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.
New layers have been peeled back.
This story just got 100 times more interesting.
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.
And I'm VERY, VERY disappointed in Rumsfeld for trying to shut down testimony. And I'm disappointed in the extreme at the president as he must surely be giving the orders to Rumsfeld.
I'm tired of our government covering crap up.
Methinks this goes above Rumsfeld all the way to Clinton's buddy/protector George W. Bush.
How do you think they had photos of all 19 hijackers only days after the attack?
I've asked that very question before!
When AD first came to light, I asked if media reports ID'd Atta on 9/11 or 9/12. That that time, some freepers gave me sources that show Atta was ID'd on 9/11.
So then I started asking how we knew, on the very day of the worst attacks in American history, just WHO did it!
It's because of Able Danger and Clinton cronies in the Pentagon and State Department, CIA, etc., ALL knew that he was here and up to no good.
Remember, the FBI had been concerned about the Middle Eastern men taking flight lessons, but no one would listen to them.
And now Rumsfeld and the president are giving Clinton cronies and corruption cover. I'm ready to fly off the handle about that, let me tell you.
Google?
I don't know which way to come down on this. I enjoy a good Clinton bashing as much as the next guy (Lord knows he deserves it), but if there is any reasonable chance that a public (and even closed door meetings with politicians involved may as well be public) investigation would compromise our terror defense efforts, it would probably be better left not done.
I believe that there have likely been numerous terror attack attempts since 9-11 that have been thwarted with no public information let out. That is a good thing. We should keep our methods as hidden from the terrorists as possible.
On the political side, President Bush is being very far-sighted in not attacking back at Clinton and others. History, I believe, will prove that he was a very good, perhaps even great, president. This is not satisfying for many of us amateur pundits, who want our pound of flesh NOW, but I think he is doing the right thing, which includes his practical application of the Christian teachings that guide his life. He has not played the blame game during his presidency, except with regard to terrorists and the Axis of Evil. He has tried to tone down the rhetoric in his administration, while the dems have ratcheted up. This will continue to hurt them, as we shall see in 2006 and 2008. Patience, my friends, and (to borrow a phrase from the other side), Courage.
By the way, has the "wall" been knocked down yet? Just wondering.
All we need to know is three things:
1) Did Able Danger identify Atta and/or the Brooklyn Cell.
2) Who did they warn about Atta or the Brooklyn Cell.
3) Who shut them down.
That's it. That doesn't compromise any current program. Or anyone.
Does Sandy Buglar's sentence tell you anything?
I just can't go there in my mind just yet.
.....It is very difficult for me to believe that Rumsfeld would do this capriciously ............
You have made a good analysis. There is a good reason for Rummy's action.
.....And now Rumsfeld and the president are giving Clinton cronies and corruption cover......
Perhaps you have misinterpreted events. Perhaps the cover is to something other than Clinton.
"At a time and place of my choosing" says W.
I can see it now... Specter offers up the 'multiple Atta' theory.
Could this be the way he is getting the media to jump on the story???
I just can't go there in my mind just yet.
I suggest you get over whatever is preventing you from applying the same critical reasoning we all used against X-42 Krintong, and apply it against GWB.
"New Tone" is one thing...but we've all seen the cracks in the veneer before (can you say Clymer? How about Cheney and Leaky Leahy's famous expletive exchange?). Why is it that we can't EVER drop the hammer of responsibility on X-42 where it belongs?
Can you say 900+ Republicans compromised by Hillary's FBI Files that are STILL in positions of authority, and are STILL being blackmailed?!?!
Sorry, until the compromised and compromisable have been purged, the DemonRATs and Hillary ARE running the show!
While I agree with a lot of your analysis, I have to mention that Curt Weldon, who has written a book about national security, is certainly in a position to know, through all his research about this matter, whether a hearing will compromise assets currently in place.
And there are work arounds for dealing with that.
What we really need to know, and what our committee should be able to control, are three things:
1) Was Atta and the Brooklyn cell identified pre 9/11.
2) Who was told about Atta and the Brooklyn cell.
3) Who shut down Able Danger and ordered information destroyed.
If those questions can't be answered without hurting national security, then how is it that the 9/11 Commission was able to hold months of hearings which asked questions of our intelligence agencies?
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