Is Kirk Lippold, commander of the ill-fated USS Cole, the latest career military officer to be victimized by the political miasma now surrounding the controversial Able Danger intelligence program?

Lippold was in charge of the Cole on October 12, 2000 when the guided missile destroyer was attacked in the harbor of Aden, Yemen by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist organization. Suicide bombers Ibrahim al-Thawr and Abdullah al-Misawa approached the port side of the Cole in a small craft laden with explosives and blew a 40-by-40-foot gash in the destroyer’s port side. Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 others were wounded in the blast.

The official Navy Judge Advocate General Manual (JAGMAN) investigation of the incident concluded that Lippold “acted reasonably in adjusting his force protection posture based on his assessment of the situation that presented itself” when the Cole arrived in Aden to refuel. The investigation further concluded that “the commanding officer of Cole did not have the specific intelligence, focused training, appropriate equipment or on-scene security support to effectively prevent or deter such a determined, preplanned assault on his ship.”

Although Lippold lacked “the specific intelligence” to prevent the attack on the Cole, his superiors did not.

Analysts associated with the secretive Able Danger program, including Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer and Navy Captain Scott Phillpott, who say they identified Mohamed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers a year before the Al Qaeda-connected terror attacks on America, also say their team passed on warnings about al Qaeda activity in Aden before the attack on the Cole to high officials at both Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and Central Command (CENTCOM).

Shaffer, Phillpott and others tried unsuccessfully to bring the Able Danger information to the attention of the FBI and later to the 9/11 Commission. But when a frustrated Shaffer eventually went public with the findings, he was placed on administrative leave from his post at the Defense Intelligence Agency, had his security clearance lifted, was repeatedly and falsely vilified as an alcoholic, philandering kleptomaniac by his superiors at the Defense Department, and was effectively muzzled from speaking further either to reporters or to Congress.

The Able Danger team had uncovered evidence of five ‘hot spots’ of Al Qaeda activity: Mauritania; Malaysia; Hamburg, Germany; Brooklyn, New York; and Aden, Yemen. Captain Phillpott even briefed then-SOCOM head General Peter Schoomaker (now Chief of Staff, U.S. Army) on the findings just two days prior to the attack on the Cole. Phillpott reportedly warned Schoomaker that Able Danger had uncovered information of increased al-Qaeda “activity” in Aden harbor – a warning that was gleaned through a search of bin Laden’s business ties.

Able Danger analysts also passed along the information to the brass at CENTCOM, who had authority over the Fifth Fleet to which the Cole was assigned, but inexplicably took no action to head off the attack on the Cole. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pennsylvania), who has been leading the push inside Congress to get to the bottom of the Able Danger affair, later told Fox News:

“[T]wo weeks before the attack on the Cole, in fact, two days before the attack on the Cole, [Able Danger] saw an increase of activity that led them to say to the senior leadership in the Pentagon at that time, in the Clinton administration, there’s something going to happen in Yemen and we better be on high alert, but it was discounted.”

Had the Able Danger information not been “discounted,” a decision could have been made NOT to refuel in Aden, and the attack on the Cole would have been prevented.

In any event, since the Able Danger alert was classified SCI (special compartmented information) no one onboard the Cole, including Commander Lippold, was even cleared to receive it.

Despite the official finding that Lippold was blameless in the attack, he is now being scapegoated by Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner (R-Virginia), White House political operative Karl Rove, and high-ranking Navy officials who are “playing political games and covering their asses,” according to sources within both the Defense Department and the Republican majority in Congress.

In January 2002 — a year after the JAGMAN investigation fully cleared Lippold — the Navy selected him for promotion to captain, with the support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Defense Secretary, and President Bush. But eight months later Senator Warner claimed the matter needed further investigation, and Lippold’s promotion was put on hold.

In 2004, Lippold’s name was forwarded anew to the White House – again with the support of the Defense establishment, including then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz (now head of the World Bank.) According to a high-ranking official within the Defense Department, Rove asked if Lippold’s promotion could wait and Wolfowitz agreed. “Rove then kiboshed Lippold’s promotion by ensuring that the necessary paperwork first sat in the White House, and then was thrown away,” the source explained. Although no reason was given for the inaction, 2004 was a presidential election year, and it is unlikely that the White House wanted to deal with any controversial reminders of the Cole attack.

Now 46, Lippold’s career is on hold and may remain that way for years. He has a “unique legal status,” a DOD source explained, since only the Secretary of the Navy can remove Lippold’s name from the promotion list. With no ship to command, he is a staffer in the office of the Chief of Navy Operations. Despite Senator Warner’s 2002 claim, there has never been any further investigation and Lippold remains in limbo.

Why? Lippold is “absolutely being scapegoated,” as the DOD official told me, requesting anonymity so as to maintain access to classified files and other information relating to the attack on the Cole. “Senator Warner threatened to reopen hearings into the attack on the Cole and the Navy has no political will to confront him,” the source explained. “Warner will not allow this case to be heard.”

Since Commander Lippold has been completely exonerated in connection with the attack on the Cole, it seems clear that the decision not to proceed with his promotion “is based on politics and not merit,” as one Republican Congressional source phrased it. And the DOD source complained, “Threats and political intimidation are now undermining the integrity of the Navy promotion process.”

Some speculate that Warner may have promised family members of some of the sailors who died in the attack that Lippold would never get another command. I would have asked Senator Warner to respond, but several phone calls and emails to his office went unanswered.

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Mullen, who recently said, “The attack on the USS Cole was our tipping point,” now refuses to forward Commander Lippold’s nomination for promotion, although none of the facts have changed since Lippold was first nominated four years ago. Instead, Mullen told Lippold that he should simply “get over it and move on.” But when you pull seventeen dead sailors out of the water – and then learn that it might have been prevented – how do you just “get over it?”

Despite the many questions still swirling around Able Danger, several aspects of the controversy are coming into sharp focus. First, the politically compromised 9/11 Commission –- both staff and commissioners ignored Able Danger, and one even termed it “historically insignificant” — is looking more and more like the Warren Commission of our time, and must be understood as such. Second, the attack on the USS Cole was clearly a ‘validating event’ for Able Danger. Third, Congress must move — publicly and soon — to examine the details of everything Able Danger uncovered, not only concerning Mohamed Atta and the 9/11 attacks, but also relative to the Cole and the al-Qaeda ‘hot spot’ in Yemen that the program uncovered and later briefed SOCOM’s General Schoomaker and CENTCOM officials about. Hearings into the Able Danger affair – canceled abruptly in September when top Defense Department officials refused to allow Shaffer, Phillpott, et al to testify as scheduled before the Senate Judiciary Committee – are long overdue. Just ask Kirk Lippold.