Intrigue Over Able Danger Grows

J.J. Green, federalnewsradio.com

WASHINGTON - A third contributor to the Able Danger intelligence collection team breaks his silence and corroborates that an elite military unit identified Mohamed Atta as part of an al Qaida cell before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"I was on the front end of specific tasks to feed something the Army was doing," says Pentagon contractor J.D. Smith, who discovered Atta's link to al Qaida.

He says he had no idea of the gravity of the project he was working on.

Smith's story verifies much of what Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Capt. Scott Philpott divulged. The Able Danger team knew about several al Qaida operatives but were blocked by Department of Defense lawyers from telling the FBI.

The Pentagon says the story doesn't add up, but Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., says there's a cover up at the Pentagon that will "shake the country to its roots."

Weldon says subpoenas to a congressional hearing are coming.

The Pentagon has yet to respond to requests for comment.

(Copyright 2005 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)