World Net Daily has an interview with Curt Weldon where it appears the green light has been given to the hearings:

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., expects Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to green light public hearings before Congress this week in connection with the military operation “Able Danger,” to disclose more information regarding prior knowledge of Islamist cells in the U.S. before the 9-11 terror attacks.

Weldon says he’s received “preliminary indication” that an agreement has been reached to conduct hearings with open testimony on Capitol Hill.

This is potentially very good news – if certain key information comes to light. These questions need to be answered for anyone to conclude Able Danger was given a pr0per review:

(1) Did the order to purge the data mining data and results for the LIWA-Orion China study originally include the data on Al Qaeda terrorists, or was that data set added to the deletion order at a later date?

(2) Who reviewed the proposal to purge the China and Al Qaeda data and results in 1999 and 2000, and who where the people (there will be more than one) who finally authorized the destruction?

(3) Who was notified of the proposed meeting between Able Danger and the FBI in the late summer of 2000 and who finally decided to cancel the meetings?

(4) Does SOCOM have any LIWA-Orion data products from late 1999 and early 2000?

(5) What kind of information caused SOCOM to feel the need to contact the FBI in the late summer of 2000?

(6) When was Able Danger (LIWA and Orion) shutdown in 2000, and when was the Garland center brought on-line?

(7) Did Able Danger ever track Atta or any of the other Hamburg cell members (9-11 or otherwise) in their travels from Germany to meetings in Malaysia or any of these key events in early 2000?

(8) Was the CIA ever notified of the Able Danger results on Atta or anybody in the Hamburg cell while they were monitoring the cell?

Once the answers to these questions are known, we will have a better foundation to look into why the 9-11 Commission missed Able Danger, and why the DIA destroyed the remaining Able Danger records of Lt Col Shaffer in 2004.

Weldon adds a very inmportant question of his own

“Why did the 9-11 commission pick 1996 and not go back beyond that?” he asked rhetorically. “There is some very interesting material that needs to be tied in. The ’93 attack on the Trade Center. The blind sheik’s trial. None of that was looked at by the 9-11 commission, and the American people need to ask the question why. We will be asking that question during the Able Danger hearings.”

Yes – why was that demarcation made? Was it simply because it was an election year? I would guess some of it may be due to Gorelick herself. For her to stay on the timeframe could not go back to her time in government. Many other Commission members may have had similar problems. They should have bowed out and given their spots to people more deserving.

Weldon is more hopeful than I am:

“This will be a full hearing, and finally the American people will get to hear what the 9-11 commission didn’t pursue, and that is information about what happened before the attacks on Sept. 11,” Weldon said on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” program.

I hope so. We don’t need another white-wash on this subject. I think there is a very simple reason why we missed the signals leading to 9-11, and I would be happy to be proven wrong. I am afraid we are still learning the price we paid for impeaching Bill Clinton. It is why the full process should be avoided at all costs, and why Richard Nixon probably carries more respect for his sacrifice to the needs of the country than Clinton or those who went after Clinton. Nixon has them all beat.

Full transcript of Weldon on Dobb’s show here.