“On September 18, 2006, the inspector general [IG] for the Department of Defense told the Able Danger story [of mined data that contained information about 9/11 hijackers more than a year and a half before the attacks, which was eventually ordered destroyed] another way. In a heavily redacted ninety-page report, the IG rejected claims by Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott, and Congressman Curt Weldon [R-PA] that the Able Danger unit had tracked those two muscle hijackers [Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi], along with [pilots] Marwan al-Shehhi and Mohammed Atta, prior to 9/11. ‘We concluded that prior to Sept. 11, 2001, Able Danger team members did not identify Mohammed Atta or any other 9/11 hijackers,’ the report stated. ‘While we interviewed four witnesses who claimed to have seen a chart depicting…Atta and possibly other terrorists or ‘cells’ involved in 9/11, we determined that their recollections were not accurate.’ ”
– Peter Lance, Triple Cross, Page 468