Posted on 09/21/2005 4:41:27 PM PDT by ArmyBratproud
Talking about what went down today!
I'm also concerned that AD was briefed into early 2001 and not completely shut down until then, BUT, remember that Sen. Levin and other 'Rats were holding up confirmations of DoD civilian leadership other than Rumsfeld until summer of 2001, so whatever was going on internally in Jan.-March 2001 was still almost entirely a Clinton administration show. Not to mention that the leadership of DIA and SOCOM were not Bush appointees at that point. Of course, such subtleties will not matter to the MSM, and if this story gets legs they will dishonestly spin it as "BUSH KNEW" all over again.....
Still, there was so much going on and so much known pre-2001 that there is no question that the Clinton administration dropped the ball big-time. Ultimately, the most important issues are why were these capabilities not better utilized and are the being properly utlized somewhere NOW?? We should be concerned that the true record of the Clintonistas gets exposed so that they do not get another chance, through Hillary, to wreak new havoc..... but it is also crucial, I think we would all agree, to get all the facts out even if it also reflects badly on Rumsfeld, etc. (though I strongly doubt that Rumsfeld ever knew about AD until recently -- it's hard to imagine that the SoD gets briefed on every 12-person program in existence, especially one that some key bureaucrat(s) seemed so determined to squash!!!!).
Who did they brief in January 2001? Rummy was the only one in office at that time. From the Bush Appointee Confirmation List:
DEFENSE:
Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense 01/20/2001
Paul Wolfowitz Deputy Secretary 02/28/2001
Dov Zakheim Undersecretary, Comptroller 05/01/2001
Edward Aldridge Undersecretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics 05/08/2001
William James Haynes General Counsel 05/17/2001
Victoria Clarke Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs 05/17/2001
Powell A. Moore Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs 05/01/2001
Charles S. Abell Assistant Secretary for Force Management 05/03/2001
David S.C. Chu Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness 05/26/2001
Douglas J. Feith Undersecretary for Policy 07/12/2001
Jack Dyer Crouch II Assistant Secretary for International Security Policy 08/01/2001
Stephen A. Cambone Principal Deputy Undersecretary for Policy 07/19/2001
James G. Roche Secretary of the Air Force 05/24/2001
Thomas White Secretary of the Army 05/24/2001
Gordon England Secretary of the Navy 05/22/2001
Susan Morrisey LivingstoneUndersecretary of the Navy 07/19/2001
Peter W. Rodman Assistant Secretary for International Security Affairs 07/12/2001
Marvin Sambur Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Research and Development (Air Force) 11/08/2001
Alberto Jose Mora General Counsel, Navy 07/19/2001
Michael Montelongo Assistant Secretary for Financial Management and Comptroller, Air Force 07/12/2001
Steven John Morello, Sr. General Counsel, Army 07/12/2001
Thomas P. Christie Director, Operational Test and Evaluation 07/12/2001
Dionel M. Aviles Assistant Secretary for Financial Management & Comptroller, Navy 07/12/2001
Michael W. Wynne Deputy Undersecretary for Acquisition and Technology 07/12/2001
Diane K. Morales Deputy Undersecretary for Logistics and Material Readiness 07/12/2001
William A. Navas, Jr. Assistant Secretary for Manpower & Reserve Affairs, Navy 07/12/2001
Michael Parker Assistant Secretary for Civil Works, Army 09/26/2001
Reginald Jude Brown Assistant Secretary for Manpower & Reserve Affairs, Army 07/12/2001
John Stenbit Assistant Secretary for Command, Control, Communications & Intelligence 08/03/2001
Ronald M. Sega Director, Defense Research and Engineering 08/03/2001
John J. Young, Jr. Assistant Secretary for Research, Development & Acquisition, Navy 07/12/2001
Joseph E. Schmitz Inspector General 03/21/2002
Michael L. Dominguez Assistant Secretary for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations & Environment, Air Force 08/03/2001
Nelson F. Gibbs Assistant Secretary for Installations & Environment, Air Force 08/03/2001
H.T. Johnson Assistant Secretary (Navy) for Installations & Environment 08/03/2001
Mario P. Fiori Assistant Secretary (Army) for Installations & Environment 08/03/2001
Sandra L. Pack Assistant Secretary (Army) for Financial Management & Comptroller 11/08/2001
William Winkenwerder, Jr. Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs 10/16/2001
Mary L. Walker General Counsel, Air Force 11/08/2001
Claude M. Bolton, Jr. Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics & Technology, Army 12/20/2001
Dale Klein Assistant to the Secretary for Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs 11/08/2001
Peter B. Teets Undersecretary of the Air Force 12/07/2001
R. L. Brownlee Undersecretary of the Army 11/08/2001
Thomas Forrest Hall Assistant Secretary for Reserve Affairs 10/02/2002
Charles S. Abell Deputy Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness 11/12/2002
Also, Cambone was the "go to" guy on this...he was not told until AFTER 9/11.
Nothing against prairiebreeze, but he/she must be mistaken...Cambone wasn't even confirmed until July 19, 2001, so that is impossible.
You've heard Weldon speak about this, and so have I. And several times now he has mentioned that a briefing occurred in both January '01 and then the spring of '01.
That puts this clearly in the president's lap. And I've heard other times when Carbone's name has been mentioned, but I don't have an AD file and am not looking for the sourcing, but if I come across it, I'll ping you.
Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, here is the chart, the unclassified chart of what special forces command had 1 year before 9- 11. Interesting. The entire al Qaeda network is identified in a graphic chart with all the linkages to all the terrorist groups around the world.
In fact, Mr. Speaker, I was told by the folks who developed the capability for special forces command that this chart and the briefing that was supposed to be given to General Shelton, Chairman of our Joint Chiefs, had a recommendation to take out 5 cells of bin Laden's network. Mr. Speaker, this was 1 year before 9-11. This was not during President Bush's administration. This occurred in the fall of the remaining term of President Bill Clinton. The key question I have been trying to get at is why was this 3-hour briefing, which I also got, I got General Holland to bring his briefers up from Florida with special forces, I went in the Pentagon, went in the tank, and they gave me the briefing, as much as they could give me, because part of it is being used for our operational plan, why was that 3-hour briefing with the recommendations to take out 5 cells of bin Laden's network condensed down to a 1-hour brief when it was given to General Hugh Shelton in January of 2001?
Congressional Record: May 21, 2002
He was not part of the Bush Admin. He was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997-2001. His bio can be found here
What was also in that speech, which I had forgotten and which I'm now public acknowledging, is that there was a three-hour briefing provided to General Shelton in January of 2001.And furthermore, what Tony Shaffer will tell you in the hallway outside is that he personally briefed General Shelton on Able Danger, and in a briefing in the first quarter of 2001, and he will name the people that were in the room. He was giving a briefing on another topic, remember the name of that?
STAFF: (OFF-MIKE)
WELDON: Door Hop Galley (ph) which is another classified program.
In the course of that briefing -- and there was a Navy admiral in the room, Admiral Wilson, in charge of DIA, and Richard Schiefren (ph) was in the room. Richard Schiefren (ph) was an attorney at DOD.
In the course of that discussion, Richard Schiefren (ph) discussed Able Danger. I did not know that up until I watched the Heritage Foundation speech that I gave in 2002, where I document the meeting, in the briefing that was done for General Shelton. When I asked Tony Shaffer this morning about that, he said, "Yes, I briefed General Shelton. I was also involved in a Door Hop Galley (ph) brief, where Steve Cambone" -- he was not in the position he's in today. He was a special adviser to Don Rumsfeld.
I wanted to bring Tony Shaffer in to talk to you about the briefing that he was involved with with General Shelton in January of '01 and the briefing -- again, this second briefing, as Tony will tell you, was not specifically about Able Danger. It was about a program called Door Hop Galley (ph).
But during that briefing with Admiral Wilson and with Richard Schiefren (ph), the topic of Able Danger came up and Richard Schiefren (ph), who was the legal counsel at the Pentagon, knew about Able Danger.
So yes, there was a briefing. Yes AD was mentioned but not the Atta connection. Yes, Cambone was there, but not in his current capacity. Also, further down in that interview he said that when he brought up AD to Cambone after 9/11, Cambone didn't even remember it.
Whew...glad we cleared that one up, LOL!
I've been looking too but hadn't found that. I DO have an Able Danger file but stupidly named the folder 9/11 Commission Omission. LOL
Okay - I'm glad that is cleared up. I still have a question however. I'm quite certain that I've heard Weldon say at least twice that another briefing took place in the spring of 01 - about Able Danger.
Still looking...
GSN: To your direct knowledge, did the civilian leadership -- whether it was Defense Secretary William Cohen, or the White House or the Justice Department or anyone else – know about Able Danger being set up?
Shaffer: At the time, it was highly compartmented. The whole idea of going after Al Qaeda was controversial. A lot of folks at DoD that we approached really didn’t know if they wanted to participate fully or not. So the answer is, I don’t believe a lot of those [civilian leadership] folks knew about Able Danger because it was considered a compartmented -- not special access -- but a compartmented planning effort, where we tracked everybody who was knowledgeable. Because we wanted to protect the operational security of the fact that we were going to look at these [Al Qaeda] guys offensively.
GSN: Even when a program is compartmented, wouldn’t the senior leadership on the civilian side know about it?
SHAFFER: I cannot speak to that because I have no direct knowledge. I only know from my direct knowledge that General Shelton was aware because of his tasking this to Special Operations Command. I briefed him on another operation regarding the Internet and data, and I referenced Able Danger to him because we were going to use the same Able Danger methodology to protect U.S. person issues.
I briefed [General Shelton] on that other operation in the spring 2001 timeframe, before 9/11. So, from my knowledge, I believe he remembered Able Danger at that point in time because of the reference to this other operation.
However, I don’t know how far above him or laterally, he shared information regarding Able Danger. I don’t know about the civilian leadership.
The highest level on the civilian side that I’m directly knowledgeable of was that the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict was aware because I briefed him on this. [Editor’s Note: Brian E. Sheridan held that assistant secretary position at the time.]
He received a briefing from me [in 2000] on Stratus Ivy, my unit, and I gave him information on what we were doing for Able Danger. His comment to me was, “You need to get on those guys and push them harder.” That was the way he told me to get on SOCOM to get them to push harder to get this going.
GSN: This was before Able Danger had any success or had identified any results.
SHAFFER: Absolutely, yes.
Again, Shelton was not part of the Bush Admin. Should he have forwarded the info? Probably. Did he? Apparently not. The only civilian person briefed was in 2000, before the AD had any results and before Bush was in office.
Thanks for finding that. Shelton isn't part of the Bush administration? I thought he was.
bbl
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is composed of the highest-ranking member of each branch of the military. It consists of the chairman, the vice chairman, the chief of staff of the army, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the air force, and the commandant of the Marine Corps.
The chairman is the principal military adviser to the president, the secretary of defense, and the National Security Council (NSC).
Info Please (Warning: Pop-ups abound).
General Shelton became the 14th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on October 1, 1997, and served two 2-year terms.
President Clinton nominated Army General Henry Shelton to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Members of a secret Pentagon intelligence unit known as Able Danger warned top military generals that it had uncovered information of increased al Qaeda "activity" in Aden harbor less than three weeks before the attack on the USS Cole, The Post has learned.
Seems Shelton was worthless.
Thanks for clarifying that. After the hurricane, I have a feeling the press is going to press harder on this story.
That reminds me that I'd heard someone associated with AD discuss how they had info about attacks being planned against the navy before the Cole. I think it was Shaffer on the Michael Savage radio show, but am not sure.
This thread:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1488935/posts?q=1&&page=1
My computer keeps freezing up so I'm having a little technical difficulty right now, but hopefully you'll get this.
Post #50 and beyond really answers the questions I had.
fine contributors to both parties were coming up in the skimmer
Tony has been hitting it, too. Weldon was on today.
"Why didn’t Able Danger warn us about Cindy Sheehan?"
Geez, now I'll spend the next 10 minutes cleaning up...
Aug. 7, 1998: Two bombs explode within minutes of each other near the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The blasts kill 264 people.Oct. 12, 2000: Seventeen American sailors are killed and 39 wounded by a bomb aboard a small boat that targets the the USS Cole, a U.S. Navy destroyer refueling in Aden, Yemen.
AD was established in 1999, right? If so, the Cole would have been the first, unless there is something that NPR is missing in their timeline.
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