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.
http://www.intelligence.gov/1-members.shtml
Quoting from the website:
"Three major intelligence agencies in the Department of Defense (DoD) - the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) - absorb the larger part of the national intelligence budget. NSA is responsible for signals intelligence and has collection sites throughout the world. "
Nevertheless, given that NSA is tasked with "signals collection" this doesn't sound like their playing field to me.
Yep, I read a little further and saw that you found it out, see my 555.
Though in general, it sounds as if anyone can alter info at wikipedia, but what you found out is correct about that.
I think that's at least one central issue in this whole thing. Congress did not want DOD collecting information on "U.S. persons", but that hampered investigation of people who could reasonably be considered terrorist threats. Personally, I don't have any problem with the DOD investigating potential terrorists, whether they're "U.S. persons" or not.
The reference is here, but not much more to add:
Look for entry 1 November 1998.
Savage covering Able Danger now!!
Was just going to post it!
Here's a link for online listening to Savage:
http://www.910knew.com/listenlive.html
Post #9 is exactly what I was going to say, perhaps not as well, so thanks. Now I don't have to do all that typing. ;)
bttt
Brit is going to cover AD too.
Will try to take notes.
"I can't believe Bush and Rumsfeld aren't boosting this effort. I thought we were fighting a war on terror and "anyone NOT WITH US IS AGAINST US.""
Unbelievable!! Best point I've read in weeks and weeks. Bravo, FRiend!!
If this gets swept under the rug IT WILL BE LIKE 3,000 people DYING ALL OVER AGAIN
I'm glad you think those questions are the most pertinent. All the rest is just dressing.
But the Congress will try to make it more confusing than it needs to be because Congress makes the laws under which covert agents operate and how intelligence can be collected.
If it's true that the Able Danger information had to be destroyed under the 90 day rule and Regulations as passed by Executive Order and/or Congress, then shame on them.
Thanks Peach. Outstanding, I may not go home tonight.
I support and really love this president. And I rarely criticize him. However, unless we want to be just an echo chamber for the administration, I do think that it is legitimate to comment on where/when we see the administration go astray.
And it is indisputable, imo, that the PR machine for the White House is simply horrible. There are many times that freepers have defended the administration better than the administration has defended itself. And we've done it with facts, not just being a cheerleading team.
The hearing will be replayed tonight on C-Span
09:25 PM EDT
2:19 (est.)
Senate Committee
Able Danger and Intelligence Sharing
Judiciary
Arlen Specter , R-PA
Curt Weldon , R-PA
Thanks for telling us that, YaYa. Do you know if they are being replayed on C-Span 3 again? Because I don't get that one on my cable. I listened online today.
LOL. Go home; I'll take notes as best I can.
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