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.
they still confuse forums and blogs.
Weldon has said he added language to the defense bill to fund a project called 'Able Providence' that uses the same (or updated)type of technology. He has also said that the bill signed by Bush in January creating the TTIC (terrorist Threat Integration Center) goes a long way to removing the obstacles to sharing intelligence that were there. He does not agree on having an Intelligence Czar, though.
Re#57 That was Rush's point today on these "Commissions". But then, times are different with New Media. Were we in the days of Old Media's monopoly, we would not even have heard of Able Danger--unless it was during a GOP administration....
Give me one example of a BOOK written by an active politician that did anything but pad the wallet and ego of said politician.
Let's see... Newt Gingrich? er... Hillary Clinton? er... Robert Byrd?
What's the motive for Weldon? I'm sure he can come up with some money and run some public service announcements in prime time for something so critical to the nation, don'tcha think?
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.
Know what you mean, but I kind of gave him a break, considering his paralysis. He, like Mort Kondracke have personal reason for believing that stem cell research might be worthwhile if it finds cures for conditions such as Krauthammers and Mort's wife's.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1093694,00.html
In a particularly dramatic scene in Weldon’s book, Countdown to Terror, the Pennsylvania Republican described personally handing to then-Deputy National Security Adviser Steve Hadley, just after Sept. 11, an Able Danger chart produced in 1999 identifying Atta. But Weldon told TIME he’s no longer certain Atta’s name was on that original document. The congressman says he handed Hadley his only copy.
So he published this in a book without being certain? Without documented proof to back up the allegations?
Since you appear to be oblivious I'll give you a clue - having a new book is one of the most effective means of getting face time on the tube to discuss whatever ideas are in the book. I have yet to see the host say "Gee Rutles why don't you tell us about your latest post on FR." Blogs can be deleted or changed.
Not only is a book the most effective means of putting ideas forward contemporaneously but it also provides a permanent source of research for future readers. In many cases the author is long dead before a book is read stimulating the production of more research and new ideas.
Disraeli was a best selling novelist before he became Prime Minister. JFK had a bestselling book which was worthy of reading. Teddy Roosevelt wrote MANY books on many subjects. Arthur Vandenburg wrote an excellent biography about Alexander Hamilton. Bobby Kennedy wrote an excellent expose of the Communist menace to the labor movement in the fifties. Winston Churchill wrote outstanding histories. Is that enough or do I have to go beyond off the top of my head?
I'm well aware that it's a small part of his book, brainiac. You don't comprehend very well.
Why Able Danger past findings would expose anything -- but a coverup -- is beyond me.
How about this? Go pay that $19.95 you're obsessing about to renew your Time Magazine subscription if that's who you trust to give you the full story on the 9/11 Commission and Able Danger.
Or you can just shut up, pay nothing, and Congress can investigate.
I really don't think so. Just step back and look at what we have.
We have Weldon.
That's it. Just his word. No documentation. No names. Nothing at all to corroborate his statements. That's just not enough particularly when you can be certain that there is at least one and probably several Able Danger files in existence that document all of their findings. All he has to do is read those documents himself and, in an unclassified way, tell us what they said.
Don't get me wrong. I hope Weldon's story holds water. If the evidence is there and available to the blogosphere we can have another Rather-like victory. But at this point that looks unlikely. Maybe in a week things will be looking up. I hope so.
On both sides of the aisle.
I'm almost afraid to ask you what you think of George Will. But I just did.
Forget about the book for now...its irrelevent to the matter at hand....getting at the TRUTH.
I strongly support an independent investigation and hearings into Weldons allegations. Let the chips fall where they may.
How about you?
I don't have access to intelligence supposedly being sandbagged by the CIA, FBI, what-have-you. Weldon claims to. And so can you - for $19.95.
In many cases the author is long dead before a book is read stimulating the production of more research and new ideas. As long as the republic isn't a radioactive wasteland by then. At least that's the urgency Weldon wants us, the consumer - ER ER - I mean, READER to have.
Disraeli was a best selling novelist before he became Prime Minister. JFK had a bestselling book which was worthy of reading. Teddy Roosevelt wrote MANY books on many subjects. Arthur Vandenburg wrote an excellent biography about Alexander Hamilton. Bobby Kennedy wrote an excellent expose of the Communist menace to the labor movement in the fifties. Winston Churchill wrote outstanding histories. Is that enough or do I have to go beyond off the top of my head?
But Weldon isn't SELLING his book as a "reflection" on his political career and/or philosophy. He's selling this as important and urgent information that you and I need in order to survive. Something tells me Winston Churchill would have taken advantage of the Internet to reach the most people in the quickest fashion if he had information like this.
There's no reason Weldon couldn't have written the book after going public in the relatively unconflicted Blogosphere. If this is urgent and critical, what took him so long? Blogs can be compiled and published later. Google and DejaView can retrieve sites with a day-to-day history to prevent future editing conflicts.
Yep, and their rationale would be, 'that for the sake of the country they could not permit insult after injury'.
I can read Time on the web for free. Amazingly, TIME magazine doesn't even make me pay to have access to information. Congressman Weldon does.
No, we have more than Weldon. Other papers have independently quoted military sources. ]
Now could military guys be lying to sell future books?
Theoretically, but it would be shocking if it was a military greed conspiracy.
Which is why copyight is eternal.
Are you that naive? What - Frist is going to get up and point his finger at Jamie Gorelick and call her an ignorant slut? LOL!
Congress will do nothing. Maybe Bush 41 can come in and regale the committee with tales of playing golf with Klinton and what a great guy he is.
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