Posted on 08/16/2005 8:28:18 AM PDT by mware
Tony Snow just reported on his show that at 7 pm Eastern. Fox New's Catherine Herridge has an exclusive interview with one of the members of ABLE DANGER.
Curt Weldon identified him as a Lt Col. and his first name, Tony.
According to Weldon he tried three times to tell the committee about the information from ABLE DANGER
bump
BUMP back atcha!!!
hey not so hard!! LOL
I hate to say this,....but after seeing the report...I am still confused...
I don't know if her story straightens out who was wrong in NOT having this in the 9/11 Commission's report..
I AM SO CONFUSED...
You're confused! So Am I! I thought it was going to be at 7, and that she was going to interview the Able Danger Guy Lt. Col. Tony?
It is going to be on at 7. This was a preview of the interview.
Phew! I was worried!
no mention of it yet
bttt
NOW! 7:33 eastern
watching
If that was the interview, it was really weak.
Nothing there that we don't know.
I know. I'm disappointed.
Tony knows what to ask. He is a FReeper.
Better not to give away everything just yet. Now the ball is in the 911 commissions court.
yep. Disappointing. Well at least he showed how he feels about it. Of course they had to add something about a clearance suspension but then ended with his promotion to Lt Col. He is probably able to do these interviews because he is a team leader or something like that.
Ha! I mean, argh. I mean, hahahaargh.
Whatever, very funny -- in an accurate-shocking-it's-terrible sorta way.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/16/politics/16cnd-intel.html?hp&ex=1124251200&en=0a9cf97378831bba&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Officer Says Pentagon Barred Sharing Pre-9/11 Qaeda Data With F.B.I.
By PHILIP SHENON
Published: August 16, 2005
WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 - A military intelligence team repeatedly contacted the F.B.I. in 2000 to warn about the existence of an American-based terrorist cell that included the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a veteran Army intelligence officer who said he had now decided to risk his career by discussing the information publicly. The officer, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, said military lawyers later blocked the team from sharing any of its information with the F.B.I.
Colonel Shaffer said in an interview that the small, highly classified intelligence program known as Able Danger had identified by name the terrorist ringleader, Mohammed Atta, as well three of the other future hijackers by mid-2000, and had tried to arrange a meeting that summer with agents of the F.B.I.'s Washington field office to share the information.
But he said military lawyers forced members of the intelligence program to cancel three scheduled meetings with the F.B.I. at the last minute, which left the bureau without information that Colonel Shaffer said might have led to Mr. Atta and the other terrorists while the Sept. 11 plot was still being planned.
"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.
He said he learned later that lawyers associated with the Defense Department's Special Operations Command had canceled the F.B.I. meetings because they feared controversy if Able Danger was portrayed as a military operation that had violated the privacy of civilians who were legally in the United States. "It was because of the chain of command saying we're not going to pass on information - if something goes wrong, we'll get blamed," he said.
The Defense Department did not dispute the account from Colonel Shaffer, a 42-year-old native of Kansas City, Mo., who is the first military officer associated with the so-called data-mining program to come forward and acknowledge his role.
At the same time, the department said in a statement that it was "working to gain more clarity on this issue" and that "it's too early to comment on findings related to the program identified as Able Danger." The F.B.I. referred calls about Colonel Shaffer to the Pentagon.
The account from Colonel Shaffer, a reservist who is also working part-time for the Pentagon, corroborates much of the information that the Sept. 11 commission has acknowledged that it received about Able Danger last July from a Navy captain who was also involved with the program but whose name has not been made public.
In a statement issued last week, the leaders of the Sept. 11 commission said the panel had concluded that the intelligence program "did not turn out to be historically significant." The statement said that while the commission did learn about Able Danger in 2003 and immediately requested Pentagon files about the program, none of the documents turned over by the Defense Department referred to Mr. Atta or any of the other hijackers.
Colonel Shaffer said that his role in Able Danger was as the program's liaison with the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, and that he was not an intelligence analyst. The interview with Colonel Shaffer on Monday night was arranged for The New York Times and Fox News by Representative Curt Weldon, the Pennsylvania Republican who is vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a champion of data-mining programs like Able Danger.
Colonel Shaffer's lawyer, Mark Zaid, said in an interview that he was concerned that Colonel Shaffer was facing retaliation from the Defense Department - first for having talked to the Sept. 11 commission staff in October 2003 and now for talking with news organizations.
Mr. Zaid said that Colonel Shaffer's security clearance had been suspended last year because of what the lawyer said were a series of "petty allegations" involving $67 in personal charges on a military cellphone. He noted that despite the disciplinary action, Colonel Shaffer had been promoted this year from the rank of major.
more...
DU and the MSM are both ignoring the story but they have not failed to mention the Clinton CYA agenda.
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