Posted on 10/05/2005 7:19:45 AM PDT by vadkins
The Senate Intelligence Committee has taken closed-door statements in an inquiry that could clear up whether the intelligence program Able Danger identified September 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta a year before the attack. A spokesman said yesterday that the committee likely will release a report or a statement in the next two weeks that makes conclusions, or at least determines the facts. Most of the attention on Able Danger has come from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which already has conducted one public hearing on the intelligence-collection program. It is now asking the Pentagon to allow personnel associated with Able Danger, such as defense intelligence analyst Anthony Shaffer and Navy Capt. Scott Philpott, to testify in public about how Atta was purportedly identified. But a final verdict could come sooner from the intelligence committee, based on closed-door briefings already provided by Mr. Shaffer, Capt. Philpott and Pentagon officials.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Txsleuth - what does this mean about the Osprey? Color me clueless.
I'm a little under the weather today so am not focusing, but I'm clearly missing something. bbl
LOL----maybe the Able Danger hearing couldn't take place because of Rosh Hashanah....
but, I just turned to c-span 1 ---and the Senate is having a hearing this afternoon on greenhouse gases and their effect on the environment!!!
(rolling eyes, here!)...
Osprey is the new military VTOL prop plane
And so did Weldon give up on Able Danger in exchange for getting something passed? I don't understand what people are alluding to here.
"Mr. Shaffer and Capt. Philpott contend Able Danger identified Atta in 2000 as being linked to al Qaeda. A Pentagon investigation failed to turn up any document that supports their contention"
Great. Destroy every document, then use the fact that there are no documents as evidence that it never happened.
""We're hard-pressed to send witnesses to testify in open session about a program that the other committees who have investigated have respected the classification aspects," a Bush administration official said. "
I defy any person or computer to analyze the sentence and extract the meaning.
"At the Senate Judiciary hearing last month, one of the men who destroyed the papers offered what appeared to be an innocent explanation: A Pentagon policy to protect privacy dictates that intelligence information on U.S. citizens be destroyed after 90 days unless the data has law-enforcement value. "
Of course,none of the terrorists were US citizens. But since they were operating in the U. S., practically all of the information included references to US citizens. for example, if they stayed in a hotel, most of the other people in the hotel were Americans. If they rented a car, they rented a car from an American.
Hence, all of the information needed to be destroyed. In addition, although the Al Qaeda individuals in question were suspected of planning a terrorist operation, there was not sufficient evidence for this to indict them in a court of law. Hence, all information needed to be destroyed 90 days after it was collected. Some innocent sounding explanation!!!!!
Generally, lots of people and lots of time are involved in a decision like this, and a significant paper trail would be in place to support a bona fide decision. If a considered decision to kill the V22 were to be suddenly flipped by an unseen hand, then one might have reason to suspect some foul play. Absent evidence of a sudden reversal, I would doubt that the contract was let for Weldon's peace.
From what I've seen, the V22 is an excellent vehicle, and provides a unique mission capability, and is wanted by the Marines. But it is expensive per copy ($70 million or so), and so has been a large political target.
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