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 ...
That echos my post #157.
I think this has very little or nothing to do with filegate. The closed hearings are needed to protect the technological methods used by Able Danger, the DIA, and the CIA. (Think long term....long....term....like centuries into the future)
Thanks for the NYT Post via. the Natinal Review. One things for sure. The issue has not died as some of us had feared. I sense the end result will be a closed door investigation. If the DoD has gone to the trouble of revoking security clearance of folks like Schaffer, meaning he cannot access any documentation on the project, after giving him their blessing two weeks back to testify, there must be good reasons for putting a halt to public discloser on this case. I don't see how one could just how should I say control the proceedings to only expose the parts about Atta, and not end up opening cans of worms the DoD and other s simply do not want to be made public. Anyone with a partially lit bulb will realize that the things being questioned are pre GWB. So no blame can be cast on him nor agencies operating after his administration took over.
The whole deal is to smear Clintoon and his goons. If that cannot be done, then so be it. At least for any free thinker regardless of party ideologies, the continued lip service should hint Clintoon baby and his gang screwed the pouch.
Perhaps that is all we can ask for.
We all have to get rid of that 9/10 mentality. We are in a long term war against terrorists and the threat is greater than you think. There's a reason why Bush recently insisted on continuing to use the term "war on terror." This is a war and in a war you don't give your enemies ANY information that they can use to evade your intelligence methods. That's a very bad move, and we'll just have to find other ways to stop the Hildabeast in 2008. Besides, the msm will ignore any news from Able Danger hearings that is damaging to the Clintons.
the only thing urgent was the upcoming election to that omission/comission.
Obviously, there are certain questions that would expose technology that should not be answered in public for the reasons you cited, but there are many other questions that would lead to the motivation for the decisions that were made and whether those decisions were politically motivated- think X42, Charlie Trie et al. If you want to think long term, you'd better start being concerned with China. Islamofacist terrorists are merely a proxy irritant as far as China is concerned.
"There's much about 9-11 that can now be questioned, if you ask me."
Well, there is much that should be questioned. There is much that we the people would like to be questioned. But it seems, at this point, that we lack the ability to effectively question it. Hence, I don't know that I would say that things can be questioned. Or to correct myself, things can be questioned, but it looks like they can't be answered.
"I've been saying for quite a while on this forum that W is covering for his old man, GHWB, the former head of the CIA. Filegate is still taking a heavy toll on GOP spines in the Senate. Clinton's impeachment dodge was just the beginning."
Jim Quinn, a radio talkshow host in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, believes the same thing. Personally, I don't think that explains Able Danger.
The fact that 41 is so cozy with 42 speaks volumes.
"The fact that 41 is so cozy with 42 speaks volumes."
It's sickening all right, but I'm not sure exactly what it means.
Spectre made sure that it wasn't congress's fault. It was a problem with executive orders. Clinton needed to modify the EOs when the WTC was bombed in 93. And Jeff Sessions followed the timeline. It was pre-Rumsfeld. So, how does this hurt Bush? He'll just end up looking, 'above the fray' for not broadcasting Able Danger.
How does this get pinned on Bush?
They should not even still be working in the PENTEGON.
You want to protect people who could have made a difference in preventing 9/11 not held accountable? We all know now that 9/11 could have prevented 9/11 . Information that was not passed could have made a difference. Do you wish to see anyone held accountable?
You are a voice of reason when anger is brewing between my ears.
The sailor I was telling you about? Seaman Apprentice Cherone Louis Gunn. I was wrong about one thing. His father was not in uniform, he had his (?)VFW cap on. [What can I say? I was watching this through tears.]
Here is a link to a picture
http://www.geocities.com/cgunn2000/final.htm
It is at the top of the page.
"....At the end of the 20-minute ceremony, Louge Gunn, retired Navy chief, walked slowly to the casket where his 22-year-old son lay.
He placed the flag against the coffin, fell to his knees, and rested his head against it.
For a moment he stayed there, letting the flag catch his tears.
Then he rose and tucked the symbol of freedom under his left arm. Holding the flag and ignoring the tears streaming down his face, he stood above the coffin and gave a salute, a final farewell to his son, his hero."
My anger is not "Ah-HA! Finally Gotcha!"
Okay maybe a little, okay maybe alot, LOL!.
The image of Gunn's father is forever burned into my heart. It is no exaggeration when I say it affected me as much as 9/11. Reading the excerpt above brings me to tears.
When the USS Cole entered into the Able Danger story, it struck a nerve, it made it up close and personal. I cannot and will not believe Bush is covering for bubba or anyone else. It is the antithesis of everything he stands for. And we all know his Mama taught him better than that!
There are certain posters I have decided who know what they are talking about....FWIW, you are one of them.
"How does this get pinned on Bush?"
Bush appointed Kean to head up the 9/11 commission. The commission omitted this information from the report. Someone is going to take the blame.
Throw in the MSM reporting on this and who do you think is going to take the blame?
ouch.
I am not a father yet, I cannot imagine the pain and loss. Of course I don't know and don't want to know what my parents went through when I was in Iraq. What my wife went through was enough for me.
We must honor that fallen hero by doing this RIGHT. There is no excuse not too.
Thank you...and please, Thank your wife and your parents. They must be so very, very proud of you.
This is where republicans commit serious errors of judgement. They( Bush/Rumsfeld) will probably want to cover this thing up thinking they would want a future administration to extend the same courtesy. The Demons would drive this thing rightfully home for a touchdown.
Because the Gorelick wall was constructed to protect the foreign Chinagate information from the FBI, thus separating incriminating evidence from the criminals. 911 was just an unforeseen result of that policy because intelligence was too hamstrung to know about it.
That's one theory anyway.
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