Just how far is Arlen willing to go?
"What will Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, discover as he looks into covert military intelligence program Able Danger, said to have discovered Mohamed Atta, by name, and his al Qaeda cell working in the U.S. before the attacks of September 11, 2001?
Here are some of the senator's likely findings, including the "who knew what... and when" part:
•Able Danger was a military intelligence activity apparently looking at open-source, and other, yet unspecified, information, including some that was "domestic" rather than foreign.
•Able Danger was very similar to -- if not the same as -- the "Total Information Awareness" or "TIA" program, the ill-fated Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) study killed off by Congress because of an avalanche of adverse publicity, much of it uninformed.
•The September 11 Commission either knew, or should have known -- or didn't and could not have known -- about Able Danger's specific activities. From public accounts so far, this seems to hinge on the response and objectivity of the commission senior staff, who were briefed on Able Danger."
The first statement is closer to the truth. As I've said before, this has all been about a "secret project" gone wild. What started as a project to spy on US Citizens under the Clinton Administration, went beyond it's intended purposes, people got to "experimenting" and made discoveries.
Able Danger: Pentagon should reveal details of pre-9/11 program
"Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld hasn't heard the last from Sen. Arlen Specter on the question of whether a highly classified intelligence program at the Pentagon identified several future hijackers more than a year before Sept. 11, 2001, yet did not inform the FBI of its findings.
Getting anything out of Rumsfeld's Pentagon that might prove embarrassing is like pulling teeth - Abu Ghraib is just one example - but Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, should do whatever is necessary in this case to force the secretary to open wide."
Well perhaps. But I think that Spector going up against the Pentagon is likened to a man with a baseball bat going up against a tank. He'd be "track meat". I'd said all along, all you have to do is talk with General Shelton and Schoomaker, under oath and specifically about the program.
That's why I said this is all so much show, because all you need is those two. Either they confirm or deny (not in circles; or in generalities, but in reality). Get them to talk you might go somewhere, until then, you're spinning your wheels.
But let's get to the gist of the Able Danger story shall we? After all, this is the question all concerned want answered: "With what Able Danger found out, could it have prevented 9/11?"
That's really the question on everyone's mind isn't it? That's the point.
The interest in the answer depends on what group one is from, for there are several groups involved. Those like Weldon who want to pin the whole deal on Clinton, and then there are those (see here), who want it to harm the present administration.
Then there are those who say, "The American people suffered the worst attack on our soil four years ago. We deserve answers about how that attack could have been prevented."
Perhaps....
But I hate to bring up Jack Nicolson's line, but, let me ask, "Can we handle the truth?" Think about it before you answer. It's important becuase the truth may just go farther than anyone could have ever imagined, or that anyone would really even want to know. Think of the Matrix and you'll get the idea.
Tracked: Mark Trapscott
Filed Under: Able Danger Curt Weldon
Subscribe by Email
Follow Updates Articles from This Blog via Email
No Comments