9/11 - Disabling Able DangerMon Oct 24, 2005 00:1364.140.158.81
Disabling Able Danger
Government/Barbara Anderson b12anderson@msn.com
October 22, 2005 - Able Danger came across the public’s radar screen in August, 2005. Helping this along was Representative Curt Weldon, who predicted that members of the 9/11 Commission would have “egg all over their faces” when the briefings they received on an elite group of military intelligence analysts, code named Able Danger, were made known. Weldon remarked that “The 9/11 Commission is trying to spin this because they’re embarrassed at what’s coming out”. In further angry remarks he noted that “In two weeks with two staffers, I’ve uncovered more in this regard than they did with 80 staffers and $15 million of taxpayers’ money!” He also claimed that “there’s something very sinister that’s going on here that really troubles me.”
The 9/11 Commission gave its participants the opportunity to come to the conclusion that there was enough blame to go around. CYA translation: “Don’t blame me!” Because of the different government agencies involved, it was difficult to follow the testimony, which was beyond the ordinary citizen to comprehend. This hearing might be gone and forgotten, as is the result of so many committee hearings, except that some whistleblowers became vocal about what they knew to be true and pertinent and covered up.
Whistleblowers are mostly vulnerable people who must blow the whistle on those who are usually their superiors, and those up the ladder in power. Laws have been enacted to protect whistleblowers, but to use those laws it takes the will and a certain amount of power.
LTC Anthony Shaffer, involved in Able Danger, went public in a big way, appearing on different talk shows. He, therefore, invoked the considerable wrath of those in the federal government on whom he was blowing the whistle. Retaliation came.
Rep. Weldon reports:
“They have gagged the military officers. They have prevented them from talking to any member of Congress, They have prevented them from talking to the media. And the Defense Intelligence Agency has began a process to destroy the career and the life of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer.“
So what has happened to Lieutenant Colonel Shaffer?
According to Representative Weldon, one day before the Lieutenant Colonel was to testify before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, in uniform, they permanently removed his security clearance. And now our Defense Intelligence Agency has told Colonel Shaffer’s lawyer that they plan to seek a permanent removal of his pay and his health care benefits for him and his two children . Why? Because Lieutenant Colonel Shaffer, like other Able Danger employees, has told the truth.
Representative Weldon compared the treatment of LTC Shaffer to that of Sandy Berger, member of the Clinton administration, who took documents out of the National Archives before he was to testify before the Commission. According to Representative Weldon, that is a felony, tampering with Federal documents and removing classified information regarding our security and information that the 9/11 Commission needed to see. Berger initially lied about it. Then, he admitted it and was given a punishment. Berger’s punishment included a temporary lifting of his security clearance. He will get it back again, despite his lying, stealing and committing an act of outrage regarding this country’s security.
LTC Shaffer, a Bronze Star 23-year military veteran, told the truth and his life is being systematically ruined. They have suspended him, and are about to take away his health care and the salary that he has earned. They do not want to fire him because they do not want him to go to the media. Under suspension, he cannot talk. They have planted scurrilous accusations with the media. They have trumped up charges against him, from serious to merely laughable, as accusing him of stealing pens when he was 15 years old, in their zeal to destroy this whistleblower.
What do the Able Danger people want us to know? That there were those who were tracking al Queda here and abroad before 9/11. Their reports were either not taken seriously or were suppressed. There were cells in Hamburg, San Diego, Phoenix, Minnesota, Norman, Oklahoma, and Brooklyn, among others. For whatever reason, reports did not reach the right places or were ignored. LTC Shaffer, and others, were ready to testify. They were never called. According to Representative Weldon, in September of 2000, over one year before 9/11, the Able Danger team attempted on three separate occasions to provide information
to the FBI about the Brooklyn cell of al Qaeda, and on three separate occasions they were denied by lawyers in the previous administration to transfer that information. Was this some of the information Sandy Berger was trying to remove from the record?
Perhaps the intelligence apparatus high up in the federal government could have allowed this story to die. Perhaps if they had not set about to destroy a valuable member of their own intelligence gathering apparatus, Representative Weldon would not have pursued what he knew had a stink to it. However, Weldon reacted as few in Washington do. He came out swinging in defense of one man, in particular, and Able Danger, in general.
It is well to remember what Weldon, an insider, said: “There’s something very sinister going on here that really troubles me.”
Barbara Anderson lives in a large city on the West coast. Things that are important to her are: God, family, country, heritage and borders. She enjoys music, painting and song writing.
b12anderson@msn.com
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Curt Weldon: Gorelick Aide Blocked Able Danger Testimony
NewsMax.com, FL - Oct 21, 2005
... Justice Department official Jamie Gorelick blocked the 9/11 Commission from hearing bombshell testimony about the elite Able Danger military intelligence team ...
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