A Pentagon Whitewash

Those on-again, off-again Senate Judiciary Committee hearings concerning a once-secret military intelligence unit called "Able Danger" are off, again.

Citing national security concerns, top Defense Department officials refused to allow key witnesses to testify last week, setting off a firestorm of criticism from both the right and the left. Those same unnamed officials abruptly reversed course this week -- their previous concern over our (their?) security presumably vaporized -- and decided the witnesses could appear before the Committee, at new hearings set for October 5.

But the hearings were then "postponed" -- supposedly in deference to the forthcoming Jewish holidays -- and have yet to be rescheduled.

What is the significance of Able Danger, and why are Defense officials so adamant about keeping the lid on? One person who was permitted to testify last week, attorney Mark Zaid, represents two members of the clandestine unit that identified Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers as threats a year before the attacks.

Both Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, a civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and reserve officer within the U.S. Army, and Mr. James Smith, a defense contractor at the time with Orion Scientific Systems, remember Atta's picture or name being on a chart in 2000 -- information they repeatedly tried to turn over to the FBI, and later did disclose to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States (informally known as the Sept. 11 commission) that investigated the attacks.

What precisely was Able Danger, and how did it work? As Zaid explained:

In the most understandable and simplistic terms, Able Danger involved the searching out and compiling of open source or other publicly available information regarding specific targets or tasks that were connected through associational links. No classified information was used. No government data base systems were used.

With respect to Al Qaeda, the starting point were those terrorists who were associated with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the New York City terror plots. Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the blind Sheik, was one of those individuals who served as a focal point. ... What was being explored were associational links between individuals, meaning person "A" who was associated with Sheik Abdel-Rahman, and then identifying person "B" who was associated with person "A" and so on. Essentially, think in your mind how the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" operates. That is a simplistic explanation of part of Able Danger's activities.

Zaid testified that all Able Danger records were destroyed under orders of the Army between December 2000 and March 2001. Additionally, duplicate documentation maintained by Lt Col. Shaffer at his office was also destroyed -- for reasons unknown -- by DIA in Spring 2004.

Meanwhile, DOD has muzzled Lt. Col. Shaffer. In response to my request for an interview, Zaid's law partner Roy Krieger said DIA told them their client is not to talk to anyone about any aspect of the explosive charges until further notice.

Before he was silenced, however, Shaffer was interviewed on the Jerry Doyle radio program. On air, Shaffer spoke of what he called "an effort to purposely, deliberately, slam me and try to discredit me before I go before the committee." He also said he was told directly by two DOD officials that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield was behind the decision not to allow him and other analysts to testify.

Shaffer detailed how the government spent close to $400,000 trying to discredit him, and said he believes his Top Secret security clearance was revoked as a result of his decision to go public with information about the Able Danger program. As attorney Zaid told the committee,

Lt. Col. Shaffer's security clearance problems were connected to his work on Able Danger, and the coincidences of the timing should not be overlooked. An investigation was initiated and his security clearance suspended by the DIA shortly after it became known that he had provided information to the 9/11 Commission. The revocation of his security clearance conveniently took place two days ago just as he was preparing for his testimony before this Committee. As part of my law practice I specialize in security clearance cases. That is why I was retained by Lt. Col. Shaffer in the first place. Based on years of experience I can say categorically that the basis for the revocation was questionable at best.

And as Shaffer told Jerry Doyle: "If they can do this to me, if they can do this to me who has given my entire life, 22 years to work in defense of this country, if they can do this to me over this issue, they can do this to anybody.