Able Danger Blog

Lance files DOJ complaint regarding Fitzgerald

2009-06-15T21:18:00.006-04:00

The press conference is tomorrow:

June 16, 2009, 9:30 AM EDT
Zenger Room, National Press Club
529 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20045

On Saturday, June 13th, Peter Lance filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice asking that a formal investigation by the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) be opened as a result of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's 20 month campaign to kill TRIPLE CROSS. Click here to download a pdf of the COMPLAINT. Click here for a copy of THE INTRODUCTION to the new edition of TRIPLE CROSS.

The paperback edition of Triple Cross is in stores tomorrow.

Is Fitzgerald upset over a book deal gone bad?

2009-06-11T17:03:00.010-04:00

Alright, I just read the full exchange between Patrick Fitzgerald and Harper Collins regarding his promised lawsuit over the publication of Triple Cross in paperback, which he did all he could to stop.

This part got my attention, from his October 11, 2007 document request:

(11) any documents reflecting Harper Collins estimate of the market value of my personal reputation, including but not limited to, any documents relating to an unsolicited letter from Judith Regan, on behalf of Harper Collins, to me offering me a "seven figure" sum for the rights to my biography and any documents establishing how that number was derived or otherwise constituting admissions to the nature and value of my reputation at that time....

So, he's suing Harper Collins after being offered "seven figures" by Harper Collins which he obviously never got, or did I miss the story about a Fitzgerald book deal?

Anyway, the main issues Fitzgerald focuses on are these:

Among other things, the book alleges that:

(1) I was part of an effort to conceal from the public prior to 1996 the fact that the FBI had infiltrated in 1991 the terrorist cell that would later bomb the World Trade Center in 1998;
(2) I filed a false affidavit with a federal judge to conceal the purported "fact" that the fatal crash of TWA 800 was really a terrorist attack to which I had been tipped in advance by an organized crime figure and that I otherwise conspired with the National Transportation Safety Board, the 9/11 Commission and numerous others to hide the truth; and
(3) I led an effort to conceal from the public prior to 2003 the fact that the United States government had infiltrated and wiretapped in 1996 the al Qaeda terrorist cell in Nairobi which would later bomb the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1998 and otherwise concealed the role played by Ali Mohamed in the bombing conspiracy.

Each of these allegations is per se defamatory of me....

Here is the response from Mark Jackson at Harper Collins:

With respect to the first claim, the Book never charges that you were part of an effort to conceal the fact that the FBI had infiltrated in 1991 the terrorist cell that would later bomb the World Trade Center in 1993. The one reference you cite on page 209 of the Book does not support your characterization. That reference merely makes the claim that people outside of the FBI and US Attorney's office in New York were not aware of the "real truth" behind Emad Salem and his relationship with certain federal agencies. Immediately following the reference you cite, Lance lists certain details of Salem's history that were not known to the general public. Nowhere in the Book does Lance state or otherwise imply that Salem was not referred to in the publicly filed indictment or during trial testimony.

Your second claim - in which you maintain that the Book accuses you of filing a false affidavit regarding the crash of TWA 800, that you had been tipped in advance by an organized crime figure about the crash and that you conspired with various federal bodies to hide the truth - is also without support in the Book. (Your October 11 letter does not appear to discuss this second claim other that listing it on page 2.)

...But the Book never accuses you of the misconduct that you allege. Instead, after presenting evidence that John Napoli denied telling your office that Scarpa had confided to him that the material was a "fabrication", as you allege in your affirmation, Lance then writes the following:

If Napoli's account is accurate, it appears that two senior federal prosecutors, Fitzgerald and Kelly went along with a government story that characterized the Yousef-Scarpa Jr. intelligence as fraudulent. If, as per Fitzgeerald's affidavit, that occured in conjunction with the late summer decision by the Feds to pardon DeVecchio and destroy Greg Jr. as a potential witness against him, then the creation of the "hoax" and "scam" story by the Feds could, in my opinion, amount to a serious obstruction of justice. (Emphasis added)

Fitzgerald was asked to answer a series of detailed questions raised by this investigation, but through his spokesperson in Chicago, Randall Samborn, he declined.

...The Book does contain a minor error in that the NBC News report regarding intelligence of al Qaeda activity in East Africa, which Lance cited, was apparently first broadcast in December 2000, although the MSNBC.com website containing the report uses an October 24, 2003 date. Harper Collins will correct that dating descrepancy and modify the language in the first full paragraph of page 367 of the Book, but that clearly inadvertent misdating does not support a claim of defamation.

First, the Book does not accuse you or anyone else of improperly withholding evidence that Squad I-49 had advance warning of the bombing plot. In fact, the paragraph which you cite in your letter begins with the phrase "Because of the secrecy surrounding terror prosecutions in the SDNY..." That language does not indicate wrongdoing, but instead suggests that because of the perceived need for secrecy in terrorism trials, the information was not previously disclosed.

Second, although the NBC News article is misdated, it appears that the essence of Lance's point with respect to Mohamed is correct; namely, that the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York did conceal, for whatever reason, Mohamed's extensive role in al Qaeda activity - at least up until the time his indictment was unsealed. As reported in the Book, Mohamed was not called as a witness in either the Day of Terror or the embassy bombing trials. FBI and Justice Department officials chose not to arrest Mohamed in the fall of 1997 at the time of your meeting with him. Further, after Mohamed's arrest, he was kept on a "John Doe" warrant for months. Even after the announcement of Osama bin Laden's indictment in the Embassy plot, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White expressly refused to comment publicly on Mohamed.

Perhaps most important, the responsible federal agencies did not disclose the critical fact that Mohamed had been an FBI informant for six years prior to the embassy bombings.

Lance presents a number of potential reasons why the government may have wanted to keep secret Mohamed's role as an FBI informant, something that he is certainly entitled to do based on the underlying facts that he presents in the Book.

In sum, Harper Collins does not believe that there is any merit to the claims contained in your October 11 letter. We will, however, take steps to correct the misdating of the NBC News story that you have pointed out with respect to the paragraph on page 367 of the Book. We stand behind Mr. Lance and intend to go forward with the publication of the updated trade paperback edition of the Book, which we regard as an important work of investigative journalism.

All Fitzgerald can really say in response, if you read his next three letters:

I do not undertake any obligation to catalogue the entire litany of sensational misstatements of fact contained in the book, which would be a rather strenuous undertaking.

Apparently, it would be strenuous indeed, if the only one he can prove is the date of an article which was still shown on MSNBC.COM with the same date Lance used!

Whistleblower Hearing Today

2009-06-11T10:47:00.002-04:00

From the National Whistleblower Coalition:

The Senate is holding a hearing on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act today. The public hearing will be held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 342 at 2:30 PM. Please attend if you are in the DC area or you can watch live online by clicking here.

Now is the time to make your voice heard! If you have not sent an email to Congress send it now! Call Senators Daniel Akaka (202) 224-6361 and Susan Collins (202) 224-2523, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, and tell them that all federal employees, including those who report misconduct in national security and defense, must have whistleblower protection with full court access.

During the campaign, President Obama pledged to support effective legislation that would protect all federal employees with a guaranteed right to federal court access. Please urge the Senate to back up this promise.

Today is the day to send an action alert. Today it is imperative to pass this alert on to a friend or co-worker so the Senate can hear form the public while they are debating the scope of the law.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Stephen M. Kohn
President
National Whistleblowers Center

Fitzgerald claims: "This is different"

2009-06-10T22:07:00.004-04:00

From the AP:

Its content goes beyond normal criticism, which "goes with the territory" for public figures, Fitzgerald told The Associated Press on Monday.

"This is different," he said. "The book lied about the facts and alleged that I deliberately misled the courts and the public in ways that in part caused the deaths in the 1998 embassy bombing attacks and in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

Fitzgerald said the lives lost in those attacks were personal for him and he decided to stand up for himself because "it is outrageous to falsely accuse me of causing those deaths corruptly."

The author said Fitzgerald has tried to "kill" the book with "baseless" allegations.

"Patrick Fitzgerald accuses me of making charges in the book that I never made," Lance said. "At the same time, he continually fails to respond to the substantive allegations documented in 604 pages, 1,425 end notes and 32 pages of documentary appendices."

Rory O'Connor disagrees with the Fitz:

Okay, so he’s one of the “sexiest men alive” — but what does Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney in Chicago and Special Counsel in the CIA leak case, have against us poor, unsexy journalists? It’s bad enough that Fitzie won’t answer my questions: (“Rory. I just wanted to get back to you and let you know that I am going to decline to be interviewed. Thank you. Pat”) It’s worse that he was responsible for the jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who spent 85 days behind bars. Now comes word that Fitzgerald, who must have too much time on his hands now that Scooter Libby has been freed and Rod Blagojevich indicted, spent much of the last year and a half going after another journalist, Peter Lance, in an attempt to kill a new edition of Lance’s investigative book Triple Cross by threatening to sue both the author and his publisher for libel.

Originally published in November 2006 by Regan Books, a division of HarperCollins, Triple Cross uncovers the story of how Al Qaeda master spy Ali Mohamed infiltrated U.S. intelligence in the years leading up to 9/11 – “and how the FBI’s elite bin Laden squad failed to stop him.” Among the radicals trained by Ali Mohamed –and photographed by the FBI in 1989 — one would go on to kill Rabbi Meier Kahane in 1990; three were convicted in the World Trade Center bombing in 1994; and two (including Kahane’s killer) were later convicted by then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald in 1995 in what became known as the “Day of Terror” plot to blow up the bridges and tunnels into Manhattan. The book also details how the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s offices in New York prosecuted terrorists before 9/11, including “Blind Sheik” Omar Abdel Rahman, who infamously tried to blow up the World Trade Center, and others who bombed US embassies in Africa. And Lance alleges that Fitzgerald, when he was an assistant U.S. attorney in the 1990s, discounted information that may have revealed the existence of an Al Qaeda cell in New York years prior to September 11, 2001.

Fitzgerald’s stab at censorship is especially chilling coming from such a powerful prosecutor. But the lawman says he has no choice, since the book, which focuses on cases Fitzgerald prosecuted as Chief of Organized Crime and Terrorism in the Southern District of New York, is “a deliberate lie masquerading as the truth” and maintains that “it defames me or casts me in a false light,” as he said in one of four threatening letters sent to Lance’s publisher.

Although he wouldn’t speak to me, Fitzgerald did tell the Associated Press that the charges in Triple Cross far surpass normal criticism, which “goes with the territory” for public figures such as United States Attorneys. “This is different,” Fitzgerald contended. “The book lied about the facts and alleged that I deliberately misled the courts and the public in ways that in part caused the deaths in the 1998 embassy bombing attacks and in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.” Fitzgerald told the AP he decided to protest because “it is outrageous to falsely accuse me of causing those deaths corruptly.”

Patrick Fitzgerald threatens to sue Peter Lance

2009-06-08T09:07:00.003-04:00

From Newsweek:

Patrick Fitzgerald may be the most feared prosecutor in the country, but even as he's racked up headlines for big-name convictions (Scooter Libby) and indictments (Rod Blagojevich), the hard-charging U.S. attorney from Chicago has been waging a private crusade: trying to kill a book he believes maligns his reputation. In the past year and a half, Fitzgerald has written four letters to HarperCollins—owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.—demanding it "cease publication" and "withdraw" copies of Triple Cross, a 2006 book by ex–TV newsman Peter Lance that criticizes Fitzgerald's handling of terror cases in New York in the 1990s. Fitzgerald raised the temperature even more last week, aiming to halt a paperback version. "To put it plain and simple," he wrote in a June 2 letter obtained by NEWSWEEK, "if in fact you publish the book this month and it defames me or casts me in a false light, HarperCollins will be sued."

Media experts say Fitzgerald's letters, written on personal stationary and totaling 30 pages, are unusual for a top lawman. "We certainly find it highly offensive that a federal prosecutor would do something like this," says Gregg Leslie of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. But Fitzgerald makes no apologies. The book's claims, he wrote in an email, are "outrageously dishonest." He says that Lance "alleged that I deliberately misled courts and the public" in ways that led to the 9/11 attacks. A time stamp on one of the letters shows it was sent via fax from the U.S. Attorney's Office, though Fitzgerald said he was "not aware" it would be visible, and Justice permits "incidental use of fax machines" for "personal business."

New York Magazine:

HarperCollins made a series of corrections, including changes in phrasing, for the paperback edition—which finally comes out June 16, complete with a new introduction that’s mainly about Fitzgerald’s attempts to quash the book. Last week, Fitzgerald sent one more letter, which ended with “To put it plain and simple, if in fact you publish the book this month and it defames me or casts me in a false light, HarperCollins will be sued.”

Lance is busy drumming up support—and publicity—for the book. He’s holding a press conference on the 16th, when he’ll be flanked by lefty anti-censorship activist librarian Ann Sparanese and the lawyer played by John Travolta in A Civil Action, Jan Schlichtmann. The truth is, this may be the best thing that ever happened to Lance. “That’s the ultimate irony,” Lance says. “It wasn’t reviewed by a single U.S. publication. If Patrick Fitzgerald had not attempted to kill it, it would have just gone off into publishing obscurity. This is the true lesson of censorship.”

Fitzgerald, on the other hand, doesn’t need the attention. In response to a request put through to his office, Fitzgerald called back personally to say he had no comment, adding that on this personal matter, he could be reached only through the P.O. box.

Major General Lambert confirms Atta identified

2009-05-28T11:40:00.005-04:00

I wonder if the DOD Inspector General ever asked him about this?

In his book, Horse Soldiers, Stanton describes (pg 27) the thoughts of Major General Geoffrey Lambert, US Special Forces Command, Fort Bragg on the morning of September 11, 2001.

"It had taken him about ten seconds to figure out who had masterminded the attacks, and who had carried them out. For the past several years, he had observed a top-secret intelligence program called data mining that had identified one man, an Egyptian by the name of Mohammed Atta, as a serious terrorist with links to a Saudi named bin Laden, who was a financier of terrorist training camps for men like the Egyptian. Months earlier, the people involved in the program had tried telling the FBI what they had discovered, but Army lawyers had discouraged the disclosure, even though the project had identified the highjackers. Lambert figured they knew everything there was to know about Osama bin Laden and his military training camps in Afghanistan, but none of the legal minds could decide if the surveillance was lawful. Now Lambert felt sick that more effort had not been made to warn someone. (Lambert, extremely upset, later agreed with lawyers that the information not be shared with the FBI.)"

Here is Lambert's praise for the book:

"Doug Stanton's Horse Soldiers is the story of the first large American unconventional warfare operation since World War II. My Green Berets were launched deep into enemy territory to befriend, recruit, equip, advise, and lead their Afghan counterparts to attack the Taliban. The Horse Soldiers succeeded brilliantly with a highly decentralized campaign, reinforced with modern airpower's precision weapons, forcing the Taliban government's collapse in a few months. Doug Stanton captures the gritty realities of the campaign as no other can." -- Geoffrey C. Lambert, major general (retired), U.S. Army, and commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Forces Command (Airborne), 2001-2003

Sentencing delayed for two months

2009-05-22T12:30:00.002-04:00

Not sure what to make of this:

The sentencing of the top aide to former U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon’s has been postponed for two months.

Russell James Caso Jr., Weldon’s former chief of staff, was to be sentenced on Friday. The court date was pushed back until July 30, according to documents filed in the case.

Caso, a Navy veteran who played football at Temple University, pleaded guilty in December 2007 to a conspiracy charge for intentionally failing to disclose $17,500 his wife had received for work she did for a Weldon-connected nonprofit. Federal prosecutors allege Caso’s wife “performed little work” for the $17,500.

Caso’s sentencing was delayed indefinitely while he cooperated with a Justice Department investigation. Federal authorities were looking into allegations that Weldon used his congressional office to steer nearly $1 million worth of contracts to Solutions North America, a consulting firm run by former Springfield Republic Party Chairman Charles Sexton Jr. and Karen Weldon, the congressman’s daughter.

In October 2006, the FBI raided the homes and Media office of Sexton and Karen Weldon. Three weeks later, Weldon, a 10-term Republican from Thornbury, lost his seat three weeks later to Joe Sestak, D-7, of Edgmont.

Caso faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

From PACER:

Reset Hearings as to RUSSELL JAMES CASO, JR: Sentencing currently scheduled for 5/22/09 @ 9:45am is hereby RESCHEDULED for 7/30/2009 @ 2:00 PM in Courtroom 27A before Judge Henry H. Kennedy. (tj ) (Entered: 05/14/2009)

"Future dangerousness"

2009-05-13T21:55:00.003-04:00

Look, it's Philip Zelikow talking about working closely with Gordon England in June 2005. You can also check out his blog called "Shadow Government" at ForeignPolicy.com:

May 22nd

2009-05-13T21:42:00.004-04:00

From PACER at the DC Circuit Court:

Set Hearings as to RUSSELL JAMES CASO, JR: Sentencing set for 5/22/2009 09:45 AM in Courtroom 27A before Judge Henry H. Kennedy. (tj ) (Entered: 02/11/2009)

It's worth noting this is the judge who gave Cecelia Grimes probation.

LTC Shaffer interviewed about LTG McCrystal

2009-05-13T12:17:00.002-04:00

From Fox News:

With Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal taking over as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, the war there now will be led by a former head of the Joint Special Operations Command, a master of the kind of covert operations and counterinsurgency tactics that have become decisive in this age of asymmetric warfare....

"I actually briefed him at least three times," recalled U.S. Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, a former Army intelligence officer who served two tours in Afghanistan and now is attached as a reservist to the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington.

Shaffer recalled working directly with McChrystal in support of Joint Task Force 121, an elite special-ops unit that excels in the capturing and killing of high-value enemy targets.

In that specialized realm, both men boast extraordinary experience: Units under McChrystal's command were credited with capturing Saddam Hussein and with killing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq. And the records supporting Shaffer's Bronze Star, awarded to the Ohio native in 2004, state that "his actions contributed to [the] killing or capturing of more than 100 Taliban fighters."

"The press talks about [McChrystal] being adaptive, being able to adjust and make decisions which are practical," Shaffer said."And I saw that firsthand, where he was able to make an adjustment which he didn't want to make. But we were able to go in with the facts and lay out to him the issues, and he begrudgingly made the change. And by making the change, he allowed us to be successful. So I think he's a very pragmatic commander, from my experience."

More details on Weldon wiretaps revealed

2009-05-09T22:34:00.003-04:00

Well, there was no need for them to wiretap our blogger conference call with Weldon in February 2006. You can hear more of the audio that we posted right here online.

From the Philadelphia Daily News:

Federal investigators were running wiretaps for months at a time in 2006 on then-U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon's chief of staff and other members of his inner circle, the U.S. Justice Department has revealed.

The wiretaps were disclosed in letters that the department recently sent to individuals - including this reporter, then employed at another newspaper - whose phone conversations with the targeted parties were intercepted....

The feds also were eavesdropping on Weldon's chief of staff, Russ Caso, from March to July 2006. Caso later pleaded guilty to failing to list a conflict of interest in his 2005 congressional disclosure forms, and agreed to cooperate against Weldon. He is scheduled to be sentenced later this month....

Jules Epstein, an associate professor at Widener University School of Law, said that the disclosure of the wiretaps and sentencing of cooperating witnesses appears to indicate that the probe is winding down, possibly without additional indictments.

Al-Qaida used Hotmail, simple codes in planning

2009-05-01T23:14:00.006-04:00

From the AP:

In the days following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, alleged al-Qaida operations mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed intended to use his free Hotmail account to direct a U.S.-based operative to carry out an attack, according to a guilty plea agreement filed by Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri in federal court....

In a 10-code, eight becomes a two, for example. Other al-Qaida members used the same code, according to the plea agreement.

Al-Marri sent e-mails to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's hotmail account — HOR70@hotmail.com — addressed to "Muk" and signed "Abdo." The details of that code were included in an address book found in an al-Qaida safehouse in Pakistan....

Al-Marri initially tried to use a Yahoo e-mail account to contact Mohammed, but it failed to go through. So he switched to Hotmail as well. When al-Marri arrived in the United States, he created five new e-mail accounts to communicate with Mohammed, using the 10-code to send him his cell phone number in Peoria.

EU Ambassador asks about Weldon

2009-04-17T20:05:00.002-04:00

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

By Joseph N. DiStefano

John Bruton, the European Union's ambassador to the United States, stopped by Philadelphia to talk to the World Affairs Council yesterday, part of Europe's public relations campaign as it wrestles with the U.S. on economic and military issues.
Bruton asked about an old friend, former U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.), who was voted out of office two elections back after the FBI reportedly investigated favors he did for clients of his daughter's lobbying firm. "Did anything ever come of that?" Bruton asked me.

As with so many Washington investigations, no one has been charged. That has allowed Weldon supporters to place him alongside former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R., Alaska) among alleged victims of shadowy forces targeting senior Republicans who influenced defense appropriations.

Bruton, a former prime minister of Ireland, said the congressman "was an original. He had great knowledge of Russia and other countries. And he gave me a great introduction into American political life."

Cecilia Grimes gets probation only

2009-04-17T20:02:00.002-04:00

I would call this good news:

A lobbyist was sentenced to three years’ probation for destroying evidence about her ties to former Representative Curt Weldon, Republican of Pennsylvania, who is under investigation. The lobbyist, Cecelia Grimes of Parkesburg, Pa., apologized in court and said she would take back her actions if she could. Court documents say the authorities have been looking into whether Mr. Weldon, who lost his seat in 2006 and has not been charged with a crime, agreed to help Ms. Grimes by supporting appropriations requests from her lobbying firm. She is the second person linked to Mr. Weldon to plead guilty to a crime and cooperate with the government. His former top aide, Russell J. Caso Jr., pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in 2007.

Doctor Bob's Threat Prediction Shop

2009-04-17T19:32:00.010-04:00

You might remember Bob Johnson, who ran the Raytheon facility in Garland, Texas that rediscovered the links between Atta and Al Qaeda in September 2000, after the previous analysis done at LIWA was lost due to the destruction of their data?

Here is an article about his latest efforts. Biased, but still interesting:

Fusion centers arose amid post-9/11 efforts to get local and state law enforcement involved in anti-terrorism. Federal authorities wanted the nation’s 800,000 or so local and state cops turned into a vast “eyes and ears” network. Information from this army could be fed into local, regional, and state centers where various data streams would be “fused” into a powerful intelligence product. Private-sector databases, criminal records, tips, credit reports, medical records, accounts of suspicious activity—anything that might help analysts “fight a global jihadist adversary,” in the words of the Congressional Research Service, would be used to connect dots.

Many cities and states happily accepted the charge, not to mention the Homeland Security dollars tagged for fusion. Today there are about 60 fusion centers nationwide, and five in Texas. There’s no sign they’re going away. In March, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a national conference of fusion centers that they would be the “centerpiece of state, local, federal intelligence-sharing for the future.” The Obama stimulus package contains $250 million for fusion.

...Most of the center’s activity happens on 20 computer servers humming away in an unseen, secure room. The system holds some 90 million records and is stuffed with data-mining programs and analytical tools customized by Bob Johnson....

“What’s their authority for gathering information off the Internet?” asks German. “Are we devoting law-enforcement resources to gathering information off the Internet every day? To what end? Now does anyone who posts something on the Internet have to worry that they’re being run through a data-mining program? It’s a 1984 version of America that doesn’t even make sense from a security standpoint.”

Here we go again. You don't need authority to gather information off the internet. That's the point of the web. Don't blame German. He's former FBI.

Peter Lance on Coast to Coast AM

2009-04-14T00:05:00.003-04:00

To those who stay up late,

I'll be doing Coast to Coast AM Monday night, April 13th, 2009 from 10:00 p.m. PDT; 1:00 a.m. EDT. The program is usually repeated in an East Coast feed immediately thereafter and it's on Sirius/XM at Channel 165. You can find your local affiliate here: http://www.coasttocoastam.com/info/wheretolisten.html

Best,

P.L.

http://www.peterlance.com

More details here:

Starting in the first hour: Investigative reporter Peter Lance outlines the current threats from al Qaeda and the Taliban and shows how far the FBI and other intelligence agencies have come in protecting us since 9-11.

LTC Tony Shaffer on Fox News around 6:15pm ET

2009-03-20T17:42:00.003-04:00

I believe he is discussing Somalia. While on a 30 month recall to active duty, Tony commanded a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) operating base (an O-6 level command) from Jan 2002 through July 2003 - OB Alpha. OB Alpha focused on the collection of information and support to special operations forces in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tony Shaffer in the news

2009-03-17T11:51:00.008-04:00

In addition to the recent court ruling, the impact of which is unclear at this point, here are two news updates that mention LTC Tony Shaffer.

From the Center for Advanced Defense Studies:

CADS Senior Fellow Lectures at National Security Seminar

Carlisle, PA, February 11, 2009-- Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (CADS), was invited to lecture for the Army War College’s National Security Seminar in Carlisle, PA. Shaffer’s lecture addressed the successes of Effects Based Operations in the Afghanistan war. In his presentation, Shaffer highlighted the critical significance of direction, scale, and the will to win as well as the more commonly cited tools, techniques, and technology in mission and campaign design as keys to success. Lt. Col. Shaffer also further articulated concerns over the “surge” in Afghanistan with regards to strategy or “end-game” standard to determine when the conditions for victory have been met. Shaffer was invited to give his presentation for an hour and a half; however his audience proved exceptionally receptive and persuaded him to continue for a full three hours.

From the Rockport Pilot in Texas:

Monday, February 23, 2009 7:03 PM CST

For more than eight years Gary and Debbie Swenchonis have mourned the loss of their son, Gary Graham Swenchonis Jr., who was killed Oct. 12, 2000, along with 16 other sailors, when terrorists attacked the USS Cole in Port Aden, Yemen....

“We were told last Monday the hearing is off. It’s all politics,” said G. Swenchonis. “He (Leahy) does not want the Cole attack brought up, especially with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.”

Col. Tony Shaffer, testified before Congress after the Cole attack and asked “what happened” to Able Danger’s warning of such an attack.

“He was forced into retirement,” said Swenchonis, “like anyone else in the government who has tried to get answers.

“I feel bad for them, but at least they tried to do the right thing.”

Judge rules for Shaffer three years later

2009-03-03T17:40:00.002-05:00

Talk about too little too late:

A federal court this week said that litigants have a First Amendment right to provide classified information to their attorneys when doing so is necessary to protect their interests. The ruling is implicitly at odds with a common government practice of denying attorneys access to classified information in Freedom of Information Act cases, pre-publication review disputes, and other matters.

There is a “First Amendment right to share [classified] information with an attorney when such sharing is necessary for an attorney to advise his client of his rights,” wrote Judge Gladys Kessler (pdf) of the DC District Court.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by former Defense Intelligence Agency employee Anthony Shaffer against the DIA in connection with the controversial intelligence program known as Able Danger. DIA sought to bar Shaffer from providing classified information about the program to his attorney, Mark S. Zaid, even though he holds a security clearance. Mr. Zaid challenged the denial, and the court found merit in his complaint.

“Without knowing all that his client, and the Defendants, know, Plaintiff Shaffer’s counsel cannot be prepared to adequately represent his client’s interests,” Judge Kessler concluded.

Still no charges in Weldon probe

2009-03-03T17:32:00.002-05:00

Some think this bodes well for Curt:

Caso was scheduled to appear yesterday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., for a status hearing. But on Tuesday, prosecutors filed a motion to cancel that hearing and set a May sentencing date....

Sklamberg is making the same moves in the Grimes case. The day before her Jan. 23 status hearing, he filed a motion asking that the judge instead set an April sentencing date....

Cooperating witnesses who strike plea deals are typically not sentenced until after they testify against whomever the government plans to target, according to John Lauro, a defense attorney and former Assistant U.S. Attorney in New York.

"You want to keep that issue open and give the sentencing judge the ability to see the extent of the cooperation, which may have included testifying," Lauro said. The fact that prosecutors want to proceed to sentencing Caso and Grimes "signals to me that charges against anybody else are unlikely," he said.

Others are not so sure:

But other legal observers, including Peter Tague, a professor at Georgetown University School of Law, warned against reading too much into the government's recent actions. Tague, who specializes in criminal procedure, said it's possible that the investigation is winding down, but that it would be premature to assume that the Weldons and Sexton are in the clear.

LTG Keith Alexander and Able Danger

2009-03-02T23:56:00.005-05:00

Not sure what to make of this article yet:

The new Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Admiral Dennis Blair, USN (Ret), is a good man badly suited to the job, and he committed intellectual suicide on day one by declaring the economic crisis to be “the” threat to national security—evidently he has not read the report from LtGen Brent Scowcroft, USAF(Ret) and other members of the Panel on High-Level Threats and Challenges. Leon Panetta, the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) could be a wild card, with his extraordinary knowledge, as a former Chief of Staff to the President, and as a former Director of the Office of Management and Budget, of what Presidents actually need to know. However, as of this writing, he has allowed himself to be sucked into the secret world, where he is surrounded by sycophants, liars, and bureaucrats out of touch with reality. Finally, we have Chas Freeman, selected to chair the National Intelligence Council—this is a man with so little integrity and so little intelligence that he is world-famous for prostituting himself to the Saudis and serving as their shill for the global distribution of a Saudi history “textbook” replete with fabrications, incitements to violence, and libel against Israel in particular, the West in general. Among those remaining in power are LtGen Keith Alexander, USA, who covered up and destroyed the ABLE DANGER discovery of two of the 9-11 terrorists prior to 9-11, rather than share them with the FBI. This is the same person who wants $12 billion dollars to achieve cyber-security, but who will actually use that money to assure digital nakedness for every single person, thing, and datum. I do not trust him....

Robert David Steele Vivas, a recovering spy and senior civilian founder of the Marine Corps Intelligence Center, is a 30-year veteran of government service across intelligence, information technology, military, and policy support functionalities. He is the founding CEO of OSS.Net, and of the Earth Intelligence Network, a 501c3 Public Charity devoted to creating public intelligence in the public interest.

Oh, that LTG Keith Alexander:

But Able Danger, for all its intrigue, is just one piece of the unusual intelligence practices that Kleinsmith was engaged in, years before 9/11. In the late 1990s, Kleinsmith was the chief of intelligence for the Army's Land Information Warfare Activity, a support unit assigned to the Intelligence and Security Command. LIWA had broad authority to assist the Army and all military commands in conducting "information operations," a broad discipline that includes information warfare, public deception in combat, and intelligence analysis.

The Army's hub in this effort was the aptly named Information Dominance Center, based at Fort Belvoir. Since the late 1990s, the IDC has been home to some of the most innovative, unconventional, and controversial minds in the intelligence business. In its futuristic-style building -- its interior spaces designed by a Hollywood set artist to mimic the bridge of the starship Enterprise, complete with a large captain's chair in the center of the main room -- the IDC covered a range of topics.

Analysts tracked computer hackers who were targeting military networks, watched for potential avenues of Chinese government espionage, and charted the working relationships among foreign terrorists. To do this, the IDC relied heavily on a novel technique called "data mining."

...From its earliest days, the IDC was a haven for renegades who wanted to use technology to step outside traditional intelligence-gathering, which relies heavily on classified sources and labor-intensive analysis. The center had high-level champions, including Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, who from 2000 to 2003 directed the Intelligence and Security Command, the IDC's parent. Alexander now heads the National Security Agency, which operates the most-sophisticated electronic eavesdropping devices in the world.

Alexander also worked closely with James Heath, who headed the IDC in the late 1990s and whom former employees recall as a mix of driven genius and mad scientist. According to one such former employee of the center, Heath saw the IDC as "an experimentation table" on which to try out all kinds of new tools, depending on what the Army wanted at the time. Analysts and technicians worked together, "speaking the same language" and building useful data-mining tools. This dynamic didn't exist in other intelligence agencies, the former employee noted.

Open Letter to Senator Leahy

2009-02-14T17:41:00.003-05:00

From the father of Gary G. Swenchonis, Jr:

Dear Senator Leahy,
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee

My name is Gary G. Swenchonis, Sr. I am the father of Gary G. Swenchonis, Jr who was murdered in the attack on the USS Cole on 10/12/00 along with 16 of his mates. Thirty nine other sailors were wounded in that attack as well.

Senator Cornyn’s office has informed me that you are not receptive to a Judicial Hearing into the issues surrounding the attack on the Cole, the subsequent failed investigation because of the lack of cooperation and overt interference on the part of the Yemeni regime, and our nation’s continued support of the Yemeni regime which is harboring three of the Cole bombers with 5 million dollar bounties on their heads. That failed investigation would have major ramifications for our nation just 10 months later on 9/11. But yet I just recently read where you asked President Obama for a Truth Commission to investigate the Bush administrations anti-terror programs. We think its way past the time for a Truth Commissions investigate President Saleh and how he has freed all of our sons killers. And how he refuses to take any action against other individuals in his country which aid and support Al-Qaeda. This support has been documented by the United Nations in some cases. Saleh has also released numerous captured terrorists who have returned back to Al-Qaeda, which has been documented. Some of these terrorists were freed from Guantanamo Prison. Why do we even bother to capture these terrorists, just to set them free to kill innocent people again.

There is more than enough evidence to prove the complicity of the Yemeni regime interfering with the investigation into the Cole attack, and Saleh’s continued support of Al-Qaeda. We are asking you to reconsider your decision in not letting the hearing take place. And to give the murdered sailors and their families the truth and justice that they have been denied for so long by our own government, and the Yemeni Regime. And in which they so rightly deserve.

As you know just recently President Obama decided to dismiss the charges against one of the Cole bombers, and to close Guantanamo. Effectively denying our son and us justice again. Unfortunately this has become a habit in dealing with all of the Cole bombers, except those killed by President Bush in the war, they have all gotten off one way or another. Please Sir, we are pleading with you to change your mind and let the hearing go forward. We have more than enough facts to substantiate our claims, and credible witnesses as well. I have been informed by the leading FBI agent that he will testify, and members of Able Danger, and the Commander of the Cole. I have also been told that some ex-cabinet members of the Yemeni regime will testify, and maybe the former commander of the Yemeni Navy too.

Sir, I hope you find it in your heart to take the side of truth and justice, and not partisan politics.

Thank-you for your time in these most serious matters.

Sincerely and Respectfully,
Gary G. Swenchonis, Sr. and Deborah Swenchonis
Remember the Cole!

Charges dropped against suspect in Cole blast

2009-02-05T20:51:00.003-05:00

From the AP:

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon says the senior military judge overseeing terror trials at Guantanamo Bay has dropped charges against a suspect in the 2000 USS Cole bombing.

The military charges against suspected al-Qaida bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri marked the last active war crimes case at Guantanamo Bay.

The legal move by Susan J. Crawford, the top legal authority for military trials at Guantanamo, brings all cases into compliance with President Barack Obama's executive order to halt terrorist court proceedings at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Crawford dismissed the charges against al-Nashiri without prejudice. That means new charges can be brought again later. He will remain in prison for the time being.

"It was her decision, but it reflects the fact that the president has issued an executive order which mandates that the military commissions be halted, pending the outcome of several reviews of our operations down at Guantanamo," Morrell said Thursday night.

The ruling also gives the White House time to review the legal cases of all 245 terror suspects held there and decide whether they should be prosecuted in the U.S. or released to other nations.

Obama was expected to meet with families of Cole and 9/11 victims at the White House on Friday afternoon to announce the move.

9-11 Commission Memo on Phillpott Interview

2009-01-22T19:28:00.004-05:00

Recently released by the National Archives:

Memorandum for the Record

Event: Interview - Commander Scott Phillpott
Location: Commission office - K Street
Date: July 13, 2004
Access Restrictions: None
Commission Participants: Dieter Snell, Bonnie Jenkins
MFR by: Dieter Snell

Commission staff interviewed Commander Phillpott at the Commission's K Street office. Also in attendance was Major Jeanne Meyer of the Chairman's Legal Office.

The interview was arranged at the request of Commander Phillpott, who wanted to provide the Commission with information concerning his involvement in a particular information operations segment of the Department of Defense's "Able Danger" program over an approximately 18-month span before 9/11.

According to Phillpott, documents he worked with in Able Danger - and that he sought to organize in a link analysis program - included material from February-April 2000 showing Mohamed Atta to be a member of an al Qaeda cell located in Brooklyn. Phillpott's information on this subject was limited to his recollection of Atta's name and photo being part of an analyst notebook chart assembled by Lt. General Matt Gale (now retired and a DOD contractor). Phillpott saw the Atta material only briefly, before 9/11, at a point before it was redacted so as not to run afoul of posse comitatus restrictions, which Phillpott maintains were incorrectly imposed by DOD.

Phillpott contested the redaction of Atta (and other Brooklyn cell members) up his chain of command, to General Lambert, to no avail. According to Phillpott, General Schoonmaker was concerned about adverse publicity in the aftermath of Waco.

Phillpott's original assignment within Able Danger, in 1999, was to target Bin Ladin. His work initially was coordinated by a small group working in Tampa. The group, however, lacked adequate information access (lAC terminals), so Phillpott had to search for assistance elsewhere. He saw this need as particularly acute because, in his view, the nodal analysis being conducted by DIA, NSA, NRO and CIA was dysfunctional, focusing excessively on minor issues and not exploiting available subject matter experts.

Following a briefing at the Land Information Warfare Facility in Fort Belvoir (Information Dominance Center) on a data harvesting program, Phillpott became convinced that his program should use automated link analysis, which experts would then be able to work with. SOCOM, however, dismissed the link analysis as a "new toy", and Phillpott's pitch went nowhere. As a result, he had to create a link on his own terminal between Tampa and IDC, which ultimately enabled him to brief Generals Schoonmanker and Shelton between May and July 2000. Both were impressed.

In-fighting among DIA analysts, however, prevented the system from gaining a wider following. After IDC shut it down-due to "legal concerns" (E012003)-Phillpott was permitted to continue development of the system using Raytheon, receiving $750,000 in funding. The work continued in Garland, Texas, where the system was built almost from scratch. VIPs came down for tours.

To address concerns still being raised by Legal, Phillpott developed a spreadsheet to codify entries and trace searches, a control to make sure that searches were not conducted on U.S. nationals.

In c. October 2000, "circumscribed" briefings were planned for General Shinseki (sp?) and Admiral Jacoby (sp?).

Phillpott had a very good group of analysts, one of whom already was warning that Yemen represented a real danger point. The Cole bombing occurred two days later. After the bombing, Admiral Steffens (sp?) asked Phillpott to do forensic link analysis and generate a timeline hypothesis. Al Zandani was linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda, which Phillpott's database showed to be providing funds. In addition, the Aden Container Terminal-where the bombing took place-had a minority (49%) owner who was linked to UBL.

Phillpott sent his analysis to Centcom but nothing happened. He then clashed with his new boss, who was not cleared to see everything in Phillpott's program. The boss forced Phillpott to transfer back to Tampa, ending his involvement in the program, which Raytheon has continued to develop as "Genesis."

Phillpott thinks DIA is not exploiting all the data at its proposal, and especially is missing an opportunity to do language mapping. (Phillpott believes UBL has considerable influence over the French.)

Mitre Corp. (DOD contractor) now is in charge of the program, in which Phillpott no longer is involved.

Phillpott noted that the USG unwisely relied on the Political Security Agency in Yemen to provide reporting on political activity within Yemen. The PSA was prevented under Yemeni law from reporting on the activity of Yemeni national, so much information was missed.

Al Zadani is a religious leader in Yemen and advisor to President Saleh:

President performs Friday's prayer with Saada clerics

SANA'A, April 27 (26sep.net) - President Ali Abdullah Saleh performed Friday prayer along with religious scholars from Saada governorate and other scholars at the Presidential House mosque in Sana'a City.

The Friday sermon was delivered by Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zandani in which he talked about the importance of the unification, lives of Muslims and their solidarity to face challenges surrounding the nation. He warned about plots aiming at breaking out sectarian disputes to wake the nation.

Sheikh Al-Zandani highlighted initiative presented by President Saleh to set up an islamic union to enable Islamic nations to defend their rights and future of their generations....

He prayed Allah to protect Yemen and Islamic nation from strife and crisis.

Of course, Al Zandani is also a spritual advisor to Osama Bin Laden:

United States Designates bin Laden Loyalist

The Treasury Department today announced that Shaykh Abd-al-Majid AL-ZINDANI, a loyalist to Usama bin Laden and supporter of al-Qaeda, has been designated by the United States as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under the authority of Executive Order 13224 and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. His name will be submitted to the UN Security Council’s 1267 Committee’s consolidated list because of his support to bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

“With this action, the international community’s drumbeat against terrorist financiers continues to grow louder and the financial noose around al-Qaeda continues to grow tighter,” said Juan Zarate, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crime.

The U.S. has credible evidence that AL-ZINDANI, a Yemeni national, supports designated terrorists and terrorist organizations.

AL-ZINDANI has a long history of working with bin Laden, notably serving as one of his spiritual leaders. In this leadership capacity, he has been able to influence and support many terrorist causes, including actively recruiting for al-Qaeda training camps. Most recently, he played a key role in the purchase of weapons on behalf of al-Qaeda and other terrorists.

Yemen Holdings was the company with partial ownership of the Port of Aden at the time of the Cole bombing, and it is owned and operated by the Bin Mahfouz family:

Yemen Investment & Development International (Yeminvest) is the consortium leading the redevelopment of Aden port under a three-phase programme involving investments of $580 million; 51% of the share in Yeminvest is held by Yemen Holdings. The Bin Mahfouz family of Saudi Arabia, whose ancestors migrated to the kingdom from Hadhramout in Yemen, are the sole owners of Yemen Holdings. The remaining 49% share in Yeminvest is held by the PSA Corporation (formerly Port of Singapore Authority).

According to Wikipedia's detailed entry for Khalid bin Mahfouz:

$225 million BCCI scandal fine

Bin Mahfouz was a non-executive director of Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a financial conglomerate later convicted of money laundering, bribery, support of terrorism, arms trafficking, and many other crimes.[5] Mahfouz personally owned a 20% stake in BCCI. He was indicted by a New York state grand jury for fraud but denied any culpability. The fraud charges were settled for $225 million in lieu of fines.[2]

Donations to Osama bin Laden in 1988

Craig Unger's book House of Bush, House of Saud claims that bin Mahfouz donated over $270,000 to Osama bin Laden's Islamist organization at the request of Osama's brother Salem bin Laden. Bin Mahfouz's lawyer stated: "This donation was to assist the US-sponsored resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and was never intended nor, to the best of Sheikh Khalid's knowledge, ever used to fund any 'extension' of that resistance movement in other countries."[6]

Alleged NCB funding of al-Qaeda

Khalid bin Mahfouz has denied that NCB, his bank, was involved in funding an al-Qaeda group. According to reports, high-placed Saudi businessmen transferred millions of dollars through NCB to charities operating as fronts for al-Qaeda. Mahfouz states that he could not have been aware of every wire transfer moving through the bank, and that he would not have allowed such transactions had he known they were taking place. There is no evidence that Mahfouz was personally involved in any of these transactions....

Muwafaq Foundation

Khalid bin Mahfouz helped set up a charity organization called the Muwafaq Foundation, Muwafaq being Arabic for "blessed relief". He funded this charity with $30 million, and put his eldest son, Abdulrahman bin Mahfouz, on the board of directors. In October of 2001, the U.S. Treasury Department named Muwafaq an al-Qaeda front organization. Neither Khalid nor Abdulrahman were accused of funding terrorism by the United States; however Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi national hired to run the charity, was named a supporter of terrorism by and had his assets frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department.[2]

Khalid bin Mahfouz claims that he was not aware of the charity being used to fund terrorists. He claims further that he has initiated an investigation of his own into Muwafaq's activities.[citation needed]

9-11 Commission Memo from Shaffer interview

2009-01-22T05:18:00.007-05:00

Released last week by the National Archives. Thanks to Scott Malone for the link. Obviously, the first officer mentioned is LTC Tony Shaffer.

Interviewee: Defense HUMINT Service Officers: [REDACTED]
Date: October 21, 2003
Location: Bagram Base, Afghanistan
Participants: Zelikow, Scheid, Hurley, Cors
Drafted by: Kevin Scheid
Reviewed by:
Additional Info: This interview of three officers working related intelligence issues took place at Bagram Base.

[REDACTED] started the conversation with a detailed conversation about information he had prior to 9-11 on the activities of al Qai'da in Afghanistan. He referred to a specific program in the Defense Department that is now closed: "ABLE DANGER." He suggested that we get the file on the program and review it. There is a lot of information about al Qai'da and UBL prior to the attacks.

Further, [REDACTED] indicated that he had been working an asset that had a network of collectors in Afghanistan prior to 9-11, but this asset's contract was terminated at the direction of Congress, particularly the House Intelligence Committee. (Not complete)

[REDACTED] had a very different responsibility prior to 9-11: He received intelligence from the field and developed plans for the Pentagon. This was interesting to the Commission because of our efforts to gain access to the plans the Pentagon had on the books prior to 9-11. These plans were shelved. CIA had the lead. (Not Complete)

[REDACTED] worked the Cole investigation for the military. He did the after action report to see if they had missed anything. [REDACTED] was tasked to find out who committed the attack, links to al Qai'da. He worked with others who had developed connections between various al Qai'da members - as many as a thousand different players. They hadn't recognized what they had at the time. This information should still be available. (Not Complete)