Weldon: Atta Papers Destroyed on Orders

WASHINGTON - A Republican congressman said Friday that records from a secret Pentagon data-mining program that allegedly identified lead hijacker Mohamed Atta a year before the Sept. 11 attacks were destroyed in 2000 on orders from military lawyers.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said a Pentagon employee told him that roughly 2.5 terabytes of data gathered by the program, known as Able Danger, was deleted because the sweep had swept up information on American citizens, which military rules bar intelligence units from keeping.

"This was an enormous failure on the part of our intelligence bureaucracy," Weldon said at a Capitol news conference. "We had Atta identified, by name and by photograph, and we did nothing with it."

The Pentagon has confirmed that a small number of officers recall the program producing a chart that included Atta's name or photo before the attacks, but says it has been unable to locate the chart or verify what the unit found.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a public hearing next week at which former Able Danger team members are expected to testify. The Pentagon had initially barred the witnesses from appearing, drawing protests from senators in both parties, before reversing itself.

The Sept. 11 commission said last year it was aware of Able Danger but concluded the program did not identify Atta before the attacks. Weldon and the former analysts have publicly challenged that finding.

The dispute arrives in Congress as lawmakers are already quarreling over the shape of inquiries into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, which Democrats want modeled on the independent Sept. 11 commission.

A Pentagon spokesman said the department is cooperating with investigators and has asked its inspector general to review claims that the former analysts faced retaliation for speaking out.