Posted on 08/18/2005 5:52:23 AM PDT by minerboy
(CBS/AP) An Army intelligence officer says his unit was blocked in 2000 and 2001 from giving the FBI information about a U.S.-based terrorist cell that included Mohamed Atta, the future leader of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer said the small intelligence unit, called "Able Danger," had identified Atta and three of the other future Sept. 11 hijackers as al Qaeda members by mid-2000.
"We recognized there are linkages and patterns of linkages to the al Qaeda leadership," Shaffer said on CBS News' Early Show. "That's what our primary concern was at the time."
He said military lawyers stopped the unit from sharing the information with the FBI.
"We were trying to find a way to bring the Special Operations Command folks together with the FBI folks in Washington so they could discuss the potential impact of having these individuals in the United States," Shaffer told Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm. "Part of the problem with that was, the lawyers didn't allow us to properly go after, either by intelligence collection or by allowing the FBI to to look at these guys, because they were here legally.
"And there was a big issue regarding the fact that these foreign nationals were here in the United States doing things which were, in my judgment, questionable, based on their linkages to the al Qaeda leadership," Shaffer added. "But because they were here legally, again, the lawyers really did not want us going after any information or dealing with them whatsoever at this point in time."
The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks left the Able Danger claims out of its official report. Shaffer doesn't think the panel was given all the information his team had gathered.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
The MSM finally getting around to what we have been talking about for several days
Former commission chairman Thomas Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton said last week that the military official who made the claim had no documentation to back it up.
Shaffer rejected that remark. "Leaving a project targeting al Qaeda as a global threat a year before we were attacked by al Qaeda is equivalent to having an investigation of Pearl Harbor and leaving somehow out the Japanese," he said."
This is the best part of the article.
that was great to see last night. But did you notice how they tried to discredit him saying he filed wrong expense reports?
That is the biggest office politics hit. ANY expense report can be question. EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE~! That does not mean they are wrong or criminal- just that you can easily question them.
The panel did not want that info to surface - ever! Sure am glad that I am not Jamie Gorelick. Even if she was just following orders, it has to be sickening to watch those 911 tapes with the folks jumping off buildings, etc.
The MSM doesn't acknowledge stories that don't fit with it's political agenda until they actually reach Capitol Hill. The fact that a Congressman writes a book and gives interviews, or that the blogs talk about it does not make it "news."
Days I have been screaming about this for years
ONLY because WE ARE talking about it. The MSM would love to bury this story about their hero Ol Zipper Klintoon!
Does anyone else find this absurd?
I cannot believe that this was the reason the DOD lawyers wouldn't allow this thing to go further. Number one, we now know that they WEREN'T here legally, and secondly, this was the Department of Defense, and the lawyers still would have had to review this matter with policy people within the Pentagon.
Somebody's head needs to roll, and I bet it's not a DOD lawyer.
I know I'm wearing my tinfoil hat now, but it is becoming clear that the Clinton administration deliberately protected bin-Laden, AND Saddam Hussein throughout their time in office. The question is why?
When you put it all together, there just seems to be something more sinister here than out of control political correctness.
Have you noticed that in the few articles about the commission, Jamie Gorelick's name is always absent?
Email her and ask her why her name is absent... Email her and ask her all about Able Danger...
jamie.gorelick@wilmerhale.com
TheMSM is quickly trying to bury this.
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