OP Able Danger: 9/11 Commission: In a fix or fix it?

9/11 Commission: In a fix or fix it?
Seattle Post Intelligencer -
Weldon, who is also vice chairman of both the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, claims Able Danger, a classified military unit, identified ...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/236024_911ed.asp

We're in a fix, all right.

On the one hand, Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., is telling us that the government had intelligence on four of the Sept. 11 hijackers and that it failed to share the information with law enforcement.

Weldon, who is also vice chairman of both the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, claims Able Danger, a classified military unit, identified a terrorist cell that included Mohammed Atta, Nawaf al-Hazmi, Marwan al-Shehhi and Khalid al-Mihdar. Able Danger noted that information on the cell they called "Brooklyn" should be shared with the FBI. But Weldon says Pentagon lawyers prevented the transaction because the four men were here legally.

Former Republican Washington Sen. Slade Gorton, who served as commissioner on the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, denies the claim, saying that he doesn't recall mention of intelligence gathered on the terrorists prior to 9/11, adding that commission members are looking through their notes to see "if there's something to be gleaned."

Besides, Gorton says that the FBI and CIA "legally could have and should have" shared information and that "psychological inhibition" is what prevented the agencies from doing so. But is the information we're now gathering worth sharing?

This brings us to the other hand, holding the shaky promise of security via biometrics -- the science of collecting physical data such as fingerprints and other characteristics to identify foreigners.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that over the past year, Border Patrol agents have identified about 19,000 people with criminal records, and busted an additional 5,731 people trying to cross the border with fraudulent documents.

Fantastic. Except none of this applies to the Brooklyn cell. They weren't career criminals and were in the U.S. legally. Do we sign off on our right to privacy, as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggests we do, regardless of what we get in return? Looks like we don't have a choice.
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9/11 Commission Wants Atta Claims Pursued
Helena Independent Record, MT - 11 minutes ago
... vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland

Security committees, said a classified military intelligence unit known as "Able Danger" identified the ...
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