive Order 12333 allowing intelligence-collection on US Persons and bona-fide green card-holders, including for Counterintelligence purposes, allowing for collection of against individuals reasonably suspected of involvement in international terrorism, as well as their associates.

Wow!