California Conservative

That’s what it sounds like from a Newsmax article. Here are the most noteworthy parts of the article:

U.S. Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA) has the support of at least 202 fellow lawmakers in his effort to force Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to allow “former participants in the intelligence program, known as Able Danger, to testify in an open hearing before the United States Congress.” Able Danger was a highly classified intelligence program in the Department of Defense created in October 1999 to uncover clandestine al-Qaida cells globally.

Analysts from Able Danger claim to have identified Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers in mid-2000. They also claim to have warned defense officials about terrorist activity in Aden, Yemen two weeks before the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole on October 12, 2000, and to have advised against entering the Port of Aden two days before the attack. Able Danger participants were not allowed to testify in the only congressional hearing to date on their findings.
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“This is a cover-up,” he told Lou Dobbs on CNN November 9. “It’s not a third-rate political burglary. It’s a cover-up of information on the largest attack in the history of the country.” He went on to call for an investigation into the actions of Dieter Snell, an aide to Jamie Gorelick, the top Democrat on the 9/11 Commission and a former Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration. “We have to know whether or not there was a deliberate attempt by Dieter Snell not to have the 9/11 commission members know the full details of what Able danger was doing…An investigation needs to take place.”

It’s way past time for the Pentagon to let the Able Danger crew testify as to who they identified. The American people have a right to know, especially considering that this information could’ve prevented the 9/11 attacks.

As for Ms. Gorelick and her aide, I’m all for investigating what they knew and what they didn’t want to hear about. The 9/11 Commission’s report is treated like the definitive pronouncement on terrorism and terrorists. It was and is a bungled report by a sorry collection of bureaucrats who played an endless game of CYA. Much of the credit for that report clearly belongs on Ms. Gorelick’s shoulders for her unwillingness to recuse herself from that part of the investigation.

Cross-posted at BoxerWatch

This entry was posted on Friday, November 18th, 2005 at 6:26 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Homeland Security, Terrorism, Washington, DC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.