Posted on 09/20/2005 9:08:30 PM PDT by bobsunshine
Able Danger: Pentagon Spikes Witnesses While Shaffer Reveals New Source
The New York Times reports this evening that the Pentagon has blocked its military witnesses from testifying on Able Danger at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings tomorrow. Senator Arlen Specter registered his surprise but plans on holding the hearings anyway (h/t: AJ Strata):
The Pentagon said today that it had blocked a group of military officers and intelligence analysts from testifying at an open Congressional hearing about a highly classified military intelligence program that, the officers have said, identified a ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a potential terrorist more than a year before the attacks.
The announcement came a day before the officers and intelligence analysts had been scheduled to testify about the program, known as Able Danger, at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee. ...
Mr. Specter said his staff had talked to all five of the potential witnesses and found that "credibility has been established" for all of them.
"There are quite a few credible people who are prepared to testify that Mohamed Atta was identified long before 9/11," he said. "Now maybe there's more than one Mohamed Atta. Or maybe there's some mistake. But that's what we're trying to find out."
The Pentagon might think that withdrawing its witnesses will keep Able Danger from breaking wide open, but they will find themselves sorely mistaken. This only demonstrates that the program found something that the Pentagon still wants hidden. If that includes a finding that their program not only found Atta and other AQ terrorists over a year before the attacks, but also predicted the USS Cole attack three weeks before it happened, and that the Pentagon shut down the program anyway, eighteen Senators will want to know why.
In fact, the withdrawal of the witnesses clearly shows that the story has substance and isn't a case of mistaken identity. Had this just been an identification of a second Mohammed Atta, as Specter postulates, the Pentagon should have no problem putting its witnesses on the stand. Nothing about a mistaken identity would create a classification problem for the hearing tomorrow.
QT Monster has a transcript from tonight's interview of LTC Tony Shaffer on the Jerry Doyle radio show. Shaffer says Donald Rumsfeld himself gave the order to stop the witnesses from appearing at the Judiciary Committee hearing:
JD: Well, when you say DoD, where's this coming from at DoD? Is this instructions to DoD from higher ups? Is this people in DoD who are afraid of what information gets out? I mean who is the person who's making this happen? AS: What I will tell you is I was told by 2 DoD officials today directly that it is their understanding that the Secretary of Defense directed that we not testify tomorrow. That is my understanding.
However, Shaffer says that former Major Eric Kleinstadt, now a civilian contractor, will still testify at the panel. Kleinstadt received the orders to destroy the Able Danger database. Specter's insistence that the hearings go forward probably hinges on Kleinstadt's ability to testify to the information that got destroyed, who ordered its destruction, and why. From that point, the committee could unravel an entire command sequence that will uncover how Able Danger got missed by the 9/11 Commission.
Another interesting fact got mentioned in Shaffer's interview. He spoke about a Dr. Eileen Pricer. One of the more mysterious potential sources of the Able Danger story involved a female PhD that could corroborate Shaffer and Phillpott, the woman who actually developed the Atta identification in the first place. I Googled Eileen Pricer and got just one hit -- but it's a doozy.
It turns out that Dr. Pricer testified before a closed session of Congressional subcommittee on national security exactly one month after 9/11. That testimony isn't available, but Rep. Christopher Shays mentions her on the record in the next day's public testimony:
Mr. Shays. In a briefing we had yesterday, we had Eileen Pricer, who argues that we don't have the data we need because we don't take all the public data that is available and mix it with the security data. And just taking public data, using, you know, computer systems that are high-speed and able to digest, you know, literally floors' worth of material, she can take relationships that are seven times removed, seven units removed, and when she does that, she ends up with relationships to the bin Laden group where she sees the purchase of chemicals, the sending of students to universities. You wouldn't see it if you isolated it there, but if that unit is connected to that unit, which is connected to that unit, which is connected to that unit, you then see the relationship. So we don't know ultimately the authenticity of how she does it, but when she does it, she comes up with the kind of answer that you have just asked, which is a little unsettling. Unsettling? Christopher Shays described Able Danger thirty-one days after the 9/11 attacks. What else did Eileen Pricer tell the Congressional subcommittee on national security on October 11, 2001? Did Pricer tell Shays that the information no longer existed but did at one time?
Senator Specter should invite Christopher Shays to have a seat on the witness bench, and he should also start issuing subpoenas for the witnesses that the Pentagon wants to silence. We need answers, and we need to know that our country will fight terrorism with every tool at its disposal.
Specter is the fixer.
It's hard to believe that only a few senators even care about this!! What the hell is going on?
Suspending the hearing until when? He said suspended in the hopes he gets better answers which could be never.
Linking here:
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/terrorism/t_0032.htm
Documents on Terrorism
Statement by Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson Before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; February 7, 2001
Wasn't Kerry on one of these intelligence committees and he never showed for a meeting??
Yeah...that was short and sour.
The prosecutor in Spector still lives. He smells something rotten.
I was wondering about the 'wall', too. I think they were working on demolishing it.
3rd set of notes:
next panel:
FBI Gary Bald, FBI Executive Assis Director Counterterrorism/Counterintelligence
Before 9-ll, sharing info was hampered by "the Wall". Since 9-ll, the Patriot act eliminated "the wall". removed real and perceived barriers. FBI has information sharing agency, Bald says.
The national data exchange.
The regional data exchange
Law Enforcement on line
FBI has 56 agencies, all involved with preventeing terrorism.
Tthe FBI also participates with the National Joint Force Task Force. The FBI is proud of it's cooperation with the military, so says Bald. This includes finger printing those captured by the military in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gitmo.
Other member of panel.
William Dugan, Assistant to Rumsfeld for Intelligence Oversight.
The purpose of our oversight program is to ensure American persons are protected. " Persons" includes more than just "citizens". It includes foreign nationals.
Attorney General approved regulations from back in the 80s are what governs us.
He explains how it was created to protect anti-war demonstrators, civil rights demonstrators, etc.
Dugan explains no one in DOD has mission to collect data on Amreican citizens. In the course of performing our mission, sometimes we inadvertantly identify Americans, that's when the guidelines kick in.
Dugan says in answer to
HEY....Specter didn't swear in these people!!
Specter is trying to nail Dugan,asks again and again, if Able Danger could have helped prevenet 9-ll. Dugan refuses to respond. Dugan is there to dodge! Weldon is shaking his head "no", as he listens to Dugan.
At least Specter clearly nails Dugan as non-responsive, evasive, anad he clearly says, "i know you are here at the bidding of your boss". that would be Rumsfeld.
I had a phone call...is it over? Or in the inimitable lyrics of Peggy Lee...."Is that all there is my friends?"
I have no idea.
I did realize, though, that this was the Judiciary committee and they are responsible for stuff like Posse Commitatus and may be limited in their ability to investigate.
There is Scaffer in the background in uniform
I don't like the way this went.
Specter can issue subpoenas and make people testify.
I am not sure he is going to do it.
The thing I come away with is there is a big stink somewhere and both sides are trying to cover it up.
Yeah... I was pretty impressed. He wants answers and I think he's going to start asking some serious questions.
I'm glad you think so. I don't trust the guy although he did come across as wanting to get to the bottom of this. Don't forget Weldon is a Congressman from suburban Philly, I think.
IIRC, yes. AWOL again. Maybe Kerry was in Paris. or was it Prague?
From the limited time-line given today...coupled with what we have already known...
I cannot imagine WHY Rummy would do anything to stop this...because all of the instances of note...happened BEFORE Bush was POTUS and he was in the DOD!!!
I still wonder if both Clintons might not have a hand in stopping this testimony..
That depends on exactly what is going on. None of us know that. Even Weldon does not know. I would like to see Weldon pause long enough in holding pressers to ask for an appointment to see the President. Take it to the top, Congressman. I am sick of having it automatically assumed that President Bush or Don Rumsfeld are evil. Sick, sick, sick of it.
It could just be for show. The true test will be if they use their subpoena power.
I can't beleive that this will be all that there is to it. I would hope to see further announcements on this.
I can see them holding closed sessions if the testimony becomes classified. I would think that the House and Senate Intelligence Committees would have to hold the hearings, unless Specter and others in this oversight committe have all the right clearances.
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