Able Danger Update VII

We haven't heard much about Able Danger lately. My last update was all the way back on September 27th. But now, Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Curt Weldon has revealed the name of the person who kept Able Danger information from the 9-11 Commission. The name of that person? Dieter Snell.

What is the significance of this information? Dieter Snell was a staffer for Jamie Gorelick, the former Clinton administration deputy attorney general who was the primary architect of the so-called intel wall which prevented information sharing between intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Gorelick was also a member of the 9-11 Commission.

In my first Able Danger post on August 15th, I raised four questions related to Able Danger, two of which pertained to Jamie Gorelick.

1. What roll did the Gorelick wall play in the fact that information collected by Able Danger was not shared with the FBI?

2. What role did the fact that Jamie Gorelick was a member of the 9-11 Commission play in the Commission's decision not to fully investigate or to include revelations concerning Able Danger?

The revelation that it was a Gorelick staffer who withheld the Able Danger information from the 9-11 Commission seems to answer both questions. Consider the following sequence of events:

-The military intelligence program "Able Danger" gathers information on a terrorist cell operating in New York in 1999.

-The cell includes Mohammed Atta and three other 9-11 hijackers.

-An intel wall erected by Jamie Gorelick prevents this information from being shared with the FBI.

-After 9-11, a commission is formed to investigate the attacks, and to provide recommendations for guarding against future attacks. Jamie Gorelick is named as a member of this commission.

-Gorelick's lead staffer Dieter Snell interviews Able Danger analyst Scott Philpot and learns that Able Danger had information about the New York based terror cell but was prevented from sharing that information with the FBI

-Snell fails to pass on to the 9-11 Commission what he has learned from Philpot.

Is it just me, or does this whole situation seem more corrupt every time more information is disclosed? And where is the media? They're too concerned about whether Rove or Libby outed a CIA agent who was not even clandestine in the first place to care about incompetence that may well have contributed to over 3,000 deaths and the subsequent cover-up of that incompetence.