03.05.06
Able Danger Operatives Sue DOD
As reported by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on March 4, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and J.D. Smith, members of the top-secret Able Danger data mining operation, have filed suit against the Dept. of Defense, the Army, and the DIA for denying them access to their attorneys during testimony before Congress.
Shaffer is a Bronze Star recipient and was assigned to the DIA at the time. Following his public disclosure of Able Danger, which included efforts to inform the 9/11 Commission about the program, Shaffer’s security clearance was revoked, allegedlt for “personal and financial improprieties.” He maintains the revocation was in fact in retribution for his disclosures.
Smith is a former Indiana state trooper who was working for defense contractor Orion Scientific Systems when he joined Able Danger.
The suit also alleges that three years after Able Danger was shut down, “the DIA improperly destroyed Able Danger and other files that Shaffer had maintained in his DIA workspace.”
According to the Star-Tribune’s report, “The lawsuit also chronicles attempts by Shaffer and [Able Danger team leader Navy Capt. Scott] Phillpott to tell the Sept. 11 commission about their earlier findings, including an alleged meeting between Shaffer and the panel’s executive director, Philip Zelikow, in Bagram, Afghanistan, in October 2003. The commission’s final report in July 2004 didn’t mention Able Danger.”
The significance of Able Danger is that it had identified three of the 9/11 hijackers (including leader Mohammed Atta) as being part of an Al Qaida cell operating inside the US, contradicting the central finding of the Commission that US intelligence had zero foreknowledge about the plot or its members.
Following categorical denials from the Pentagon concerning Able Danger, Captain Phillpott confirmed its existence and Schaffer’s core claims about it. Phillpott is not a party to the law suit.
