The Pentagon sought to destroy 9/11 hijacker data

A Pentagon official was asked to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a member of a militant group two years before Sep 11 attacks on the United States, a congressman has revealed.

The employee is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. He is expected to identify the person who ordered him to destroy the documents, said Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.).

Weldon refused to name the Pentagon worker, but he described the documents as ''2.5 terabytes'' -- as much as one-fourth of all the printed materials in the Library of Congress.

Meanwhile, two congressional sources have confirmed to FOX News that the U.S. Department of Defense is pressuring the Senate Judiciary Committee to close to the public the hearings on the former secret military intelligence unit called "Able Danger" that identified Atta.

The committee Chairman Arlen Specter's office is vigorously resisting the request, according to FOX News.

Former Able Danger analysts and Rep. Curt Weldon say the intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers two years before the attacks. Their requests to turn over the information to the FBI were repeatedly ignore, they said.

Pentagon lawyers rejected the intelligence unit's recommendation that the information be turned over to the FBI in 2000 based on immigration rules at the time, according to Weldon and several members of Able Danger.

"In the summer of 2000, he was ordered and, or, he would go to jail if he didn't comply," the Pennsylvania Republican said. "He was ordered to destroy 2.5 terabytes of data specific to Able Danger, the Brooklyn [terror] cell and Mohammad Atta. He will name the person who ordered him to destroy that material."

At first the Pentagon initially questioned the existence of Able Danger unite, but now, it’s confirming that the Defense Department has identified five former members of the unit who all say they remember Atta's or name on a chart in 2000.

Few months ago, Weldon wrote a letter that aroused a debate over whether the commission probing Sept. 11 attacks knew or didn't know about the Able Danger intelligence unit, and whether it overlooked evidence that would have helped in the investigation into the hijackers' presence in the United States.

"The Sept. 11 commission's statement that it does not believe a secret military intelligence unit discovered a group of future hijackers more than a year before the attacks is "a total denial of the facts," Weldon said.

"For the 9/11 commission to say that this did not exist is just absolutely outrageous. It's a total denial of the facts."

The Sept. 11 commission was set up in 2002 to investigate pre-attack intelligence and communication failures between U.S. law enforcement and spy agencies. But last week, former members of the commission said they weren't buying the story that the Able Danger unit identified the hijackers that early.

"Bluntly, it just didn't happen and that's the conclusion of all 10 of us," said Sept. 11 commissioner Slade Gorton, a former Republican senator from Washington state.