GOP BOSS HITS ELIOT 'HYPOCRISY' (Able Danger connection)

NY POST ^ | February 16, 2006 | NILES LATHEM in D.C. and FREDRIC U. DICKER in Albany

[Liz]

State GOP chairman Stephen Minarik yesterday blasted Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for preventing one of his top aides from testifying at a congressional hearing on pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures, calling him a "horrible hypocrite" on national-security issues.

Minarik's attack came in response to a report in yesterday's Post that Spitzer personally intervened with the House Armed Services Committee to get Deputy Attorney General Dietrich Snell out of testifying.

The panel is holding hearings on a Pentagon cyber-intelligence program code-named "Able Danger" that had information on 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta a year before the attacks.

"Mr. Spitzer must have a feeble memory or is just a horrible hypocrite," Minarik said. "How else can anyone explain Mr. Spitzer shielding a top aide, who formerly served as an investigator with the 9/11 commission, from assisting our nation's efforts to improve our security at home and abroad."

[Liz]

BACKSTORY: Earlier, a US military intelligence analyst (on active duty) told congressional investigators that 9/11 pilot Mohamed Atta surfaced 13 times in the Pentagon computer program before he executed the attacks. The revelation is significant because the 9/11 commission has asserted that Atta was not on the intelligence community's radar screen before the attacks.

The 9/11 commission had also dismissed assertions from Weldon and others that the program known as Able Danger had linked Atta to a Brooklyn cell and included his photo on a chart of al Qaeda suspects.

[ncountylee]

Spitzer's office claimed Snell had already provided information to congressional staffers about his involvement with the Able Danger probe.

Really lame there, Eliot.

[bkepley]

I hope he's recording his phone calls.

[ovrtaxt]

More info on Spitzer.

[holden]

That should be easy. Snell's lawyer is fully within his right to object with "asked and answered" for any question that Snell has already answered in deposition or affidavit under oath. But his lawyer will have to prove it by pointing out Snell's previous answer to the same question in the existing record, too.

If his laywer makes the "asked and answered" claim where he can't prove it, he could be cited by the court for contempt.

After the name, age and address of residence, I'm confident there'll be all kinds of new material for Weldon to cover.

HF

[ovrtaxt]

They want a registration to read the rest of the article. Can you post it here?

[SueRae]

WoooHooo - get that snowball rolling. Looks like more people are finding their voice on this. Thank you Curt Weldon..for leading by example...an principle. It's catching on :-)

[mewzilla]

So is the committee going to take this lying down? And while they're at it, if they're serious about getting to the bottom of this, they ought to subpoena Spitzer to find out why he messed with the committee.

[Havoc]

One man with ethics can do a lot. Hope some of it rubs off even on the conservative side of the isle...

[maggief]

Not much more to the article. Here's the rest:



A spokesman for Spitzer said Minarik was "misinformed and way off base as usual."

Spitzer's office claimed Snell had already provided information to congressional staffers about his involvement with the Able Danger probe.

[ovrtaxt]

Thx!

Looks like the Post is just trying to keep Able Danger in the paper somewhere.. good for them!

[Liz]

FR rules require NY Post to be excerpted.

Rest of the story has Spitzer dissing Minarik.

[Liz]

Spitzer has something to hide and apparently believes he is above the law.

[ovrtaxt]

Rest of the story has Spitzer dissing Minarik.

Actually, this is a good development. We have the head of the NY state GOP going after a Democrat over Able Danger. Good. As long as they're using it as a weapon against one another, they have a vested interest in revealing more details to make the other look bad.

The solidarity among the guilty parties at extremely high levels has got to stop. Go Weldon!

[mewzilla]

Something or someone, if Spitzer's doing this as a favor. I'll bet that's why he hired Snell in the first place. As a favor. Now who do we know who'd be in a position to help ol' Eliot out with some favors, especially of the political variety?

And where the heck are the 9-11 families on this? The Jersey Girls?

[mewzilla]

Ping :)

[Liz]

.......this is a good development. We have the head of the NY state GOP going after a Democrat over Able Danger. As long as they're using it as a weapon against one another, they have a vested interest in revealing more details to make the other look bad. The solidarity among the guilty parties at extremely high levels has got to stop. Go Weldon!................

About sums it up. Thanks.

[Liz]

Hope so (/snicker).

[P-40]

One man with ethics can do a lot. Hope some of it rubs off even on the conservative side of the isle...


Let's hope so. Weldon is the kind of guy the Contract With America was supposed to bring about.

[kajingawd]

And where the heck are the 9-11 families on this? The Jersey Girls?



imho, hundreds of thousand of Americans should be in the streets, in the capital, demanding clear answers, and for heads to roll from both sides of the isle.