This is from the testimony submitted to the Judiciary Committee yesterday by Maj. Erik Kleinsmith (USArmy – Ret.), one of the analysts with expertise in data mining who was assigned in late 1999 to support the Able Danger program (emphasis is mine):
In December of 1999 we were approached by US Special Operations Command [SOCOM] to support Able Danger. I assigned the same core team of analysts that worked the JCAG project [a then-recent demonstration of “how data mining and intelligence analysis could be conducted in a counterintelligence and technology protection capacity”], and with Dr. Eileen Preisser as the analytical lead, four of us conducted data mining and analysis of the Al Qaeda terrorist network coordinating with SOCOM and other organizations throughout that time. In the months that followed, we were able collect an immense amount of data for analysis that allowed us to map Al Qaeda as a world-wide threat with a surprisingly significant presence within the United States.
In approximately April of 2000 our support to Able Danger became severely restricted and ultimately shut down due to intelligence oversight concerns. Supported vigorously by the LIWA [Land Information Warfare] and INSCOM [Army Intelligence and Security Command] chains of command, we actively worked to overcome this shut down for the next several months. In the midst of this shut down, I along with CW3 Terri Stephens were forced to destroy all the data, charts, and other analytical products that we had not already passed on to SOCOM related to Able Danger. This destruction was dictated by, and conducted in accordance with intelligence oversight procedures.