Date: August 4, 2006 1:57:16 AM PDT
Subject: [SPY NEWS] Why is Operation Able Danger such a secret?
WHY IS OPERATION ABLE DANGER SUCH A SECRET??
Submitted by swiftdon on January 5, 2006 - 5:48pm.
After all the contradictory answers, it is clear that the Bush
Administration does not want Americans to know about Able Danger. Who
can doubt that Al Qaeda and most foreign intelligence agencies know
what was going on? The following is what little we know. Who can
blame us from drawing troubling inferences?
In 1999, the Pentagon Special Operations Command established Able-
Danger, a secret program, to gather information on Al Qaeda. In that
year, it had identified Mohammed Atta, the architect of 9-11, and
three others as members of the cell that attacked the World Trade
complex in 1993. .Atta would mastermind the 9-11, and the other three
were also among the hijackers.
Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, who worked at the DIA, became aware of
Atta and his three colleagues in mid-2000. Shaffer informed the FBI
of what was known about these four Al Quada operatives. He urged the
arrest of Atta, but Pentagon lawyers became involved to prevent the
arrest. The lawyers claimed they had problems recommending action
against someone holding a green card. But Atta did not have a green
card or a valid entry visa. He came to the US three times on a
visitor's visa. The Pentagon is now denying that it knew anything
about these people before 9-11.
When the Kean Commission came into being, Shaffer personally informed
its executive director, Dr. Philip Zelikow, about Able-Danger and
what was known about Atta and the three other hijackers. Zelikow did
not give this information to the commission and did not include it in
the document. Zelikow said it was "not historically relevant."1
Zeliknow had been on loan from the White House National Security
Office and is now special counsellor to his friend, Secretary of
State Rice.
Eventually the Army destroyed th4e Able Danger files on Atta claiming
this was necessary because he was a "US person" under the meaning of
legislation that said the military could only retain intelligence
information on US persons for 90 days. In February and March of 2001,
Able Danger was shut down by the Defense Department, only to be
reactivated later. Shaffer, a Bronze medal winner, lost his security
clearance as well as his DIA job. He was forbidden to appear before
the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, this decision was later
reversed
While in Afghanistan, Shaffer told what he knew to Dr. Philip
Zelikow, then US ambassador there. Zelikow expressed great interest
in the information but avoided seeing Shaffer when the colonel
attempted to contact him in Washington.
Former FBI director Louis Freeh has used this to sell his book,
claiming the Clintons kept him from hunting Al Qaeda. Of course, he
is a very partisan Republican and has never explained why three good
leads within his agency were quashed or why he did not stand by John
O'Neill, the best terrorist hunter we have had to date.
Two conclusions are inescapable. (1) There was great reluctance on
the part of the Pentagon, under both Clinton and Bush, to act on the
knowledge it had about Atta and his three friends.( 2) Now it is
clear to all, that it is busy denying it had this knowledge, and it
was mightily assisted in this cover-up by the executive director of
the 9-11 commission.
There was great reluctance on the part of the Pentagon, under both
Clinton and Bush, to act on the knowledge it had about Atta and his
three friends. Now it is clear to all, that it is busy denying it had
this knowledge, and it was mightily assisted in this cover-up by the
executive director of the 9-11 commission.
Republicans note it was the Clinton Pentagon that failed to act on
information about these terrorists. However, it was under Freeh, a
very partisan Republican, that the FBI repeatedly failed to act on
information that could have been used to stop terrorists. Moreover,
it is clear that the FBI had knowledge of the movements of Atta and
two others in Venice, Florida before 9-11.
What is known is that Atta attended a flight school in Venice. The
DEA confiscated and auctioned a private jet owned by one of the
owners of the school. The agency found 43 pounds of heroin. No action
was ever taken against the Venezuelan pilot or the owner Wally
Hilliard. The same jet had made 39 weekly milk runs to Venezuela
before the DEA acted. The school's co-owner was Rudi Dekkers, a
native of Holland who owed his government $3,000,000. There was a
second flight school at that airport owned by another native of
Holland, Arne Kruithof. The two Hollanders bought flight schools
within months of one another. Dekkers claimed he did not know her,
but they both used ascal Schreier, a German, to recruit Arab students.
Dekkers said Atta was a terrible person, an incompetent pilot who
left school December 20, 2000 and did not return.. Others claim Atta
was there in 2001 and that he and the operator were friendly. In
August, two of the other hijackers were with Atta, and Atta's
attorney father visited from Egypt. The three younger men were said
to hire a Yellow Cab in the evenings which was driven by a retired
Navy Seal, who left soon after they left Venice.Another driver
reported that the two were oin very friendly terms and that they
shared a cab to a Sarasota night spot in August, 2001. Atta was
apparently a hard drinker. ``Following the lead of the FBI, the 9-11
commission did not discuss the schools.
The Knight Rider papers, the Washington Post, and Newsweek reported a
week after 9-11 that five of the hijackers had been trained at US
military facilitie4s at one time or another. This did not involve
Atta's brief employment much earlier in Hamburg, before he
experienced a religious conversion in Egypt. It was said that Atta
was at the International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in
Alabama. Abdulaziz Alomari was at the Areospace Medical School in
Texas.
The Sarasota Herald-Times discovered that Atta livewdf for more than
two months at the Sandpiper Apartments in Venice in March and April
of 2001 with a part-time stripper and longerie model. She reported
that the FBI urged her to keep quiet.
Soon after 9-11, FBI agents were in Venice asking questions that made
it clear they knew about Atta's movements there. They questioned
another cabbie about their nocturnal rides with the other driver.
They seized a pharmacy's security tape for the day Atta and his
father were there and excised that part of the tape.
There were rumors that the flight schools had a CIA connection, and
that that their records were removed on September 12, 2001. . The
limited action taken after the biggest drug seizure in central
Florida history led to speculation about some kind of a protected
drug trade. For years there have been rumors about CIA and DIA drug
trading; and those who have written about this have had their careers
ruined. There will probably never be enough evidence to prove why the
Pentagon did not want to move against Atta and now claims it knew
nothing about him. One employee said Atta and others moved on to a
school in Pompano Beach to lurn tol fly big jets via simulator. He
added that he did not think this approach could be successful.
Fired FBI translator Sibel Edmunds was asked if she came across
evidence that there was any evidence of a connection between drug
trading and 9-11. She is now under a very tough gag orders, and she
only offered a sort of "nondenial-denial." Don't look for solid
answers anytime soon.
There is compelling evidence that the FBI was keeping track of Atta's
movements in Venice, Florida in 9-11. It has also been suggested that
he had been involved in some sort of protected heroin smuggling
operation and that this accounts for the Pentagon's reluctance to
pursue him earlier.
_________________________
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