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 ...
And the wierd thing is it happened on Clinton's watch and Bush could get so much mileage out of this if the truth came out.
Probably.
yes, but politically the problem is - its the current Pentagon blocking this. so the next logical question is, what are they trying to hide?
As much as I hate to say it, one call from the Commander in Chief is all it would take to allow the testimony to be heard in public hearings.
how can they block a congressional subpoena? what am I missing here?
This is bigger than Watergate. And nobody died in Watergate.
that isn't going to happen, you know that.
2)Sources and methods could be revealed.
3)This would show how corrupt our political class is inside DC....example....Slade Gortons reaction.
the administration is using their "Katrina" model for this one again:
we didn't do anything wrong, but we will take the blame. By doing this, they make the coverup the story - rather then the underlying incident that able danger is all about.
Dog - check this out. All may not be lost.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1488331/posts
Not surprised but terribly disappointed!
what do you see in there that tells you that?
I don't believe Weldon will givew up on this. He's a bulldog! We, the people, have a right to know what happened. Whether it was Clinton or President Bush, (I'd hate to think that) or both administrations.
'Vely intelesting'. What we know is that AD pegged Atta, 911 commission didn't care, AD was abandoned and ordered destroyed and people were told not to talk about it. I must be missing something, these things alone don't mean a lot.
Shafer says he knows who ordered him to be silent about it. Still nothing too earthshaking.
There's more out there and my ? is why don't they just come out and say it? All the intrigue is 'why'. I don't think it will ever be known. Must be the 'other' things that AD turned up, just come out with it already.
Judiciary Committee sources confirmed that the Pentagon was negotiating with panel members on whether the testimony of some witnesses due to appear at tomorrow's hearing could involve classified information and should be taken in private session.
But at this point, the committee intends to conduct an open hearing, the sources said.
Aides to Republican Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, who requested the hearing, said it was "news to us" that the session might be closed. "It's still public as far as we know," said John Tomaszewski, a Weldon spokesman.
"This is bullshit.... let them testify!!!!"
Did you really believe this whole thing would go anywhere except the black hole of DC.
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