Update: U.S. Army intelligence had detected 9/11 terrorists year before, says officer

August 24, 2005

On Thursday, it was reported at Wikinews that "[a] year before the 9/11 attacks, through data mining a U.S. Army intelligence group had identified two terrorist cells, [which included] Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers." An Able Danger contractor, J.D. Smith, has added that the techniques included examination of data related to mosques and religious ties connected to Omar Abdel-Rahman, leader in New York City of a militant Islamic terrorist organization.

Another "Able Danger" operative, Captain Scott Phillpott, gave a statement stating, "I will not discuss this outside of my chain of command. I have briefed the Department of the Army, the Special Operations Command and the office of (Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence) Dr. Cambone as well as the 9/11 Commission. My story has remained consistent. Atta was identified by Able Danger in January/February 2000."

Pentagon spokesman, Larry DiRita, said, "There appear to be more memories than there is information to substantiate those memories. We're reviewing the matter carefully, but thus far have not found what it is these handful of individuals seem to remember."

Other Fox News sources have said that DiRita is wrong. Since it was a classified project, it would be illegal for project participants to retain documents for personal use.