Able Danger official identified

War and Peace ^ | Aug 16, 2005 | Laura Rozen

[spycatcher]

Able Danger official identified. Delco Times columnist Gil Spencer, who has long covered Curt Weldon's Pennsylvania district, has just interviewed the Able Danger official who is going public tonight on Fox News. Spencer is the first journalist I am aware of to reveal the identity of the Able Danger official who originally briefed the 9/11 commission staff about Able Danger's findings back in October 2003 at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. That official is DIA Ltn. Col. Tony Shaffer. He served in a liaison capacity between Able Danger and the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in Tampa, Florida, and he flew into Afghanistan with special ops in a boots on the ground capacity. (Shaffer confirmed to Spencer that he is indeed the "Anonymous" who has posted some comments about Able Danger over at Inteldump, by the way.) More soon on their interview. It's still a bit vague as to what exactly on Atta and the "Brooklyn cell" the Able Danger team came up with, but Shaffer did tell Spencer that the Able Danger team briefed then Special Ops commander, now Army Chief of Staff Pete Schoomaker on their findings. Shaffer also told Spencer that he had met with Pentagon intel czar Stephen Cambone in the E-ring today about the Able Danger issue, so clearly the Pentagon is paying attention. Stay tuned.

[conservativecorner]

And that's why the Internet is so great. The liberal MSM have no monopoly on information dissemination anymore, and this will all come out.

[Lucky2]

When did Slick and the Beast know and what did they know, and what were they told?

They'll still blame it on Bush even tho he was still in Texas. They're slime!

[WestTexasWend]

It would explain why Bubba has resurfaced with claims that he knew all about everything, he just never got the chance to do anything about it (too busy launching offensives under his desk in the Oval Office).

[SueRae]

The Able Danger Program disbanded after three years.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"The poopoo is about to hit the fan."

No it isn't. By tomorrow morning the NYSlimes will run a story that this person screws gophers and is the illegitimate child of Jerry Falwell.

[johnny7]

Depends on the the quality and amount of 'poopoo'... and if the fan is turned on.

[Minnesocold]

At Captain's Quarters: http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

UPDATE: CQ reader Lauri S. tells me that the Fox Report will feature an interview with an Able Danger officer tonight at 6 pm CT. Catherine Herridge will speak with a Lt. Col. named "Tony", a 22-year veteran. If I get more on this, I'll post it here.

UPDATE II: Laura Rozen reveals that "Tony" is Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer:

He served in a liaison capacity between Able Danger and the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in Tampa, Florida, and he flew into Afghanistan with special ops in a boots on the ground capacity. ... It's still a bit vague as to what exactly on Atta and the "Brooklyn cell" the Able Danger team came up with, but Shaffer did tell Spencer that the Able Danger team briefed then Special Ops commander, now Army Chief of Staff Pete Schoomaker on their findings. Shaffer also told Spencer that he had met with Pentagon intel czar Stephen Cambone in the E-ring today about the Able Danger issue, so clearly the Pentagon is paying attention.

Weldon's sources are moving into the open on their own. That sounds like a positive development, but we'll know more about it after the interview tonight.

[bigfootbob]

Nothing to see here move along, Fort Marcy Park is to the left.

[PigRigger]

"Thank God there are still patriots that put their country before their own ambitions....."

Sure is, and brave too.

I hope for his sake he is ready for the pressure to be exerted from both the left and right. Both sides don't want us to know how badly they screwed up....this man is going to really get hit hard soon.....my prayers for his, and his families, well being.....IMHO....

[oceanview]

even in our wildest dreams, I doubt there would be any direct link all the way to president Clinton. And with Sandy Berger having scrubbed the archives, that's a major strike against it.

at best, if true, it will confirm that Clinton's stewardship of the nation's military, intelligence, and legal apparatus - provided the climate in which a lapse like this could occur, leading directly to 9-11. I'll take that.

[PigRigger]

"What's W's role and what does/did he know . . ."

Given the pressure being experted from the right....this is a very valid question that we shouldn't lose sight of.....

[SeaBiscuit]

"Thank God there are still patriots that put their country before their own ambitions."

I ditto that big time.

[atomicpossum]

Army Chief of Staff? How does this play into today's hissyfit at National Review Online, lambasting Weldon because the Pentagon says the info doesn't support him? This is sounding really big...

[hoosiermama]

Just who at the Pentagon issued that statement?

[oceanview]

DC is like a "club" where the insiders, regardless of party, tend to protect the establishment.

as I was saying on other threads about this last week - if the facts hold up, what is really needed here is for some political figure with national prominence to talk about this story and call for inquiries - the best bet in my mind for that assignment would be Rudy Giuliani. he's not really a DC insider, he has significant connection with the american people on 9-11, his voice could not be ignored.

[Guenevere]

ping :)

[atomicpossum]

Here's the FR post.

[popdonnelly]

"Just who at the Pentagon issued that statement?"

General Anonymous Source.

[PigRigger]

"DC is like a "club" where the insiders, regardless of party, tend to protect the establishment..."

Not a surprise to me....most on both sides of the isle will save each other before doing whats right. Hopefully there are some, on either side, who will put their country ahead of politics.....Wonder what Zell Miller thinks of all of this?????

[conservative in nyc]

Here's the post by "Anon" on Inteldump referred to in the article. Intel Dump is a blog (inteldump.powerblogs.com):

Anon (www):
OK smart guys - with your "smell tests" and "Thats just flat out wrong" opinions shown above - I hope you don't mind, but let me clear up a few things - I was there and I lived through the ABLE DANGER nightmare.

First - yes - The lawyers involved in this (and similar projects) did interpret the 9-11 terrorists as "US persons" - so while you can second guess them all you want - but that was their "legal" call as wrong as it was and is. Unfortunately, the chain of command at SOCOM went along with them (and this, I expect, will be a topic that will become more clear in the near future).

And lawyers of the era also felt that any intelligence officer viewing open internet information for the purpose of intelligence collection automatically required that any "open source" information obtained be treated as if it was "intelligence information"...does this sound like idiocy to you? It did to me - and we fought it - and I was in meetings at the OSD level, with OSD laywers, that debated this - and I even briefed the DCI George Tenet on this issue relating to an internet project.

And yes, Virgina - we tried to tell the lawyers that since the data identified Atta and the others as linked to Al Qaeda, we should be able to collect on them based on SecState Albright's declaration of Al Qaeda as transnational terrorist threat to the US...well the lawyers did not agree...go figure...so we could not collect on them - and for political reasons - could not pass them to the FBI...I know because I brokered three meetings between the FBI and SOCOM to allow SOCOM to pass the informaton to the FBI. And, sadly, SOCOM cancelled them every time...

Oh - and as to your opinion that ABLE DANGER was a precursor to the IDC - you are flat out wrong - and obviously not keeping up with what is coming out in the press. ABLE DANGER partnered with LIWA/IDC to use the LIWA/IDC capability to obtain the data on Atta and the other 9-11 terrorists. I brokered the relationship...
And - wrong again on the IDC using only "classified" databases - IDC used 2.5 terabytes (a whole hell of a lot of data) - all open source - to identify Atta and the others that have been identified. Classified data bases were only use to "confirm" the links subsequent to the open source data runs.

Oh - and DATA MINING is not overt or clandestine - it just "is" - it is something that is done with either open source or classified information. ABLE DANGER used an array of both open and close databases...

So...good try, gentlemen - good to see there is intellectual riggor here...but before you start doubting the story, perhaps you need to do better research.
8.12.2005 11:27pm