If we had gotten that DoD Intel about Atta and crew in 2000/early 2001, lead information about al-Qaeda operatives in our backyard in south Florida, it's virtually certain that between Miami INS and Miami FBI, we would have worked up a plan and found a way to take those thugs into custody.

Guest-blogger Joseph Cannon wrote in mid-August on The Brad Blog about learning the identity of Weldon's whistle-blower Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer. Cannon's approach is evident from the opening of his essay:

The right continues to make disturbing use of the Able Danger story—which holds that a secretive DIA unit had identified [Al Queda operative Mohammed] Atta well before 9/11.

Rush Limbaugh and a number of right-leaning newspapers have continued to spread the lie, first published in NewsMax, that Jamie Gorelick of the Clinton Justice Department somehow forced the DIA to refrain from sharing the unit's discoveries. John Podhoretz at National Review has also given respectful attention to this tale, although he has steered clear of the NewsMax spin.

Later in that month, we learned the names of two more people involved in Able Danger. Navy Captain Scott Philpott confirmed Lt. Col. Shaffer's claims, as did J.D. Smith, a civilian contractor who worked on Able Danger. "I am absolutely positive that he [Atta] was on our chart among other pictures and ties that we were doing mainly based upon [terror] cells in New York City," Smith said. He explained the project in an interview posted on FoxNews.com:

Smith said data was gathered from a variety of sources, including about 30 or 40 individuals. He said they all had strong Middle Eastern connections and were paid for their information. Smith said Able Danger's photo of Atta was obtained from overseas.

A "mostly Political weblog" on Slate, kausfiles, includes blogger Mickey Kaus' speculations on the Able Danger phenomenon from August. Kaus thinks the blogosphere is zeroing in on the real reason Able Danger's report was rejected by the 9/11 inquiry. Kaus cites two other bloggers in his revelation:

J.D. Smith [one of the Abel Danger whistle-blowers] also said that Able Danger had gotten Atta's name by linking him to Omar Abdul Rahman, the blind sheikh implicated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing... It turns out, as blogger A.J. Strata discovered, that there are links—whether accurate or inaccurate... in the public domain between Rahman and a doctor, Magdy El-Amir... who has a brother named Mohamed El-Amir who has apparently been linked by Dateline—again, perhaps erroneously—to some intrigue or other. Mohammed El-Amir... Wasn't that the same name used by Mohammed Atta at the beginning [of] 2000?... It was just a different Mohamed El-Amir.... Why do I feel that through the power of the blogosphere we are asymptotically approaching the truth?