The truth slowly makes its way out

[Guest guest]

A

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:23:43 -0500

The truth slowly makes its way out

 

 

 

Will finally we see that maybe this government was behind the

terrorist attacks of 911 ? H.

 

 

 

 

From Unknown News http://www.unknownnews.org/0511291126AbleDanger.html

 

Some in Congress want to know how four 9/11 hijackers were identified

before 9/11

 

… while others in Congress don't want to know at all

 

by James Rosen,

Star-Tribune [Minneapolis-St. Paul]

 

Nov. 26, 2005

 

WASHINGTON -- A top-secret military program set up six years ago to

probe the Al-Qaida terrorist network is provoking fierce new debate

about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

 

Military intelligence officers and contractors who ran the clandestine

mission, named Able Danger, say that more than a year before the

attacks, the operation identified four of the plot's 19 hijackers and

produced a chart that fingered ringleader Mohamed Atta.

 

Those claims contradict findings of the 9/11 commission set up by

Congress. In its final report last year, the commission spread wide

blame for the attacks but concluded that none of the hijackers, some

of whom lived in the United States before Sept. 11, had been

identified before the tragedy.

 

Now many in Congress want more answers.

 

On Friday, Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., sent Defense Secretary Donald

Rumsfeld a letter signed by a bipartisan group of 246 lawmakers

demanding that the program's officers and contractors be allowed to

testify in open congressional hearings.

 

" Further refusal ... can only lead us to conclude that the Department

of Defense is uncomfortable with the prospect of members of Congress

questioning these individuals about the circumstances surrounding Able

Danger, " the letter said. " This would suggest not a concern for

national security, but rather an attempt to prevent potentially

embarrassing facts from coming to light. "

 

But others in Washington are scoffing at the request for an inquiry.

 

" By the way he talks about Able Danger these days, you'd think it

would have prevented Pearl Harbor, " said Timothy Roemer, a former

Indiana Republican congressman and member of the 9/11 commission.

 

Kristin Breitweiser, a New Jersey woman whose husband died in the

World Trade Center during the attacks, said she and other relatives of

some of the 2,986 Sept. 11 victims have met with the military officers

who worked on Able Danger. The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency

ended the computer-data-mining operation in early 2001.

 

" It's very upsetting to hear people tell you that your husband and the

father of your children didn't have to die, because we had information

to stop the attacks, " Breitweiser said in an interview.

 

Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, a Bronze Star recipient and former Able

Danger operative who first came forward with details of the program

earlier this year, says Pentagon lawyers thwarted the team's attempts

to pass on their findings to the FBI before the attacks. He claims

that after the attacks, staff members of the 9/11 panel met with him

and other Able Danger officers, but then failed to adequately pursue

the details they presented.

 

Navy Capt. Scott Philpott, who led the Able Danger mission, said in a

statement made before the Pentagon forbade former Able Danger officers

from discussing the program publicly, " My story is consistent. Atta

was identified by Able Danger by January-February of 2000. "

 

After initially refusing to comment, Pentagon officials have confirmed

that Able Danger existed.

 

Meanwhile, Army Maj. Eric Kleinsmith told the Senate Judiciary

Committee on Sept. 21 that he had complied with orders to destroy

reams of computer data produced by Able Danger. Kleinsmith and other

Pentagon officials have cited privacy laws, which they say prohibit

the government from maintaining secret files on U.S. citizens or

noncitizens who are in the country on legal visas.

 

In a speech on the House floor last month, Weldon suggested that

information is being covered up. " I am not a conspiracy theorist, " he

said, " but there is something desperately wrong. "

 

Weldon also accuses the Pentagon of engaging in a smear campaign

against Shaffer, 42, since the colonel went public -- by revoking his

security clearance, suspending him and leaking alleged details from

his personnel file to reporters and congressional aides.

 

Among the slurs, Weldon says, are claims that Shaffer was having an

affair with a Weldon aide, which Shaffer's lawyer vehemently denies.

 

In response to a request by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R.-Calif., chairman of

the House Armed Services Committee, the Defense Department's inspector

general is investigating the alleged smear campaign against Shaffer.

 

In the Senate, Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the

Judiciary Committee, accused the Pentagon of possible " obstruction of

the committee's activities " after the Defense Department forbade

Shaffer, Philpott and other Able Danger analysts from testifying

before the panel. Specter and Pentagon officials are negotiating

conditions for an open hearing.

 

The Senate Intelligence Committee, meanwhile, has heard closed-door

testimony from Able Danger members and Pentagon employees and is

nearing completion of a report.

 

Weldon is an unlikely Pentagon antagonist. Since he joined the House

in 1986 he has been a defense hawk, consistently pushing for larger

Pentagon budgets. He speaks Russian and has led dozens of

congressional delegations to Russia.

 

But Weldon's concerns about Able Danger is puzzling some current and

former lawmakers.

 

Lee Hamilton, a former Indiana Democrat in the House who was

cochairman of the 9/11 panel, said he worked closely with and respects

Weldon because they share interests in defense and intelligence

matters. But he said the commission investigated the Able Danger

officers' claims exhaustively and could not find evidence to support them.

 

" We've asked for that chart repeatedly, " Hamilton said in an

interview. " The Pentagon cannot produce it, the White House cannot

produce it, and Weldon cannot produce it. "