"Able Danger": is Defense Department report a whitewash?

On September 21, the Defense Department's inspector general issued a long-awaited report dismissing claims by military officers and defense contractor employees that a secret intelligence operation known as "Able Danger" had identified and tracked Mohamed Atta and many of his confederates more than a year before the 9/11 terror attacks. According to Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vice-chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, in September 2000 the Able Danger team initiated at least three separate efforts to get its information on the hijackers to the FBI "so they could bring that cell in and take out the terrorists."

Army Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Schaffer, one of the principal members of Able Danger, stated that Able Danger had identified five al-Qaeda cells, including two of the three cells that ultimately would be used to pull off the 9/11 attacks. Schaffer said he had set up one meeting with the FBI only to have it canceled. All of his successive efforts were thwarted by Pentagon superiors.

The new report disputes both the prior knowledge of the hijackers and charges of Defense Department retaliation against Schaffer: "We concluded that prior to Sept. 11, 2001, Able Danger team members did not identify Mohamed Atta or any other 9/11 hijackers," the report says. "While we interviewed four witnesses who claimed to have seen a chart depicting Mohamed Atta and possibly other terrorists or 'cells' involved in 9/11, we determined that their recollections were not accurate."

Rep. Weldon, who has championed Lt. Col. Schaffer and other Able Danger team members, called the report "sickening" in a September 21 press release, which noted many of the deficiencies in the inspector general's investigation, including its unexplained failure to interview key witnesses. "I am appalled that the DOD IG [Department of Defense inspector general] would expect the American people to actually consider this a full and thorough investigation. I question their motives and the content of this report, and I reject the conclusions they have drawn."