Dear Friends, Colleagues And CitizensWatch Members...

Dear friends, colleagues and Citizenswatch members,

[Please forward and post widely -- Watch Rep. Weldon's press conference at C-SPAN.org -- Call C-SPAN and urge them to air it prime time on C-SPAN1 - see contact details below.]

The Able Danger scandal and cover-up is mushrooming into a cloud that now looms over the 9/11 Commission, the DoD, and the DIA. Rep. Curt Weldon said, "to me this is the most important story of my lifetime." He talked about friends he lost on September 11th. He raged and attacked the 9/11 Commission for omitting Able Danger. The day before yesterday's press conference he accused former Commission Vice-Chair Hamilton of lying to protect the Bush administration as reported by Govexec.com; that's right, the Bush Administration. 9/11 has truly turned the world upside down. Hopefully, the mainstream press will catch up and recognize how big a story this is and how serious the charges are. Once eyes turn back to 9/11 and the integrity of the Commission is seriously, rightly and broadly questioned, there will be many other still unanswered questions raised about the attacks and the flawed findings of the 9/11 Report and calls for further investigation. As Joe Wilson pointed out to the Washington Post not long after his famous op-ed exposing the Yellowcake farce, "if they lied to us about this, what else are they lying to us about?"

Currently there are two committees in the Senate and four in the House investigating Able Danger and as of yesterday the Inspector general at the Pentagon is investigating as well. But still the key witnesses are effectively gagged by the DoD. In response, Rep. Weldon has initiated a petition yesterday already signed by over 100 of his colleagues calling upon the DoD to permit testimony of Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, Captain Scott Phillpott, and the other witnesses.

Weldon leveled allegations against former 9/11 staffer Dietrich Snell who interviewed the Able Danger team leader Phillpott tens days before the release of the 9/11 Report and who heard from Phillpott that indeed they had identified Atta. Given that Snell is now at NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office in NYC there is a new opportunity to demand Spitzer dispell any questions of conflict of interest and act upon the extensive 9/11 Complaint brought by families and victims filed with his office last Fall. [See http://www.justicefor911.org]. [Perhaps someone should sue the Commissioners for fraud for starters.] In response to Phillpott's putting his career on the line with his private testimony regarding Atta and the obstructions they encountered in getting this to the FBI, Snell asked Phillpott, "What do you want to do with this information, we are going to print in 10 days?" Well, we know that neither Roemer (a dem) nor Lehman (a Republican) were briefed and neither the Report nor the post report 'monographs' made any mention of Able Danger.

Please call your representatives in Congress (see number below) and ask them to sign Rep. Weldon's petition so that the American people can hear the truth from those that identified Atta, Al-Sheehi, Al-Hazmi, and Al-Mihdhar a full year before the atttacks and who experienced repeated obstructions in trying to bring this information forward to the FBI and who can speak to who ignored this intelligence and tried to bury it, repeatedly.

Below are a few select quotes from Rep. Weldon's press conference yesterday followed by snippets from today's articles on the subject as well as a transcript of his appearance on Lou Dobbs.

Thank you for your concern and dedication to finding the truth. It is never too late to set the record straight and hold those responsible to account.

Kyle F. Hence
9/11 CitizensWatch
For extensive resources and articles on Able Danger visit:
http://www.911citizenswatch.org

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There is a cover-up here. It is clear. It is unequivocal.
I have no other recourse but to ask for a criminal investigation.
The 9/11 Commission refers to Able Danger as historically insignificant.
It is my contention that there was a deliberate attempt to not have this story told to the American people.

There is no mention of Able Danger in the entire 9/11 Commission Report.
There's been nothing but denial and spin since the story broke in the first week of August. Denial and Spin.

You know Richard Nixon had to resign from office because he tried to cover up a third-rate burglary. No one was injured. No money was stolen. No one was killed. Here we have a cover-up of the single largest incident in the history of our nation...[might be missing rest of this quote?]

This story is about intimidation, it's about harassment, it's about ruining the career of a professional military officer. It's about denying the American people the basic facts of what happened to 3000 human beings and 17 sailors. It is unacceptable. It's outrageous. It's un-American. It's undemocratic, it's not what our country stands for.

The 9/11 Commission missed the boat. They flubbed it. They have no credibility on this issue whatsoever.
It's only a matter of time before this story is going to come out.
I can't believe the mainstream media turns its head and does nothing to investigate this.

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While it is still posted online at C-SPAN please take the time to Rep. Weldon's press conference yesterday and send C-SPAN a polite note asking give the press conference an appropriate prime time billing on C-SPAN1 -- remind them we are talking a cover-up of an operation that could easily have foiled the worst terrorist attack and mass murder on U.S. soil in U.S. history :

Rep. Kurt Weldon (R-PA) on Able Danger Investigation
rtsp://video.c-span.org/15days/e110905_weldon.rm'
Representative Curt Weldon (R-PA) talks about the Able Danger investigation.
11/9/2005: WASHINGTON, DC: 47 min.

viewer@c-span.org
Main Number: (202) 737-3220
tmurphy@c-span.org
Terry Murphy, VP of Programming

Capitol Hill Switchboard: 202-224-3121

New Skirmish in War Over 9/11 Information
Congressman challenges Department of Defense
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=O'20051110&arti cleId=1224
By Rory O'Connor -- November 10, 2005

Representative Curt Weldon, Republican from Pennsylvania, has just fired another salvo in his ongoing battle against the Defense Department over the Able Danger ?information warfare? program. According to at least five DOD employees, the controversial data-mining project, which ended in 2000, identified Mohamed Atta and other 9/11 hijackers a year before the worst terror attacks ever on US soil.

Weldon believes that the 9/11 Commission?s work investigating the attacks has proven ?to be a disappointment and a failure, especially as it pertains to Able Danger.? Possible explanations for this failure, says Weldon, include ?gross incompetence either on the part of the Commissioners or the Commission staff, or both,? or more alarmingly, ?a deliberate cover-up that would make the Watergate scandal pale in comparison.?
[snip]

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Pentagon probes treatment of 'Able Danger' officer
Reuters -- Wed Nov 9, 2005 7:32 PM ET
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/print.php?sid=717
By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon inspector general is investigating the Defense Intelligence Agency's treatment of an Army colonel who was the first to claim publicly that the government knew about four September 11 hijackers long before the 2001 attacks, officials said on Wednesday.

Among the issues under review is whether the DIA revoked the security clearance of Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer last September in retaliation for repeated comments he made in the media about a military intelligence team code-named Able Danger, sources familiar with the case said.
[snip]

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Rep. Curt Weldon on Lou Dobbs (CNN)
http://curtweldon.house.gov/News/Doc...cumentID=36857

DOBBS: New charges tonight. Charges of a massive cover-up by members of our defense intelligence community. Congressman Curt Weldon today called for a criminal investigation into what he says, is the most important story of our lifetime.

Weldon says the army's intelligence unit known as Able Danger, identified the ringleaders of the 9/11 attacks more than a year before September 11, but those warnings were ignored by the Pentagon.

Weldon says the defense intelligence agency is now trying to smear the reputation of Able Danger member Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, for speaking out about the scandal.

In addition to identifying the ringleaders of the 9/11 attacks, Congressman Weldon says Able Danger warned defense officials about terrorist activity in the Port of Aden in Yemen, two weeks before that bombing of the U.S. the bombs of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000.

He also blasted the 9/11 Commission, calling them a disappointment and a failure for not including that information about Able Danger in its final report.

I talked with 9/11 commission member and former senator Slade Gorton three weeks ago. And I ask him why Able Danger was omitted from the commission's report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SLADE GORTON, FORMER 9/11 COMMISSIONER: Well, Able Danger worked out very interesting. It didn't identify Mohammed Atta a year beforehand. Unfortunately, no one identified Mohammed Atta beforehand. Able Danger was simply irrelevant to our report and still is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOBBS: Congressman Weldon now joining me from Washington, in an exclusive interview.

Congressman, it is good to see you. Simply irrelevant how Slade Gorton describes Able Danger, what's your reaction?

REP. CURT WELDON (R), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Unbelievable. Slade Gorton has never talked to any principle involved with Able Danger. And how he can go off and profess to know something about something that he's never talked to anyone about, is beyond me.

Slade Gorton is into what the 9/11 commission is doing, Lou. It's called c, y, a. Cover their butts, pretend it didn't happen.

How can you say something is historically insignificant that Louis Freeh just two weeks ago on national TV said Able Danger information was the kind of intelligence that could have prevented the hijackings.

That's Louis Freeh saying that two weeks ago. Able Danger was briefed to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in January of 2001. How could you call that historically insignificant?

Lou, this is a cover-up. 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.

DOBBS: Congressman, you are calling for a criminal investigation. Obviously, you're not going to receive a great deal of cooperation from the leadership, the Republican leadership in the House or the Senate.

You're a Republican, what kind of reaction are you getting as you go one on one with your fellow Congressman?

WELDON: Lou, the members of Congress want the facts to come out, both parties. I did a briefing this afternoon for members of Congress, we had dozens of their members and their staff show up.

And just within two hours Lou, today, I got 100 signatures. One hundred signatures from Republicans and Democrats across the country. Liberals and conservatives to Secretary Rumsfeld demanding that we allow these Able Danger military officers to testify in an open hearing.

The American people need to know the facts. They need to know the truth. Three thousand people were killed, 17 sailors were killed in the U.S.S Cole. The 9/11 commission did not do its job. It's time to get the facts out to the American people.

DOBBS: Let me quote Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Congressman. When asked about Able Danger, Donald Rumsfeld said, quote, it's such an interesting story. Of course, it's something that occurred well before this administration came in. Back in the '90s, as I understand it, and it's an interesting story.

What's your response?

WELDON: Well, Donald Rumsfeld would not have been given the detailed information about Able Danger because it ended at the end of 2000, before he came into office.

However, Lou, we have to understand. There were people within the Pentagon who stayed in place from the 1999/2000 period into 2001. In fact, they're still there today. They have a vested interest in not having the story be told because some of them are going to be embarrassed because the American people will see we failed them in 1999 and 2000.

We failed them in 2001. We had information we should have acted upon. It was denied from being transferred to the FBI and as Louis Freeh said just two weeks ago, could have allowed us to stop the hijackings from having ever occurred.

DOBBS: Louis Freeh, the former FBI director. At this point, Congressman, where does the investigation go from here? The people that are most critical to establishing what the unit, Able Danger knew, and was capable of disseminating, relevant to 9/11, have been gagged by the Pentagon and cannot speak. What do you do now?

WELDON: Well, we have a DOD, inspector general investigation that actually commenced today. I met for an hour and a half with four of their top leaders. They were requested by three separate members of Congress, one senator and two House members.

They have commenced an internal investigation of the Defense Intelligence Agency. In addition to that, I talked to the head of the General Accounting Office and I have asked him to look at a criminal investigation of what happened, and a deliberate attempt to cover-up information.

The person who debriefed Scott Philpott, Lou, was a guy named Dieter Snell. Dieter Snell worked for Jamie Gorelick. 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. I can't answer that question. An investigation needs to take place.

DOBBS: And Scott Philpott, of course, one of those who has been gagged by the Pentagon in this case. Congressman Curt Weldon, we thank you very much.

WELDON: My pleasure, Lou.