Congressman wants new Able Danger probe

By Aussiegirl

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Penn. delivered a stinging speech from the well of the House on the 19th of October, in which he demanded a probe into the campaign which is being waged to discredit Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer. In addition to the information already disclosed that Able Danger had identified Mohammed Atta more than a year prior to 9/11, Rep. Weldon revealed that Able Danger had also warned the Navy not to send the U.S.S. Cole to Yemen because of information it had uncovered. The Cole was sent, and many men lost their lives in the attack on the ship.

It appears that in addition to stripping the career officer of his security clearance, the Defense Department seems to be attempting to sever his pension, thereby removing his children from any medical plan. In addition, classified materials were sent to Col. Shaffer in a move that certainly appeared to involve the attempt to frame him for unauthorized possession of classified documents. One of the reasons ostensibly given for possible termination of Col. Shaffer is that he once stole pencils - government property, even though Col. Shaffer was at the time a 15-year-old and admitted to his prospective employer on his application questionnaire that he had taken the pens from his father's office when his father was stationed at a foreign embassy. He had taken them in order to distribute them as souvenirs to his friends.

If the government is sinking to such ludicrous and outrageous depths in order to silence this man (and incidentally many others who will corroborate his story) then there is obviously something serious here that both the Bush and Clinton administrations are eager to suppress. There may be more to this strange love of the Bushes for the Clintons than meets the eye. It may be that both administrations dropped the intelligence ball when it came to preventing 9/11. There is evidence that the Bush administration was briefed on Able Danger and the link to Atta and his cell, which could well explain the eagerness by both sides to supress this information. The American people deserve better.

United Press International - Congressman wants new Able Danger probe

A vocal House Republican is calling for a new probe into what he says is a "witch-hunt" by defense officials against a Sept. 11 intelligence whistleblower.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Penn., told United Press International that officials at the Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, had "conducted a deliberate campaign of character assassination" against the whistleblower, retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer.

Shaffer has said that a highly classified Pentagon data-mining project he worked on, codenamed Able Danger, identified the ringleaders of the Sept. 11 terror attacks as linked to al-Qaida more than a year before they hijacked four planes and crashed them, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Weldon told UPI he had written to the Department of Defense inspector general to ask for "an immediate formal inquiry, with people testifying under oath," into what he called "a clear witch-hunt" against Shaffer, who has been on administrative leave while minor allegations about some expenses are investigated.

Weldon's move comes after Shaffer said that boxes of his personal effects, returned to him by the DIA earlier this month, contained both government property and classified documents.

"Sending classified material through the mail is a felony, and much more serious than any of these minor, trumped up charges against (Shaffer)," he said, adding that "I want the appropriate persons held accountable."

Weldon said that the DIA had now taken steps to fire Shaffer. "It's outrageous and scandalous," he said.

A DIA spokesman had no immediate comment.