Anthony Shaffer (born 1962) is a former U.S. Army Reserve

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

who became known for his claims about mishandled intelligence before the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

, and for the censoring of his ghost written book ''

Operation Dark Heart __NOTOC__ ''Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan and the Path to Victory'' is a 2010 memoir by retired United States Army Reserve intelligence officer Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer. The book details Shaffer' ...

.'' Shaffer enlisted in the Ohio Army National Guard in 1980 and graduated from Officer Candidate School in 1982. Following a

Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the I ...

investigation into Shaffer, his access to classified information was revoked in September 2005 and his security clearance was revoked in February 2006. That revocation essentially ended Shaffer's career as an intelligence officer, both at DIA and in the Army Reserve. Shaffer is currently the president of the

London Center for Policy Research Herbert Ira London (March 6, 1939 – November 10, 2018) was an American conservative activist, commentator, author, and academic. London was the president of the Hudson Institute from 1997 to 2011. He was a frequent columnist for ''The Washing ...

9/11 hijacker claims

While deployed as a staff officer in Afghanistan in 2003, Shaffer came under investigation over an alleged pattern of misconduct including obtaining a service medal under false pretenses, improperly flashing military identification while drunk, theft, and falsely claiming reimbursement for mileage and personal mobile phone charges. Shaffer responded by alleging that the U.S.

(DIA) failed to properly pass on intelligence on 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta. Shaffer's allegations subsequently became known as the

Able Danger Able Danger was a classified military planning effort led by the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). It was created as a result of a directive from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in early October 1999 by Ch ...

controversy. In October 2003 Shaffer told the

9/11 Commission The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks", includin ...

staff director,

Philip D. Zelikow Philip David Zelikow (; born September 21, 1954) is an American diplomat, academic and author. He has worked as the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, and Coun ...

, that in 2000, a DIA data-mining program known as Able Danger had uncovered two of the three terrorist cells which the FBI determined committed 9/11. Shaffer reportedly told Zelikow that DIA leadership declined to share this information with the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

because military lawyers expressed concerns about the legality of doing so. Shaffer also asserted that he briefed

Director of Central Intelligence The director of central intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency from 1946 to 2005, acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the president of the United States and the United States National Security C ...

George Tenet George John Tenet (born January 5, 1953) is an American intelligence official and academic who served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, as well as a Distinguished Professor in the P ...

on three separate occasions regarding his unit's activities. The 9/11 Commission Report did not mention Shaffer's allegations, but in 2005 and 2006, the chairman of the House Select Intelligence Committee, Rep.

Curt Weldon Wayne Curtis Weldon (born July 22, 1947) is an American politician. He served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2007, representing the 7th district of Pennsylvania. He was defeated in November 2006 ...

, publicized Shaffer's

allegations In law, an allegation is a claim of an unproven fact by a party in a pleading, charge, or defense. Until they can be proved, allegations remain merely assertions.

in public statements and hearings. A ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine article dated August 14, 2005, reported that Weldon was no longer sure that Atta's name was on the chart created by Able Danger that he had handed to then-Deputy National Security Advisor

Stephen Hadley Stephen John Hadley (born February 13, 1947) is an American attorney and senior government official who served as the 20th United States National Security Advisor from 2005 to 2009. He served under President George W. Bush during the second term ...

in 2001, days after the 9/11 attacks. On December 22, 2006, a 16-month investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Able Danger, "did not identify Mohamed Atta or any other 9/11 hijacker at any time prior to September 11, 2001". The Defense Department's inspector general (DoD OIG) came to a similar conclusion. While Shaffer was stripped of his security clearance, and placed on indefinite unpaid suspension, the investigation of the Defense Department's inspector general concluded that "DIA officials did not reprise against LTC Shaffer, in either his civilian or military capacity, for making disclosures regarding Able Danger". Investigations by both the Defense Department's inspector general and the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Able Danger did not identify any 9/11 hijacker before September 11, 2001.

Censored memoirs

With the help of ghostwriter and researcher Jacqueline Salmon, Shaffer published memoirs of his time as a reports officer in Afghanistan in book titled ''

''. The Defense Department bought and destroyed 10,000 copies of the book's first, uncensored run, before allowing the release of a second, censored printing with redactions on approximately 250 pages.

Later career

Shaffer was appointed in the summer of 2013 as a senior fellow to the London Center for Policy Research. He co-wrote a novel with

William H. Keith William H. Keith (born August 8, 1950) is an American author mainly contributing to military science fiction and military fiction and related game design, who writes also under several pen names, such as Ian Douglas, Robert Cain and H. Jay Ri ...

, ''The Last Line'', which was released in June 2013. Shaffer was a member of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

's 2020 campaign advisory board.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaffer, Anthony 1962 births Living people Criticism of the official accounts of the September 11 attacks Wright State University alumni American intelligence analysts United States Army colonels People of the Defense Intelligence Agency