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 ...
Dog, you know what burns my butt? MSM and the dems were ready to send Karl Rove for a long walk off of a short plank in the biggest non-story story of August. And no one was hurt.
3000 people died 9/11 and not a peep. Not an effin peep.
There is another thread about 9/11 relatives charging a cover-up. I pray to God that those relatives realize what I know. Burning Karl Rove is the gold ring for them, 3000 lives lost mean nothing. That realization sums up the beltway. It is about power.
The President, the Pentagon, the Congress--they work for us dammit. They are our employees. And we have every right, every effin right to hear what those witnesses have to say under oath.
But in the end, we can only blame ourselves. We put them in power. We allow them to screw us every which way but Sunday.
Right now I feel nothing but a loathing contempt for all of them.
Yep an illegal program.
Wonder if any of the illegally acquired data made its way to the information brokers. Would be valuable.
Why did you choose not to put this in Breaking News?
Pray for W and Our Freedom Winning Warriors
but still, if the program occurred under clinton's pentagon - what's wrong with outing it?
or is the real issue that - its still going on?
This is why they stopped them testifying.
• A Pentagon employee, who will testify that he was ordered to destroy 2.5 terabytes of information Able Danger had compiled, which is roughly equivalent to one-fourth of all the printed material in the Library of Congress. According to Congressman Weldon, this person, as yet unidentified, will also name the officer who gave the order.
I would guess its an ongoing program.
BTTT
we heard that a few days ago - 2.5T is not that big for a data warehouse. it was destroyed because alot of it was likely obtained illegally. but so what, so were the Pentagon Papers. the hearing should be about the results, not the means of acquisition.
but under the Patriot Act, alot of the data gathering is likely legal now - however, maybe not by Dod?
I see the ruling class is covering for its fellow members. Power protects power. D's and R's don't matter.
Bingo!
Hang em all.
As long as they are Democrats on the Committee it won't accomplish anything to hold closed hearings.
The Democrat's shirts won't touch their backs until they inform the enemy of everything that was said.
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.
What exactly is the Slade Gorton reaction to which you refer?
bump
the problem is, if this pentagon blocks this - it owns the "coverup" accusation. now that may not be true in reality, but that will be the spin. instead of focusing on how and why and when and who didn't do anything with this information before 9-11 - the focus will be on why its being blocked in the present time.
What good will the hearing be if the witnesses aren't allowed to testify and all the do is send a Pentagon flunky down to "plead the fifth" basically???
I can't imagine that Weldon would let this happen without a LOUD fight, would you?
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