Hopsicker: Able Danger Intel Exposed "Protected" Heroin Trafficking

[Barrett808]

Able Danger Intel Exposed "Protected" Heroin Trafficking
August 17,2005-Venice, FL.
by Daniel Hopsicker

Mohamed Atta was protected from official scrutiny as part of an officially-protected cocaine and heroin trafficking network with ties to top political figures, including Republican officials Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris, and it was this fact—and not the “terrible lapses” of “weak on terror” Clinton Administration officials cited by Republican Congressman Curt Weldon—which shielded him from being apprehended before the 9.11 attack.

Weldon alleges that Pentagon lawyers rejected the military intelligence unit’s recommendation to apprehend Atta because he was in the country legally, and therefore information on him could not be shared with law enforcement.

But the “terrible lapses” cited by Weldon do not stem from the nonsensical assertion that Atta had a green card (he did not) which rendered him immune from military investigation but were the result of an officially-protected heroin trafficking operation being conducted on planes like those of Wally Hilliard, whose Lear jet flew "milk runs" down and back to Venezuela every week for 39 weeks in a row before finally running afoul of local DEA agents not been clued-in on the 'joke.'

Moreover the secret military intelligence operation which identified Mohamed Atta and three other hijackers as a threat a year before the 9.11 attack, called Able Danger, was by no means the first military intelligence investigation into the activities of the Hamburg cadre.

(more)

http://madcowprod.com/08172005.html

[Carolab]

1. Ah, yes. Verifies what Sibel Edmonds knows and also Chavez...

Wally Hilliard, whose Lear jet flew "milk runs" down and back to Venezuela every week for 39 weeks in a row before finally running afoul of local DEA agents not been clued-in on the 'joke.'

*************

Hilliard again--from OHIO.

Think Hugo knew about this trafficking?

[radwriter0555]

2. Anagrams for Able Danger....

does anything jump out at anyone? I'm still checking...

http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=able+danger&include=&exclude=&d=&n=&m=&source=adv&a=n&l=n&q=n&language=english&where=

[InternalDialogue]

3. BANAL GREED n/t

[InternalDialogue]

4. ARAB LEGEND n/t

[InternalDialogue]

5. More

Those first two were what jumped out, then I switched to Wordsmith. Handy.

BAD GENERAL
EAGLE BRAND

[leveymg]

6. Hopsicker's done some good work, but . . .

I think this is one of those three blind men and an elephant legends. The entire reason for the CIA having let Atta and the others in to roam around free of FBI survelliance, and the DoD's decision not to notify the FBI, can't simply be laid in the lap of officially-protected drug smuggling.

As shocking as that explanation alone might be, it doesn't begin to account for the extreme (illegal) lengths that multiple US and foreign intelligence agencies went to protect operational secrecy as they secretly tracked al-Qaeda members as they moved in and out of the US, making contact with other operatives and financial, logistics and trainers within the network.

We have to thank Hopsicker for giving us a detailed look at part of the picture, but it is only a partial view. It would be misleading to think this is just about drugs and gun smuggling.

[Old and In the Way]

7. This does seem like "Iran-Contra Redux", though.

I agree this has the inherent problem of a blind men/elephant analysis. What's missing is who's running this? Is it a rogue CIA operation? Some other parts of the elephant to factor in:

(1) Atta's association with Kissinger in the late 90's?

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0305/S00092.htm

For at least four years while living in Hamburg during the 1990’s terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta was part of a 'joint venture' between the U.S. and German Governments, the MadCowMorningNews has learned, an elite international “exchange” program run by a little-known private organization with close ties to powerful American political figures like David Rockefeller and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

The jointly-funded government effort picked up the tab for Atta on sojourns in Cairo, Istanbul, and Aleppo in Syria during the years 1994 and 1995, as well as employing him as a “tutor” and “seminar participant” during 1996 and 1997.

(2) Atta's enrollment at the Foreign Language Institute.
http://www.sumeria.net/politics/bushknew/milschool.html

"A September 16 article in the New York Times reported: "Three of the men identified as the hijackers in the attacks on Tuesday have the same names as alumni of American military schools, the authorities said today. The men were identified as Mohamed Atta, Abdulaziz al-Omari and Saeed al-Ghamdi.

"The Defense Department said Mr. Atta had gone to the International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama; Mr. al-Omari to the Aerospace Medical School at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas; and Mr. al-Ghamdi to the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio in Monterey, Calif." " <I wonder what language he was learning?>

(3) Jeb's mysterious visit to the Venice airport and the removal of lots of paper files from the offices right after 9/11.

(4) Atta's MO pre-9/11 sounds more like a drug smuggler than a religious fanatic.

Hoppsicker has reported on all of the above. I don't think he has a unified field theory, but there's lots of interesting background on Atta that makes this Able Danger tie-in very interesting.


I'm thinking that Atta was a CIA asset and he was a jack-of-all-trades....maybe some smuggling, maybe some intel gathering, maybe some wetwork. He could have even been duped into playing a terrorist on 9/11.

[leveymg]

8. So many good questions, OAITW

A quick response to a couple of them. No, not a rogue CIA operation. It had to have been approved at the highest levels -- by the President and the NSC - that would explain the extraordinary measures taken to protect it from being shut down by the FBI and to protect it after the fact from public disclosure.

Atta may have been recruited long before -- perhaps as early as 1995 -- there's also some evidence same for al-Hazmi.

[FrankLee]

9. I'll bet you Atta isn't even dead

or maybe he doesn't even exist...

how hard would it be to fake a persons death, especially when they were totally incinerated in the Towers impact and collapse.

man, the limbs I climb out on ...

[leveymg]

10. Or, another possibility, maybe there were two Attas?

That possibility's been discussed.

[Demeter]

11. But Why Would A CIA Asset Willingly Commit Suicide?

That's the leap of faith I cannot take.

[seemslikeadream]

12. I don't believe Atta thought he was going to die

Maybe he thought it was just a hijacking

[Old and In the Way]

14. Or thought he was playing a hijacker for the simulated exercise that

day. If Atta's connections that I note above are true, that's not a big stretch, IMHO. We need to know if 93, 11, 175, and 77 were part of those exercises...that'd make those "terrorists" on those paticular flights mighty coincidental.

[Spoonerian]

15. The military industrial entertainment complex

has sure cooked up some fun characters for this little spectacle. I was putting my money on two Attas, one the shy momma's boy with the stolen identity and the other the kitten mutilating narco spook double-patsy.

Now Hopsicker tells us that Sam Drucker at the Venice Pharmacy gave surveillance videos from 2 weeks before 9/11 to the FBI of Atta and his father: Mohamed Atta Senior in U.S. Two Weeks Before 9.11 Attack

This Atta Sr. character has to be the best one yet. I loved his "Ask Mossad" quip when they asked him where his son was a few days after 9/11. And then all of a sudden a few weeks ago CNN just decided it was time to pay him a visit and tell everybody that he was charging $5000 donations to Al-Ciada for interviews. But they didn't pay!

[newyawker99]

16. Hi Spoonerian!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Spoonerian]

18. Thanks for the welcome newyawker.

[seemslikeadream]

17. You will like this Spoonerian! COVER THEIR FACES WITH POST IT NOTES

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4447706&mesg_id=4447706

whosinpower (933 posts) Wed Aug-24-05 04:00 PM
Original message
MUST READ - RE: ABLE DANGER INFO
Not sure if this has already been posted - so if it has, my apoligies to the mods -

Must Read! The Neo-Con Able Danger Scandal -- Atta Coverup! UPDATE 4
by Sherlock Google

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/24/124834/678

snip - DIA Agents were ordered to put yellow Post-its over Atta's face and the face's of 3 other 9/11 terrorists

"We were directed to take those 3M yellow stickers and place them over the faces of Atta and the other terrorists and pretend they didn't exist," the intelligence officer told GSN."

Intel agents Michael Shaffer and Scott Philpott have confirmed Rep. Weldon's claims that a chart with Atta's face, soon the photos of 3 other members of the 9-11 terror team, were known to DIA team Able Danger by early 2000.

This diary will show that Pete Schoomaker and Philip Zelikow are two of the main Perpetraitors in this scandal, that they deliberately withheld information from the President of the United States that would have prevented 9/11, that they and their neo-con rulers Let It Happen On Purpose.

Of this there can no longer be any doubt.

:hi:

[Spoonerian]

19. Thanks for the links seems.

To me, its starting to seem like that Fintan guy is starting to make sense. Am I just another dupe trying to follow these soap operas? But these CIA script writers are good, damn it! They cut their chops at the National Enquirer and Star Magazine. They've got me hooked like a fat Merkin with a basket full of groceries in the checkout line.

Now then, I wonder if Old Man Atta was working for "them" from the beginning? Or maybe they killed him after the "Ask Mossad" comment and are featuring a double in this new season of episodes??

[seemslikeadream]

20. Now do you want to have some more fun Spoonerian?

:hi:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4447706&mesg_id=4452908


vickitulsa (198 posts) Thu Aug-25-05 06:48 AM
Response to Reply #4
21. Okay, it appears the name "Shaffer" led to some confusion.
But as I searched for contact info on the Able Danger intel person I saw on the news shows, thinking he was probably the Michael Shaffer mentioned in the article referenced in this thread, I came across some very interesting stuff.

Not contact info -- yet, anyway -- but at least one Website where these issues re Able Danger are being discussed currently and in some depth.

Check out this piece.

http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/abledanger.asp

At least I'm hoping that link gets you to what I just read. Here is a bit of the article:


Sadly, The 9/11 Commission Has Failed Every American

By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director (My note: He is director of something called the Northeast Intelligence Network.)

19 August 2005: Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer is a true American patriot of great character and integrity. Placing the unbridled truth over potential negative career ramifications and harassment, the Army intelligence officer yesterday publicly charged that the unit in which he worked had identified two al Qaeda cells inside the U.S. and 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta more than a year before the terrorist attacks. Properly handled, according to Lt. Colonel Shaffer, that information might have prevented the terror attacks.

Lt. Col. Shaffer stated that his unit, code-named Able Danger, provided this very information to the 9/11 commission headed by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean; nonetheless, the commission failed to include any reference to this vital information in its final report.

... Also missing from the final report are any references to declassified documents proving that State Department analysts repeatedly warned the Clinton administration as early as 1996 that Osama bin Laden posed a major threat to U.S. interests.

From an outright lie to a twisting of the facts and onward to a minimization of the “significance” of the data, the 9/11 commission continues to fail every American citizen to cover their own failings and political cover-ups.

~*~*~*~*~

Now this clarifies my muddled memory of the guy I saw interviewed on several news programs not long ago -- one of them being Wolf Blitzer's show. I had not been certain if he was a CIA operative or a military intel person since I knew I'd heard the man MENTION the CIA, at least. However, the Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer cited in the article at this URL is the one I heard blowing open the doors on national TV with information about Able Danger.

Fits my memory in several respects, actually. I was certain I had fixed his rank -- Lt. Colonel -- in my mind as well as his surname. When a CIA operative named Michael Shaffer was mentioned in the piece originally referenced in this thread, I thought maybe I'd been mistakenly recalling the guy I saw to be military when he was actually CIA. I didn't think they had a "Lt. Colonel" rank in the CIA!

BUT -- I believe the man I saw wore a military uniform in his appearances on the TV news shows. That's something ya don't generally mistake for anything else, even though I'm legally blind so my vision is not good. I also remember that I felt some grave concern for the man's career security seeing as how he was going public with information that SOME very powerful people apparently did NOT want to see made public.

So I'll stop here and see if some of you can check this article out and give us your take on it.

But that's the deal -- I am now certain the intel person I saw just a few days ago on television was Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, NOT Michael Shaffer of the CIA.

Thanks for bearing with me as I sort this out!

~VV

[passy]

21. Unless the planes were switched.

[beetbox]

13. A few points to consider

I.  How Europe sees the war


US “allied to heroin Mafia”

According to Die Welt, the American allies in Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance, are the principal cultivators and traffickers of heroin in the country.  The paper says that they provide the purest heroin currently available on the world market, which comes from Badakhshan in the North East of Afghanistan.  In this area, controlled by the Northern Alliance, the cultivation of opium poppies has massively increased and farmers there are happy to have escaped the Taliban’s ban on the crop.  Whereas the United Nations recently congratulated the Taliban for their “extremely impressive” ban on the cultivation of opium poppies, a ban which led to the disappearance of over 90% of the opiates from Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance has now rushed to fill the gap.    When Tony Blair recently said that most of the heroin sold on the streets of Britain was of Afghan origin, he omitted to say that it was from areas controlled by US-British allies, the Northern Alliance.  One heroin dealer in Peshawar interviewed by Die Welt complained that the price of opium had skyrocketed since the attacks began and that he was soon expecting American dealers to come to the region to buy heroin.  The dealer said that although individual Taliban chiefs might cash in by taxing opium production locally, there was no centralised Taliban revenue from it.  Their income, he said, came not from drugs but instead from Arab countries.  Unlike the Taliban, the Northern Alliance has banned neither the cultivation nor the refining of heroin.  The transit route for the heroin is Central Asia.  The dealer laughed and concluded, “America is in business with the biggest drug growers and smugglers.” 

http://www.europeanfoundation.org/docs/129id.htm

The Scotsman

Sun 1 Feb 2004 3:48pm (UK)


The head of Serbia-Montenegro's military intelligence claimed today that Osama bin Laden's al Qaida and other terrorist groups are present in the Balkans and planning to increase their activity there.

In an interview with the official Tanjug news agency, Colonel Momir Stojanovic also claimed that the ultimate aim of al Qaida and other extremist Islamic groups is to carve out an independent Muslim state in the Balkans.

"We have information that al Qaida has strongholds in Kosovo, northern Albania ... and that they are active in western Macedonia," Stojanovic, the head of the Military Security Agency of Serbia-Montenegro's army, said. All areas are heavily populated by ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslims.


Beta News Agency, Belgrade
January 31, 2004

PRISTINA -- Saturday - Albanian police and members of the UN police force in Kosovo have confiscated more than 55 kilograms of heroin in two operations on the border between Albania and  Kosovo, Serbia-Montenegro, an Albanian police spokesperson said today.

Florian Seriani said 30 kilograms was confiscated on Friday morning in Morina, five kilometres from the border. The stash was hidden in a car boot with a false bottom. The car had Albanian licence plates and was coming from the direction of Kosovo, said Seriani.

http://www.kosovo.com/erpkiminfo_feb04/erpkiminfo02feb04.html#2


Narcotics: Second to Oil and the Arms Trade

The revenues generated from the CIA sponsored Afghan drug trade are sizeable. The Afghan trade in opiates constitutes a large share of the worldwide annual turnover of narcotics, which was estimated by the United Nations to be of the order of $400-500 billion. (Douglas Keh, Drug Money in a Changing World, Technical document No. 4, 1998, Vienna UNDCP, p. 4. See also United Nations Drug Control Program, Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 1999, E/INCB/1999/1 United Nations, Vienna 1999, p. 49-51, and Richard Lapper, UN Fears Growth of Heroin Trade, Financial Times, 24 February 2000). At the time these UN figures were first brought out (1994), the (estimated) global trade in drugs was of the same order of magnitude as the global trade in oil.

The IMF estimated global money laundering to be between 590 billion and 1.5 trillion dollars a year, representing 2-5 percent of global GDP. (Asian Banker, 15 August 2003). A large share of global money laundering as estimated by the IMF is linked to the trade in narcotics.

[seemslikeadream]

22. Third Source Backs 'Able Danger' Claims About Atta

Third Source Backs 'Able Danger' Claims About Atta
Saturday, August 27, 2005

WASHINGTON — A third person has now come forward to verify claims made by a military intelligence unit that a year before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it had information showing that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta (search) and other terrorists were identified as being in the United States.

J.D. Smith, a defense contractor who claims he worked on the technical side of the unit, code-named "Able Danger" (search), told reporters Friday that he helped gather open-source information (search), reported on government spending and helped generate charts associated with the unit's work. Able Danger was set up in the 1990s to track Al Qaeda activity worldwide.

"I am absolutely positive that he was on our chart among other pictures and ties that we were doing mainly based upon cells in New York City," Smith said.

Smith said data was gathered from a variety of sources, including about 30 or 40 individuals. He said they all had strong Middle Eastern connections and were paid for their information. Smith said Able Danger's photo of Atta was obtained from overseas.
more
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167130,00.html





DO THE MATH

THERE MUST HAVE BEEN A MILITARY ORDER
http://www.bushflash.com/buddy.html