Posted on 08/16/2005 10:28:31 AM PDT by spycatcher
Just heard from a guy I trust that the Pentagon will be releasing information regarding Able Danger in the not too distant future. The short version: Don't expect any bombshells.
Thank you, Congressman Weldon, for getting just enough of this story right (the existence of Able Danger and its mission) to get folks like myself and lot of others to take you seriously. Those others weren't just bloggers, by the way - I'm talking about the New York Times, the AP, the Bergen Record...
And thanks a [really bad word] heap for getting more than enough wrong that we look like idiots for trusting you.
You know, like that rather key element that Able Danger had picked out four of the 9/11 hijackers and recommended they be picked up by the FBI. I can see how you could mix up that pesky little detail.
Thank you for making all of these stunning allegations without any supporting evidence. Thank you for not having any documents, memos, or anything beyond allegations from an anonymous former defense intelligence guy who is unwilling to come forward and speak on the record.
Thanks for using us to goose your book sales this month.
Thank you for making the 9/11 Commission, a group that seemed to have done a sloppy, incomplete job, look absolutely on the ball and well-organized and coherent in comparison. (In retrospect, should the Commission have mentioned Able Danger? Sure. They were a small part of U.S. counterterrorism efforts before 9/11. But if they never found anything that tied into the attacks, then the Commission is right, they weren't all that signficant in the big picture. They warranted a paragraph or two.)
If Weldon generates some actual evidence, or if any of the 11 guys in Able Danger come forward and make a persuasive case that "yes, we did spot four hijackers in 2000", then I'll backtrack on all of this. But right now, I doubt that we will ever hear from any of them.
The only silver lining to this mess? I can gloat to Mary Mapes about how to burn a source that leads you astray.
UPDATE: I'm told that Tony Snow recently announced that one of the Able Danger team members will be doing an interview with Catherine Herridge today, and that he (Tony) has a radio interview with the gentleman scheduled for tomorrow. AJ Strata points to a article indicating that Weldon told ABC Radio host Sean Hannity, "I can guarantee you that you will be able to have one on your show. You might want to go with your TV show with this, because it will be a major story. And you can interview him directly."
We will see. As TKS reader Ted put it:
On something as huge as this, I found it hard it hard to believe that the Able Danger guys would have stayed quiet for four years. It just seems to me that the psychological and emotional pressure on them would have driven someone public a long time ago - "We knew we had those SOB's nailed, the dumb lawyers shut us down, and then we watched 9/11 on TV just like everyone else. Do you have any idea what it's like to think you might have that on your conscience? Now it's being swept under the rug by a bunch of butt-covering bureaucrats. This is a whitewash!" If eleven people supposedly were in the loop, odds are one of them would've surfaced a long time ago.But then, you could look at Colleen Rowley, the FBI agent in Minneapolis, and agree "Yeah, see what happens to whistleblowers."
So who knows.
"Weldon has a book coming out on Able Danger
His book on Iran just came out in June. How fast does he write?"
Thank you. The book was released on June 13th. At 20-25 a copy, I doubt that he was expecting to retire on profits or ever expected this to make the NYT bestseller list.
Whether or not he's overdoing it remains to be seen. I've seen him get excited before but that doesn't mean he doesn't have facts and connections that have the truth. He is passionate, I just hope he proves credible. He's had a distinguished career and has done much (largely) behind the scenes work on many diplomatic missions. He's staking all that on the ABle Danger story and I doubt that he is that foolish to risk all that he's worked for to go off halfcocked.
Those offers were cut off by Clinton Administration attorneys and based that refusal on the “wall of separation” memo written by Jamie Gorelick, then a deputy under Attorney General Janet Reno. By the time 9/11 staffers received multiple briefings on Able Danger’s findings and efforts, Ms. Gorelick had become a member of that Commission.
There is definitely something here!
Looks like the spin to save the political careers of some of the 9/11 Commision members has started.
im still wondering when drudge will cover it.....
I'd say, investigate the blogger - he may have something to hide regarding Able Danger or the 9/11 commission! Or perhaps one of his friends has something to hide!
Sure. For $19.95.
BUMP
That is complete BS. Publishing a book will get 10X the attention of adding another unread blog to the millions already out there. Weldon did exactly the right thing to put this in a book just as Jayna Davis did.
"Weldon has a book coming out on Able Danger and I suspect he hyped the story to sell his book."
That could be, but who would read his book if now he is made to look like a fool but a fool.
I think you mean "that is total crap."
Exactly. These people must believe EVERYBODY reads blogs when it is a small number relatively.
could it be able danger has been replaced with some OTHER open source data mining operation?
Revealing the success of able danger will compromise that one?
"Looks like the spin to save the political careers of some of the 9/11 Commision members has started."
My take as well. Damning the 9/11 Report is no small task when one considers that if it's really discredited then the whole country has been fed a large spoonful of BS concerning our National security.. There may be quite a few powerful people that don't want to see that happen.
You must have been asleep during the Dan Rather saga.
Not only was I wide awake during RAThergate but completely on top of it. It has nothing to do with the current situation for many obvious reasons which I will spell out if you can't figure out what they were.
Anyone can easily see that books such as Weldon's are only ONE aspect of an attack and that only a moron would believe he has any hope of making more than a pittance on it. If you can't grasp the meaning of a coordinated attack I can also help with that.
Your aping my comment makes no sense and is even less relevant than your dumbass attacks on Weldon's book.
I quit taking Krauthammer as a real conservative when he came out for embryonic stem cell research. Now I don't listen to anything he says.
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