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High-ranking members of Bill Clinton's national security team have joined together to defeat Pennsylvania Republican Curt Weldon's House re-election bid this November - in what looks like retaliation for Weldon's efforts in exposing the Clinton administration's Able Danger scandal. In June 2005, Weldon went public with news that Clinton administration lawyers prevented the Defense Intelligence Agency's Able Danger group from blowing the whistle on two al-Qaida terrorists who would later pilot the planes that destroyed the World Trade Center. Though the media downplayed Weldon's bombshell, a number of high ranking Clinton officials apparently haven't forgotten - and they're pouring money...

U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon called yesterday for Democratic opponent Joe Sestak to return $350 in campaign contributions from Mary O. McCarthy, the CIA investigator fired last week for allegedly leaking classified information to the news media. Sestak's spokeswoman noted, in reply, that the CIA employee had not been charged with any crime and said she saw no reason for the money to be returned "at this time." McCarthy, who worked at the National Security Council when Sestak worked there in the 1990s, donated $100 to Sestak on March 1 and $250 on March 11, according to a campaign finance report...

Mary McCarthy was dismissed for leaking classified information about the CIA’s secret overseas prisons to The Washington Post, several media organizations reported Saturday. Sestak, who served as director for defense policy on Bill Clinton’s National Security Council, received two donations from McCarthy last month totaling $350. McCarthy also contributed $2,000 to Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. Weldon’s campaign reiterated that Sestak accepted contributions from former Clinton National Security Adviser Samuel "Sandy" Berger and former CIA Director John Deutch -- both of whom have admitted to mishandling classified information. "‘Where will this end?" asked Weldon campaign spokesman Michael Puppio. "Sestak...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 24, 2006 Contact: Robert Dixon [cell] (916) 441-6197 or email: robert@MoveAmericaForward.org CIA LEAKER MARY McCARTHY & WASH. POST’S DANA PRIEST HAVE PARTISAN HISTORY TOGETHER New Questions Arise About CIA Leaker & Washington Post Reporter’s Political Motivations (SAN FRANCISCO) – The nation’s largest pro-troop grassroots organization, Move America Forward (website: www.MoveAmericaForward.org) has uncovered new ties between disgraced CIA leaker, Mary McCarthy, and Washington Post reporter, Dana Priest. Priest was the reporter who received a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on classified information on the war on terrorism that CIA analyst Mary McCarthy leaked to her in...

The senior intelligence analyst who was fired Thursday by the CIA is a supporter of Democratic congressional candidate Joseph Sestak, which U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon’s campaign charged is further evidence that the former Navy admiral cannot be trusted on national security issues. Mary McCarthy was dismissed for leaking classified information about the CIA’s secret overseas prisons to The Washington Post, several media organizations reported Saturday. Sestak, who served as director for defense policy on Bill Clinton’s National Security Council, received two donations from McCarthy last month totaling $350. McCarthy also contributed $2,000 to Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. Weldon’s...

While Pennsylvania Seventh District voters will salute Adm. Joseph Sestak’s long military service to his country, they may also question the Democratic newcomer’s leadership ability in light of his removal from a high-level Navy post last summer.

Surrounded by local politicians and an audience filled with veterans, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) paid a short visit to Aston Saturday to endorse the re-election of U.S. Congressman Curt Weldon (R-7), who is running against retired Navy Admiral Joseph Sestak, Jr. Applause erupted as the 69-year-old Arizona Senator entered the Aston Community Center, which was decorated with American Flags, red, white and blue balloons, streamers and a special welcome banner. "I just love him," said Brookhaven resident Betty Kelley of McCain.

Proving that he’s just as adept at stuffing an election candidate’s coffers as he is at stuffing his own socks, Sandy Berger hosted an "almost secret" Washington fund-raiser for a recently retired three-star vice admiral last night. Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak Jr, as the Village People would say, is "In the Navy". And when you want to take an Able Danger Congressman Curt Weldon down, what better way than to send in the Navy? Berger, dubbed "Sandy Burglar" by radio meister Rush Limbaugh, gained notoriety for trying to stuff classified documents into his socks and other attire. The man, who...

Several members of President Bill Clinton’s national security team are hosting a Washington fund-raiser tonight for retired Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak Jr., the Democrat running against U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon in November. Officials at Sestak’s campaign headquarters in Media will not comment on the event, though an invitation sent out to potential donors and obtained by the Daily Times lists Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger as a host. "As a general rule, campaigns don’t comment on fund-raisers or people who hold them," said Sestak’s campaign chairman, Myles Duffy. Berger, who served as Clinton’s second-term national security adviser, pleaded guilty last year...

23 March 2006 To the Inquirer: On March 22, Tom Ferrick wrote a column entitled “Weldon’s Interests Must Return Home.” His column reads more like fiction, and if anything, is a prime example of why The Philadelphia Inquirer was recently put on the auction block. If Mr. Ferrick would leave the Inquirer’s Ivory Tower on Broad Street for one minute and actually go into the Philadelphia suburbs, not only would the Inquirer garner more respect, but perhaps it would prevent Mr. Ferrick from putting his foot into his mouth. In his column, Ferrick refers to an incident in Washington, D.C....

Rep. Curt Weldon, who broke the Able Danger story last year revealing that military intelligence had identified lead hijacker Mohamed Atta as a terrorist threat before the 9/11 attacks, now says that Osama bin Laden has died. Weldon made the stunning claim during an interview Wednesday with the Philadelphia Inquirer, which reported: "Weldon is making explosive new allegations. He says a high-level source has told him that terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has died in Iran, where he has been in hiding." Weldon cited as his source an Iranian exile code-named Ali, telling the paper: "Ali's told me that Osama...

Rep. Curt Weldon, who broke the Able Danger story last year revealing that military intelligence had identified lead hijacker Mohammed Atta as a terrorist threat before the 9/11 attacks, now says that Osama bin Laden has died. Weldon made the stunning claim during an interview Wednesday with the Philadelphia Inquirer, which reported: "Weldon is making explosive new allegations. He says a high-level source has told him that terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has died in Iran, where he has been in hiding." Weldon cited as his source an Iranian exile code-named Ali, telling the paper: "Ali's told me that Osama...

Able Danger is merely the most recent in a litany of controversial allegations championed by Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.). Last year, in a book called Countdown to Terror, Weldon detailed the revelations of an Iranian exile code-named "Ali" who, among other things, described a plot to crash planes into a U.S. nuclear reactor. In the mid-1990s, Weldon made headlines with charges that missing "suitcase-sized" nuclear weapons produced in the former Soviet Union had been secretly buried throughout the United States during the Cold War. Neither allegation has ultimately been confirmed.

Late one night in June, Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) stood up in a largely empty House chamber and made an incendiary charge. With dramatic rhetorical flourish, he said that a secret military intelligence program called Able Danger fingered Mohamed Atta and two other al-Qaeda hijackers before the 9/11 attacks - and that the government had failed to act. "Not only did our military identify the Mohamed Atta cell, our military made a recommendation in September of 2000 to bring in the FBI to take out the cell of Mohamed Atta," he said. Within days of the attacks, he said,...

The Clinton Years: The Gathering Storm Rep. Curt Weldon, R-PA, delivered the following speech at Restoration Weekend, which took place at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix February 23-26, 2006: It’s good to be with all of you. Many of you are old friends whom I’ve met with over the years. It’s great to be able to share a few thoughts with you about national security and specific projects I’m working on. You know, in my 20 years in Congress, the one thing I’ve come to understand about our country’s history is that the success of our country’s security has really...

Facing what could become an unexpectedly competitive bid for reelection, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) promised to unleash “the Army of Curt” against Joe Sestak, a retired vice admiral in the U.S. Navy and his likely opponent in the November midterm elections. Asked about his opponent last week, Weldon told reporters, “We’ll run the most aggressive campaign in 20 years. [Just] because you have a couple of stars does not mean you should come in [to the race]. ... But I respect him.” Sestak has built a solid campaign organization since retiring from the Navy on Jan. 1. After announcing he...

The principals in the Able Danger story have filed suit to restrain the Department of Defense from retaliating against Tony Shaffer and to allow these witnesses to retain counsel during the closed hearings that Congress has scheduled into the data-mining program. Mark Zaid, representing Shaffer as well as contractor J. D. Smith, filed the suit on Monday against the DoD, DIA, the Army, and their attorneys in the DC district court. I've copied the text into the extended entry of this post. Most of those who have followed Able Danger will not be surprised by the allegations in the lawsuit....

I've created an Able Danger Podcast blog to generate a podcast feed so folks can subscribe to this feed and easily obtain any Able Danger audio (mp3) files. Here is the podcast feed for the Able Danger podcasts. The link to this feed is easy to find at the top left corner of my main blog, QT Monster, just above the Able Danger blog roll. Folks can subscribe to this podcast feed through iTunes. From the iTunes interface pull down the Advanced menu, click on subscribe to podcast, and in the dialogue box paste the URL for this podcast feed:...

Sources close to the ongoing Department of Defense investigation into the controversial Able Danger data mining intelligence program, which purportedly identified Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers a year before the worst terror attacks in US history, say the mystery person who actually obtained a much-disputed photograph of Atta for the Able Danger team has now been identified. Ever since the Pentagon-ordered destruction in 2000 of 2.5 terabytes of data unearthed by Able Danger – allegedly including a chart featuring Atta’s photograph that revealed terrorist links and patterns when clicked on – skeptics have long raised doubt about the...

The first 20 minutes or so of the Able Danger conference call was previously posted here. The next three audio clips are here, here and here. Attending this conference call with Congressman Weldon were: AJ Strata from The Strata-Sphere, Dana from Common Sense Political Thought, Curt from Flopping Aces, Mike of Able Danger Blog, QT Monster, Rory O’Connor, Pierre from Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill, Bluto from Jawa Report and The Dread Pundit Bluto.

Some traditional intelligence officials, however, seemed either skeptical or jealous of LIWA's capability. At one conference, "Able Danger" analysts identified four major al-Qaida hubs - the Middle East, East Africa, Balkans and the Far East - in about 90 minutes."Because we weren't an intelligence organization, we got a lot of bad press," he said. "Folks thought we were running fast and loose with the data."By April, the "Able Danger" team was told to end its support of SOCOM. During the month's long work stoppage, SOCOM's patience ran out, and the military command transferred the work to a Raytheon facility in...

Able Danger identified Mohammad Atta and at least 2 other 9-11 hijackers more than a year before the 9-11 attacks. Why was the data that connected Mohammad Atta as a possible terrorist threat to the United States destroyed, and why wasn't this information shared with the FBI so the 9-11 attacks might have been prevented? 1. Dr. Stephen A. Cambone, U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, explains that there wasn't any prohibition against sharing Able Danger information with the FBI. One of Dr. Cambone's colleagues says, "...we share in Army intelligence and DoD intelligence, we share information with the FBI...

I had the honor of being on an Able Danger bloggers conference call tonight with Representative Curt Weldon. Thanks to Mike at Able Danger Blog for setting this up. The first Able Danger Conference Call was with Attorney Mark Zaid. Bloggers on the line: Dana from Common Sense Political Thought Curt from Flopping Aces Mike of Able Danger Blog QT Monster Rory O’Connor Pierre from Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill Bluto from Jawa Report and The Dread Pundit Bluto And of course yours truly. This was a really fascinating opportunity to talk directly to the Congressman and finally ask questions...

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said the Bush administration's presentation of the deal by a Dubai-based company to purchase the operating rights of six major U.S. ports "almost smacks of an arrogance" in its dealings with Congress. Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, made the statement Tuesday afternoon in an interview on Cable News Network. Dubai Ports World (DPW.YY), owned by Dubai's government, is set to purchase U.K.-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (PO.LN), which runs the ports of Baltimore, Miami, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia....

Today: February 21, 2006 at 12:26:37 PST Moussaoui Team Seeks Rep. Weldon Testimony By MATTHEW BARAKAT ASSOCIATED PRESS ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - Defense lawyers for confessed al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui said Tuesday they oppose efforts of a Pennsylvania congressman to avoid testifying at Moussaoui's death-penalty trial. Moussaoui's lawyers subpoenaed Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., earlier this month to testify for Moussaoui's defense. Weldon is seeking to quash the subpoena, saying that Moussaoui is a "thug" and that he has congressional immunity from the subpoena. Weldon has said that the government knew more about the Sept. 11 hijackers than it has publicly...

'We were sitting on the north coast watching the fighters come in, and we couldn't do anything about it," Eric Kleinsmith told the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday.The allusion Mr. Kleinsmith made was to the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, but he was speaking of the more devastating surprise attack which took place on Sept. 11, 2001. Mr. Kleinsmith and the two colleagues who testified with him in open session are convinced that had the information they developed been acted on, not only 9/11, but also the October 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole...

An Open Letter to Eliot Spitzer from 9/11 CitizensWatch regarding the NY Attorney General's Complicity in Cover-up of key Intelligence regarding the attacks of September 11th 2001. February 17, 2006 Dear Mr. Spitzer, I learned during a Congressional hearing before two sub-committees of the Armed Service Committee this past Wednesday (hear audio at http://www.abledangerblog.com) that you had acted in such a way as to allow the #2 at the your office, your Deputy Dietrich Snell, a former 9/11 Commission counsel, to avoid having to answer questions as to his role in the 9/11 Commission's failure and/or refusal to disclose details...

China Study Rocks The Hill and Unleashes The Purge: While Cambone tried to link the data purge to this 90-day rule, Weldon and the other witnesses (with first hand knowledge) pointed to the LIWA China Study that was being done in parallel to the Able Danger study. I have stated all along this was the lynchpin, the source of all later cover ups and mistakes and lost opportunities. We all know the story so I will not repeat it here, but what we learned from the hearings is how far up this went. Weldon let slip that the initial China...

No you're right Tony, and the significance here is that the FBI Director back then, Louis Freeh said in October of last year on national television, that if he had had the Able Danger information the FBI might well have been able to stop the hijacking. In our hearing past week, and we had both classified and unclassified, we had five people that testified under oath that they believed the same thing. That if the data they collected, that if the analysis they did had been able to be passed to the FBI, they agree with Louis Freeh, that would...

MediaChannel.org used the powerful new MediaVision tool to monitor television news coverage of the Able Danger Congressional hearings. To our astonishment CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" was the only news show to give Able Danger any significant coverage. We were so shocked by the lack of coverage that we created an online campaign to try to pressure TV news networks to cover, as Lou Dobbs put it, "what could be the biggest scandal of our lifetime." Click here to send networks an email demanding coverage! So, sadly, here it is. All the TV coverage we could find thus far:

REP. CURT WELDON: In the opening hearing, in the closed hearing, we had five people testify that they agree with Louis Freeh. That the information they had could have prevented 9/11 from ever happening. And they testified under oath. The Defense Department said they didn't have any information. WELDON: You know, Zelicow (ph) should have testified in open session, because nothing he said was classified. I don't think he wants to be in open session to let the American people see us question him. We should have had Dieter Snell there. He's the guy that debriefed Scott Philpot. DOBBS: Congressman,...

25th Item: Holy Cow! Weldon has a signed affidavit from a witness that talked to one of Cambone’s staff recently and who said Cambone’s group was going to ‘kill this story’ and Shaffer had no credibility. The name is Butch Willard This is right after Cambone claimed no one was not trying to ‘bring the information forward’. If Weldon is right, Cambone just perjured himself and is in hot water now. The witness is an ex intelligence officer (woman). They moved all this to the closed session!

Program mysteries unresolved By: KEITH PHUCAS, Times Herald Staff 02/17/2006 WASHINGTON - When all the facts about "Able Danger" are revealed, the history of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will be rewritten, according to Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, who accused the Pentagon at a Congressional hearing Wednesday of trying to hide the former data mining effort that claims it identified hijacker Mohamed Atta more than a year before the terrorist attacks. In 2000, the Defense Department shut down the program without explaining why and ordered the wholesale destruction of mountains of personal information swept into the project's data sets...

Audio of the today's entire Able Danger hearing is posted here.

The Pentagon on Wednesday said it found no evidence that a computer data-mining program it operated before the September 11 attacks uncovered information that could have thwarted the attacks if it had been acted on. But a defense intelligence officer and two contractors who worked on the secret program told a congressional committee the secret data-mining operation called "Able Danger" revealed intelligence on September 11 mastermind Mohammed Atta and others that should have been a tip-off of the attacks. Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who has spearheaded a probe of whether intelligence from Able Danger was wrongly brushed aside,...

The top-secret, military intelligence unit known as "Able Danger" identified Mohammed Atta, the leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, 13 times before the 2001 attacks, according to new information released Tuesday by U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees. Able Danger has been identified by Weldon and team member Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer as an elite group of approximately two dozen individuals tasked with identifying and targeting the links and relationships of al Qaeda worldwide. On June 27, 2005, Weldon said that Able Danger had offered in the year before the Sept....

Rep. Curt Weldon: I've learned some additional things that are new. You saw the Arlen Specter hearing in Judiciary that occurred in September. It's very troubling to me that it appears as though the DOD witness did not tell the truth. We had testimony that all of the Able Danger data-mining material was destroyed. I now know that that's not the case. In fact, I now know there's data still available. And I am in contact with people who are still able to data mining runs on pre-9/11 data. In those data runs that are now being done today, in...

The Able Danger portions of the House whistleblower hearings is posted here.

WASHINGTON - Pre-Sept. 11 intelligence conducted by a secret military unit identified terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta 13 different times, a congressman said Tuesday. During a Capitol Hill news conference, Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said the unit - code-named "Able Danger" - also identified "a problem" in Yemen two weeks before the attack on the USS Cole. It knew the problem was tied into the port of Aden and involved a U.S. platform, but the ship commander was not made aware of it, Weldon said. The suicide bombing of the Cole killed 17 sailors on Oct. 12, 2000. If anyone had...

I am now liveblogging the US House Subcommittee hearing on national security whistle blowers. Lt. Col. Shaffer just finished his opening statement. He will be questioned during this hearing. You can listen now on C-Span Radio. The permalink to this post is here.

WELDON CALLS PRESS CONFERENCE IN ADVANCE OF WEDNESDAY’S ABLE DANGER HEARING WASHINGTON, Feb 13 - U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, will hold a press conference on Tuesday, February 14th at 12:00 p.m. in the House Radio/TV Gallery in advance of Wednesday’s House Armed Service joint subcommittee hearing on the Able danger - a Department of Defense planning effort prior to 9/11 tasked to identify and target the linkages and relationships of Al-Qaeda worldwide. Weldon plans to highlight much of his work over the past 9 months on Able Danger,...

WASHINGTON — An active-duty military intelligence analyst has told congressional investigators that 9/11 pilot Mohamed Atta surfaced 13 times in a controversial Pentagon computer program before he executed the attacks, The Post has learned. Congressional sources said last night that an officer in the Pentagon's secretive Land Information Warfare Center told the staff of Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) about the computer hits.

http://curtweldon.house.gov/ [THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN SENT ON BEHALF OF U.S. REP. CURT WELDON (R-PA). YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS EMAIL BECAUSE YOU HAVE CONTACTED OUR OFFICE ABOUT ISSUES RELATING TO ABLE DANGER] Thank you for taking the time over the past few months to contact me regarding the Able Danger - a Department of Defense planning effort prior to 9/11 tasked to identify and target the linkages and relationships of Al-Qaeda worldwide. Your voice has played a crucial role in getting 248 Members of Congress to ask for Congressional Hearings. I wanted to update you about the progress that has been...

It's looking like the Able Danger story (which the 9-11 Ommission Commission totally disregarded) may be about to take off. I'm told that this Wednesday's House Armed Service joint subcommittee hearing on Able Danger will have some surprises.

[THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN SENT ON BEHALF OF U.S. REP. CURT WELDON (R-PA). YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS EMAIL BECAUSE YOU HAVE CONTACTED OUR OFFICE ABOUT ISSUES RELATING TO ABLE DANGER. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS MESSAGE IN ERROR, PLEASE DELETE] Thank you for taking the time over the past few months to contact me regarding the Able Danger - a Department of Defense planning effort prior to 9/11 tasked to identify and target the linkages and relationships of Al-Qaeda worldwide. Your voice has played a crucial role in getting 248 Members of Congress to ask for Congressional Hearings. I wanted...

The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday, February 15 about the controversial Able Danger data-mining program, according to informed Congressional sources. The secret intelligence program, which used advanced computerized link and pattern analysis techniques, purportedly identified four 9/11 hijackers a year before the worst terror attacks on American soil. After intense staff negotiations, it was finally decided that a portion of the Armed Services Committee hearing will be open, but that subsequent discussion of classified aspects of the Able Danger program will move into a closed session. Those expected to testify include military analysts who had...

Everything you always wanted to know (but were afraid to ask, or the answers were classified…) about the controversial Able Danger data mining project, which identified four 9/11 hijackers a year before the terror attacks. 1. Did Anthony Shaffer, or anyone on the Able Danger team, obtain a photo of Mohamed Atta from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), as Shaffer’s interview with Government Security News (GSN) states? The photo of Atta came from an information broker who provided it and others. Shaffer’s comments were made to GSN based on his knowledge at the time, which came from his knowledge...

Democratic congressional candidate Bryan Lentz matched U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon dollar-for-dollar through the fourth quarter of 2005 and on Tuesday picked up the endorsement of former Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia. Meanwhile, candidate Paul Scoles, who has the backing of the Delaware County Democratic Party leadership, is expected to make an announcement today that could drastically alter the county party’s strategy leading up to the May 16 primary. An Iraq war veteran and former Philadelphia prosecutor, Lentz raised $83,327 from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, while Weldon, R-7, of Thornbury, raised $85,350 during the same quarter. Lentz, of...

A report commissioned in mid-1999 by Rep. Curt Weldon (R) looks into possible Chinese front companies in the US seeking technology for the Chinese military. Dr. Eileen Preisser and Michael Maloof are commissioned to make the report. Dr. Preisser, who runs the Information Dominance Center at the US Army's Land Information Warfare Activity (LIWA) and will later become closely tied to Able Danger, uses LIWA's data mining capabilities to search unclassified information. According to Maloof, their results show Chinese front companies in the US posing as US corporations that acquire technology from US defense contractors. When the study is completed...

Rep. Curt Weldon’s (R-Pa.) months-long crusade is starting to pay off. The Pentagon, after weeks of silence, will allow participants in an intelligence cell that a year before the Sept. 11 attacks may have identified some of the ringleaders to testify before Congress. Their testimony could shed light on information that the Sept. 11 commission did not include in its report.The Pentagon’s decision came in response to a letter Weldon sent to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld requesting that the Pentagon allow the participants in the cell, known as Able Danger, to testify in open congressional hearings.More than half of...