Danger Able Danger (re-edited)

Okay, Captain Ed and AJ Strata, I’m convinced. The Pentagon is trying to hide something in regard to the Able Danger situation, because this is just pathetic:

An officer who has claimed that a classified military unit identified four Sept. 11 hijackers before the 2001 attacks is facing Pentagon accusations of breaking numerous rules, allegations his lawyer suggests are aimed at undermining his credibility.

Ya think?

The alleged infractions by Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, 42, include obtaining a service medal under false pretenses, improperly flashing military identification while drunk and stealing pens, according to military paperwork shown by his attorney to The Associated Press.[SNIP]

Shaffer says he received a Bronze Star medal for work on a classified operation in Afghanistan in 2003. According to papers provided by Zaid, the military is now questioning whether he deserved it, including challenging whether at least one person who backed Shaffer's nomination for the medal had firsthand knowledge of his actions.

Shaffer says he showed his government credentials during two incidents in 1990, when he was drunk, and 1996, when he was pulled over by police. The military says he misused his credentials, but Shaffer says he was not told he should not have used them. [I’ve never heard of this either. –ed.] He also said he has joined Alcoholics Anonymous and has been sober for 13 years.

As for the pens and other office supplies taken, he blamed that on "youthful indiscretions" more than 20 years ago.

(Emphasis mine.)

I guess the Pentagon did a little data-mining of their own.

So if the MPs ask you for any of your government IDs and you happen to be drunk you’re supposed to tell them ‘no?(!!!!)’

And I’m sure that there are millions of government pens sitting in the pockets of GIs and civilians right now.

But the worst thing is that the earliest incident of drunkeness happened sixteen years ago and the Pentagon expects observers to believe that LTC Shaffer’s security clearance is being pulled for that and the 1996 incident, with some so-called irregularities involving his Bronze Star and petty amounts charged on his government credit card thrown in for good measure. And, to top it off, they throw in some ridiculous and insulting petty bovine excrement about twenty-year-old pens. (If LTC Shaffer such a "desperado," why did he get a security clearance in the first place and why did it keep getting renewed?)

Then they expect observers to believe that this has nothing to do with LTC Shaffer’s coming forward about Able Danger.

It’s one big, fat legal non-sequitur.

By bringing up incidents that should have been adjudicated when they occured (and probably were), the Pentagon is behaving like a kangaroo court of a military junta. And it’s pointless to boot. Says Captain Ed:

Why now? It looks like the Pentagon will not avoid dealing with the Senate hearings on Able Danger and wants to get out in front of the whistleblowers in order to minimize the political fallout. By discrediting the witnesses in petty ways, it makes them look like kooks before the American public gets a chance to see and hear their testimony.

Indeed it does.

Previous Posts:

Cover Up? Doubtful
Able Danger Officer Named
Mea Culpa?
Commission Retort
Commission Admission
Oh That Mohammed Atta
Placing Blame

Comments

[Mike]

"(If LTC Shaffer such a "desperado," why did he get a security clearance in the first place and why did it keep getting renewed?)"

And how did he get to be LTC? They don't just give those little eagles [psst, Mike; silver oak leaf clusters] out in Crackerjack boxes.

There's another news story about a whistleblower on the Airbus program who's now penniless in Vienna.

A whistleblower's life is not a happy one.

[AJStrata]

I sadly welcome you aboard with the rest of us. I wish you were right.

[Steve Skubinna]

Regarding government pens - to this day I do not routinely carry a pen on my person, a habit formed in the service. Like everyone else I would come home, empty my pockets and put the change and Skilcraft pens on my dresser.

Eventually the dresser top would be covered in the cheap little pieces of low bid excrement and I'd haul them back in and drop them on the first empty desk I passed.

My solution was to forgo carrying one, on the assumption that one would be available wherever it happened that I needed to write or sign anything.

One thing about Skilcraft pens always puzzled me - they're made by Industries for the Blind, right?

So how do they know they work?

[baldilocks]

Steve S:

cheap little pieces of low bid excrement

That's a perfect description of the the black government pens of 20 years ago; one of the galling features of these charges.

One thing about Skilcraft pens always puzzled me - they're made by Industries for the Blind, right?

So how do they know they work?

Blind faith.

[Marty]

Truly odd. I'm so used to flashing my military ID from my active duty days that I'll still whip it out when asked for identification by anyone. When I received a speeding tickets 3-4 years ago, I pulled my military ID out along with my civilian driver's license (they're side-by-side in my wallet). So what?

And the pens thing is just silly.

[DragonLady]

"Showing irresponsibility with $2,012 in credit card debt." Oh that is a big load of poop. I had over $20,000 in credit card debt as a SrA, filed bankruptcy, and never lost my clearance. Heck, my last PR, I had to write a statement for OSI explaining the whole of the bankruptcy, and when the IO read my statement he tried to offer my a job with OSI. And if they pull clearances for taking Skilcraft items, they would probably only be a handfull of cleared personnel left in the military.

Yes, it now stinks to high heaven of a cover-up.

[74]

I would have resigned my commission before signing off on charges like that. This just reminds me why I avoided duty in DC like the plague.

[Jim]

This case is so shaky that it almost looks like someone is deliberately screwing it up to make Shaffer look more credible. Maybe some hidden patriot is sabotaging the cover-up. See how well it worked on all of us!

[baldilocks]

Jim: LOL, never thought of it that way.

[chris]

lets not forget that he had his security clearance stripped because of $67 worth of unauthorized phone calls on his cell phone made over a period of 18 months!!!

can anyone else say "Witch Hunt"

[StinKerr]

Can anyone tell me the statute of limitations on a Navy blanket, a teaspoon and maybe, just maybe, one of those crummy pens?

Not for me, of course, ... er .... for someone I might or might not know, depending on how much trouble he or she might or might not be in.

What a load of manure.

[Peggy]

I'm ignorant of military things, but isn't Rumsfield the head of the Pentagon. I realize that in such a complex and powerful bureaucracy that might not mean much, but what has he said, if anything, about this garbage?

[NE]

This whole episode is pathetic. It's disheartening to see DoD stoop to mudslinging. I guess we've finally seen the Clintonization of the Pentagon.

[Timmer]

21 years in the Air Force and the only pen I carry is my own, usually a Parker from the BX. And we all thought our T.I. was crazy when he told us to never ever ever ever let a government pen get into our pocket.

[gingeroni]

Captains Quarters has a letter from Shaffer's lawyer and it's an even worse case than you think. The charges mostly relate to his civilian work. The DoD apparently promoted him while the other folks (DIA?) were lodging charges against him.

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005547.php

I can't keep all these acronyms straight but it's worth a good look.

[baldilocks]

Thanks gingeroni!

DIA=Defense Intelligence Agency

[David March]

In trouble for stealing government issue PENS????

To me that only makes sense if he was selling them on the black market. in Ton Lots.

But, when you think of it, "for want of a biro the req sheet for the ammo was blank; for want of the req sheet, the breech of the cannon was empty; for want...:" (okay, I'm shutting up!)

I guess I'm really not familiar with military regs. Silly me, I woulda thunk if you're active duty on a military base, the pen at your desk is as much a part of your working equipment as the rounds for your sidearm.

Oh, I'm beginning to get the picture. You only get cartridges for your weapons when they're issued for a purpose, and you have to sign for'em, police your brass, and fill in a form accounting for the spent rounds when you turn in the unexpended ones.

My dad served on aircraft carriers, and occasionally reminded my brother and me that he only ever had enough personal effects to fit in a duffel bag. Where would a fiddle player like me keep his fiddle?

So everyone has to supply their own writing implement needs at the post exchange, and leave any pen that came with the desk in the drawer, eh?

Now at last I think I understand why when tens of thousands of Muslims were crowding into the "United Nations Safe Zone" of Sreberniça, and the commander of the Dutch brigade of some 350 men left to protect them called for air strikes, the U.N. command replied that he had not filed the request on the proper forms. By the time he got that straightened out, General Ratko Mladic and his Serbian forces had taken some 50 Dutch soldiers hostage, and dominated the area. Despite token bombing by two Dutch F-16s, a negotiated release of the Dutch allowed them to leave the town, and allowed the Serbians to slaughter 7,000 muslim men and youths.

I love it. The U.N. command told the Dutch guy he filed his request for close air support on the wrong form.

Maybe some U.S. Pentagon staffers really are pissed about the misappropriated pens.