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I didn't get the same "arrogance" that you did, nor do I think he is a "lobbyist", although he does want AD's hier to be financed.

Being former US Army CI myself, it is not uncommon to have knowledge of / be involved with more than one project at any one time. Considering that he seems to be very good at what he does, his participation in several "super duper secret program[s]" does not really cause any alarms in my mind.

Furthermore, his experiences with the "powers that be" are common from my experience. Thus, I would tend to believe his claims in the interview.

What worries me though is this:

" Plus, I [Schaffer] offered them access to my full copy of Able Danger documents. I let him know that because I was operating as Able Danger’s forward headquarters -- because they were in Tampa or Texas -- to preclude having to bring all this classified information back and forth. I became their repository of both briefing charts, summations and authority documents, so they didn’t have to worry about bringing all this classified material on aircraft.

Therefore, I had a full copy of this. I just kept it because I was worried about something like this happening one day. My former deputy was a finance officer. She kept immaculate records of all the legal documents. We had all this. I informed Dr. Zelikow that I had a copy of all this stuff and I offered it to him. I think that was one of the reasons he wanted me to re-contact him; so he could look at it."

-snip-

" There are some troubling facts that remain. The last time I saw the data I’m referring to is also the February 2004 timeframe. Since then, the data regarding the Able Danger set of documents has not been located."

If he had the documents up to February 2004 - what did he do with them / where did they go?? - Are these the ones that were ordered destroyed?? If so - this really WOULD be explosive!

Let's hope you are right and I am wrong. According to Weldon, there are 15 boxes of documents somewhere, in addition to the two briefcases of info that were given to the Omission Commission. This interview with GSN is surprisingly honest, so it is well worth the read. Still have a bad feeling that the Congressional Hearings will end up at best a wash.
How does he go from this:

New York Times interview: Post 119
"I was at the point of near insubordination over the fact that this was something important, that this was something that should have been pursued," Colonel Shaffer said of his efforts to get the evidence from the intelligence program to the F.B.I. in 2000 and early 2001.

To this:

GSN:
So the information gets blocked, basically because of these legal objections. What’s the reaction from you and your Able Danger colleagues? Here you are working hard to get the information together, which you consider very important, and you’re being prevented from sharing it with the FBI by the SOCOM lawyers.
SHAFFER:
You have to understand two factors were in play at that time. First off, we did not know Al Qaeda to be the threat it is now. There was no drum beat for us to do something immediately.
My second point is that this [objection by the lawyers] is only one of about a dozen operations I was dealing with in any given day, so when SOCOM blew off the meetings I had set up with the FBI, I was perturbed, but it was one of a dozen things I had to deal with in a given day as the overall leader of Stratus Ivy.
GSN:
So, you’re saying the Able Danger guys didn’t go ballistic.
SHAFFER:
No. We were concerned by the fact that this kept getting turned off, but again we had no fire under our butts to do something. This was but one other bureaucratic roadblock that we’ll have to fight. We’ll get to it. But, I’ve got other things right now that I’ve got to do