Washington – Former members of the Sept. 11 commission on Wednesday dismissed assertions that a Pentagon intelligence unit identified lead hijacker Mohamed Atta as a member of al-Qaeda long before the 2001 attacks.
The ex-commissioners also criticized the government for not putting in place changes recommended last year in homeland security and emergency response.
They pointed most notably to the failure to improve communication systems, which they said might have saved lives after Hurricane Katrina.
Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., had accused the commission of ignoring intelligence about Atta while it investigated the attacks.
The commission’s former chairman, Thomas Kean, said there was no evidence anyone in the government knew about Atta before Sept. 11, 2001.
Two military officers, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott, claimed a classified military intelligence unit, known as “Able Danger,” had identified Atta. Shaffer has said three other hijackers were identified, too.
Kean said the recollections of the intelligence officers cannot be verified by any document. Pentagon officials also said this month that they could find no documents to back up the claims.
Weldon’s spokesman, John Tomaszewski, said no commissioners have met with anyone from Able Danger “yet they choose to speak with some form of certainty without firsthand knowledge.”
Separately, the panel criticized Congress for not updating communications rules to help police, fire, and rescue personnel in a crisis such as Katrina.
The commissioners also faulted state, local, and federal authorities responding to Katrina for not having a clear chain of command, leading to some of the same confusion that plagued the Sept. 11 rescue effort.
