“Great! You?” I asked Creedmore.
“Not like that. We don’t investigate inside the U.S. That being said, if something was sent to us, it would have been buried. As a general rule, we don’t share with anybody else unless we have to.” He saw the look on my face and held his hands up. “Hey, I am just telling it like it is. It’s the way we’ve operated for years. I am not saying it’s right or wrong.”
“Wonderful.” I turned my head to Basham and raised my eyebrows at him.
He shook his head. “We had nothing on these guys. They simply didn’t pop up. Then again, we never got a heads up from anybody else, either.”
“Okay. It’s obvious that we need to really overhaul the intelligence system in this country. Keep working on this. I don’t care how crazy it gets, but we need to be comprehensive. You three are my point men on this. When Congress decides to hold hearings on this, I am going to personally haul you down there and nail you to the seats. They are going to have a field day with this, and we have no choice but to be clear and comprehensive. We can’t hide it any longer. We will need names of anybody at any rank who withheld information or buried reports. Heads are going to roll.”
Creedmore looked at the other two for a second and then turned back to me. “Mister President, the FBI and the CIA aren’t the only intelligence agencies in town. Have you looked at any other sources?”
“Specifically?”
“Well, there’s the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is run by Defense, and the State Department has some sources. Most of the military branches have their own intelligence system,” he explained. “Even Treasury has intelligence related to moving money around. These mutts had to get their money somewhere.”
Good luck getting anything out of State! That was locked down tight by Cheney and Libby. Defense was another matter, however, with Colin Powell running it. I knew enough about moving money around that Paul O’Neill and his troops would need names before they could track things. I gave them orders to get a list of names to O’Neill and Treasury. Basham could handle that, since the Secret Service worked for Treasury. I would call Colin Powell.
I called Colin Powell right after lunch. I told him what I had been told, that maybe Defense had some assets in the DIA who might know something. Colin’s response was unusual. He paused for a second, and then said, “Are you reading my mind or something?”
“Not that I was aware of. Why?”
“Something came up this morning. I need to see you about it.”
I looked down the schedule on my desk. I was already booked solid, but decided to delay some things until after dinner. I had already planned to stay the night in the White House. “Can you be here by four?”
“Yes, sir.”
I hung up and called in Josh and Mindy to go over the schedule and changes. At 4:00 Secretary Powell was announced and was ushered in, along with an officer in an Army uniform, with a lieutenant colonel’s silver oak leaves on his epaulets. I hadn’t been expecting anybody else, but I didn’t envision a problem. I stood and shook hands with the Secretary and the newcomer, a Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, and invited them both to sit down.
“Mister President, when you called me earlier today, I had just spoken to Colonel Shaffer here, and I think it is important that you hear what he has to say. I have to say, I had never heard any of this before.”
I turned to Shaffer and said, “I’m all ears, Colonel.”
“Sir, have you ever heard of Project Able Danger?” he asked.
“Project Able Danger? Can’t say as I have.” I turned to Powell and asked, “Where do you guys come up with these names? You keep them in a barrel in the basement or something?”
“This isn’t all that funny, Mister President.”
“Okay, fair enough. Continue, Colonel.”
Shaffer nodded and said, “Project Able Danger was started two years ago in the Defense Intelligence Agency. I was in charge of the project, though not the only person assigned to it. General Shelton authorized the program, which was to use database mining techniques to determine if open source and non-classified information could be used to target potential terrorists operating inside the United States.”
Despite my technical background, I wasn’t quite sure what he was talking about. “This started in 1999? What is database mining? My technical background is in information theory and topology.”
He blinked at that, expecting me to say law or something. “Yes, sir, 1999. Data mining involves looking for relationships in massive databases. It needs really massive computer power. It starts getting into artificial intelligence and statistical analysis…”
I held my hands up. “Okay, while part of me would love to go into this, a bigger part of me doesn’t have the time. You are obviously here for a reason. What is it?” Before he could answer, I looked at Colin. “How did you get involved in this? You’re the Secretary of Defense. I don’t mean to belittle the Colonel here, but whatever this is is way below your horizon.”
“Colonel, you want to explain that, please?” answered Colin Powell.
“Yes, sir.” He turned to face me. “Earlier today I was ordered to shut down Able Danger and destroy all the records involved. I felt this was very unusual, so instead I made a computer copy of what I could, and delayed implementation of the orders.”
“Who gave you these orders, and why do I care?”
“The orders were given to me in the office of the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Vice Admiral Wilson. I was called into his office this morning, and received them verbally from somebody in the State Department,” he said.
“State? Why?” That made no sense at all. What would State have to do with whatever this was?
“Yes, sir. I was called into the Director’s office and he was talking to a man. Then he ordered me to obey any orders I was given and he left. The fellow who was there never introduced himself, but he had a nametag on, an ID badge, saying he was Jonathan Radziwill, State Department. He ordered me to shut it down. Afterwards, he left, the Director came back in, and I was sent on my merry way.”
I glanced over at Powell, who simply said, “Deniability.”
I nodded and asked, “He ordered it shut down? Why?”
“That was not explained, sir. I was simply told to shut it down and destroy all records of it. As I said, I found that very unusual, so I went outside of channels and got in touch with the Secretary.”
“I like proper channels, Colonel. Who did you speak to?”
He took a deep breath and admitted, “I called General Shinseki. I had met him once or twice before. He’s retired now, but he told me he could reach the Secretary. I simply stated I needed to speak to the Secretary. I did not speak of Able Danger.”
I looked at Powell. “Shinseki called you?”
“And I called Shaffer here.”
“What the hell is this all about, Colonel? What did this Able Danger do?”
“Sir, we found the names of some of the 9-11 hijackers. We reported them to the CIA.”
I stared at him for a moment. “You knew who was going to attack those airplanes?”
“No, sir, not really. We figured that out afterwards,” he replied.
I looked over at Powell. He looked back at me in dead seriousness. Colin Powell had bought into whatever this was. I turned back to Shaffer. “Okay, you’re going to need to explain that, like you’re teaching a really stupid politician.”
“What we determined was that there were groups of individuals who fit the profiles of possible terrorists, organized into groups, a cell organization it’s called. We passed this information along to the CIA, since these were foreign nationals, so they could track down anything about them.”