In March 2001,
Steve Cambone was Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Special Assistant to Secretary Rumsfeld. In this role, he attended a briefing with General Hugh Shelton and others at which Able Danger -
the program that identified the first four intended 9/11 pilots and had
predicted the attack on the USS Cole - was discussed.
According to Congressman Weldon, of all people:
A briefing that included Richard [Shiffrin], with Steve Cambone, in March of 2001, five months before 9/11, is historically insignificant? I don't think so.
Weldon said that last Thursday, September 15th. On Friday, Fox News reported the Pentagon was demanding the hearings be closed to the public. Coincidence? I think not.
From Shaffer's interview with Government Security News:
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.
From Hardball with Chris Matthews:
SHAFFER: We were going down the right path. And that was my concern. And, as a matter of fact, my colleagues and I got together. As a matter of fact, one of my former investigators came forward recently and said, I remember you talking to me about this a week after 9/11.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
SHAFFER: We all realized that we had these guys. And then we started asking some questions to ourselves. Why was Able Danger, why was this whole technology piece turned off four months before the 9/11 attacks? In the spring of 2001, it was dismantled, all, completely.
Those hearings better not be closed. The Pentagon has a lot of questions to answer, whether they want to answer them or not.