Able Danger – 9/11 Truth News

Shaffer Forms Spy Firm with Blackwater and Able Danger Vets

Thu, 19 May 2011 05:02:25 +0000

An article at Wired lets us know about “Jellyfish,” a new “corporate-information” company:

Veterans from the most infamous private security firm on Earth and one of the military’s most controversial data mining operations are teaming up to provide the Fortune 500 with their own private spies.

Take one part Blackwater, and another part Able Danger, the military data-mining op that claimed to have identified members of al-Qaida living in the United States before 9/11. Put ‘em together, and you’ve got a new company called Jellyfish.

Jellyfish is about corporate-information dominance. It swears it’s leaving all the spy-world baggage behind. No guns, no governments digging through private records of its citizens.

Jellyfish’s chief technology officer is J.D. Smith, who was part of Able Danger until lawyers for the U.S. Special Operations Command shut the program down in 2000. Also from Able Danger is Tony Shaffer, Jellyfish’s “military operations adviser” and the ex-Defense Intelligence Agency operative who became the public face of the program in dramatic 2005 congressional testimony.

Anthony Shaffer is known to many readers of this blog for his role in Able Danger. Anthony claims that before 9/11, he identified and uncovered 2 of the 3 alleged terrorist cells including Mohamed Atta and other alleged 9/11 hijackers. Shaffer’s testimony and allegations were ignored by Phillip Zelikow and the 9/11 Commission completely.

Anthony has been honest and upfront about not being a “truther.” He further says, “not to say that I don’t believe there are issues that need to be investigated: I do. My focus has been, and will continue to be, on the conspiracies I know for a fact exist.” “Some of you don’t believe in Al Qaeda, I do. Some of you think the Government could’ve done this (9/11), I don’t,” Anthony says. He also asks, “where is our tax-payer money going?” (More here)

In a blog at antiwar.com, the author Kelley B. Vlahos describes Anthony in this way:

Shaffer is hardly a rogue, and certainly not antiwar in the classic sense. But he says he is finding a lot of common ground with people who have long been, or just coming around to, questioning the war. He says his personal story, his struggle to do his job effectively and to “make sure that what was broken in the system got fixed,” revealed to him that the government in many ways was working against itself.

Vlahos was reporting the fact that the Pentagon had ordered each and every one of Anthony’s book, “Operation Dark Heart” and subsequently destroyed all 10,000 copies of the first print.

The book was released in a second print, but with “redactions in over 250 of the 320 pages.” Anthony has filed a lawsuit for infringment on his freedom of speech. From the same Antiwar.com blog:

Arguing his First Amendment right to free speech, Shaffer is suing the Department of Defense, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency to get the original Dark Heart reprinted, sans the big black lines.

And this is from Anthony Shaffer’s blog section at CommandPosts, “a site for the authors of St. Martin’s Press to comment on military news, history, and relevant fiction”:

No matter what one’s rank is, from Private, E-1 through General Officer, it is important—critical—to speak truth to power—whether retired or active duty.

In 2005, at the request of then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and other senior Congressional leaders, I was asked to assist in a Congressional investigation of an operation known as ABLE DANGER and started speaking out about it to the American people. February 15, 2006, I testified in front of the House Armed Services Committee, and shared information about the team’s finding Mohammed Atta’s cell in advance of 9/11. Though the 9/11 Commission failed to include Operation ABLE DANGER in its report, following an IG investigation, the Commission acknowledged ABLE DANGER. However, it was said that there was no evidence to confirm early discovery of Atta.

My testimony details my knowledge of ABLE DANGER, my role in the operations, and the attempts to arrange the transfer of the data (to include that concerning Atta) to the FBI the year before the 9/11 attacks.

Though my testimony is available online, for public access, for reasons that are still unclear to me, DIA attempted to redact specific facts regarding ABLE DANGER, within Operation Dark Heart. After stating that I would have the testimony included in the book as an addendum, DIA backed off some. The chapter still includes redactions—for reasons unknown— but most of the critical information regarding my meeting with Dr. Phillip Zelikow in October 2003 remains intact.

…..

I wrote Operation Dark Heart in a balanced way: I acknowledged and respected security, insured that information that could assist the enemy was not disclosed, and at the same time provided the public a look into a complex world of military and intelligence operations.

Written from my perspective, Operation Dark Heart defines and states the mistakes made, the lessons we need to learn, and suggestions for success in the future. I’d like to see the military and our government learn from past mistakes, rather than repeat them. It may be a long shot, but one can always hope

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9/11 Whistleblower Shaffer: I'm Not a Truther

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:22:52 +0000

On January 20th, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer came to Wayne PA to speak at the Anthony Wayne Movie Theater. Shaffer is a 9/11 whistleblower. Within the last year, he released a book entitled, Operation Dark Heart. The Pentagon heavily redacted the book. They purchased the first 10,000 copies that weren’t redacted, and burned them. As Peter Lance points out:

“Shaffer’s book rips the lid off several stories the bureaucrats wanted to suppress: the role of a program named Able Danger in yielding information that could have uncovered the 9/11 plot; Operation Dark Heart, which could have nabbed Al Qaeda’s number two leader; and early indications that Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, actively supported the Taliban. These are the incendiary bombs the censors tried to defuse. And this is the real story of Tony Shaffer’s book.”

The Pakistani ISI was alleged to have a role in the 9/11 attacks. The United States Government has gone to great lengths to cover up their alleged involvement. I wanted to ask Anthony if he thought this was part of the reason the Pentagon wanted the ISI’s relationship to the Taliban/terrorists redacted from the book. I got my chance.

Anthony will tell you that he’s not a “truther.” However, he acknowledges that there needs to be a common ground between us if we are to be successful. With that, I agree.

The following videos are from Anthony’s talk:

Jon Gold Questions 9/11 Whistleblower Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer

The “Best Of” Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer

Q&A With 9/11 Whistleblower Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer

Common Ground

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ABLE DANGER Whistleblower Sues Pentagon and CIA

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:33:17 +0000

An Army Reserve colonel is suing the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies, claiming that they violated his free speech rights by blocking the distribution of his book over concerns it threatened national security.

Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer’s First Amendment lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., targets the Defense Department for buying 9,500 copies of his book, “Operation Dark Heart” for $50,000 and destroying them. The lawsuit also names the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency as defendants.

“Because the defendants have impermissibly infringed upon Shaffer’s right to publish unclassified information in Operation Dark Heart, they have violated Shaffer’s First Amendment rights,” the lawsuit says.

The suit provides a rare insight into the internal review process for the publication of books based on the search for senior Al Qaeda leadership in post-9/11 Afghanistan.

The lawsuit was filed by national security lawyer Mark Zaid and alleges that the book was compiled by Shaffer along with a former Washington Post reporter and author, Jacqui Salmon, who used unclassified or “open source” documents and independent interviews. The manuscript was submitted to Shaffer’s Army Reserve chain of command for review in June 2009 and ultimately given “a favorable legal and operational security review” in January. The court documents state, “the Army Reserve believed that the book had been reviewed and approved as having been completely clear of any classified information.”

The suit alleges that the Defense Intelligence Agency “claims to have first learned of Operation Dark Heart on or about May 27, 2010” and then leaned on the Army Reserve to withdraw its clearance of the book. “It was noted that there was ‘tremendous pressure’ being brought upon the Army by DIA to withdraw the Reserve’s approval for the publication of the book,” the lawsuit alleges, adding that “Shaffer was told to be aware there is a ‘huge target on your back…’”

Three weeks later, on July 22,. “a DIA public affairs official allegedly called Shaffer and informed him that DIA had read the manuscript and claimed it contained ‘classified information.’” The suit contends that the DIA’s requests for minor edits turned into sweeping requests to withdraw or modify information already in the public domain.

“Contrary to the initial statements by the defendants as to the ‘surgical editing’ that was to be undertaken, the defendants requested significant changes to include modifying information that had been previously declassified, taken from open sources or obtained by Ms. Salmon, Shaffer’s ghost writer.”

The suit continues: “Eventually, approximately 250 pages out of 320 pages of Operation Dark Heart were required to contain redactions in order to allegedly prevent the disclosure of classified information. Little to none of this information, however, is actually classified.” To back up these claims, the suit lists various media organizations and websites that obtained advance copies of the book and compared the redacted portions to publicly available information.

The suit says that the DIA’s efforts “are part of a continuing bad faith retaliatory campaign against Shaffer that dates back to 2004 when DIA initiated a frivolous action against him to revoke his security clearance. The Army Reserve discounted the allegations and in the midst of the DIA’s efforts, and with full knowledge of them, nevertheless promoted Shaffer to Lt. Col. In 2005, Shaffer became a national security whistleblower when he publicly claimed that a covert Pentagon task force called ‘ABLE DANGER’ which he was part of, had identified Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker in the September 11th attacks, before the assaults on New York and the Pentagon.”

In October, a document obtained by Fox News and interviews with witnesses raised new questions over whether there was an effort by the Defense Department to cover up the pre-9/11 military intelligence program “Able Danger.” At least five witnesses questioned by the Defense Department’s inspector general told Fox News that their statements were distorted by investigators in the final IG’s report – or it left out key information, backing up assertions that the lead hijacker was identified one year before 9/11.

Fox News, as part of an ongoing investigation by its specials unit, exclusively obtained a clean copy of the IG report and spoke to several principal witnesses, including an intelligence and data collector who asked that she not be named. The witness told Fox News that she was interview twice by a Defense Department investigator. She said she told the investigator that it was a highly likely a department database included the picture of Atta, whom she knew under an alias, Mohammed el-Sayed.

In addition, the court documents state “the Department of Army has initiated an internal 15-6 investigation into Shaffer and the publication of his book. That investigation remains on going.”

Spokesmen for the CIA and DIA said they would not comment on pending litigation. In at least one case, the agency had not seen the suit. There was no immediate response from the Defense Department.

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Witnesses Suggest Cover-Up of 9/11 Findings

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:06:40 +0000

A document obtained and witnesses interviewed by Fox News raise new questions over whether there was an effort by the Defense Department to cover up a pre-9/11 military intelligence program known as “Able Danger.”

At least five witnesses questioned by the Defense Department’s Inspector General told Fox News that their statements were distorted by investigators in the final IG’s report — or it left out key information, backing up assertions that lead hijacker Mohammed Atta was identified a year before 9/11. …

The witness told Fox News she was interviewed twice by a Defense Department investigator. She said she told the investigator that it was highly likely a department database included the picture of Atta, whom she knew under an alias, Mohammed el-Sayed.

“When it came to the picture, (the investigator) he was fairly hostile,” the witness told Fox News. She said it seemed the investigator just didn’t want to hear it. “Meaning that he’d ask the same question over and over again, and, you know, you get to the point you go, well, you know… it’s the same question, it’s the same answer.”

The IG report didn’t accurately reflect her statements to investigators, she said, adding that she doesn’t think the investigator simply misunderstood her.

Lt. Col Tony Shaffer, an operative involved with Able Danger, said he was interviewed three times by Defense investigators. He claims it was an effort to wear down the witnesses and intimidate them. Two other witnesses, one a military contractor and the other a retired military officer, said they had the same experience. The two witnesses spoke to Fox News on the condition of anonymity because they said they feared retaliation. A fifth witness told Fox that statements to investigators were ignored.

“My last interview was very, very hostile,” Shaffer told Fox News last month before he was ordered by the department not to discuss portions of his book, “Operation Dark Heart,” which included a chapter on the Able Danger data mining project.

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Pentagon Burns Copies of Book Revealing "Able Danger"

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:59:19 +0000

The Pentagon has burned 9,500 copies of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer’s memoir “Operation Dark Heart,” his book about going undercover in Afghanistan.

A Department of Defense official tells Fox News that the department purchased copies of the first printing because they contained information which could cause damage to national security.

The U.S. Army originally cleared the book for release.

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency attempted to block the book about the tipping point in Afghanistan and a controversial pre-9/11 data mining project called “Able Danger.”

In a letter obtained by Fox News, the DIA says national security could be breached if “Operation Dark Heart” is published in its current form. The agency also attempted to block key portions of the book that claim “Able Danger” successfully identified hijacker Mohammed Atta as a threat to the United States before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

9/11 hijacker identified before attacks?

Specifically, the DIA wanted references to a meeting between Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, the book’s author, and the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow, removed. In that meeting, which took place in Afghanistan, Shaffer alleges the commission was told about “Able Danger” and the identification of Atta before the attacks. No mention of this was made in the final 9/11 report.

Shaffer, who was undercover at the time, said there was “stunned silence” at the meeting after he told the executive director of the commission and others that Atta was identified as early as 2000 by “Able Danger.”

“Dr. Philip Zelikow approached me in the corner of the room. ‘What you said today is very important. I need you to get in touch with me as soon as you return from your deployment here in Afghanistan’,” Shaffer said.

Once back in the U.S., Shaffer says he contacted the commission. Without explanation, the commission was no longer interested. An inspector general report by the Department of Defense concluded there was no evidence to support the claims of Shaffer and others. But Fox News has obtained an unredacted copy of the IG report containing the names of witnesses, who backed up Shaffer’s story when contacted for comment.

Atta was the alleged ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers and piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center.

Shaffer spoke to Fox News before he was asked by the military not to discuss the book. He confirmed efforts to block the book and other details.

Calling the move “highly unusual,” he explained that the book had already been cleared for release when the DIA stepped in.

“Apparently, Defense Intelligence Agency took exception to the way the Army cleared the book,” he told Fox News.

The DOD says Shaffer and the book’s publisher ‘voluntarily agreed’ to remove what it deemed to be classified information prior to the book’s first printing.

“Given the sensitive nature of this request and the potential damage to national security, the Department of Defense had every reason to believe that this would be handled with the utmost discretion by all of the parties. Unfortunately, someone disclosed to the press these ongoing efforts before the Department of Defense had the opportunity to finish working with the publisher on a corrected version,” a DOD official told Fox News.

The DOD is currently working with the publisher to ‘mitigate the resulting effects of the disclosures,’ the official said.

The documents and exclusive interviews, including an Army data collector on the Able Danger Project, are part of an ongoing investigation by the documentary unit “Fox News Reporting” which uncovered new details about American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and efforts by the FBI to track and recruit him for intelligence purposes after 9/11.

Graphic by Jon Gold

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9/11 Justice: Able Danger

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 05:24:30 +0000

With regards to Able Danger, at the very least, people should be held accountable for obstruction of justice, retaliation against whistleblowers, gross incompetence, etc. At the very worst, well, you know…

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