Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Able Danger warned of attack on USS Cole

And who was Commander-in-Chief at the time? Oh yea that EX leader of the free world guy who has been berating the Bush administration for intelligence failures recently.

NORRISTOWN - Senior Pentagon officials were warned not to let the USS Cole dock in Yemen two days before terrorists attacked the ship five years ago killing 17 sailors, according to Congressman Curt Weldon, who said the crucial intelligence was gleaned from the former secret defense operation, "Able Danger."

The military's Special Operations Command ran the high-tech dragnet that searched for terrorist linkages. The terrorist associations were mapped out on large charts, according to Shaffer and other of "Able Danger" colleagues, during the program that operated between 1999 and 2001.However, following Shaffer's attempts to broker an arrangement that would draw the FBI into the operation, the program was shut down.

Weldon and Shaffer believe "Able Danger" intelligence may have disrupted - or even prevented - the Sept. 11 attacks if it had continued.In August, Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott and James D. Smith, a defense contractor, corroborated Shaffer's story.

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