Hamilton read the Congressional Inquiry report, which contains some information about NSA intercepts of the hijackers' calls in the US, so he must know something about this. My opinion is that Mukasey is garbling it and the call(s) were from/to Yemen, not Afghanistan. So Hamilton knows about the issue of why the NSA failed to trace the calls to the US, even though it intercepted them, even if he doesn't know about an Afghan call.

Simple question for Lee Hamilton: the 9/11 hijackers in the US repeatedly spoke on the phone to al-Qaeda's main global communications hub, and these calls were intercepted by the NSA, which allegedly failed to trace them. With the exception of the two cryptic mentions on pages 87-88 and 222, why was this left out of the 9/11 Commission report?

The phone that called Pentagon hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi in the US (there was more than one call) was registered to a guy named Ahmed al-Hada, his phone number was 9671200578, and he was involved in the 1998 embassy bombing attacks and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.

Exploitation of the calls could clearly have prevented 9/11, as, if the NSA, which intercepted the calls, had tipped off the FBI, the FBI would have placed the two hijackers (who were already known to the US intelligence community at this point) under surveillance and picked up the other hijackers when they entered the US and met Almihdhar and Alhazmi.

The calls are mentioned in both the 9/11 Commission report (two cryptic references on pages 87-88 and 222) and in the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry report (pages 155-7). On page 157 it says: "In early 2000, NSA analyzed communications involving Khaled and a suspected terrorist facility in the Middle East linked to al-Qa’ida activities directed against U.S. interests. The FBI determined, based on toll records it obtained after September 11, that Khaled had been in the United States at the time." That's what Mukasey is talking about.

The calls were also mentioned by authors Ron Suskind, Lawrence Wright and Terry McDermott, as well as the LA Times, MSNBC and US News and World Report.

Some simple questions for the NSA: you had the legal authority to trace the calls, but did not - why? How many were there? Where is the inspector general's report on the NSA's failings before 9/11? Were you getting information about the calls' destination from somewhere else (like GCHQ)?

I didn't see the hearing yesterday, so I don't know about that. I am 99% certain Mukasey is talking about the calls to Yemen, which definitely happened. They are mentioned in the 9/11 Commission report, but the mentions are cryptic and it is possible Mukasey has not realised they are there - I didn't notice them myself until I scoured the report for anything that might be a mention of the calls. I didn't notice them first, second, or third time I read the report.

You can download the report here:

http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/index.htm

One is the paragraph beginning "The law requires the NSA..." on pages 87-88. The other is the two sentences on page 222 begining "Mihdhar's mind seems to have..."

The 9/11 Commission definitely knew about the calls - they are in the Joint Inquiry report and the 9/11 Commissioners read that (the classified version, which has more info that the version we get).

Selise – I see the transcript now, thanks. He seems to be saying that the NSA could have traced the calls under FISA, but did not do so. My understanding is that's accurate (although I have a sneaking suspicion the US intelligence community might have come by the information some other way). The point he is using it to make – that this justifies warrantless wiretapping – is rubbish IMO. If the NSA needed to get a warrant to trace the call, it should have done so. There was no insurmountable barrier to getting it.

Casual_observer – I don’t know if a warrant was required to trace the calls in the US. If it was, it was so important the NSA should have got the warrant(s). The calls started in February-March 2000, so they had over a year and a half to do it.

Amity – I think “analyzed” means intercepted, listened to, and wrote a report or something about. My understanding is it does not necessarily include tracing. Given that one of the US phones used for the calls was registered to Nawaf Alhazmi, who the NSA knew was a terrorist at this time, and Michael Hayden swore under oath the NSA did not know any of the 9/11 hijackers was in the US, Hayden would be in serious trouble if the call was traced.

Not quite sure what you mean by the second point. I think the NSA would tell you they didn’t realise who “Khaled” was. My assumption is that there was some shadowy off-the-books operation to monitor the hijackers in the US, which is why the NSA failed to trace the calls – the FBI had asked for the results of this and it the NSA had done it itself, it would have to be turned over to the FBI. The FBI would then stumble on the off-the-books operation. But that's just my speculation.

Nuf said – I’ve been writing about this for years. Timeline here:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&projects_and_programs=complete_911_timeline_yemen_hub

The calls clearly did exist, but I don’t think they justify warrantless wiretapping in any shape or form.