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Some may recall that Anthony Shaffer did battle with Defense Intelligence and with the 9/11 Commission when he was returned from combat operations to testify about Able Danger, a data mining operation which identified 9/11 hijackers and their locations almost a year before the event. Some didn't want him to testify. They ordered him back and then pulled his security clearance so that he couldn't. As Edward Teller used to say, “the only people who don't know what we are doing are our own citizens.” Shaffer's group had information which might have prevented 9/11 (who knows if there wasn't another team ready to move if the first had been interdicted?)

Shaffer clearly has evidence of the failure of our agencies, military and executive (this was on Clinton's watch) which allowed 9/11 to proceed. Clinton, like Obama, made every effort not to see the danger of Islamic radicals, though he didn't appear so eager to support them as the present occupant of the White House.

You may recall that Jamie Gorelick was inserted into the 9/11 Commission to oversee the cover-up. It was her lieutenant who intercepted Shaffer when he was ordered to appear, saying something like “The report is ready to publish; its too late to be concerned with new information.” Pennsylvania Congressman, Curt Weldon, House Intelligence Committee, secured the funding for the data mining project, the exposure of which could have ruined the careers of a bunch of mid-level military officers, a few senior officers, and perhaps, the future political ambitions of Hillary Clinton. But it might have hastened the restructuring of our military in intelligence oversight, somethng George Bush did attempt to do.

Remember when a shoulder-fired SAM took out Flight 800 just before Clinton's bid for reelection. Before that I would not have believed a government could suppress a story of that magnitude, and control the press so thoroughly. Airline and combat pilots knew the truth, but few dared speak publicly. Those who did learned the power of federal prosecutors to ruin them financially. Some went to jail. Books were suppressed. Now we have the testing agency personnel in Iowa who might have had access to Obama’s school and loan records being prosecuted. Is the censoring of Shaffer's book, which would surely have helped pay for his child's college education, a shot across the bow?

How do I know the Able Danger software worked? Because I used it, and may still have a copy somewhere of several of the maps which connected the major hijackers with controllers in Indonesia, including locations, banks they used, contacts. When the Able Danger project was ‘disappeared,’ the group that built the software marketed it to government agencies around the world (and still does). Marketing people used some of the files at a major security trade show in Texas to display its capabilities, and shared it with as a marketing tool. No one had heard of Able Danger then. They probably figured no one would.

It was remarkable software, but not magic. You can be sure Google, Oracle and IBM are doing more today, but the content and its availability was extremely embarrassing to many people, people who were informed of the discovery of a likely terrorist cell based on New Jersey, and connected to the core of the group based in Indonesia. These people responded as so many in agencies and the government, dismissing something "Not Invented Here." It didn't enrich their division or managers so the ignored it, or went looking for money to replicate the effort.

It is reasonable to conclude that the political assassination of Curt Weldon, who, besides being a Congressman, was a reserve fireman with many friends who fought, and some who lost their lives at 9/11, was to silence him. They went to work on his daughter's business. Was she connected? Not in Biden's boys' class, but that is big-time graft. Did she know military contractors? Of course. Federal prosecutors can find grounds to prosecuted anyone. That is why a corrupt government is so dangerous.

Weldon tried to fix the internal problems which kept his team's results from being shared with other agencies and stepped into a minefield of CYA government interests, too aware that demonstrating Dem inability to keep us safe would cost billions in contracts to friends in high places. He also found internecine rivalry among the branches of the military and the different intelligence agencies.

Curt, Scooter Libby, and former Congressman Nathan Deal of Georgia, who had the temerity to ask for some verification of Obama’s eligibility to sit in the White House, might compare notes some day. At least you generally knew for whom the KGB was working.

If and when the resident army of Jihadis is activated, I would wish Anthony Shaffer were in my neighborhood, because there is every indication the infiltration has reached our highest offices, and we will need eventually to chose honest leaders. We will prevail, but it is frightening to think at what cost. Islam is the remnant of a warrior tribe, living by plunder and unable to ever be productive. Its enablers in Washington and Riyadh, even the desk warriors like Obama’s Arabist John Brennan, won't like what they've brought upon themselves.

Too bad Shaffer couldn't write the book about 9/11. While I'd love to read it, you can bet he'd have a cell next to Johnathon Pollard's for the rest of his life if he did. But most every technologist at Amazon, Google, I2, or Microsoft understands that creating maps based upon telephone contacts, bank records and network traffic is commonplace. You can find your house on Google maps, but may not know Google knows what web sites you access, how many live in your home, who you talk to by phone or email, where you are most times of the day or night if you have a cell phone, and lately, when your lights are on or how often you use big appliances or the heater?

It was a little harder in 1998. Shaffer's team appears to have done it with no privileged information, like access to telecom switches and satellite data. There is little doubt that there was an executive edict to bury it, like Flight 800 and Oklahoma City.