Anthony Shaffer

Shaffer is a frequent guest in the media. He retired from the U.S. Army Reserve. He serves as member of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum. Shaffer was appointed in the summer of 2013 as a senior fellow to the London Center for Policy Research.

With William H. Keith, he has written a novel, The Last Line, that was released in hardback in June 2013, and is due out as a paperback in October 2014.

In 2012, Shaffer claimed President Obama was "in the White House Situation Room in real-time watching" the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, a claim that has been denied by the Obama administration. He further implied the White House was conspiring to prevent charges against released American POW Bowe Bergdahl.

According to his later statement to Congress, in October 2003 Shaffer told the 9/11 Commission staff director, Dr. Philip D. Zelikow, 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 because military lawyers expressed concerns about the legality of doing so. Shaffer also asserted that he briefed Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet 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, publicized Shaffer's allegations in public statements and hearings.

According to US Congressman Weldon, in a speech delivered to Congress, the Pentagon took the following actions against Lt Col. Shaffer as punishment for his repeatedly bringing forward of the above Able Danger facts: Stripped him of his security clearance, put him on indefinite suspension without pay, took away his pension and medical coverage, and had a judge sign a gag order preventing him from telling the press, congress, etc. about Able Danger's discovery of terrorist Mohamed Atta and his cell in NYC. This communication would have, according to the CIA Director Tenet, prevented 9/11 hijackings from Boston's Logan International Airport and attacks on the World Trade Center in NYC, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and other planned targets in the U.S.A. on September 11, 2001.

Shaffer enlisted in the Ohio Army National Guard in 1980 and graduated from Officer Candidate School in 1982. He received his B.A. in political science and environmental studies from Wright State University in 1986.

Anthony Shaffer (born 1962) is a retired U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who gained fame for his claims about mishandled intelligence before the September 11 attacks and for the censoring of his book, Operation Dark Heart. He is currently the president of the London Center for Policy Research.