Interesting how much of a chess game is being played around this story this weekend in the news media. Weldon must be up against some big guns to be (a) challenged by the 9-11 Commission so brazenly and (b) to keep coming out with ever more stunning claims (which I am now betting he can most likely back up).

Members of a secret Pentagon intelligence unit known as Able Danger warned top military generals that it had uncovered information of increased al Qaeda “activity” in Aden harbor less than three weeks before the attack on the USS Cole, The Post has learned.

Hat Tip to Top Dog for alerting me to this revelation in comments from the earlier post today, and to Mac at Mac’s Mind – who also had this to say:

Holy Crap! AJ?

LOL! I agree – holy crap!

In one of the recent 9-11 specials, I think it was the National Geographic Special ‘Inside 9-11’, I recall mention that there were indications just prior to the USS Cole being attack of possible terrorist actions. Interestingly enough, this same special mentions Able Danger in a round about way as well in terms of the Atta identification early on. I have a copy of it recorded on the DVR and will check it later this evening. Watch for the update later.

So there may have already been mention of someone making warnings prior to the Cole being struck. What is new is the claim these warnings were from the Able Danger group:

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.

Two witnesses. Very interesting. What I think Weldon and Able Danger may have up their sleeves is they were really getting a lot of gold out their data mining efforts of publically available data. The public sourced data may not have really been integrated with the classical intel data up to this point to see what could fall out. I am sure this is what is happening now – the combination of the two data sets. Which is what probably what makes people want to keep this all classified.

Truth be known, I always assumed they did this already. SIGINT (signal intelligence) gathers electronically transmitted information – which these days is everything. Silly me for assuming they were not grabbing whatever they want. The challenge seem to me to be there is just too much flowing to know what to grab, let alone what to take seriously.

Anyway, Weldon and Able Danger may have a whole series of these “I told you so” revelations to come. That could make it tough for the naysayers to keep their positions.

Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s former liaison to Able Danger, told The Post that Capt. Scott Phillpott, Able Danger’s leader, briefed Gen. Peter Schoomaker, former head of Special Operations Command and now Army chief of staff, about the findings on Yemen “two or three weeks” before the Cole attack.

Looks like Schoomaker may be on the witness list, which would explain the Pentagon’s concern. How would it look to have the Army Chief of Staff on the witness stand. This is high stakes poker DC style, and at its most dramatic.

Folks, I am totally beside myself for having to be in meetings all day while this plays out on Wednesday. I may set up an open thread for people to use (not abuse!) to post their thoughts on this. I suggest, if you are interested, to set up a user account before Wednesday. LJStrata, our lovely webmistress, should be able to moderate comments at times throughout the day to get them posted on the site.

But whatever we do here, Wednesday is going to be one very interesting day – to say the least.