Able Danger and the USS Cole (AD warning on Aden, Yemen ignored + Rove)

[wakeme2008]

http://www.sftt.org/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cmpIntel&htmlId=4637


1.24.2006
Able Danger and the USS Cole
by Rory O'Connor

Is Kirk Lippold, commander of the ill-fated USS Cole, the latest career military officer to be victimized by the political miasma now surrounding the controversial Able Danger intelligence program? Although Lippold lacked "the specific intelligence" to prevent the October, 2000 al-Qaeda attack on the Cole, his superiors did not.

..cut..

Analysts associated with the secretive Able Danger program, including Army Reserve Lieutenant Commander Anthony Shaffer and Navy Captain Scott Phillpott, who say they identified Mohamed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers a year before the Al Qaeda-connected terror attacks on America, also say their team passed on warnings about al Qaeda activity in Aden before the attack on the Cole to high officials at both Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and Central Command (CENTCOM).

..cut..

The Able Danger team had uncovered evidence of five 'hot spots' of Al Qaeda activity: Mauritania; Malaysia; Hamburg, Germany; Brooklyn, New York; and Aden, Yemen. Captain Phillpott even briefed then-SOCOM head General Peter Schoomaker (now Chief of Staff, U.S. Army) on the findings just two days prior to the attack on the Cole.

..cut..

According to a high-ranking official within the Defense Department, Rove asked if Lippold's promotion could wait and Wolfowitz agreed. "Rove then kiboshed Lippold's promotion by ensuring that the necessary paperwork first sat in the White House, and then was thrown away," the source explained. Although no reason was given for the inaction, 2004 was a presidential election year, and it is unlikely that the White House wanted to deal with any controversial reminders of the Cole attack.

..more at link..

A very good read. Rove has his fucking hands in everything. :grr:

[leveymg]

1. This is based in a NY POST article from last Sept. - may be accurate

Whatever you may think of Murdoch's tabloid, here's the source:

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/53533.htm

TERROR ALERT WKS. BEFORE COLE ATTACK

By NILES LATHEM
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September 17, 2005 -- WASHINGTON — Members of a secret Pentagon intelligence unit known as Able Danger warned top military generals that it had uncovered information of increased al Qaeda "activity" in Aden harbor less than three weeks before the attack on the USS Cole, The Post has learned.
In the latest explosive revelation in the Able Danger saga, two former members of the data-mining team are expected to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee next week that they uncovered alarming terrorist activity and associations in Aden weeks before the Oct. 12, 2000, suicide bombing of the U.S...
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The 2002 Joint Congressional Committee report, still the single most valuable source of information about the 9/11 attacks, confirms that the NSA and CIA monitored an al-Qaeda planning meeting held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the first two weeks of January 2000 at which attacks on US naval ships in Aden harbour and the Planes Operation were discussed.

[wakeme2008]

2. Thanks for the background

this site is read by a lot of military and ex-military. IMHO the more ppl covering the failing of Danger Able by higher ups in the military the better.

Also in NO articles like this do they even try to point the finger at Clinton but at military brass in Tampa.

[leveymg]

3. That was also my conclusion.

Gen. Tommy Franks indeed scuttled Able Danger and thus has a major responsibility for 9/11. As "Jawbreaker" makes clear (read it), Franks failed command at Tora Bora allowed bin Laden to escape to Pakistan.

Here are some short articles about how Able Danger actually learned about the "Brooklyn Cell" and why it was shut down:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/28/121022/933
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/12/164139/748
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/11/131635/786
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/10/145513/501