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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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 Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 1:21 am Post subject: ABLE DANGER HEARINGS - BOMBSHELL |
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http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/53533.htm
| Quote: | TERROR ALERT WKS. BEFORE COLE ATTACK
By NILES LATHEM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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. warship that killed 17 sailors.
Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, the Defense Intelligence Agency's former liaison to Able Danger, told The Post that Capt. Scott Phillpott, Able Danger's leader, briefed Gen. Peter Schoomaker, former head of Special Operations Command and now Army chief of staff, about the findings on Yemen "two or three weeks" before the Cole attack.
"Yemen was elevated by Able Danger to be one of the top three hot spots for al Qaeda in the entire world," Shaffer recalled.
Shaffer and two other officials familiar with Able Danger said contractors uncovered al Qaeda activities in Yemen through a search of Osama bin Laden's business ties.
The Pentagon had no immediate comment. |
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“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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shawa
CNO
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| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 2:24 am Post subject: |
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General Schoomaker set up Able Danger when he headed SOCOM. This was his baby and he was very enthusiastic about it.
According to Rep. Weldon, AD documents were ordered destroyed in late 2000.
Gen. Schoomaker retired at the end of 2000, and Able Danger shut down shortly after that. In 2003, Sec/Def Rumsfeld convinced Schoomaker to come back as Army Chief of Staff.
And now the Pentagon is pushing for the Hearings to be closed to the public.
Is Gen. Schoomaker going to be called to testify?? I bet he could reveal a lot! Like maybe Clinton and Sec/Def William Cohen were told of increased al Qaeda activity in Aden harbor less than three weeks before the attack on the USS Cole and still did not stop the Cole from refueling in Yemen.
Just who ordered those documents destroyed??
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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mtboone
Founder
Joined: 10 May 2004
Posts: 470
Location: Kansas City, MO.
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| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 2:27 am Post subject: |
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| shawa wrote: | General Schoomaker set up Able Danger when he headed SOCOM. This was his baby and he was very enthusiastic about it.
According to Rep. Weldon, AD documents were ordered destroyed in late 2000.
Gen. Schoomaker retired at the end of 2000, and Able Danger shut down shortly after that. In 2003, Sec/Def Rumsfeld convinced Schoomaker to come back as Army Chief of Staff.
And now the Pentagon is pushing for the Hearings to be closed to the public.
Is Gen. Schoomaker going to be called to testify?? I bet he could reveal a lot! Like maybe Clinton and Sec/Def William Cohen were told of increased al Qaeda activity in Aden harbor less than three weeks before the attack on the USS Cole and still did not stop the Cole from refueling in Yemen.
Just who ordered those documents destroyed?? |
I think there needs to be a link here to the story to provide factual evidence.
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Qui Nhon 68-69 |
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Rdtf
CNO
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Location: BUSHville
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| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 4:55 am Post subject: |
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check this out!
hmm Jamie Gorelick?
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/673
p.s. here is the transcript link:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050917&articleId=965
« | Quote: | Able Danger, The Cole Too, 09/17/05Able Danger, More Weldon, 09/17/05
I am not sure of the source of this, but it appears to be a transcript of Rep Weldon speaking to reporters, with all sorts of hints of what is to come:
We’ve identified the woman at the FBI who set those three meetings up. She will testify under oath at the Senate hearing next Wednesday that she actually organized three meetings. She knew the topics of the meetings because there had been other discussions that occurred prior to the attempt to set up those three meetings.
And in each of the cases of those three meetings, they were abruptly canceled by Pentagon lawyers hours before those meetings were to take place.
I have mentioned this theory before: Once DIA/Able Danger tried to contact the FBI all sorts of other people were probably notified as a courtesy or to fulfill the chain of command requirements - and this is when someone stepped in.
What will be the added dimension to the Senate investigation and hearing that will take place on Wednesday is not just the five people that the Pentagon has confirmed, identified and knew about Mohammed Atta prior to 9/11, but we’ll bring out the person who actually did much of the data analysis. Actually, his name, I think, has already been brought out in the public. That’s J.D. (ph).
But the person who’s not been brought out in the public yet, this individual who will testify that he was actually the one who destroyed 2.5 terabytes of data about Able Danger that included the Brooklyn cell and Mohammed Atta.
Things we have learned, but apparently in Weldon’s words.
He will name the person who ordered him to destroy that material. And, furthermore, he will note that a commanding general from SOCOM — Russ, what was his name?
STAFF: (OFF-MIKE)
WELDON: General Lambert was incensed when he found out that material that he was a customer for was destroyed without his approval.
So here we have a case where General Lambert at SOCOM was not told that an employee had been ordered to destroy all the material that he was a customer for. And that material related to Able Danger, it related to Al Qaida and it related to Mohammed Atta.
BINGO! The implication here is clear. Able Danger’s chain of command was backing their efforts to contact the FBI and, whoever they were up against, was sufficiently high up to go around them to have the information destroyed. This was not standard document clean up, and this was not some low level typical order.
And the bombshells keep coming:
But what is in that speech are the exact details I’ve been talking about for the last two months. What was also in that speech, which I had forgotten and which I’m now public acknowledging, is that there was a three-hour briefing provided to General Shelton in January of 2001.
And furthermore, what Tony Shaffer will tell you in the hallway outside is that he personally briefed General Shelton on Able Danger, and in a briefing in the first quarter of 2001, and he will name the people that were in the room. He was giving a briefing on another topic, remember the name of that?
STAFF: (OFF-MIKE)
WELDON: Door Hop Galley (ph) which is another classified program.
In the course of that briefing — and there was a Navy admiral in the room, Admiral Wilson, in charge of DIA, and Richard Schiefren (ph) was in the room. Richard Schiefren (ph) was an attorney at DOD.
Weldon is naming some big names and opening doors. I am truly wondering if their is any method to his madness. Hopefully Mac at Mac’s Mind can fill in some background on this. More incoming rounds
it was in October of 2003 when he first briefed the 9/11 Commission’s staff over in Baghram.
In January of 2004 when he was twice rebuffed by the 9/11 Commission for a personal follow-up meeting, he was assigned back to Afghanistan to lead a special classified program.
When he returned in March, he was called in and verbally his security clearance was temporarily lifted. By lifting his security clearance, he could not go back into DIA quarters where all the materials he had about Able Danger were, in fact, stored. He could not get access to memos that, in fact, he will tell you discussed the briefings he provided both to the previous administration and this administration.
More names will be coming out - whom he briefed and when. The fireworks are being lit. And there appears to be some remnants of information still in existence:
In one month we provided all these charts, we reconstructed the original Mohammed Atta chart, which I’ve showed many times, with the linkages — from the original data, I might add, that people had available.
So there could be the anaylsis papers, products, notes, etc that were used to build the charts. That would be a real breakthrough. And we learn where the Atta photograph comes from
Well, as we now know, the photograph did not come from an immigration picture or a driver’s license. An individual who will testify on Wednesday will say they bought that photograph from a woman in California who was researching the activity at selected mosques. That’s where the photograph came from.
Only question I have is which mosque. My bet is it is in Germany - but if in the US, that would also be a stunning revelation. A photo of Atta with his name on a watch list might have changed history.
And so the more information I get, the more questions arise. The American people deserve to have answers.
Well, he has that right. And he goes on to drop some more names on the witness list
But during that briefing with Admiral Wilson and with Richard Schiefren (ph), the topic of Able Danger came up and Richard Schiefren (ph), who was the legal counsel at the Pentagon, knew about Able Danger.
…
I applaud Senator Specter and his staff for scheduling a hearing on Wednesday where all of these people can testify.
Then he really throws the gauntlet down at the 9-11 Commission
In the Hart Building, when the 9/11 Commission brought in George Tenet, and I was watching the hearings from my home, I couldn’t believe the questioning. So I drafted this document and had my staff director hand deliver it to the 9/11 Commission. They never asked a question. This is the actual document.
The next week, they sent a staffer over to pick up some additional materials about the NOA (ph), about the concept, and about information I had briefed them on. They never followed up and invited me to come in and meet with them. So they can’t say that I didn’t try.
Is the Commission going to say they did not here from a Member of Congress? That kind of bluff might get the current members’ backs up.
There is a lot of rehashing of claims and history, and some good questions. I will not try and read for you good folks. I simply try and point out the new information. Here is something I have not heard before from Weldon or Able Danger
I think here are those, perhaps, that are going to be embarrassed by this: embarrassed in the previous administration, and now it looks like embarrassed in this administration.
That is an interesting statement - no one’s hands will be clean.
WOW! Another big bombshell is going off right here
I think, for some reason, there was a staff effort deliberately put forward not to allow this information to be brought forward.
Now, a couple of strange things have happened during this time period, and one thing I’ve never mentioned publicly.
The first week the story broke in the New York Times, I was in Pennsylvania that Friday doing district work and I got a call at my office. My chief of staff took the call, and it was from a person I’d never met in my entire life. I’d never mentioned her name. She was on vacation and asked my chief of staff for me to call her back.
Her name was Jamie Gorelick.
Gorelick contacted Weldon? Is she on the witness list?!?!
I said, “What does she want, Russ? I don’t know the woman.” I said, “I’m tied up. Would you please call her back and ask her what she wants?”
….
Russ called her back on her cell phone. She was on vacation. And her response to my chief of staff was, “Please tell Congressman Weldon I’ve done nothing wrong.”
That is incredible if true. I would simply like to see Gorelick under oath myself.
More fireworks to come
Scott Philpott (ph) jeopardized his entire naval career to state emphatically that he will swear on his career that they knew about not just Able Danger, but Mohammed Atta and ties to the Brooklyn cell in January and February of 2000. I believe Scott Philpott (ph).
A flag officer vs a US Senator? I’d trust the good Captain if I had to pick one.
More on contemporaneous evidence on the attempts to meet with the FBI
I’ve been told that the woman at the FBI has e-mails that will verify the meetings.
There is definitely something to this story. I am now convinced Able Danger DIA was desperately trying to get information on terrorists (and who cares whether it was on a chart or in crayola crayons scrapings on paper). And there must have been something driving this urgency.
I can tell you that Tony Shaffer will tell you his e-mails, all classified, on his system, were deleted. They were deleted during the time that he could not get access because they had temporarily lifted his security clearance.
That means they were deleted January 2004. But that cannot be the only record of them. That would be his record on his PC. There are other records of email traffic. But the timing does not bode well for the current administration - unless there is some rogue CYA effort inside the DoD.
Interestingly, Weldon is being kept in the dark concerning the White House positions. But he does say this about Steve Hadley, to whom he gave the original Able Danger chart:
don’t know the status. When I met with Steve, he acknowledged me giving him a chart.
I wonder if he is on the witness list. And another interesting nugget. Specter’s hearings will not be the first congressional hearings:
We had a briefing for members of the Armed Services Committee last week in a closed session. And we’re going to continue to pursue it.
Want to bet the members on this committee are very popular with the news media about now.
Weldon also sheds light on the China connection - a parallel study using the same methods that caused a ruckus
He tasked them to do a special briefing on Chinese proliferation. And I was aware of that. And I was aware that, when that briefing was done, there were some very sensitive human person issues that came up. Because the technology that China was acquiring, through researchers that were here in our country, in many cases were at Stanford University and other universities in America. And because of that, the two names surfaced that had been reported in the press.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
WELDON: Condoleezza Rice and Bill Perry. |
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shawa
CNO
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| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 5:06 am Post subject: |
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Don't get me wrong, Terry. I am not impugning General Schoomaker in any way. I greatly admire the man. I am speculating that he may be called as a witness because he has first-hand knowledge of the Able Danger project and why it was shut down. I don't think he was the one who ordered the documents destroyed. Probably DIA lawyers.
FOX NEWS had the story about the Pentagon pressing Arlen Specter to close the hearing to the public.
Interview with Lt.Col. Shaffer about the birth of Able Danger and General Schoomaker recruiting him:
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/sep_05/shaffer_interview.html
From 9-11 Commission PDF file:
http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/staff_statement_6.pdf
Page 12-- | Quote: | | General Peter Schoomaker......said that if the Special Operations Command had been a Supported Command before 9/11, he would have had the Al Qaeda mission rather than deferring to CENTCOM's lead. Schoomaker said he spoke to Secretary Cohen and General Shelton about this proposal. It was not adopted. |
Hmmm. The Commission report doesn't state what Schoomaker's proposal was, but I assume it was his Able Danger Project.
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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J. Toy
Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 96
Location: Pa.
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| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 6:35 pm Post subject: |
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http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/673
| Quote: |
Snippet:
WOW! Another big bombshell is going off right here
I think, for some reason, there was a staff effort deliberately put forward not to allow this information to be brought forward.
Now, a couple of strange things have happened during this time period, and one thing I’ve never mentioned publicly.
The first week the story broke in the New York Times, I was in Pennsylvania that Friday doing district work and I got a call at my office. My chief of staff took the call, and it was from a person I’d never met in my entire life. I’d never mentioned her name. She was on vacation and asked my chief of staff for me to call her back.
Her name was Jamie Gorelick.
Gorelick contacted Weldon? Is she on the witness list?!?!
I said, “What does she want, Russ? I don’t know the woman.” I said, “I’m tied up. Would you please call her back and ask her what she wants?”
….
Russ called her back on her cell phone. She was on vacation. And her response to my chief of staff was, “Please tell Congressman Weldon I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Read the whole post. |
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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 6:50 pm Post subject: |
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J.Toy: I posted that last night (see above)
I think it's big news, and I was wondering why it wasn't commented on! |
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kate
Admin
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 1891
Location: Upstate, New York
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| Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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shawa wrote: | Quote: | I am not impugning General Schoomaker in any way. I greatly admire the man. I am speculating that he may be called as a witness because he has first-hand knowledge of the Able Danger project and why it was shut down. I don't think he was the one who ordered the documents destroyed. Probably DIA lawyers.
FOX NEWS had the story about the Pentagon pressing Arlen Specter to close the hearing to the public.
Interview with Lt.Col. Shaffer about the birth of Able Danger and General Schoomaker recruiting him:
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/sep_05/shaffer_interview.html |
That interview with Lt.Col. Shaffer from shawa's link, is a long read, but worth it. Seems DIA shut Shaffer down, which was essentailly the end for Able Danger
< snip, about halfway throught the interview>
| Quote: | SHAFFER: (snip)
Therefore, I had a new chain of command above me. They were very risk adverse. This [Able Danger] operation, as with other operations which were very high risk / high gain, some of which are still ongoing -- seemed to not be appreciated by the incoming leadership.
At one point in time, the then Director of Operations [for the DIA] had me come in and brief him on a series of operations. This was February /March 2001. This general said, “I want you to explain to me every one of your operations in detail.” So, I started going through the laundry list of each operation and describing it to him.
From moment one, it was a bad conversation. It was like, “Well, I don’t agree. Well, I don’t agree. Well, I don’t agree.” So, he basically was saying all the operational focus that I had been required to focus on by the previous leadership, by Colonel Harding, was not something he wanted to pursue. No matter how much common sense, no matter how much reason I tried to use with him, it seemed to be an emotional issue with him.
GSN:
Did you take that as his personal philosophy or was that somehow reflective of a larger administration view?
SHAFFER:
I can’t answer that question because some of these operations were driven by the Office of Secretary of Defense. They were telling him that we needed to do them. It was tasking from that level, plus in this case, from General Schoomaker.
GSN:
How do you explain his objections to your various activities?
SHAFFER:
I can only speak to the facts. His opinion was, “That’s not part of your job.” As he walked through things, he kept saying, “I don’t see this as your job. This should be done by someone else.”
I tried to explain to him how that’s not their job. We’re human intelligence. This is just an aspect of human intelligence. He disagreed with me. It came to the point where we brought up Able Danger, where I was explaining the operation to him -- as you know it now, plus more -- and he looked at me and he said “Well, Tony, that’s not your job.”
I said, “Well, sir, with all due respect, this is an important operation focused on the global Al Qaeda target,” and he said, “You’re not hearing me, Tony. This is not your job.”
“Well, sir, this is basically using human methodology, combined with data mining to…”
“Tony, you’re not listening to me. This is not your job.”
“Sir, this is important, I think…”
“Tony, I’m the two star here. I’m the two star. I’m telling you I don’t want you doing anything with Able Danger.”
“Sir, if not us then who?”
“I don’t know, but it’s not your job.”
And that effectively ended my direct support and my unit’s support to Able Danger.
GSN:
Did it end Able Danger altogether?
SHAFFER:
I think it contributed to the failure of it because by that point, Army had already pulled out and Special Operations Command, because of the political change there, had also changed their focus. I remember the last conversation I had with Captain Scott Philpott on this was a desperate call from him asking me to try to help use one of my operational facilities to at least try to exploit the information [Able Danger had collected] before it got lost.
GSN:
What was the name of the general who said “No, this is not your job.”
SHAFFER:
General Rod Isler.
GSN:
He sounds like a bit of a heavy in the story.
SHAFFER:
There are good guys and bad guys in the story.
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Talk about bureaucracy! Sounds like DOD supported this this, but DIA didn't? Sooo who was pulling DIA's strings? They aren't on the same page. DIA maybe worried about DOJ? (the Gorelick wall)
Who was the person influencing all this...
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shawa
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:50 am Post subject: |
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I said earlier that I greatly admired Gen. Schoomaker.
REASON: He's an out-of-the-box thinker.
From the GSN interview:
| Quote: | SHAFFER:
I’m down on a reserve tour as a reserve U.S. Army major, doing my active duty requirement for my annual training. During this training, I was asked to brief [General Pete] Schoomaker, the four-star commander of Special Operations Command on my full time job as a GS 14, regarding “Stratus Ivy,” the special mission unit that I was running.
During this briefing -- I’d given a full mission rundown of what I was doing – General Schoomaker stopped in the middle of the briefing and said, “I know about one of the programs you work,” and he named it to me. It’s still classified. I said, “Yeah, I work that,” and he says, “I need you on a special project that we’re working on.” He looked over at the Special Technical Operations Office Chief, who was in the briefing, and said, “Read him into Able Danger.” So that was when I was first made aware that something was being done, and General Schoomaker turned to me and said, “I want you as part of the team doing this.”
GSN:
When was this?
SHAFFER:
September of ’99.
GSN:
The Able Danger program itself was ongoing already?
SHAFFER:
No, it was just being tasked. It was still being formulated.
They were just getting it together because apparently one of the issues they were negotiating with General [Hugh] Shelton [the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] was what the scope and parameters would be for this program. This was groundbreaking. This was an entrepreneurial concept. They were looking for partnerships based on what made the best sense, rather than what is normal in military doctrine. [General Shelton] wanted to have “out-of-the-box” thinkers. He said, “Look, you guys are off doing some really new concept things.” I can’t get into a lot of them because they’re so classified, but because of this real out-of-the-box stuff we were doing, he wanted us as a part of this team.
GSN:
Who came up with the idea originally to set up Able Danger?
SHAFFER:
I’d have to defer that question to either General Schoomaker or General Shelton. I honestly don’t know that answer, but I know that between the two of them, the tasking was to SOCOM, Special Operations Command, as the supported CinC [military short-hand for Commander in Chief of a unified command]. This was the first time ever that Special Operations Command was the supported CinC, which means that they were the prime CinC. They were the lead CinC to do something. This was the first time the Special Operations Command wasn’t supporting someone else.
GSN:
And what did you take to be the mission as it was defined that day?
SHAFFER:
Simply, to target Al Qaeda globally. All of Al Qaeda. It’s mission, functions and capabilities, so that on call -- one directed by national command leadership – the U.S. could do something to attack them. [To develop] an offensive capability so once we define what Al Qaeda is, we can find a way to stop them, to counter them overseas.
GSN:
Did you take that to be the first time that mission was defined and given to some unit or were there already intelligence operations that were trying to pull this Al Qaeda information together.
SHAFFER:
I was made aware of, at that point in time -- my lawyer always tells me to reference this for background – that there has already been information in the press regarding the fact that the CIA had a finding to kill Bin Laden. A finding to conduct an assassination of him. I was aware of that at the time.
So, one of the issues was we did not want to compete -- or be seen as competing -- with the CIA in what their mission was, or what they were already assigned to do. Within the first 30 days of Able Danger, the operations officer that you now know as [Navy] Captain Scott Philpott, asked me to go talk to the director of central intelligence rep at the [Special Operations] Command, the DCI rep who represented [CIA Director] George Tenet there in the command. My task was to explain to the rep that we’re not competing with him and explain to him Able Danger. |
And Donald Rumsfeld, another out-of-the-box thinker.
I posted this a few weeks ago on another thread:
http://www.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=157257&highlight=#157257
Excerpt from the article:
| Quote: | And since 9/11, no one in Pentagon history has used people like Rumsfeld has, and he's broken more rules and requirements than anyone thought possible.
When the president wanted the Taliban dislodged in Afghanistan as quickly as possible after 9/11, Rumsfeld backed General Tommy Franks's quick-and-dirty plan using an unprecedented mix of Special Forces, precision bombing, and CIA paramilitaries to exploit the on-the-ground capabilities of the anti-Taliban Afghani warlords and their forces. That experiment proved to be an eye-opener for Rumsfeld regarding the potential of Special Operations Command (SOCOM), and he quickly anointed the Tampa-based command as the lead Combatant Command in the global war on terrorism, taking what had always been a bastard-stepchild command that supported other commands and instantly turning it into one that now receives support from others. In the Pentagon, this was profound, like the rich father designating his chauffeur's son as his new heir.
By doing so, Rumsfeld not only transformed the role of SOCOM, he designated it as a cannibalizing agent within the U. S. military, saying to the rest of the armed forces: Go be more like them! In the summer of 2003, Rumsfeld skipped over an entire generation of army senior generals to bring a four-star "snake eater" out of retirement to serve as his army chief of staff. Plucking General Pete Schoomaker from his retirement ranch nearly three years after he left the service as the boss of Special Operations Command was a serious kick in the pants to a hidebound Army that was struggling to transform itself under General Eric Shinseki, who, despite coining the term transformation, had fallen out of favor with Rumsfeld for, as one senior aide put it, becoming too fixated on improving the Army's efficiency in combat without questioning the relevance of the capabilities he was developing, as in, Great force, wrong war. Schoomaker was down in Texas meeting with one of his ranching partners (everybody in this crowd, it seems, has a ranch) when he got a call on his cell phone. At first he thought it was a joke. "You've got to be kidding," he told Rumsfeld. "I'm not interested."
"That's not a good enough answer," Rumsfeld replied. "You've at least got to come talk."
So Schoomaker drove twenty-one hours straight back to his home in Tampa and then immediately flew up to Washington and spent the weekend with Rumsfeld. "By the time we got through talking . . . you get to a point where it's your duty to do things," says Schoomaker. "It's totally illogical. My wife, she thinks it's nuts." Now Schoomaker is redesigning the Army's century-old division structure (fifteen to twenty thousand troops each) into something far more flexible and modular, or what he calls "brigade units of action" (thirty-five hundred to four thousand troops each). That's eighteen divisions, a cold-war structure, a structure for fighting the Russians, morphing into almost eighty brigades to face new enemies, brigades that are interchangeable among the active-duty force, the Army Reserves, and the National Guard. This is nothing less than returning the Army to its frontier days of cavalry-sized field units and leaving behind the division-driven history of two World Wars and the entire cold war. In a generation, the divisions will remain only as ceremonial vestiges of a type of war that no longer exists. That's the idea anyway.
In return, Schoomaker made Rumsfeld promise that there'd be no divisions cut (so the manpower pool wouldn't change) and that he'd buy the general some "head room" with thirty thousand extra active-duty troops. Rumsfeld agreed, even as he knew he'd catch hell from Congress for having to admit the Army needed more men as the insurgency heated up in Iraq in the summer of 2003. After all, Eric Shinseki's parting shot to Rumsfeld had been to testify that the Pentagon had vastly underestimated the number of ground forces needed to secure postwar Iraq. Schoomaker told me that Rumsfeld went to the president directly on that one. And to emphasize the importance of getting the people right before talking about the weapons, Schoomaker got Rumsfeld's promise to push back the production of the Army's superexpensive, all-encompassing Future Combat Systems to the latter years of the second administration to give the general additional time to boot up the new brigade structure. Rumsfeld agreed without question. In the Building, this is providing what they call "top cover." Get past the wire-brushing, bond with the guy, and he'll go to the mattresses for you.quote]
This sparked my interest.
So Rummy was so impressed by SOCOM that it became the LEAD command in the GWOT, and is now RECEIVING support from all other commands. And he goes and gets Pete Schoomaker to be Army Chief of Staff.
Looks like Rummy knows a good man when he sees one! The former head of SOCOM.
It was General Schoomaker who set up the Able Danger Unit back when he was head of SOCOM. He retired at the end of 2000, and Able Danger was shut down shortly after he retired.
Connection?? Hmmm. Just another tidbit to put in my Able Danger file. |
Just reminded me of how many times we heard sKerry (not an out-of-the-box thinker) saying all during the campaign "Just ask General Shinseki."
as he continually carped about Rumsfeld.
Clinton appointed Shinseki as Army Chief of Staff in 1999. Hmmm.
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776)
Last edited by shawa on Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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SOLTC
Seaman Recruit
Joined: 30 Jul 2004
Posts: 25
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 5:14 pm Post subject: |
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It looks like its going to be SOF versus whoever.
Yes, the POTUS and the SECDEF both like SOCOM.
Ever notice at Ft. Bragg how the President recognizes the other flag officers very formally but it's Doug Brown. (Gen. Brown's first name is Brian, but, being a junior, his family called him Doug.)
I've been given to understand (by a friend who would know) that at a video conference on 09/12/05 or 09/13/05 with the POTUS, SECDEF, JCS, and the unified commands, Mr. Bush was very dissatisfied with the initial responses for an Afghanistan deployment plan. Then Gen. Chuck Holland, COMSOCOM, said "I can have an assessment team in Uzbekistan in 72 hours".
That's when Mr. Bush became a SOF believer.
After 50 years, "the Boys' were going to lead the way. |
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SBD
Admiral
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 1022
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 5:27 am Post subject: |
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Maybe this whole thing is what caused Clinton to start bashing Bush!!
SBD |
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 8:50 am Post subject: |
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SBD said
| Quote: | | Maybe this whole thing is what caused Clinton to start bashing Bush!! |
Something has been bothering me for a while. The chart identifying Atta and other Al Quaeda members that no one can find now. The chart that Curt Weldon showed when he made his floor speech in the House of Representatives. In that floor speech he said that sometime shortly after 9/11 he took that chart to Steven Hadley at the White House who was then deputy National Security advisor. I don't remember his exact words, but he seemed to indicate that Hadley was amazed and said he had to show the chart to 'the Man'.
Now with all the hoopla about Able Danger and no one can produce the chart, Hadley has remained silent. I have been trying to figure out why Hadley would not come out and say he has the chart.
With all documents of Able Danger being destroyed by DIA back in 2000 under Clinton's watch, and the 9/11 Commission saying it never happened, that Chart is key evidence.
I'm wondering that after the mess of the 2000 election, the long and less than friendly transition with Bush wanting to set a
new tone, and then 9/11 happening, that Bush just said we're not going back and point fingers.
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 10:15 am Post subject: |
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Another angle I've been pondering is that maybe Bush quietly reconstituted Able Danger under the DIA (Top Secret) and this is why the Pentagon doesn't want public hearings.
During 2002, Bush worked at creating the TTIC (Terrorism Threat Integration Center) and announced it's creation in his State of the Union Speech in January 2003. See Here
But it met with a lot of flack in Congressin 2003, with the Libs and ACLU decrying the data mining aspect.
And remember when Congress wanted an Intelligence Czar to have authority over all Intelligence Agencies, the Pentagon refused to have DIA
under that czar's authority. Maybe the Defense department has a new
SECRET Able Danger program doing that deep data mining.
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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Col. Shaffer was just on Hannity radio show and said he has submitted his testimony for review by the Pentagon, and he has just been told that he CANNOT testify tomorrow, because what he intends to testify to is Classified.
He says it is the same things that he and others have already been saying, and it doesn't make any sense for them to say its classified at this point.
But he said "I'm past the point of no return now, and I intend to go forward."
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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rparrott21
Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 760
Location: Mckinney, Texas
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| Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 6:19 am Post subject: |
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| Classic Clinton's,,,they survive yet another day.... |
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