Officer Says 2 Others Are Source of His Atta Claims

Washington Post ^ | 8/19/2005 | Dan Eggen

[americaprd]

The former intelligence officer who says that a Defense Department program identified Mohamed Atta and three other hijackers before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said yesterday that many of his allegations are not based on his memory but on the recollections of others.

Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, who has been on paid administrative leave from the Defense Intelligence Agency since his security clearance was suspended in March 2004, said in a telephone interview that a Navy officer and a civilian official affiliated with the Able Danger program told him after the attacks that Atta and other hijackers had been included on a chart more than a year earlier.

But because he was not intimately familiar with the names and photographs of suspected terrorists, he did not realize that hijackers were listed until it was alleged to him after the attacks, Shaffer said. All of the charts that could support his claims have disappeared, he said.

[pinz-n-needlez]

Thanks. I've been thinking of that movie on and off as this stuff has been coming out. Or at least my fuzzy impression of it. I gave up on Tom Cruise movies years ago. lol

Pinz

[Fruit of the Spirit]

FYI: Documentary on Sept. 11 will leave you sadder; wiser. Written by Frazier Moore, Associated Press

(excerpts)

But however daunting, "Inside 9/11" is an invaluable record. And no matter how much you may think you know about Sept. 11 (maybe even more than you want to) you will come away from this two-night miniseries sadder, yet almost certainly wiser.

Airing from 9 to 11 p.m. Sunday and Monday on the National Geographic Channel, the film unfolds with awful inevitability. But it is in no rush to arrive at the events of Sept., 11, 2001.

Indeed, Sunday's program -- "War on America" -- devotes itself to setting the stage. It reaches back into history, including the 1979 Soviet-Afghan war as Osama bin Laden was transformed from the privileged son of a self-made billionaire into a terrorist mastermind.

entire article at:
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/08/20/100ae_documentary001.cfm

[pinz-n-needlez]

Thanks, I'll try to watch it. Tissues will be in order, no doubt. :-(

I wonder how many of these documentaries, and the slew of first release movies that are in the works, will be out-of-date with the new info about Able Danger.

Will they make new versions if it is shown that Clinton was warned, had reason to act but didn't, and so bears the blood of 3000 people?

Pinz

[Fruit of the Spirit]

"Will they make new versions if it is shown that Clinton was warned, had reason to act but didn't, and so bears the blood of 3000 people? "

The left is already attempting to put the blame on Bush because, they say, he had 7 months to turn the tide. Unlike the 2 YEARS that Clinton had...never mind that he also ignored all the other attacks.

[Cicero]

"Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, who has been on paid administrative leave from the Defense Intelligence Agency since his security clearance was suspended in March 2004"

OK, let's give this a clintonoid parsing. "Has been on" is, it seems to me, a deliberately ambiguous use of the verb tense. It allows two interpretations: that he is still on administrative leave, or that he was on administrative leave for a while in the past but has now been reinstated.

Most readers would carelessly read it the first way, and assume that he is still suspended from his job, but other comments this thread suggest that he has since been promoted, which makes that reading very unlikely.

I think that the ComPost editors introduced this ambiguous and obscure verb tense in order to confuse the reader and leave a false impression that Schaffer is untrustworthy, while still leaving the ComPost wiggle room to claim that they were being misinterpreted if anyone tries to correct them.