Posted on 09/20/2005 6:25:39 PM PDT by 4mor3
September 20, 2005 Pentagon Blocks Testimony at Senate Hearing on Terrorist By PHILIP SHENON WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - The Pentagon said today that it had blocked a group of military officers and intelligence analysts from testifying at an open Congressional hearing about a highly classified military intelligence program that, the officers have said, identified a ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a potential terrorist more than a year before the attacks.
The announcement came a day before the officers and intelligence analysts had been scheduled to testify about the program, known as Able Danger, at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman, said in a statement that open testimony about the program "would not be appropriate - we have expressed our security concerns and believe it is simply not possible to discuss Able Danger in any great detail in an open public forum." He offered no other detail on the Pentagon's reasoning in blocking the testimony.
Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who is chairman of the committee, said he was surprised by the Pentagon's decision because "so much of this has already been in the public domain, and I think that the American people need to know what happened here."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I disagree. You want to believe it is a cover-up, so you refuse to allow for any other possible interpretation of the evidence. Your mind is closed to two-way traffic; there is only one destination possible in your mind.
In my mind I see the possibility of a cover-up. I also see the possibility that this was a bleeding-edge Pentagon initiative that foundered on the shoals of Clinton-era political correctness. That much is in the public domain already, placed there by Shaffer without interference from the DoD, so there certainly was no "cover-up" to that extent. But Able Danger was apparently a highly sophisticated software/data analysis program that merited the highest security classification. There are likely many legitimate concerns about puking these secrets all over the media so our enemies can get smart at no expense to themselves.
"Cover-up" implies CYA carried out by criminals who have reason to fear for their own protection and well-being if the truth is made known. Sorry. I just don't see Rumsfeld as falling into that category. Rummy is nothing if not straight-up, fearless, and brutally candid. He is a man of integrity, not a fearful desperate coward. So although I am able to see more than one possible interpretation of the evidence, I tend toward a more innocent and honorable explanation consistent with the character of the man who apparently ordered Shaffer not to testify under the hearings as presently constituted.
I agree about Rumsfeld personally- but it still doesn't add up.
Rumsfeld didn't just "balk". He prevented open hearings, but I'll give you, maybe for valid reasons. I have no doubt the 9-ll Commission will make the same claim as to why they didn't include Able Danger info in their Report. But that doesn't preclude other, sinister reasons for their actions.
Both the Clinton and Bush administrations, the Pentagon, and the 9-11 Commission seem unified in not wanting the American people to know how inept our country was in protecting the country from terrorists prior to 9-11. Knowing that would affect how Americans feel they can trust the government to protect them now.
Believe me, I'd like to put a positive spin on why the 9-11 Commissison didn't include Able Danger in their Report, why the Pentagon wants Able Danger buried and forgotten, and why this administration apparently, concurs. But the reason isn't "current enemies who will be looking on and taking detailed notes"
That's a joke. Congressman Weldon and his group of whisle blowers have already exposed Able Danger. If you and I know it was a massive data mining project, you can bet our enemies knew it first. If you and I know Pentagon lawyers ordered Able Danger dismantled and all information destroyed, our enemies knew it first.
I'm not discounting that somewhere in the bowels of some secret location, a top secret clone of Able Danger is still operating. Able Danger was supposedly halted in the fall of 2000, with all info "ordered" erased. That's what we're being told. But somehow, within hours of 9-ll, Mohammed Atta was identified as one of the hijackers. His name and his face had to be on record some place. Maybe that's what Rumsfeld is keen to protect.
WHAT?! You rattled off a bunch of names from Chinagate but no proof of any connections to 9/11. Tin foil hat BS alert.
Look at the circumstances. Atta is in the country before our country says he was in the country. It is getting out that our country knew he was here. There are people that were prevented from sending the information on to others.
Atta very well could have been an asset. Now why would they cover it up? I don't for one second think the CIA was behind 9/11 but there are people who do think the goverment was behind it. Can you imagine what would happen if it got out that Atta had been an asset?
Also, things in place could be jeopardized if it got out.
The CIA often does thing that only certain people will know about. It could be that most of the CIA knew nothing about this at the time. In fact, it could be that only a very very few knew about it. His handler and maybe a couple of other people.
Think about how the 9/11 commission has tried to whitewash all of this.
Also, the CIA is not allowed to operate in the US. I don't for one second think that they don't operate in the US.
YELP
Well, next step is to issue subpoena's to the individuals to force them to testify. Even Rumsfeld doesn't trump a congressional subpoena.
"Could you add "Able Danger" to the title? I think it'd get more views."
Good suggestion.
Now the story is quiet PUBLIC!
Spectre is now asking questions....
A single gigabyte of information could go a long, long way to fighting terror, depending on how useful that gig is. A terabyte is a whole lot of information! Yikes!
And the Pentagon is saving some officer's tail. Of course, that officer would have gotten orders from someone even higher up....
Good find!
TY!
charts being roled out right now. will the national media cover this? Or, will they help cover it up?
Obviously Able Danger was a success... at the very least in hindsight it 'could' have been.
Perhaps what they are doing is technically legal, but 'creepy'... you don't need secret info, you just need MASSIVE amounts of open source information, and a way to digest it, connect different bits and pieces and some kind of heuristic searching.
Perhaps whatever they were doing with Able Danger is still being done, and is very useful, and 'technically' legal, but would still "creep out" the public with how much 'they' can know about all of us.
Who knows... but it is certainly being covered up.
Thank you, many FReepers seem to think this is "James Bond" technology, LOL. Take every email and post on FR, input to a data base and then build files on each FReeper. Given enough time, data mining would reveal profiles on every FReeper, complete with home locations, political philosophy, work habits, employment status, occupation, family, contacts, hobbies......etc, etc. Increase the capacity and scope and you have Able Danger. The information gathered isn't classified, but the results could be.....
Another thing you is NEVER reveal who may or may not know anything.
These are simple basic security rules.
Save your bloodlust for someone else. You aren't going to get any here.
well didn't ya know it's just the big bad government...
I mean we need heads on a platter dammit!!!
I know what you are saying and it's sad, but most haven't ever worked in INTEL before.
yeah, but the rules are the rules.
If you expose one person now for political reasons, you think the Dems or someone else wouldn't do the same?
Security rules are supposed to trascend politics and it will with this administration, unlike the previous one in the 90's....
yep...
as usual, common sense has taken a back seat on this thread....
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