Why Did Pentagon Defend 911 Pilot Muhammad Atta?

Richard Clark, Opednews.com

 In a published article, Dr.
Daniele Ganser of the Zurich Polytechnic Institute has joined many others in
claiming that a top-secret Pentagon project code-named ''Able Danger''
identified Mohammed Atta as a member of an al-Qaeda cell more than a year
before the attacks. She then asks three good questions:

1. Did anyone in the
Pentagon, or higher (such as Dick Cheney), know in advance what Atta was
planning?

2. Was Atta working for, or
with, someone in the Bush administration or in the Pentagon?

3. Who was really in charge
of the 9-11 operation? And who might have been in charge of making sure that
nothing in the planned attack went awry?

Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony
Shaffer, a 42-year-old native of Kansas City who worked for the Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Washington at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and
had insights into the Pentagon's top secret operation, urged the FBI to arrest
Atta but the Pentagon's lawyers intervened and ''protected Atta for reasons
that remain unclear.''

So why was Atta protected?
Why did Pentagon lawyers prevent Atta from being arrested after it was
discovered that he was an al-Qaeda terrorist?

Why is no one calling for an
independent investigation that will bring solid answers to all these questions?

Understand that U.S. senators
from both parties accused the U.S. Defense Department of obstructing an
investigation into ''Able Danger'' and the associated claims that its documents
and personnel could have identified Mohammed Atta and other hijackers well
before 9/11! Understand also that the Pentagon blocked several witnesses from
testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Finally, understand that even
a Republican senator, Arlen Spector, regarded the Able Danger assertions re:
Atta to be credible, and that Democrat Joseph Biden even went so far as to
accuse the Pentagon of a cover-up.

So why did the Pentagon block
several witnesses from testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee? And what
are the Pentagon and the Bush Administration trying to cover up? What have they
got to hide?