The Defense Department Identified 9/11 Hijackers A Year Before The Attacks.

Reuters is reporting that the Republican chairman of the Senate judiciary committing is accusing the Pentagon of stonewalling an inquiry into claims that the Defense Department had identified four of the terrorist hijackers over a year before the 9/11 attacks.

The Defense Department has barred several witnesses from testifying before the judiciary committee on pre-9/11 intelligence on a covert operation known as Able Danger. The Pentagon has claimed that the witnesses cannot testify on classified information.

The judiciary chairmen, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), who once served as the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said “that looks to me like it may be obstruction of the committee’s activities, something we will have to determine.” Specter continued by saying, “The American people are entitled to some answers.”

Members of the military team Able Danger said they had identified the September 11th mastermind Mohamed Atta and three other hijackers in the early months of 2000. Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer said that members of the Able Danger team tried three times to pass the information to the FBI, but were forced by Pentagon lawyers to cancel the meetings.