Pentagon Blocks Able Danger Testimony

Newsmax ^ | Sept. 21, 2005 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[ovrtaxt]

With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

	For the story behind the story...

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005 12:55 a.m. EDT

Pentagon Blocks Able Danger Testimony

Pentagon lawyers have ordered five members of the Able Danger intelligence team not to testify at an open Senate in hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning about information they developed on lead 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta a year before the 9/11 attacks.

"We have been told I cannot testify tomorrow," Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer told ABC Radio host Sean Hannity. "We have been told to stand down."

Lt. Col. Shaffer, who was the Defense Intelligence Agency's liaison officer to Able Danger, said he was preparing his testimony for the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday afternoon when he was told that the hearing "will be classified, it will be secret."

Hours after Lt. Col. Shaffer revealed that he'd been muzzled, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman told the New York Times that open testimony on Able Danger "would not be appropriate."

"We have expressed our security concerns and believe it is simply not possible to discuss Able Danger in any great detail in an open public forum."

However Shaffer maintained that he intended to discuss only details on the program already made public by Pennsylvania Congressman Curt Weldon, a chief advocate of the intense data mining developed by Able Danger.

Lt. Col. Shaffer's lawyer, Mark Zaid, told United Press International that Able Danger team members "were told verbally that they would not be allowed to testify," and that he had requested the decision about his client be put in writing.

Zaid said that the team leader, Navy Capt. Scott Philpott, a civilian analyst named James Smith and other members of the team had all been denied permission to testify.

Judiciary Committee Chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter told the New York Times late Tuesday that he intended to go ahead with the hearing on Wednesday and hoped that it "may produce a change of heart by the Department of Defense in answering some very basic questions."

Lt. Col. Shaffer was clearly frustrated by the bid to muzzle him and the other Able Danger witnesses.

"I'm past the point of no return here. I'm committed to this course of action," he told Hannity. "I'm truly sorry that it appears right now that the Department of Defense is more worried about saving face than they are about getting the truth out."

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[sgtbono2002]

If and when I find out , you can read it at Newsmax and the Drudge report.

[expatpat]

Perhpas, but more likely a laudable reluctance to discuss our data mining intelligence methods in public.

[Kewlhand`tek]

wtf is the enemy going to learn from the hearings? that some people in government will know about them(the enemy), others wont and others will try to cover up the fact that they exist.If anything it will embolden the enemy i guess. in that case I say bring'm on

[bmwcyle]

E-mail, write, call Congress today. Tell them you want the truth!!!!

[mmercier]

>> The solution is simple: answer the damn questions without compromising national security. Or maybe we shouldn't hold the military accountable - at any time - because it might "compromise" our security? Man, the Bushbots just keep coming out of the woodwork.

Sorry for the late post... I have been away.

I am no bushbot, but I do have relatives in uniform and out of uniform currently serving the Republic.

Compromise nothing. People are dying out there every day at every moment. When your enemy gives you the courtesy of full disclosure then I will sanction our side giving same.

Suck it up cupcake; in this fight there are the quick and the dead, none twain.