Able Danger Update IV

Last week I reported that Congressman Curt Weldon, R-PA had stated that a Pentagon employee had been ordered to destroy Able Danger documents and that the unnamed employee was prepared to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Well, the unnamed employee is now named. Erik Kleinsmith, former head of the Pentagon's Land Warfare Analysis Department, did indeed testify today before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In response to Committee Chairman Arlen Specter's question as to whether or not Able Danger had enough intelligence to have prevented the 9-11 attacks, Kleinsmith said,

"I go to bed every night and other members of our team do as well [thinking] that if [Able Danger] had not been shut down that we would have at least been able to prevent something or assist the United States in some way."

According to Kleinsmith, a top Pentagon lawyer ordered in May of 2000 the destruction of Able Danger's intelligence data.

In a related story, also out today, apparently Pentagon lawyers have ordered five members of the Able Danger intelligence team not to testify in today's hearing.

The five include Army intelligence officer Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Navy Captain Scott Philpott. Shaffer was the first Able Danger team member to publicly state that a terrorist cell which included Mohammed Atta and three other 9-11 hijackers had been identified operating in New York over a year before the terrorist attacks. Phillpott, another team member, soon publicly confirmed Shaffer's claim.

Why are these men being hushed, who is being protected, and why isn't the mainstream media all over this story?

Stay tuned...