The 9/11 Commission was told about the Able Danger report identifying Mohammed Atta, on at least two occasions: 9/11 Commission’s Staff Rejected Report on Early Identification of Chief Hijacker.

Not only did they fail to follow up on this report, Commission members apparently denied knowing anything about it:

Mr. Weldon has accused the commission of ignoring information that would have forced a rewriting of the history of the Sept. 11 attacks. He has asserted that the Able Danger unit, whose work relied on computer-driven data-mining techniques, sought to call their superiors’ attention to Mr. Atta and three other future hijackers in the summer of 2000. Their work, he says, had identified the men as likely members of a Qaeda cell already in the United States.

In a letter sent Wednesday to members of the commission, Mr. Weldon criticized the panel in scathing terms, saying that its “refusal to investigate Able Danger after being notified of its existence, and its recent efforts to feign ignorance of the project while blaming others for supposedly withholding information on it, brings shame on the commissioners, and is evocative of the worst tendencies in the federal government that the commission worked to expose.”

Al Felzenberg, who served as the commission’s chief spokesman, said earlier this week that staff members who were briefed about Able Danger at a first meeting, in October 2003, did not remember hearing anything about Mr. Atta or an American terrorist cell. On Wednesday, however, Mr. Felzenberg said the uniformed officer who briefed two staff members in July 2004 had indeed mentioned Mr. Atta.

What sort of mood-leveling drugs do you have to be taking to forget a piece of news like that?

It’s a classic cover-up. Captain Ed points out Commission co-chairman Lee Hamilton’s statement from yesterday:

The Sept. 11 commission (search) did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohammed Atta or of his cell,“ said Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. “Had we learned of it obviously it would’ve been a major focus of our investigation.”

UPDATE at 8/11/05 8:38:50 am:

Dr. Sanity has a put together a timeline, showing a possible motive for Sandy Berger’s bizarre behavior.