Sep 17 2005
Able Danger, More Weldon, 09/17/05
I am not sure of the source of this, but it appears to be a transcript of Rep Weldon speaking to reporters, with all sorts of hints of what is to come:
We’ve identified the woman at the FBI who set those three meetings up. She will testify under oath at the Senate hearing next Wednesday that she actually organized three meetings. She knew the topics of the meetings because there had been other discussions that occurred prior to the attempt to set up those three meetings.
And in each of the cases of those three meetings, they were abruptly canceled by Pentagon lawyers hours before those meetings were to take place.
I have mentioned this theory before: Once DIA/Able Danger tried to contact the FBI all sorts of other people were probably notified as a courtesy or to fulfill the chain of command requirements – and this is when someone stepped in.
What will be the added dimension to the Senate investigation and hearing that will take place on Wednesday is not just the five people that the Pentagon has confirmed, identified and knew about Mohammed Atta prior to 9/11, but we’ll bring out the person who actually did much of the data analysis. Actually, his name, I think, has already been brought out in the public. That’s J.D. (ph).
But the person who’s not been brought out in the public yet, this individual who will testify that he was actually the one who destroyed 2.5 terabytes of data about Able Danger that included the Brooklyn cell and Mohammed Atta.
Things we have learned, but apparently in Weldon’s words.
He will name the person who ordered him to destroy that material. And, furthermore, he will note that a commanding general from SOCOM — Russ, what was his name?
STAFF: (OFF-MIKE)
WELDON: General Lambert was incensed when he found out that material that he was a customer for was destroyed without his approval.
So here we have a case where General Lambert at SOCOM was not told that an employee had been ordered to destroy all the material that he was a customer for. And that material related to Able Danger, it related to Al Qaida and it related to Mohammed Atta.
BINGO! The implication here is clear. Able Danger’s chain of command was backing their efforts to contact the FBI and, whoever they were up against, was sufficiently high up to go around them to have the information destroyed. This was not standard document clean up, and this was not some low level typical order.
And the bombshells keep coming:
But what is in that speech are the exact details I’ve been talking about for the last two months. What was also in that speech, which I had forgotten and which I’m now public acknowledging, is that there was a three-hour briefing provided to General Shelton in January of 2001.
And furthermore, what Tony Shaffer will tell you in the hallway outside is that he personally briefed General Shelton on Able Danger, and in a briefing in the first quarter of 2001, and he will name the people that were in the room. He was giving a briefing on another topic, remember the name of that?
STAFF: (OFF-MIKE)
WELDON: Door Hop Galley (ph) which is another classified program.
In the course of that briefing — and there was a Navy admiral in the room, Admiral Wilson, in charge of DIA, and Richard Schiefren (ph) was in the room. Richard Schiefren (ph) was an attorney at DOD.
Weldon is naming some big names and opening doors. I am truly wondering if their is any method to his madness. Hopefully Mac at Mac’s Mind can fill in some background on this. More incoming rounds
it was in October of 2003 when he first briefed the 9/11 Commission’s staff over in Baghram.
In January of 2004 when he was twice rebuffed by the 9/11 Commission for a personal follow-up meeting, he was assigned back to Afghanistan to lead a special classified program.
When he returned in March, he was called in and verbally his security clearance was temporarily lifted. By lifting his security clearance, he could not go back into DIA quarters where all the materials he had about Able Danger were, in fact, stored. He could not get access to memos that, in fact, he will tell you discussed the briefings he provided both to the previous administration and this administration.
More names will be coming out – whom he briefed and when. The fireworks are being lit. And there appears to be some remnants of information still in existence:
In one month we provided all these charts, we reconstructed the original Mohammed Atta chart, which I’ve showed many times, with the linkages — from the original data, I might add, that people had available.
So there could be the anaylsis papers, products, notes, etc that were used to build the charts. That would be a real breakthrough. And we learn where the Atta photograph comes from
Well, as we now know, the photograph did not come from an immigration picture or a driver’s license. An individual who will testify on Wednesday will say they bought that photograph from a woman in California who was researching the activity at selected mosques. That’s where the photograph came from.
Only question I have is which mosque. My bet is it is in Germany – but if in the US, that would also be a stunning revelation. A photo of Atta with his name on a watch list might have changed history.
And so the more information I get, the more questions arise. The American people deserve to have answers.
Well, he has that right. And he goes on to drop some more names on the witness list
But during that briefing with Admiral Wilson and with Richard Schiefren (ph), the topic of Able Danger came up and Richard Schiefren (ph), who was the legal counsel at the Pentagon, knew about Able Danger.
…
I applaud Senator Specter and his staff for scheduling a hearing on Wednesday where all of these people can testify.
Then he really throws the gauntlet down at the 9-11 Commission
In the Hart Building, when the 9/11 Commission brought in George Tenet, and I was watching the hearings from my home, I couldn’t believe the questioning. So I drafted this document and had my staff director hand deliver it to the 9/11 Commission. They never asked a question. This is the actual document.
The next week, they sent a staffer over to pick up some additional materials about the NOA (ph), about the concept, and about information I had briefed them on. They never followed up and invited me to come in and meet with them. So they can’t say that I didn’t try.
Is the Commission going to say they did not here from a Member of Congress? That kind of bluff might get the current members’ backs up.
There is a lot of rehashing of claims and history, and some good questions. I will not try and read for you good folks. I simply try and point out the new information. Here is something I have not heard before from Weldon or Able Danger
I think here are those, perhaps, that are going to be embarrassed by this: embarrassed in the previous administration, and now it looks like embarrassed in this administration.
That is an interesting statement – no one’s hands will be clean.
WOW! Another big bombshell is going off right here
I think, for some reason, there was a staff effort deliberately put forward not to allow this information to be brought forward.
Now, a couple of strange things have happened during this time period, and one thing I’ve never mentioned publicly.
The first week the story broke in the New York Times, I was in Pennsylvania that Friday doing district work and I got a call at my office. My chief of staff took the call, and it was from a person I’d never met in my entire life. I’d never mentioned her name. She was on vacation and asked my chief of staff for me to call her back.
Her name was Jamie Gorelick.
Gorelick contacted Weldon? Is she on the witness list?!?!
I said, “What does she want, Russ? I don’t know the woman.” I said, “I’m tied up. Would you please call her back and ask her what she wants?”
….
Russ called her back on her cell phone. She was on vacation. And her response to my chief of staff was, “Please tell Congressman Weldon I’ve done nothing wrong.”
That is incredible if true. I would simply like to see Gorelick under oath myself.
More fireworks to come
Scott Philpott (ph) jeopardized his entire naval career to state emphatically that he will swear on his career that they knew about not just Able Danger, but Mohammed Atta and ties to the Brooklyn cell in January and February of 2000. I believe Scott Philpott (ph).
A flag officer vs a US Senator? I’d trust the good Captain if I had to pick one.
More on contemporaneous evidence on the attempts to meet with the FBI
I’ve been told that the woman at the FBI has e-mails that will verify the meetings.
There is definitely something to this story. I am now convinced Able Danger DIA was desperately trying to get information on terrorists (and who cares whether it was on a chart or in crayola crayons scrapings on paper). And there must have been something driving this urgency.
I can tell you that Tony Shaffer will tell you his e-mails, all classified, on his system, were deleted. They were deleted during the time that he could not get access because they had temporarily lifted his security clearance.
That means they were deleted January 2004. But that cannot be the only record of them. That would be his record on his PC. There are other records of email traffic. But the timing does not bode well for the current administration – unless there is some rogue CYA effort inside the DoD.
Interestingly, Weldon is being kept in the dark concerning the White House positions. But he does say this about Steve Hadley, to whom he gave the original Able Danger chart:
don’t know the status. When I met with Steve, he acknowledged me giving him a chart.
I wonder if he is on the witness list. And another interesting nugget. Specter’s hearings will not be the first congressional hearings:
We had a briefing for members of the Armed Services Committee last week in a closed session. And we’re going to continue to pursue it.
Want to bet the members on this committee are very popular with the news media about now.
Weldon also sheds light on the China connection – a parallel study using the same methods that caused a ruckus
He tasked them to do a special briefing on Chinese proliferation. And I was aware of that. And I was aware that, when that briefing was done, there were some very sensitive human person issues that came up. Because the technology that China was acquiring, through researchers that were here in our country, in many cases were at Stanford University and other universities in America. And because of that, the two names surfaced that had been reported in the press.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
WELDON: Condoleezza Rice and Bill Perry.
That makes a lot of sense. These names would pop up no matter who at Stanford, no matter the level, were connected to some Chinese efforts. And I have been vindicated to some degree, because I have claimed from day one this was a prototype program which got lucky in finding terrorists, and then unlucky when it garnered too much attention.
I am live blogging as I am reading this – 7:50 PM Eastern Done. That is stunning. It will probably take some time to digest. But my speculated timeline from this post is holding together.
UPDATE:
Junkyard Blog has some good comments on this subject, connecting a few dots in the process.
Captain Morrissey weighs in here.
And Flopping Aces basically sees the same thing I did here.
UPDATE II:
For those interested, there is a pretty lengthy discussion on this post at Free Republic
Wow! This is all starting to come together isn’t? I feared with Hurricane Katrina and all the other distractions that Able Danger would fade away. Instead, not only are things on track for a public hearing (I hope, I hope, I hope), names will be named. Now, the only question is can the MSM bury this rotting fish before anyone notices?
After reading extensively on Pearl Harbor, you come away with the sinking feeling things were covered up. That people knew an attack was coming but for the greater good it had to happen. And when it did happen, this secret knowledge was buried very deep. Now sixty plus years out, the secrets are starting to escape – but no one cares.
If Able Danger is what it is cracked up to be, then Hurray for the internet. If the truth hurts certain people, so be it. If we the American people can’t be trusted with the truth who can? Just the elites? I hope the windows are thrown wide open. I want the fresh air to clean out the rot and I want the light of day to expose malfeasance, incompetence, or any other -ism that exposed the American populace to danger.
The fear now is that Sen. Specter will capitulate and close the hearings. Or that witnesses will be intimidated or worse. The longer this airing is put off, the more mischief could occur.
Thanks for keeping on top of this and don’t let go of this story.
GranitRoc,
Thanks. But it is impossible to tear my eyes off this story!
Global Research is one hell of a web site!
This is turning into the espionage story of the year, makes the Plame Outing miniscule in comparison.
Can you believe Gorelick calling Weldon?? Oh. My. G-d.
Oh please please please have these Hearings on CSPAN!
Oh, and they have already had a Prelim Hearing????
This is like a Clancey Novel. Can’t wait for the next chapter.
And as always AJ, great job.
[…] AJ at The Strata-Sphere has three great Able Danger posts. Must, must read. In the latest explosive revelation in the Able Danger saga, two former members of the data-mining team are expected to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee next week that they uncovered alarming terrorist activity and associations in Aden weeks before the Oct. 12, 2000, suicide bombing of the U.S. warship that killed 17 sailors. […]
Thanks AJ for keeping this story going and reporting on it! You and Capt. Ed aren’t letting this die on the vine.
How about some speculation as to where might this all be going?
If we go back to June 2004, The 9/11 Commission released a Staff
Statement that created a controversy regarding an Iraq/Al qaeda
connection. The controversy was that there was no evidence of a link.
http://www.factcheck.org/article203.html
9/11 Commissioner Ben-Veniste said, “We found no evidence of
collaboration in any effort to mount any kind of operation against the
United States’ interests. And if there is additional information
that the vice president has or others have, we think we should have
gotten that information by now.”
So, is there evidence in the Able Danger docs that the Commission
never saw but the whitehouse did?
Maybe this is why General Shinseki left like he did.
General Shinseki’s retirement in 2003 has been a matter of some controversy, as it became a disputed point in the first of the 2004 U.S. presidential election debates.snip
Bush maintained that Shinseki had put in for retirement before the start of the war. Shinseki’s own statement is that he was forced into retirement, though not necessarily over the specific question of troop requirements in Iraq.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Shinseki
Gotta agree with you AJ, can’t keep my eye’s off this story. Thanks for the link btw.
Lots of fireworks to come.
granitroc;
“After reading extensively on Pearl Harbor, you come away with the sinking feeling things were covered up. That people knew an attack was coming but for the greater good it had to happen.â€
After reading this… I come away with the opinion that you’ve read the wrong books.
[…] My post on the Weldon interview has been generating a lot of debate over at Free Republic (here). One comment caught my eye with an interesting theiory on what happened and is worthy of some contemplation. The portion that caught my attention was: Any destruction of documents and the closing down of Able Danger before 9/11 was due to the fear in the Clinton Administration that it could turn up linkages between known Chinese operatives and illegal contributions to Slick’s campaign. After 9/11, they realized to their horror (with the Able Danger staff briefings to the Commission) that they had at the same time destroyed information that might have prevented 9/11. […]
This Global Research site you have linked is very sketchy. Really they seem like they are communists who support the terrorists.
Go to their homepage and read their other Able Danger articles and other material. They are claiming that the Bush Administration is complicit in 9-11.
They claim to be quoting from a Weldon Press Conference, but I haven’t seen that press conference posted anywhere else.
All the communists are claiming that Able Danger proves “Bush knew” about 9-11 and they are citing the conservative Weldon as proof.
Weldon blew the cover of a very secret program that may have information on not only the 9-11 terrorists but on perhaps even American traitors. People who may have helped M. Atta now know we were watching them years ago.
I don’t think this should have been made public.
Weldon seems to be doing this to embarrass the Democrats, but he gave his famous chart to the White House, too, and they aren’t exactly picking his chestnuts out of the fire here.
There were Republicans and Democrats on that 9-11 Commission and not one remembers seeing a chart with Atta on it.
If they did “cover up” Able Danger, there might have been good reasons of national security.
Even if it were to be the case that Iraq had a hand in 9-11, then it would have to be explained how this happened. And this might tip-off terrorists who helped. Some of these people might be in the US.
Even Shaffer says he did not realize that Atta was in the Able Danger material until a friend mentioned it after 9-11.
I think what happened to these materials may be higher than Shaffer’s level.
I think that Weldon may have damaged this program by publicizing it to our enemies–foreign and domestic.
He always claims the CIA leaks, but who told him that be could blow this secret program and then have public hearings?
If Weldon thinks someone has behaved treasonously, then he should contact the FBI.
Telling the public also tells the terrorists.
The national security is more important than embarrassing the Democrats. Plus, the White House has not supported Weldon, and he says he gave them the chart.
Thanks
Just because the Pentagon reportedly failed to give the Able Danger information to the FBI before 9-11, it doesn’t necessarily follow that Congressman Curt Weldon should be passing information about Able Danger to the terrorist international now. His public charges against the members of the 9-11 Commission can only be rebutted by further disclosures that may help our enemies. Some issues should be dealt with in secret.
I think the FBI should be investigating Congressman Weldon and his advisors to see if they have contacts with and are being manipulated by radicals who support terrorists. He is always accusing people who are bound by their security clearances of “leaking” classified information. Does he have the authority to unilaterally declassify secret Pentagon programs?
The real issue is not: “Does Able Danger exist and did the program have Atta’s picture?” Please notice that the terrorist-abetting, far-left is writing vociferously that Able Danger does, in fact, exist. Think about that for a moment.
The real issue is: “Why in the world is Curt Weldon telling the terrorists that our government had this program and this information?”
Let us just imagine, hypothetically, that Able Danger had captured a Kodak Moment: M. Atta sipping tea and having a quiet treff with American radicals. It is not beyond the pale that some American radicals helped or possibly even recruited the 9-11 terrorists. 9-11 may not have been exclusively an Al Qaeda operation. There are some American extremists who think we “got what we deserved.” Maybe they acted on that belief.
Would we really want to let that cat out of the bag?? Wouldn’t it be better if Weldon were to remain quiet and let the professionals spy on those guys?
If it could be successfully argued in court that Able Danger information was collected illegally, American terrorists might escape conviction and punishment. Suspecting that they had been identified by Able Danger, they might claim that they were the victims of “McCarthyism” who were being framed for their opinions. The exposure of Able Danger would be a gift to any American terrorists’ defense team.
I hope some tough and trustworthy patriot still has this Able Danger information, that he lies about it, and that it never becomes public. Unlike Weldon, I personally don’t feel any pressing need to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to the American people and to our mortal enemies, the terrorists.
In his incredibly ridiculous CIA-bashing book, Countdown to Terror: The Top Secret Information that Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America…and How the CIA has Ignored It, Weldon claims to be going over the heads of the Pentagon, the FBI, and the CIA to reach the “American people.” Yeah? Well, include me out. I would rather put my trust in these imperfect agencies than in Congressman Weldon!
And he has not exactly had an original thought here. The KGB also tried to go over the heads of American security agencies in its propaganda appeals to the American people. Well, he isn’t getting across to this American; all he is doing is stirring up trouble between our more partisan Republicans and Democrats that will benefit the terrorists’ information-gathering!
The radical left on the Internet is spinning Able Danger to make it look like the President is covering up for the terrorists and complicit in 9-11. http://www.cosmosleft.com/pages/7/index.htm
And their source is—not the left—but “Conservative Republican Congressman Curt Weldon.” Nice touch. Very effective. Gives them credibility. They couldn’t be communists who support the terrorist agenda if they cite a conservative Republican, could they? They can’t be accused of being Anti-American. After all, they want secrets about terrorists to be shared with the FBI. But They also want everyone to believe the big lie: that President Bush doesn’t want to share secrets about terrorists with the FBI because he is complicit in 9-11.
And Curt Weldon is helping these anti-American propagandists.
With a friend like Weldon, President Bush doesn’t need enemies.
The terrorists are manipulating our partisan feuds to goad Weldon and those he is impugning on the 9-11 Commission into revealing classified Pentagon programs. They are playing divide and conquer, particularly on the partisan Internet blogs.
Should the Able Danger information on Americans have been sent to the FBI? Yes, in my opinion.
Did the Pentagon give Able Danger information to the FBI? Who knows. Perhaps Shaffer wouldn’t be told if the Able Danger information were sent to the FBI.
Was it legal to collect this information? I don’t know.
Even if the Able Danger information was not communicated earlier, should this information now be publically disseminated to our enemies just so Republicans can score off the Democrats? No.
Just because the Pentagon didn’t give the Able Danger information to the FBI before 9-11, doesn’t mean Weldon should be leaking it to the terrorist international now.
I bet the White House did not ask Weldon to tell the whole world about Able Danger.
Curt Weldon may think he is taking a few pot shots at the Democrats, but in fact he is serving the agenda of those who now hypocritically pose as “defenders” of our security agencies: the terrorist-abetting far left.
I say this as a Republican who has voted for the President twice. We are in a big war. We have had a huge tragedy with the hurricane. It is time to stop snipping at each other and tackle our problems.
We are not call the Red States and the Blue States. We are called the United States.
Global Research is using Weldon’s information to claim that 9-11 was an “inside job.” They say the government did it.
Global Research claims that “…the entire political establishment, which is complicit, in one way or another, in the cover-up and political exploitation of the events of 9/11. ”
Global Research quotes Weldon to “prove” that “the World Socialist Web Site—have been proven right. The future hijackers were detected by US government agencies, including the CIA and military intelligence, yet nothing was done either to arrest them or disrupt their operations…..There is only one politically serious explanation of this now-indisputable fact: powerful forces within the US military/intelligence complex wanted a terrorist incident on US soil in order to create the needed shift in public opinion required to embark on a long-planned campaign of military intervention in Central Asia and the Middle East. Whether or not they knew the scale of the impending attacks and what the precise targets would be, they acted in such a way as to block the arrest of known terrorist operatives and allow them to carry out their plot.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MAR20050917&articleId=964
Snapple, I am well aware of the site I linked to, notice the caveat.
But for this one posting, it appears to be a complete transcript.
Let them post the truth and then their whacky theories. We are all here to judge what is truth.
I think that it is possible that the Weldon Press conference you have linked from Global Research is a communist fabrication, but I don’t know. That site, which has really played up Weldon’s story, is pro-terrorist and communist. They are spinning the story to “prove” that “Bush knew” about 9-11. http://www.globalresearch.ca/
Weldon does not have this press conference on his own site. http://curtweldon.house.gov/ I think if he gave a press conference it would be on his site, not just linked on a terrorist mouthpiece that gives no source.
Weldon has posted nothing at his site on Able Danger since September 2. It is the communists who are keeping this story going–and so-called conservatives such as Free Republic, Captains Quarters, etc.
Here are all Weldon’s posts on Able Danger
http://curtweldon.house.gov/News/DocumentQuery.aspx?CatagoryID=1932
I think he would like this story to die before everyone notices that he has been played for a fool–unless he actually intends to tip-off our terrorist enemies by explaining what we know and when we knew it about the origins of 9-11.
Think! People may be walking around free in America who collaborated with the 9-11 terrorists. Maybe Able Danger has some information about them since they have information about the terrorists. This program should NEVER have been publicized. I have complained to the FBI and to the Pentagon and to Weldon. Now the collaborators know we may have them in our sights.
Weldon is not unmasking Democratic wrongdoing—he is revealing military secrets. Perhaps he is being manipulated and is getting information from our enemies.
Weldon has no right to blab state secrets. If he thinks some Democrats are traitors, he should go to the FBI.
I told him this pretty many times in a series of e-mails and pointed out how all the communist sites were assiduously covering his every revelation. And I am pretty sure the White House is telling him to put a sock in it, too. And the FBI and the Pentagon and the CIA. But Weldon always thinks he is smarter than the average bear.
Does anyone see Bush, Cheney, or Rumsfeld babbling about this?
No. Rumsfeld claimed he only heard of Able Danger after Weldon mentioned it. He lied–to the terrorists. Good for him. Too bad for Weldon that he didn’t take the hint.
The party line for commmunists now is to claim that Bush was complicit in 9-11. Having a conservative seem to make the case for them is just the ticket.
See for example the book published by the Black Bloc anarchist Sander Hicks called “The Big Wedding” which claims that “THE NEO-CONS KNEW IN ADVANCE OF THE 9/11 ATTACK”
http://voxpopnet.net/index.php?id=54&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=69&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=41&cHash=eb5925cbb8
It is the communists, the anarchists and Al Jazeera who are fanning this story because they are hoping for open hearings so they can read our secrets in the papers because gullible Republicans imagine they are embarrassing the Democrats .
Our terrorist enemies are posing as Republicans on the Internet and tricking us into revealing classified information by making us think it will hurt the Democrats.
Even Weldon has STFU. He has posted nothing since September 2.
I asked him if this press conference was his. He hasn’t responded.
You can go to his site and ask, too. It’s a simple question and he hasn’t answered.
Global Research http://www.globalresearch.ca/
probably would not be above fabricating a press conference. You might ask them their source, too.
I would like to know if Weldon can be prosecuted for revealing the existence of Able Danger to the terrorists. People have gone to prison for far less.
Snapple, that site is about as far left as you can get! But the transcript looked intact and good. I mentioned right up front I had doubts about the site and I referred to it once before as a joke. They mix a lot of fact in up front and then just go off the deep end.
Weldon has kept quiet, as he should, to let the press and media and bloggers keep it moving. And now we have upcoming hearings.
I would not consider myself a communist or a terrorist and I keep it alive. But I want to know if it happened as claimed and, if it did happen, who squashed alerting domestic law enforcement of terrorists in the US – and WHY!
The rest is simple static in the process we call America.
If you go to the link where Global Research has posted the putative 9/17/05 Weldon press conference, they claim to be citing the Congressional Quarterly if you read all the way to the bottom. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050917&articleId=965
Here is the link for the Congressional Quarterly. http://www.cq.com/corp/login.do;jsessionid=1CEA24E182360524C5DF15F7C25CAA33.honshu?jumpto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cq.com%2Fhome.do
So far, I can’t find Weldon’s Press Conference posted on the Congressional Quarterly site. It is a big site; I am not saying that it isn’t there, but I don’t see it.
Why don’t you e-mail or call Weldon’s office and ask if he gave a press conference on the 17th and if it is in the Congressional Quarterly. I asked, but he didn’t respond.
You think this press conference looked for real? I think it looked like something Ward Churchill would write when he is in a jocular mood.
But I could be wrong, since Weldon’s literary efforts always ring hollow with me, too.
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