I see Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters has posted an excellent fiskinof Arkin's Able Danger post, "Arkin Denies What Pentagon Already Admits" at:
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005521.php
"Besides, Arkin appears to write this about four weeks too late. On September 1, the same Washington Post at which Arkin writes this reported that the Pentagon itself found three additional witnesses to the identification of not only Mohammed Atta as a potential AQ operative but the other lead 9/11 hijackers as well. It came as a stunning reversal after a week of denials from the Department of Defense..."
The Arkin piece is certainly goofy in substance, but stand back and look at what is happening. A major player in the MSM is running a series on Able-Danger, and this can only encourage other major players also to take their best shots. There is no reason why we should assume that all of them will simply recapitulate Arkin's take or anything like it. Rather, there is every reason to think that some of them will dig deeper.
Moreover, as this process unfolds, consider what happens in the "journalistic community." Ambitious journalists build up new contacts with Pentagon sources and others, and those sources, once they feel their journalist contacts are trustworthy, will increasingly provide them with info on Able-Danger that heretofore they have been reluctant to part with, or to hint at. In addition, Weldon can be very helpful behind the scenes in his own dealings with journalists.
My point is that Arkin can write whatever he likes because he has broken the MSM cherry, just as Specter was helpful when he said at the outset of his hearings that he considered the witnesses "credible." Let's stop turning to conspiracies about Clinton-protection, as if Bill and Hillary can control much of anything. Let's look at what is happening on its face, and then consider how this reverberates behind the scenes in social networks and networks of trust. The cherry done been busted.