Well! Per AJ Strata and the Able Danger Blog, looks like Curt Weldon is going to get some hearings in January.
Per The Hill:
"Rep. Curt Weldon’s (R-Pa.) months-long crusade is starting to pay off.
The Pentagon, after weeks of silence, will allow participants in an intelligence cell that a year before the Sept. 11 attacks may have identified some of the ringleaders to testify before Congress. Their testimony could shed light on information that the Sept. 11 commission did not include in its report.
The Pentagon’s decision came in response to a letter Weldon sent to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld requesting that the Pentagon allow the participants in the cell, known as Able Danger, to testify in open congressional hearings.
More than half of the House members signed Weldon’s letter, among them members of the GOP leadership such as Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.); Peter King (R-N.Y.), who chairs the Homeland Security Committee; Tom Davis (R-Va.), chairman of the Government Reform Committee; and Don Young (R-Alaska), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
In a Dec. 13 letter to Weldon, Gordon England, the acting deputy secretary of defense, said that the Department of Defense has been “consistent in its position to cooperate fully with appropriate committees of the Congress on the issue of Able Danger.”
In the letter obtained by The Hill, Gordon said that it is the department’s understanding that the Armed Services and Judiciary committees are satisfied with the Pentagon’s previous briefings on the topic and that the leadership of those committees “declined to have hearings.”
Nevertheless Gordon, replying at the behest of Rumsfeld, said that the Pentagon remains committed to supporting a further review of the Able Danger issue and “will accordingly be pleased to participate in any resultant hearings requested.”
About time.....so, like why am I still got this skeptism?
Next paragraph please:
"Even though Weldon asked for open hearings on Able Danger, Pentagon officials are reluctant to agree to that suggestion.
"In our judgment, a closed hearing is preferable to better assure that classified information will not be inadvertently released, but we will work with the committees to arrive at an approach that is acceptable," Gordon wrote.
(Buzzer Sound....)
Made a call...
Hmmm, seems not as "open" as first believed. Word I got, their still negotiating, but look for a combination of closed door/open door and disposition only testimony, with pre- "submitted questions" - which will have to be pre-screened for classification.
Whooboy...
Still, I am pleased, as this is a beginning at least. Yet, (smacking my skepticism), there's still something missing from this news. Point blank. There still isn't a chart, and with the purges no real evidence. Testimony - although impressive - will only fuel speculation and blame-gaming which may spoil the process faster than wet toast on a summer day.
We'll see.
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