i>(NOTE: This entry guest blogged by Joseph Cannon)Two separate sources have revealed startling new information about Mohammed Atta. Taken separately, these revelations are disturbing. Taken together, they could prove explosive.

As I write, the mainstream media is starting to carry the first of these revelations, but seems chary of the second. Let's start with the big news:

Representative Curt Weldon (R-PA), Vice Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee has revealed that a specialized unit of the DIA, code-named ABLE DANGER (which was being run by the Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida) had identified Mohammed Atta and other terrorist associates weeks before the presidential election of 2000. Atta was photographed and named as a member of al Qaida.

Although the unit had recommended action against Atta and the cell, a DOD lawyer allegedly nixed the idea, arguing that green card holders deserved the same privacy rights as American citizens. Almost needless to say, this argument is highly questionable.

Representative Weldon learned about his operation earlier this year. (I've called his office to find out exactly when, but have yet to hear back from his communications director.) Weldon's source was a former intelligence officer who has requested anonymity in news accounts. This story was first covered by Government Security News and was later carried by the New York Times. (See also here and here.)

According to the NYT, the office requested anonymity because "he did not want to jeopardize political support and the possible financing for future data-mining operations by speaking publicly."

If true, his reasoning indicates that Washington has become a very bizarre place indeed. The successful identification of Atta proved the value of "data mining;" the problem was the refusal by DIA higher-ups to act upon the information. Why would discussion of a success story jeopardize future funding for similar operations?

Which brings us back to the fundamental question: Why did higher-ups at the DOD refuse to share the information with the FBI?

This explanation seems particularly dubious when we recall the publicity given to pre-9/11 al Qaida attacks.

Partisans, such as yours truly, may suspect that presidential politics might have played a role. The 2000 campaign was underway; conceivably, Bush supporters within the DOD may have felt uneasy at the prospect of handing the outgoing Clinton administration a last-minute "win" against Osama bin Laden. Of course, this theory does not explain why the Bush administration took no action against Atta between inauguration and 9/11.

Another key question: Why was this information kept secret from the independent commission looking into the 9/11 tragedy? Although committee members were made aware that ABLE DANGER existed, they were not told about the identification of Atta.

Answers to these posers might lurk within the folds of the second story about Atta to come out in recent days....

Guest blogged by David Edwards

The BRAD BLOG has learned that Cindy Sheehan has refused to do an interview tonight on Fox's O'Reilley Factor. On a conference call with bloggers this afternoon, Sheehan responded to a question from CrooksandLiars...

Right-wing media and blogs have put considerable effort into swift-boating Cindy Sheehan over the last few days. Check out what ThinkProgress has to say about O'Reilly and Michelle Malkin's attempt to smear Sheehan. Atrios comments on Drudge's baseless attack.

We wonder if the president's odd behavior, speech and appearance at yesterday's so-called press conference may have been caused by his fear of dealing with the situation developing outside his Crawford palatial estate ranch. (CrooksandLiars has a video clip.)

Skinner at DemocraticUnderground has quickly put together a transcript of this afternoons blogcall with Cindy Sheehan.

UPDATE: Media Matters has begun tracking lies about Sheehan through the conservative media. Joe Trippi has provided audio of today's BlogCall which we have happily reposted here.

Guest Blogged by Winter Patriot

Valley Girl has suggested an Open Thread, and we haven't had one in a while, so:

Hey VG! This Open Thread's for you! It's also for 6 or 7 other loyal BRAD BLOG readers, of course.

Please join me in extending a warm welcome to the other members of the powerful triumvirate: Joseph Cannon and David Edwards. Hi, guys! Welcome aboard!!

The archives from last Saturday's Special Edition of The BRAD SHOW commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act are now available at www.BradShow.com --- I hope you'll try to give the entire show a listen. We're very proud of that one. And you can find out whether the rumors are true about an impending marriage between myself and Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Also, interviews with Rev. Jesse Jackson (who I will not be marrying), Sam Walker of the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Keenan Keller of the House Judiciary Committee, Leon Smith of Lone Star Iconoclast as Cindy Sheehan was just taking up camp in Crawford and words from Rep. John Lewis, the recently passed Rev. Bill Moss and even Dr. Martin Luther King.

Other than that, I'm outta here for a bit. For some too much needed R&R for as long as I can get it! (Either that, or I'm now on the run since my CIA cover has been blown!)

In my stead here at BRAD BLOG will be much fine Guest Blogging from the estimable Joseph Cannon of CANNONFIRE, The BRAD SHOW's not-so-secret-weapon David Edwards (making his blogging debut!), and of course, the tireless and faithful BRAD BLOG Concierge, Winter Patriot, will be on duty as well! A powerful triumvirate of trouble-makers, muckrakers, and truth tellers!

All in all, with that line-up, I just hope you'll want me back when I return. Be nice while I'm gone! Or I will turn this car right around! Do you understand me?!

Peace...

We were informed last Friday that BradBlog.com is one of many "CIA Internet Fakes" as BreakForNews.com's Editor (and theoretically, a "reporter") Fintan Dunne has reported it.

While we learned of our covert CIA operative status late last Friday, as we were deep in the throes of preparing our radio show, we haven't had time to share the shocking news with you until now. As well, we thought we'd give Dunne a chance to reply to our emailed inquiry on how he came to his ingenious discovery before we posted an item that might result in his looking like a completely clueless boob. (Psst.... That's what actual reporters do before running with an item, Fintan. They attempt to get comment from those they are reporting on ... we're just sayin'.)

Sadly, Dunne failed to reply to our inquiry as he has done in several past instances when he even more egregiously misrepresented/misreported on our work in his "EXCLUSIVE" article on our Clint Curtis reporting.

Even as Fintan Dunne's credibility dies once and for all (did he ever actually have any?) with his silly and wholly unintelligible report, we scratch our head in wonder as we see our good friends at RawStory.com and BuzzFlash.com and scores of others also on the list of CIA Operatives! Who knew?!

And to make things even more confusing, apparently our CIA paycheck is earned for our clever disinfo-filled reporting on 9/11 ... About which we don't believe we've actually ever reported, beyond one or two minor items linking to someone or something else. But why pick nits?

Joseph Cannon, who actually deserves to be on Dunne's list, has a few thoughts on it all. His are actually intelligent. As opposed to either Dunne's or ours on this matter. But Cannon is probably just jealous since he was not included on the list.

Of course, if we were on the CIA payroll, we'd probably respond to Dunne's silly contentless article shocking expose by writing an article precisely such as this one ... to make light of it all in order to distract from Dunne's having unearthed the whole clever scheme, wouldn't we?

So now, you, dear reader, don't really know what to believe any more, do you? Is The BRAD BLOG really a CIA operative or not? You'll never know, because even if we were, we'd never be able to admit it, would we?

And with all of that said, if we actually are in the pay of the CIA, we'd really appreciate it if they'd fork it over! We're frickin' starving over here for chrissakes! Or are we?! --- Either way, we'd love it if they finally paid us (and we'd love your help as well, just in case we're not actually on their payroll) via our double super-secret covert P.O. Box:

Brad Friedman
7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594
Los Angeles, CA 90028

The CIA --- or "The Firm" as NOCs like us call our place of employment --- may also feel free to pay us online with PayPal!

We'll take it! And we'd much appreciate it! And Fintan? ... Get some help, friend. Seriously....

David Swanson of AfterDowningStreet.org says Sheehan told him the Secret Service told her (through a complicated grapevine) that she'd be arrested on Thursday as a "threat to National Security." According to Swanson via DailyKos, Sheehan told him as they unravelled the rumors...

Benjamin T. Greenberg at Hungry Blues has some more thoughts and analysis and tales of speeding Secret Service vehicles whizzing by.

While Bob Harris wonders if --- unlike Dubya, apparently --- you might be able to spot the real threat to National Security.

And Cindy gets her own website.

It's all clearly having an impact, since Drudge and the Rightwing Slime Machine slithered back out from under their rocks today to give Sheehan the Paul O'Neil/Richard Clarke/Joe Wilson/ScottRitter/Et Al Treatment. As this report on Drudge's attempted Swiftboating of Sheehan correctly points out, Drudge didn't bother to give the actual context for the quotes he used from Sheehan. But no matter, it was enough to call them to arms to try and destroy the character and reputation of a mother who mad the ultimate sacrific for her country.

And, of course, the Wingnuts also don't bother to point out that Sheehan's original comments were made prior to Bush's own Dulfer Report, showing there were no WMD's in Iraq, and the Downing Street Memos, showing Bush lied us into this War, having come to light.

How many lives, of how many great Americans has this bunch of criminals in the White House now destroyed via their loathesome, selfish, personal quest to avoid taking any responsibility for their own horrific failures and utter inability to govern with even the slightest shred of competence, effectiveness or compassion?

George W. Bush: Worst "President" Ever, indeed. It's no longer a contest.

Appeared earlier this afternoon on KVI 570am Fox News Radio in Seattle. Ostensibly, I was told the interview would concern the ACVR scammers. They had ACVR's liar-in-chief, "Thor" Hearne on the show last Friday but apparently Thor didn't want me to be on with him for some reason.

Turns out the host, John Carlson had a hard-on for Photo ID restrictions at the polls, despite all evidence that there's no particular epidemic problem of Voter Fraud in this country that Photo ID would in any way solve. It would, however, disenfranchise many Democratic-leaning voters, of course. All of which is the mission of the ACVR, as you all likely know by now.

In anycase, I did my best to bring to truth to Carlson's "Fox News Treatment". Give the 22 minute interview [MP3] a listen and let me know what you think and how I did. We record, you decide...

The "Roger Ailes" blog does some fine Googling on the supposed American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) "Democrat" who was used in last week's flurry of hoax Press Releases to promote their hoax report on "Election Fraud" in the 2004 Election attempting to hoax America into believe that "paid Democrat operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression activities than were their Republican counterparts during the 2004 presidential election."

Nonetheless, the Rightwing Blogosphere keeps attempting to flog the story, despite so much documented evidence to show that the ACVR's a complete scam run by high-level GOP operatives hoping to distract from the real Election Fraud and myriad of Irregularities last November committed by their paymasters from Team Bush/Cheney.

After finally finding a "Democrat" that the ACVR could quote from in hopes of misleading and distracting from the fact that the self-proclaimed "non-partisan" group of high-level GOP operatives is actually anything but, it turns out that the use of this "Democrat" is simply more disinformation from these disdainful anti-American, democracy-hating ratfuckers. They're still hoping to spoof the country into believing they are "Voting Rights" advocates rather than pure, unabashed Republican operatives (in the worst sense of the word) hoping to distract from the mountain of GOP "Election Irregularties" last November and further disenfranchise millions of more American voters through their insidious schemes to keep potential Democratic voters from being able to actually cast a vote on Election Day.

Ailes finds, amongst other things, that Brian Lunde, the "Democrat" in question, whose phony quotes were used in all six press releases (same quote each time with just one or two words changed, Pentagon-style) is actually a Bush 2004 supporter, and so is his wife.

In addition to thousands of dollars given to Bush by the couple in 2004, Lunde is also a member of the Zell Miller-founded "Democrats for Bush" and a funder of the G.O.P. political action committee "Freshman PAC" whose goal, Ailes points out, is to "Maintain a Republican Majority." Ailes aptly adds: "That's the dream of all true Democrats, don'tcha know?"

Read Ailes' report, and then notice that the desperate phony seaman "Captain Ed" of the wingnut blog "Captain's Quarters" still can't seem to admit that in falling for the ACVR's phony report he has made a complete, unapologetic jackass of himself. Though as previously reported, he's not the only one. (Here and here, by the way, are two other recent examples --- of many --- not previously reported. The America-hater who runs the blog at that last link is so pathetic, in fact, that while he calls himself ironically, "The Machete of Truth", apparently "truth" for that loser includes not only linking to ACVR's phony report, but actually deleting the comment we left on his little disinfo blog pointing him to the correct info about ACVR! Further, because of that, he's now requiring that all comments left on his propaganda pages be "approved" before they are posted. Can these guys get any more pathetic? We're guessing they can...)

Oh...and one more Wingnut Doofus deserves special recognition for his very hard work on behalf of the American Center for Voting Rights liars. Democracy-hating Steve Bowers, "Senior Editor" of "Pardon My English" has posted part two of what is now a promised three-part effort to help ACVR spread their un-American horseshit. The latest chapter is entitled, "DEMOCRATS CAN'T DENY THE FACTS DOCUMENTED IN ACVR REPORT," though it might more aptly be titled "STEVE BOWERS WON'T LET ANY COMMENTERS POST FACTS WHICH DEBUNK THE ACVR HOAX". Don't believe us? Click here, leave a comment pointing the lying Mr. Bowers to https://BradBlog.com/ACVR in a comment and wait around to see if he'll allow it to be posted (we know he hasn't allowed any of ours to be posted so far). When you're lying, and have no case, we suppose it's imperative to allow no dissenting information. But we wouldn't know. We just tell the truth and leave the bullshit to chickenshits and chickenhawks like Bowers and the "Machete of Truth" who are always welcome to leave a dissenting viewpoint on The BRAD BLOG.

For more information on the "non-partisan" tax-exempt ACVR scam and the snakeoil salesmen who invented it, Bush/Cheney '04 National General Counsel Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, please see BRAD BLOG's full Special Coverage of the "American Center for Voting Rights" at https://BradBlog.com/ACVR.

As reported yesterday, Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed last year in Iraq, continues to camp out outside Bush's ranch in Crawford. She is requesting a meeting with Bush who is apparently too busy enjoying his vacation to meet with an American who made the ultimate sacrifice for his War on Iraq.

Apparently a few folks in the Corporate Media are paying some attention. Go figure. The story even made its way onto Wolf Blitzer's normally completely useless radar.

Here's a video of his interview today with Sheehan (Windows Media Player version --- courtesy of David Edwards), along with Senators George Allen (R-VA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) echoing how outrageous (not to mention politically stupid) it is for Bush to refuse to meet with this courageous American hero.

Bush's hatred of the American people, disrespect for its public servants and his disinterest in our National Security continues. From NY Times:

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

This week's Brad Show is almost ready to hit the airwaves.
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Leon Smith, the editor of The Lone-Star Iconoclast in Bush's "home town" of Crawford, TX has contacted us to let us know that have a reporter on the ground covering Cindy Sheehan, the outspoken mother of Army Specialist Casey Sheehan who was killed in Iraq, who has travelled with a group to Crawford to seek a meeting with George W. Bush.

Sheehan testified at the recent "Downing Street Memo" hearings held by Congressional Democrats in the basement of the U.S. Capitol (after they were refused a hearing room by Republicans) on the loss of her son, and the difficulty she's had getting information from the Administration and the Defense Department on Casey's death.

According to the Iconoclast:

Their reporter Nathan Diebenow is now on the scene in Crawford and will be dispatching updated reports as events unfold throughout the day. You can follow the action as it happens on this web page.

Sheehan, a member of Gold Star Families for Peace, appeared on The BRAD SHOW the Saturday after she testified at the Democratic Congressional hearings. You can listen to her interview in The BRAD SHOW Archives' 6/18/05 section, HOUR 3.

Apparently there are some brave Republicans out there who are willing to display some intellectual honesty in regards to Election Fraud. It's only the root of democracy at stake after all.

The following is from the Rightwing "Red State" blog and surprisingly asks some real questions and expresses an honest concern about what the hell may have happened in Clermont County during last Tuesday's OH-2 U.S. House Special Election race between Democrat Paul Hackett and Republican Jean Schmidt [emphasis in the original]...

One item not mentioned by the blogger "bed4j" in the above, is the report filed by Larisa Alexandrovna last January about affidavits from several Election workers concerning unexplaned stickers placed on ballots during the gamed and illegally conducted Ohio recount.

We're glad to see however, that more and more people are beginning to ask questions.

In a RAW STORY Exclusive by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times (the man who broke the original Downing Street Memo), it is now revealed via official documents that the previous excuses given by the Bush and Blair administrations for the "spikes" in air attacks against Iraq prior to the war was yet another lie...

...And the "spikes" in the U.S. led bombing campaign began "just weeks after Blair and Bush agreed to use military action to bring about regime change in Iraq" at their summit meeting in Crawford during April of 2002.

The blogosphere came to the rescue in an incredibly short time to raise a huge amount of money (some $500k of the campaign's $750k total) and on-the-ground support in droves for Democratic candidate Paul Hackett in the OH-2 special U.S. House election last Tuesday in Ohio. Those efforts either gave Hackett enough votes to win the race, or come damned close. The jury is still out on that, but either way, it showed that fighting to win works. Even in a supposedly 70-30 GOP district!

One of the key players in making all of that happen was Bob Brigham of the Swing State Project blog. He deserves a great amount of thanks and appreciation for his heroic efforts in front of, and behind, the scenes over the past week or more.

And now Bob has a few thoughts today for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) --- and all the rest of the Democratic leadership --- that are damned well very worth reading.