Is the Pentagon Obstructing Testimony on Able Danger?

[pattylou]

Have you discussed "Able Danger?"

This slipped under my radar - I heard mention of it yesterday on NPR, and it sounds like a mess.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said Wednesday that he would look into whether the Pentagon obstructed his committee by refusing to allow testimony from five persons.

They had been expected to testify Wednesday about a link between al-Qaida and four of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers — including leader Mohamed Atta — that a secret military unit named “Able Danger” is said to have uncovered more than a year before the 2001 attacks.

“I think the Department of Defense owes the American people an explanation of what went on here,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican.



Here is a link to a bunch of headlines for your perusal.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=able+danger

 

[loseyourname]

What do you know, you were listening to the same NPR program I was listening to.

 

[Tsu]

Jim Lehrer had a 5 min segment on two nights ago. Certainly caught my attention...

You can link to video, audio or read the transcript here:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/terrorism/july-dec05/abledanger-9-21.html

 

[Informal Logic]

The general topic has been discussed ever since 9-11. Here is a CBS report dated May 17, 2002, for example.

What Bush Knew Before Sept. 11

(CBS) President Bush was told in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network might hijack U.S. passenger planes - information which prompted the administration to issue an alert to federal agencies - but not the American public.

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin says the warning was in a document called the President's Daily Brief, which is considered to be the single most important document that the U.S. intelligence community turns out. The document did not, however, mention the possibility of planes being flown into buildings.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/16/attack/main509294.shtml

However, actually blocking critical information...this is done with full knowledge of possible consequences. A serious matter that will be quietly forgotten like everything else these days.

 

[SOS2008]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Danger

"There's something very sinister going on here that really troubles me," Weldon told FOX News on August 25th, blasting the Sept. 11 commission for not investigating the Able Danger claims. Weldon said some panel members were trying to smear Shaffer and Able Danger.

Troubling indeed. You have a Republican, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) requesting the investigation, "Able Danger" Team members in the military Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Navy Captain Scott Philpott, as well as J.D. Smith, a civilian contractor who worked on Able Danger, along with 3-4 other "credible" witnesses confirming Weldon's claims, AND you have "Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly and others" who "have asserted that the Able Danger intelligence was suppressed as a result of 'the wall.''

These are unlikely sources for criticism of our government, unless it took the heat off of Bush and placed it on the 9-11 Commission and/or policies under earlier administrations such as...Clinton's? But if that were the case than why this?

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter held a hearing on September 21, 2005 looking into the facts about Able Danger. However, Lt. Col Shafer and the other four members of Able Danger were ordered not to testify by the Department of Defense.
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Former Army Major Erik Kleinsmith, former head of the Pentagon's Land Warfare Analysis Department, testified that he was instructed to destroy data and documents related to Able Danger in May and June of 2000. The instruction came from a top Pentagon lawyer. He testified "I go to bed every night and other members of our team do as well [thinking] that if [Able Danger] had not been shut down that we would have at least been able to prevent something or assist the United States in some way. Could we have prevented 9/11? I could never speculate to that extent."

If it's not sinister, it is fishy.

 

[MaxS]

Air America was talking about Able Danger like 2 months ago...

 

[pattylou]

I meant that I had heard of some of this stuff - but when five key people (out of six) were ordered by the Pentagon not to testify on Wednesday - this bumped the story up in my mind from something in the ballpark of "mess" (almost forgiveable, certainly human) to something in the ballpark of "coverup" (criminal.)