One of the Able Providence briefing slides shows that the Pentagon did learn something from the 9/11 Commission debacle and the subsequent ruination of the American intelligence community -- don't trust the bureaucracy. In a graphic designed to show the flow of information out of the new data-mining project in the war on terror, this note conspicuously appears:

Bypass but inform bureaucracy. That directive aims at the action-validation process, which under the current DNI would have to go through multiple levels of bureaucrats, thanks to the 9/11 Commission recommendations that slapped an entirely new bureaucracy on American intelligence. Able Providence would go to the Joint Chiefs and/or the DNI directly for approval on field ops, with an AP "away team" coordinating with the AP team at home. This is a much-improved model over the existing morass of intel agencies.

Someone's listening and learning.

NOTE ON SOURCING: A few commenters have asked me about the sourcing of this material. It came from a trusted source, one who has provided accurate information in the past on Able Danger, but one who wished to remain in the background. The source vetted this with appropriate government officials, who confirmed that the briefing materials were not classified. The program itself has been discussed in the open previously by Government Computer News, a magazine focused on the intelligence community; they published one of the best interviews of the central Able Danger figure Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer last year.

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