Date Posted: Thursday, September 22, 2005

The Pentagon blocked officials involved in a secret military intelligence program from testifying before a Senate committee looking into whether the U.S. had information before the September 11 attacks of al-Qaeda members.

WASHINGTON, Sep 22 (MASNET & News Agencies) - The Pentagon blocked an intelligence official from testifying to Congress on his claim that a secret military intelligence program identified Mohammed Atta as an al-Qaeda operative a year before the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Two members of the team, Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer and civilian contractor James Smith, attended the hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee but had their lawyer, Mark Zaid, answer questions for them, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Zaid told the committee he had received letters from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon general counsel's office specifically prohibiting Shaffer from testifying.

Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, accused the Pentagon of stonewalling the inquiry in preventing five members of Able Danger expected to testify about the link between al-Qaeda and four of the September 11 hijackers - including Atta.

"I think the Department of Defense owes the American people an explanation of what went on here," said Specter.

Asked why Shaffer was prohibited from testifying, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Pentagon had offered to provide the Judiciary Committee a classified briefing in closed session.

"And as I understand it, the Judiciary Committee preferred to have an open hearing on a classified matter, and therefore the department declined to participate in an open hearing on a classified matter," Rumsfeld said.

"We have to obey the laws with respect to security classifications," he told reporters.

The Defense Department, instead, sent a top-level official who could provide little information on al-Qaeda-related intelligence uncovered by the secret military team, reports Reuters news agency.

"That looks to me like it may be obstruction of the committee's activities, something we will have to determine," said Specter.

William Dugan, Acting Assistant to the Defense Secretary for Intelligence Oversight, told Specter he knew little about Able Danger but said any information on Atta could have been transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) if obtained under proper regulations, reports Reuters.

"I understand that you were sent over in a very limited capacity, with perhaps the calculation that you didn't have this information," Specter told Dugan.

He told Dugan to inform his superiors that the committee wants to hear from people with firsthand knowledge of Able Danger, reports the Associated Press (AP).

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Pentagon believes it has provided sufficient information on Able Danger to the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, which oversee the department, the news agency reports.

The issue has reopened a longstanding controversy over the failure of U.S. intelligence agencies to share information that could have prevented the September 11 attack.

Zaid said Shaffer and Smith were prepared to testify that Able Danger, a secret data-mining project using powerful computers to sift through public data in search of intelligence clues, had prepared charts in 2000 that named Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the September 11 hijackers, as a member of an al-Qaeda cell.

Shaffer has said publicly that Able Danger members tried to pass the information along to the FBI three times in September 2000 but were forced by Pentagon lawyers to cancel the meetings, reports Reuters.

Much of the information related to Able Danger was destroyed in 2000, the news agency reports.

Zaid said the Defense Intelligence Agency destroyed files of documents related to Able Danger that Shaffer, who had been the DIA's liaison with Able Danger, had in his office as late as spring 2004.

"I don't understand why they would have destroyed any documents, particularly if they were classified, and there was classified information within these boxes," he said.

"The DIA should be required to explain who destroyed the documents and why the destroyed them," he said.

"Had that information been shared with the FBI, which was trying to get it, 9/11 might have been prevented," Specter said.

Specter also complained that the Pentagon delivered hundreds of pages of documents related to Able Danger late on the eve of the hearing, giving his committee staff no time to review the material.

"The American people are entitled to some answers," Specter said. "It is not a matter of attaching blame. It is a matter of correcting errors so that we don't have a repetition of 9/11."

Zaid also testified on behalf of Smith, saying Smith recalls seeing, before the September 11 attacks, a chart bearing Atta's picture. The picture was purchased from a California contractor, Zaid said.

The House of Representatives Armed Services Committee held a closed-door hearing on Able Danger earlier this month. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is quietly conducting its own investigation, including interviews with key figures, an aide said.

The Pentagon said that its investigation into Able Danger had found no information to corroborate that Atta's name and photograph was on a chart produced by the group, but acknowledged that some employees recall seeing an intelligence chart identifying Atta as a terrorist before the attacks.

The September 11 commission, which investigated the attacks that killed 3,000 people, has also said it found no documented evidence that Able Danger had identified Atta and other hijackers, reports Reuters.