Congressman Weldon -- Why now? Why ever?

[understandinglife]

On August 10, 2005, MSNBC reported the following:

Weldon, considered something of a maverick on Capitol Hill, initially made his allegations about Atta and the others in a floor speech in June that garnered little attention. His talk came at the end of a legislative day during a period described under House rules as “special orders” — a time slot for lawmakers to get up and speak on issues of their choosing.

The issue resurfaced Monday in a story by the bimonthly Government Security News, which covers national security matters.

Link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8891201/

On August 10, 2005, Laura Rozen on her War and Peace blog wrote of an encounter she had at Heritage Foundation with Congressman Weldon.

One strange thing about this claim by Congressman Curt Weldon that he has defense intelligence sources who a year before 9/11 identified Mohammad Atta as a member of a Brooklyn al Qaeda cell is that, by some accident of fate, I was at a talk Weldon gave at the Heritage foundation back in 2002, where he was making the same claim and showing the same chart of the al Qaeda cells.

http://www.townhall.com/audio/content/lect020523a.ram (Start at around minute 24, minute 31 starts the claim, minute 33:33 is the chart).

I even went up afterwards and asked if it would be possible to get a copy of the chart that accompanied his talk and that he's been showing recently, but it proved elusive. So why is this coming forward in a more prominent way only now? (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/politics/10intel.html)



After all, the 911 commission had more than a year of hearings when it could have investigated these claims, and the commission's report has been out for more than a year now. I don't know the answer. But it's worth noting that The Hill reports today (http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/081005/weldon.html) that Weldon hopes to use the August recess to secure the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Link:
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002358.html

By August, 26, 2005, both Laura Rozen and Taciturn converged on the following:

Reacting to earlier reports, Taciturn, who knows (LTC Anthony) Shaffer from intelligence work, is skeptical of the Able Danger skeptics. His post includes this not-throw-away (para)graph:

... The hardware used in AD might very well have been decommissioned and passed on for others to use. Depending on how this was done it could make recovery of the actual source data used difficult if not impossible. However, working papers and finished products don’t just up and walk away. They get passed around in email; they get pasted into PowerPoint slides; they get turned into Analyst Notebook charts; and they linger on computer workstations.

Link:
http://voiceofthetaciturn.blogspot.com/2005/08/able-danger-update-823.html

After it was killed as a program in March 2001, is it conceivable that Able Danger -- hardware, slides, etc. -- was recycled as parts and bytes in other Army Information Dominance Center programs? Could that be an explanation for the lack of documentary evidence on its findings? One reason I have been pondering this is the chart Weldon has been showing since 2002 and which he writes about in his book as having given to Stephen Hadley in 2001, he has only since June credited as coming from "Able Danger" rather than Army INSCOM/LIWA at Ft. Belvoir.

For instance, no where in his book is Able Danger mentioned, and Shaffer told me he only briefed Weldon on Able Danger when he and Phillpott approached Weldon in May of this year to try to secure funding for a new Navy-headed data mining program, Project Able Providence. So...where is the 2002 chart from? Is it the Able Danger chart? Or did Weldon get ahold of the Able Danger chart in 2001 thinking it was somebody else's chart (Army INSCOM?) Has Able Danger been laundered? Or its real findings reimagined or reinvented after the fact?

Link:
http://voiceofthetaciturn.blogspot.com/2005/08/able-danger-update-823.html

Let’s add a bit more context, amply provided by Taciturn:

As an associate of Captain Ed points out, Navy Captains aren’t known for their whistle blowing tendencies. Life just got a little more complicated for those hoping to poke holes in the credibility of those speaking out about AD. Motivations may still be fair game . . .

It will come down to credibility, as Big Sea (see link for statements) points out. Three men, two of whom have put their military careers on the line -- including a flag officer who might have wanted a shot at the Admiralty -- have spoken out publicly to tell us about Able Danger and its results. The 9/11 Commission obviously did not bother to investigate this, and the Pentagon didn't want to do so either. Congress needs to start their own investigation immediately and start with these men who clearly have made the commitment to get this story to the American people.

In addition:

Jim Geraghty at TKS has the transcript for the National Geographic special that appears to refer to Able Danger: http://tks.nationalreview.com/archives/073883.asp

Power Line's John Hinderaker says he's losing some of his skepticism now and wonders whether the entire Commission timeline on Atta should be thrown out: http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011433.php

And Rick Moran agrees that Congress needs to act immediately: http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2005/08/23/able-danger-gets-some-legsmaybe/

Link:
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005290.php

I’m not one to scream, “Liar!” to authority figures, but for the Pentagon to say that they can’t find the data strains even my generous sense of credulity.

If they were serious about finding this data, they could conduct at least as rigorous a search as they did when trying to look for a leak in their own house (http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2002/07/dod072202.html).

The CYA DEFCON is at II and rising.

Update I: After catching an item on the TV news I'm reminded of another reason why we shouldn't necessarily take Pentagon claims of ABLE DANGER data having gone missing: Yet another investigation on the death of Pat Tillman.

Link:
http://voiceofthetaciturn.blogspot.com/2005/08/able-danger-update-823.html

Larry Johnson, on August 11, 2005, offered insightful caution and advice:

Congressman Weldon's track record on issues like this is consistently spotty. Usually he gets a portion of the story correct but screws up the most important parts. That appears to be the case here.

<clip>

The biggest flaw in Weldon's scenario appears to be the role of SOCOM aka the Special Operations Command. SOCOM in 2000 was a weak command with no operational role in 2000. Even after 9-11 SOCOM struggled to try to function like the other regional CINCs. Prior to January 2003 SOCOM was barely a "supporting" command and did not function as a "supported" command.

<clip>

The investigation should start by asking questions of General Charlie Holland (ret. USAF), who commanded SOCOM at the time. He will be able to identify who was in charge of contracting at the time. Be sure to ask about the size of the J-2. The J-2 is the intelligence arm of any military general command. SOCOM did not have a large J-2 at the time. Normally the FBI and the CIA have a rep assigned to a major military command. Who were those people and were they aware of ABLE DANGER.

Link:
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/08/hidden_dangers_.html

On August 26, 2005, in the Norristown Times Herald, one of the more thorough accountings of what has transpired since Senator Arlan Spector began pursuing the Able Danger matter was reported by Keith Phucas. In fact, it was on June 19, 2005 that the Norristown Times Herald reported on 7th District Congressman Weldon’s version of the Able Danger story – a story that went as unnoticed as the Congressman’s June 2005 floor speech in Congress. The August 26, 2005 story contains the following:

In 2000, the operation's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) team wanted to pool the talents of the FBI and Special Operations Command to track 9/11 hijacker, Mohamed Atta, and other Muslim extremists, that had been linked to al-Qaida in the United States, according to Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, a DIA employee who worked on the project. The Pentagon pulled the plug on the classified program, however, according to Shaffer, because it feared negative repercussion if the operation went wrong.

<clip>

Shaffer claims, attorneys in the Pentagon ultimately killed the project. "I know who the lawyers are and have turned (the names) over to the committee," he said. The Reserve officer hopes the legal paper trail will reveal why "Able Danger" was cut short. "(The committee) needs to get the lawyers' notes," he said.
<clip>

The defense intelligence employees worked on "Able Danger," between 1999 and 2001, at the Army's Land Information Warfare Assistance Center (LIWA), in Fort Belvoir, Va. Shaffer said as many as 25 individuals supported the LIWA program, though only about a dozen were fully briefed on the project's objective: To identify and target terrorists. The "Able Danger" group mapped al-Qaida links worldwide, assembling charts that showed the connection between Atta and other suspected terrorists, he said. Though the original chart has not been unearthed, several other facsimiles have been recreated showing the terrorist links. Shaffer said about 20 boxes full of documents existed on "Able Danger" when he was involved.

Link:
http://www.timesherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15101660&BRD=1672&PAG=461&dept_id=33380&rfi=6

Couple the above with the latest update from Laura Rozen on August 28, 2005:

Mark Zaid, the attorney for former Able Danger official LTC Anthony Shaffer, clarifies a couple points. He is now representing several former Able Danger officials and contractors. According to Zaid, none of these former Able Danger officials ever asserted that Able Danger had identified Mohamed Atta as physically being in the US; rather the project had allegedly identified Atta as being linked in some fashion (not necessarily a direct one) with the Brooklyn-based Blind Sheik. Hence the 'Brooklyn cell' as a term of art.

Link:
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002432.html

Apart from Mark Levy’s post here at DU and Daily Kos, today, entitled DID DOD SHUT DOWN ABLE DANGER AFTER IT DETECTED CONDI’S CONNECTION WITH A PRC SPY RING?

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4494524&mesg_id=4494524)

And, a number of reports that I reference here:

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2037673)

If I were a corporate media journalist actually interested in the truth regarding any relevance of Able Danger to 9/11:

1. I’d start with Richard Clarke. I would ask him if he had ever heard of Able Danger. And, I would ask if he has retained legal council as a result of the disclosure of the Able Danger issue.

2. I’d take Larry Johnson’s advice and I’d contact General Charles Holland and ask him if he had knowledge of Able Danger and go from there.

3. I’d be asking Col. Shaffer exactly what “negative repercussion if the operation went wrong” he means in referencing ‘the Pentagon’s lawyers’ reasons for halting Able Danger in early 2001. And, I would ask him if he was able to get Spector’s committee, when he met with them late last week, to write the letter to the ‘agency other than the FBI’ whom he claims he told the Committee earlier, they had to seek information (for reference, see the Norristown Times Herald link, above).

4. And, my laser would be focused on Congressman Weldon and what he knew by the time he was making his presentation at the Heritage Foundation in 2002, and how he came to have that chart, and why was he not demanding to show his chart and whatever else he had to the 9/11 commission – on like Day 1 of their hearings. Oh, and has the Congressman sought legal council on the matter and is he still pushing for Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee.

5. And, I suggest everyone, not just a corporate media journalist (or two), read something from someone who has a very hard time imaging how Weldon is anyone’s Congressional representative, and an ever harder time dealing with the reality that he lives in Weldon’s Congressional district – billmon on Disable Danger at -- http://billmon.org/archives/002095.html


Peace.

[KingFlorez]

1. Trying to cover Bush

Because he's know this administration is in big trouble, so now is the perfect time to attack Clinton to cover Bush.

[goodboy]

2. I'd say it's because the hammer is about to fall on the Bushies!

There can be no other excuse.

[NNN0LHI]

3. If Weldon says its sunny outside you had better be grabbing your galoshes

I wonder about the people running around here who haven't figured that out YET!

Don

[understandinglife]

6. I'd say billmon and Larry Johnson articulate that perspective ...

rather well, as well.

In this case, I think Weldon said it was sunny outside because he had just detonated a nuke .... about 1000 miles off target ....


Peace.

[sniffa]

4. nominated

:popcorn:

good work understandingLife. :thumbsup:

[DaveinMD]

5. He's trying to sell his book

but he's going down next year. We have a good candidate to beat him next year.

[MH1]

11. Yes, Paul Scoles

Folks who detest Weldon, feel free to donate!

http://www.scolesforcongress.com/body_index.html

Website is in process of redesign for the 2006 campaign I think, but you can still get an idea about him and where he stands on things.

(Dave I think Paul is the only one running against Weldon...am I right or did you mean someone else?)

[DaveinMD]

14. I did mean Paul

He's got a great story as well. He's a good candidate and district voted for Kerry.

[wli]

7. I'll bet there's protected drug trafficking in there somewhere. n/t

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. This whole thing is a transparent ploy to further discredit Clinton

and to redirect the focus away from the fact that bush spent the first 9 months of his administration paying back political favors to big oil, big defense - the "missile defense", the Saudis and Israel.
It is well documented by now that the bush people didn't spend one second on terrorism during this whole time.

[seemslikeadream]

13. But Clinton was not told and neither was Richard Clarke

So the responsibility for stopping DIA program Able Danger, which had Identified Atta and 3 other hijackers and linked them to 56 other al-Queda terrorists overseas, has been laid at the feet of Bill Clinton--except he and Richard Clarke were never told about it at all.

That's right. Bill Clinton was never told about Able Danger and the ID of Atta because Richard Clarke was never told about AD. How do I know? He never wrote about it in his book, nor did he testify about it's existence before the 9-11 Commission!

You see Richard Clarke was known for being obsessed with Osama Bin Laden and HE was the guy the neo-con moles did not want to find out about Atta and the gang. Schoomaker and the neo-cons knew telling the FBI would inform Clarke and then Mr. Laser Beam himself, President of the United State William Jefferson Clinton, would have gotten involved--and the Pearl Harbor-type attack would never take place (the neo-cons talked about the need for a Pearl Harbor-type attack before the PNAC Plan would be accepted by the American people--so when one presented itself, they let it happen).

General Pete Schoomaker, who was later heavily rewarded by the neo-cons in the Bush Administration, or a General above him, maybe Tommy Franks, blocked the upward motion of the DIA information by having Shaffer and Philpott meet with Pentagon lawyers--lawyers who were rubberstamping ridiculous legal opinions to carry out the neo-con plan. These were neo-cons in the Clinton Administration, covertly carrying out the PNAC plan to let a Pearl Harbor-type attack occur so Iraq and 6 other countries could be invaded.

HOW DARE WELDON AND THE RIGHT WING TRY TO LAY ABLE DANGER AT THE FEET OF BILL CLINTON, WHEN HE WAS DELIBERATELY PREVENTED FROM KNOWING ABOUT IT BY SCHOOMAKER AND THE OTHERS! THEN THE NEO-CONS ENDED THE PROGRAM IN FEB. 2001 ALTOGETHER!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/24/124834/678

[The_Casual_Observer]

15. Clearly there is NO merit to any of his claims, but that isn't going to

stop him. After the precedent set by Colin Powell at the UN for all time merit-less claims, it's a free market to make up and promote any bullshit you please.

[seemslikeadream]

18. So Michael Shaffer and Scott Philpott J.D. Smith are lying?

http://slate.msn.com/id/2124863/

[The_Casual_Observer]

19. I can't understand what they are up to. Where are the charts they claim

to have seen? No trace of anything exists? No backup? Do these people have an axe to grind?

[seemslikeadream]

20. Isn't this it from the OP?

[The_Casual_Observer]

21. It that really the chart with Atta's picture and name from 1999?

I have to say that I was unaware that it existed. If so, then I stand corrected

[understandinglife]

24. Among the many reasons I assembled this thread was to bring Laura Rozen's

.... information to the attention of everyone at DU.

Weldon opened way more than a "Pandora's box" and by the time we get to the truth about "Why Now" & "Why Ever" way more than Pandora & Epimetheus will have been bitten by the horrid little creaturs Jupiter had stuffed into the box.


Peace.

[The_Casual_Observer]

26. Apparently that chart Weldon is using isn't the real deal

Supposedly it's a "reproduction". I am a nervy guy, but even I wouldn't try to pass off that thing as my "proof positive".

[understandinglife]

27. I'd be interested in the link to the source that states that the chart ...

.... Weldon was using at the Heritage Foundation in 2002 is a 'reproduction.' And, most importantly, a reproduction of 'what' -- what was the original and who produced it and when.

Thank you for commenting and I look forward to the details.


Peace.

[The_Casual_Observer]

29. Heres one from time magazine

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1093694,00.html


"In a particularly dramatic scene in Weldon’s book, Countdown to Terror, the Pennsylvania Republican described personally handing to then-Deputy National Security Adviser Steve Hadley, just after Sept. 11, an Able Danger chart produced in 1999 identifying Atta. But Weldon told TIME he’s no longer certain Atta’s name was on that original document. The congressman says he handed Hadley his only copy. Still, last week he referred reporters to a recently reconstructed version of the chart in his office where, among dozens of names and photos of terrorists from around the world, there was a color mug shot of Mohammad Atta, circled in black marker."


It would be a simple matter to ask Hadley about the original. I don't know what he was using in 2002, since apparently he had given the thing to Hadly by then, it seems.

[understandinglife]

30. I appreciate this information and I was aware of the Time article. I am ..

...laser focused on that chart he had with him at the 2002 Heritage Foundation meeting.

If he gave 'the chart' to Hadley 'just after Sept 11 (2001)' then where is the chart he was using in 2002? What did that chart contain? How is different than (if at all) from the one he gave Hadley?

Time is still bullshitting the planet about what Cooper knew, when re: Plame. They are not folk I'd have any confidence in pressing Weldon on the details, on the truth.

That chart Weldon was using at the Heritage Foundation, and the original images of it in the transcript, contain information that forensics experts, with the proper software tools, could readily use to ascertain the names, images and other information contained therein. That is the type of analysis I am hoping someone reading this thread whom has the appropriate tools will pursue.

If they do, Weldon is going to have a bunch more questions to answer and, if he or his lawyer(s) are reading this thread, you can be sure they are going to do everything they can to obstruct the truth about what was on that chart he showed at the Heritage Foundation.


Peace.

[The_Casual_Observer]

31. Did you write him and ask him?

It's a reasonable question. Perhaps he or somebody in his office would respond. I doubt that they receive very many requests for this stuff.

[understandinglife]

32. My plan was to start this thread. Gather as many comments as possible.

Assemble the comments and the OP into a fax and send it to Congressman Weldon as well as to Senator Spector and a few key individuals who have every reason to demand precise answers about just how Weldon got that chart he was bantering the Heritage Foundation folk in 2002, but somehow failed to share with the 9/11 Commission.

Your dialogue on this matter is most helpful and I am truly appreciative. I can do nothing that will ever repair the horrors of 9/11, but as a concerned, empathetic citizen the least I can do is bring as much pressure to bear on those who have relevant knowledge and have not been forthcoming to the American people.


Peace.

[seemslikeadream]

35. Thanks understandinglife for this thread

I too believe this needs to be discussed.

Please keep these thoughts in mind also.


4-9 September: He meets his US counterparts including CIA Head Tenet

Carefully Planned Intelligence Operation
The 9-11 terrorists did not act on their own volition. The suicide hijackers were instruments in a carefully planned intelligence operation. The evidence confirms that Al Qaeda is supported by Pakistan's military intelligence, the Inter-services Intelligence (ISI). Amply documented, the ISI owes its existence to the CIA:

"With CIA backing and the funnelling of massive amounts of U.S. military aid, the ISI developed into a parallel structure wielding enormous power over all aspects of government....The ISI had a staff composed of military and intelligence officers, bureaucrats, undercover agents and informers estimated at 150,000."8

The ISI actively collaborates with the CIA. It continues to perform the role of a ‘go-between' in numerous intelligence operations on behalf of the CIA. The ISI directly supports and finances a number of terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda.

The Missing Link
The FBI confirmed in late September, in an interview with ABC News (which went virtually unnoticed) that the 9-11 ring leader, Mohammed Atta, had been financed from unnamed sources in Pakistan:

"As to September 11th, federal authorities have told ABC News they have now tracked more than $100,000 from banks in Pakistan, to two banks in Florida, to accounts held by suspected hijack ring leader, Mohammed Atta. As well . . . "Time Magazine" is reporting that some of that money came in the days just before the attack and can be traced directly to people connected to Osama bin Laden. It's all part of what has been a successful FBI effort so far to close in on the hijacker's high commander, the money men, the planners and the mastermind."9

The FBI had information on the money trail. They knew exactly who was financing the terrorists. Less than two weeks later, the findings of the FBI were confirmed by Agence France Presse (AFP) and the Times of India, quoting an official Indian intelligence report (which had been dispatched to Washington). According to these two reports, the money used to finance the 9-11 attacks had allegedly been "wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan, by Ahmad Umar Sheikh, at the instance of General Mahmoud ." 10 According to the AFP (quoting the intelligence source):

"The evidence we have supplied to the U.S. is of a much wider range and depth than just one piece of paper linking a rogue general to some misplaced act of terrorism." 11

Pakistan's Chief Spy Visits Washington
Now, it just so happens that General Mahmoud Ahmad, the alleged "money man" behind 9-11, was in the U.S. when the attacks occurred. He arrived on the 4th of September, one week before 9-11, on what was described as a routine visit of consultations with his U.S. counterparts. According to Pakistani journalist, Amir Mateen (in a prophetic article published on September 10):

"ISI Chief Lt-Gen. Mahmoud's week-long presence in Washington has triggered speculation about the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council. Officially, he is on a routine visit in return to CIA Director George Tenet's earlier visit to Islamabad. Official sources confirm that he met Tenet this week. He also held long parleys with unspecified officials at the White House and the Pentagon. But the most important meeting was with Marc Grossman, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. One can safely guess that the discussions must have centred around Afghanistan . . . and Osama bin Laden. What added interest to his visit is the history of such visits. Last time Ziauddin Butt, Mahmoud's predecessor, was here, during Nawaz Sharif's government, the domestic politics turned topsy-turvy within days." 12

Nawaz Sharif was overthrown by General Pervez Musharaf. General Mahmoud Ahmad, who became the head of the ISI, played a key role in the military coup.

Schedule of Pakistan's Chief of Military Intelligence Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad, Washington, 4-13 September 2001


Summer 2001: ISI Chief Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad transfers $100,000 to 9-11 Ringleader Mohamed Atta.

4 September: Ahmad arrives in the US on an official visit.

4-9 September: He meets his US counterparts including CIA Head George Tenet.

9 September: Assassination of General Massood, leader of the Northern Alliance. Official statement by Northern Alliance points to involvement of the ISI-Osama-Taliban axis.

11 September: Terrorist Attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. At the time of the attacks, Lt General Ahmad was at a breakfast meeting at the Capitol with the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees Sen Bob Graham and Rep Porter Goss. Also present at the meeting were Sen. John Kyl and the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., Maleeha Lodhi.

12-13 September: Meetings between Lt. General Ahmad and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Agreement on Pakistan's collaboration negotiated between Ahmad and Armitage. Meeting between General Ahmad and Secretary of State Colin Powell

13 September: Ahmad meets Senator Joseph Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20020620&articleId=371


and this post from

MadeinOhio (91 posts) Mon Aug-29-05 11:39 AM
Response to Reply #7
13. Keep digging deeper into it and I think you'll find.....
Jack Abramoff, a member of a well oiled terrorist organization or tied directly to it. Its been labeled the RUIM in many circles and consists of many terrorists such as A.Q. Khan which are controlling proliferation and profiteering....PNAC is their feeding tube but the important thing here is this is a worldwide terrorist group.

Its also referred to as the Russian Ukraine Israeli Mafia, but the whole thing has scantly been touched precisely because of huge issues like Able Danger. Not just seeming to me a imperial communist agenda, do they have in mind, but also the total fall of the United States.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4494524#4495976
I'm not well acquainted with the whole mess but I can tell that no one wants to talk about it, or are otherwise cynical or unprepared to stand up to them or the State Department.

[Just Me]

41. That timeline is incredibly disturbing.

;( I just don't know what and all revelations will come out of this web of deceit.

[flyarm]

39. and perhaps general Byrnes knows abou tthis or

came about this info...?? so he was relieved?? or have other Generals come to this conclusion and they were forming an alliance ?? and the * cabal had to intervene and stop this alliance of generals??
i am asking but it seems to me..we have not seen the cover of this scratched..
and it seems to me Weldon opened a can of worms thinking he was being smart..but he may have opened a can of worms the *cabal thought they had hidden!!

and needed being kept hidden to cover their complicity of 9/11!


the wroms are starting to crwl out now and weldon helped it along!

fly

[understandinglife]

49. Weldon had no clue what he was exposing. The issue remains ..

.. dissemination of what we do know, now; and, pressing for investigations.

We must rely only on ourselves to do that work as citizens committed to America.

We must not delude ourselves, ever again, that corporate media folk will defend the Republic by seeking and spreading the truth.


Peace.

[jsamuel]

9. Great post: Journalists need to break the story of the decade/century

[dancingme]

10. I live in Weldon's district

Curt Weldon is my representative. :-( I also have Rick Santorum as my Senator. It's so nice to live in suburban Phila - between Phily and Joe Biden's Wilmington Delaware.

Weldon is a jerk, but continues to be elected by the white flight suburbanites. The democratic party in Delaware County, PA has tried to unseat him for years. He's here to stay until he retires or becomes Pat Robertson batcrazy.

[MH1]

12. Hi! So do I!

:hi:

See my post above about Paul Scoles. He got 41% last year with hardly a campaign. Weldon may be more vulnerable than you think.

I hope you'll be going to the DelCo Dem meetups when they start back up this fall!

[dancingme]

17. HI! I'd like to go

I'll check it out.:)

[Catherine Vincent]

16. This RAT BASTARD is not to be trusted!

He lost all credibility when on the evening of September 11, he was on CSPAN attempting to blame it on President Clinton! :mad:

[jsamuel]

22. right weldon cannot be trusted, but Able Danger is real

[NNN0LHI]

23. It may well be real but with Ø physical evidence whats that get you?

Really whats that get you? An interesting theory.

Don

[bleever]

25. The problem with covering your tracks is that if you've become successful,

there are so very many of them.

Nominated, with gratitude.


ed: sp

[understandinglife]

28. You are so onto the trail, my friend! And, Weldon has evidently ...

... not even come close to covering his -- a trait shared by Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Hadley, Condi, Gonzales, .... the whole damn lot of these miserable criminals.


Peace.

[loudsue]

33. Damn, UL! You're REALLY good at this!

:loveya: You're quickly becoming one of all-time favorite DUers! :applause:


Now that they've started digging this hole, I think they should just keep right on digging! It's gonna be a gusher, when it all comes unravelled.

:kick::kick::kick:

[understandinglife]

37. Thank you. I appreciate that!

Peace.

[frictionlessO]

34. Hello media? UL here has just helped you tremendously.... now do something

please, like try and inform as much of the public as possible of this big dead stinky fish!

[frictionlessO]

36. Mourning kick, for the morning crowd.

[frictionlessO]

38. and another kick.... n/t

[sattahipdeep]

40. Buzzys Dog Fitzgerald

"Sibel Edmonds: Absolutely. And I cannot go
into any details. But even the AIPAC spy
scandal, as far as I'm reading today, is just
touching the surface of it. It's going only to a
certain degree. It doesn't go high enough, in
what it involves and how far it goes, and that's
as far, and the best as far as I can explain."
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/horton.php?articleid=7032

Buzzys Dog Fitzgerald
"Do I have zeal? Yes. I don't pretend I don't," Fitzgerald says.

The question of zeal surfaced yet more prominently in two Chicago
terrorism cases -- investigations into the Global Relief and Benevolence
International foundations, which inspired a less than flattering
analysis by the 9/11 commission staff.


Media advocacy circles are not the only places where Fitzgerald's
enthusiasm has been noted with alarm. In an unusually bitter fight
that surfaced in late January, Fitzgerald drew angry criticism from
a Chicago federal judge who said one of Fitzgerald's attorneys
improperly delivered secret grand jury material to a
private attorney in a civil case.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55560-2005Feb1_4.html

DLA Piper
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1332757

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

42. More Able Danger skepticism

on Eric Umansky's blog:

http://www.ericumansky.com/

of particular interest is the point that Atta didn't go by the name "Mohammed Atta" until spring 2000 (after Able Danger had allegedly identified him):

http://www.ericumansky.com/2005/08/attas_visa.html


also this from Terry McDermott who has written a book on the hijackers:

I know nothing about Able Danger other than what I've read, so I can't speak with authority on what the program uncovered about Atta, or when. But, having spent the better part of the last four years investigating Atta's life, I can speak to what is otherwise known about him and his whereabouts.

Atta's academic, immigration, credit, transit and telephone records provide a fairly complete account from the time he left his native Egypt in autumn 1992 to his death. This includes the period during which Able Danger is said to have identified him as a terrorist in the United States. The story those records, and corroborating interviews, tell is that Atta was not in the United States and made almost no contact with the U.S. until June 2000.

In November 1999, Atta and three friends traveled from Germany — via Istanbul and Karachi — to Afghanistan, where they intended to receive military training before going to fight the infidels in Chechnya. They were, instead, recruited into Al Qaeda and assigned the Sept. 11 mission. Atta returned to Hamburg in late February, and the next month he made what is thought to be his first contact with someone in the United States. He e-mailed dozens of flight schools inquiring about commercial pilot training for "a small group of Arab men." He also e-mailed a friend from Egypt who was studying at a Florida university and asked about visa requirements. In May, he applied for a visa from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. Six weeks later he landed in Newark, N.J.

It is hard to see how computers could have named Atta as a member of an American cell before he got here. Some have argued that perhaps Able Danger mined data that included flight records of young Arab men traveling to Pakistan. Even if it did, it probably would not have found Atta. He was listed on airline flight manifests as Mohamed el-Amir, not Atta. His full name was Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta. El-Amir is how Atta was known to friends at school, to the banks that issued his credit cards and to the immigration service in Germany. It's the name on his high school and college diplomas.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcdermott26aug26,0,2745983.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

and finally some Curt Weldon skepticism:

Rep. Weldon has a history of making inflammatory allegations that later proved to be unfounded.

On June 7, 1999 he stood on the House floor and accused the Clinton Administration of leaking the design of the W87 nuclear warhead to U.S. News and World Report. It was a charge he repeated several times, referring to an artist's rendering of the W87 warhead which appeared in the magazine's July 31, 1995 edition.

"This administration leaked this document to U.S. News & World Report, giving the entire populace of the world... access to the design of the W87 nuclear warhead," he alleged.

"I have been told... that it was Hazel O'Leary herself who gave U.S. News & World Report the actual diagram of the W87 nuclear warhead in 1995," he said.

On June 8, 1999 he stated flatly: "Hazel O'Leary leaked the plans, which are in this magazine, for the W87 nuclear warhead."
None of this was true.

No government diagram of the W87 warhead was given to U.S. News. The artist's rendering of the weapon was a conceptual drawing, not a design. It was explicitly credited by the magazine to the Natural Resources Defense Council. An NRDC analyst confirmed that he had supplied the information to the graphic artist, and that it was based on informed speculation, not classified information.

In accordance with the political tactics used to attack the Clinton-Gore Administration throughout much of the 1990s, Rep. Weldon never retracted or apologized for his unfounded accusations. See:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/bulletin/sec80.html#weldon

According to an August 10 story in The Hill, Rep. Weldon said House Speaker Dennis Hastert will support his potential bid to become the next chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in 2008.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2005/08/081605.html#4

[flyarm]

43. where is Rockefeller on this and sible edmonds??

and where is Jay Rockefeller on the spy ring..why doesn't Rockfeller

raise holy hell about getting Sibels gag order lifted?? why doesn't he go nuclear on her info being kept gagged?

Sibel is the key to much of this..and i swear she is going to be suicided if someone does not come in and demand the gag be lifted..she is sitting on the most profound info...

does Fitzgerald have the right to have Sibel testify to the grand jury or is that even gagged??

someone needs to get behind this woman..i don't care what side the chips may fall..i do think their is stink on both sides of the isle..and i don't care..the stink has to be exposed.. we will not have the answers unless Sibel is deposed!!

there is info that Cheney wanted shut down by way of exposing brewster/ jennings..and and he wanted Valerie Plame's investigations stopped..i really think this is where this is heading..and i pray Fitgerald has that in his eyesight..but Sibel is key to this as well ...

this is a tangled web they weaved!! but that also leaves open a web that people make mistakes..and forget to cya..in every step..i hope Fitgerald is up to the task and has all these avenues open to investigate!!

fly

[flyarm]

44. ohhhhh and......... great job U.L.!!!!! you are

the best at putting all this into proper perspective and too dang bad we don't have journalism in this country anymore...you have done all the work for them...and yet the silence is deafening from these so called media who call themselves journalists!!!

I exclude the alternative media from that statement...they are doing the job..but they can not get to the audience the majors do..this past weekend i went to a dem meeting in my small summer hometown 2 congress people there and i spoke with between 30-40 of the Dem's there and asked who of them had heard of PNAC..sad to say..not one of them had heard of it...not one!!

fly

[understandinglife]

50. Thank you and please see comment # 49.

Onward.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

52. Something to share with those Dems whom you met the other evening ...

.... and as many others, as possible:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4525026&mesg_id=4527169


Peace.

[cascadiance]

45. You're damn right! Sibel needs to be heard!

I'm still trying my damndest to get her word out... Calling my congressman (Duke Cunningham) is probably worthless, but many others could help with this by calling theirs that aren't lame duck crooks that are also hopefully not a part of the problem.

Hoping to expand store to include real postage stamps for Sibel for mass mailings to help at:

http://www.cafepress.com/sibel



But Stamps.com is trying to do their damndest to avoid having their stamp service (that Cafepress.com is partnering with) be used for any kind political messages. Check their usage restrictions now on Cafepress.com's web site:

Content Restrictions from http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/postage.aspx

Profanity
Political figures, political controversial or derogatory images/statements/text
Images that are racist or hate-oriented
Corporate or non-profit trademarks, logos or product placements
Sexually explicit or violent images
Celebrities, political or public figures
Illegible text
Foreign language - almost always rejected unless someone can decipher and doesn't break guideline
Drugs, alcohol or tobacco
Call-to-action statements/text
Copyrighted, third party-designed images without contractual permission
Advertisements or URLS
Currency, bonds or financial images
Bar codes
Foreign flags
Weapons
Copyright symbols, logos
Porn, nudity, or sexually suggestive images
Religion
Symbols that you don't know the meaning of
Unlicensed vintage photos or artwork

They really don't want political statements in postage stamps it would appear. I'm going to try and call them to see if I can persuade them that this is something that I've got her permission to put out, and to see if I have permission from both her and the photographer/owner of the photo to be able to make a stamp. But it seems like the "Call-to-action statements" and "URLS" restrictions really limit one. I'm tempted to just put an email address (which technically isn't an URL, but which would send back info if one sent an email to it. Then the question is what is a "Call-to-Action" statement. Perhaps something like:

(photo or drawing of Sibel if we can get it allowed)
Sibel Edmonds
Patriot who's "Just a Citizen"
[e-mail]

or some variant could be done to work around these restrictions. I'd really like to see some mass snail mailings that are going out from organizations on Robert's nomination to the supreme court go out with this postage at the top to help both recipients aware of the stakes of who gets nominated to the SC, and also look up her info and her need to be heard by them. Any other ideas?

If Sibel herself wanted to create her own photo stamp with her picture on it, if one used these restrictions literally she wouldn't be able to do so. That seems discriminatory, does it not?

[Just Me]

48. .

[MadeinOhio]

46. Able Danger is the sticky Pandora's Box

Trying to lay it on Clinton's feet will become a mess that shows the Bush people responsible and in 2001 closing down the investigation through the pentagon. What a cesspool.

[mod mom]

47. kick. Thanks UL.

[sattahipdeep]

51. See No Evil

At the end of the Preface of long-time Middle East CIA agent Robert Baer's 2002 book, SEE
NO EVIL, one finds the following: "The other day a reporter friend told me that one of the
highest-ranking CIA officials had said to him, off the record, that when the dust finally
clears, Americans will see that September 11 was a triumph for the intelligence community,
not a failure."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=L.%2020050827&articleId=868


Speak No Evil

The demise of the CIA
By Melvin A. Goodman
Originally published August 31, 2005

It is ironic that the CIA's inept and corrupt handling of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraqi invasion
has led to the agency's demise, because intelligence counted for very little in the decision to go to
war. The sham case for the invasion was based on the hate and hysteria that followed 9/11. Before
the war, British intelligence correctly told Prime Minister Tony Blair that U.S. "intelligence and
policy were being fixed around the policy." The fact that CIA Director George J. Tenet thought that
such fixes would be a "slam dunk" helped to create the greatest intelligence scandal in U.S. history.

Recent intelligence "reforms" have made matters worse. The creation of a director of national
intelligence will reduce the redundancy and competition in intelligence analysis and will do nothing to
weaken the power of the Pentagon, which controls more than 85 percent of the budget, personnel
and collection requirements of the intelligence community.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.cia31aug31,1,5472994.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines