Able Danger - The Pentagon Won't Play

The Pentagon will not allow its people to testify at Wednesday's Senate hearing on Able Danger, which shrinks the still-tentative witness list:

Tentative Witness List

Hearing before the 
Senate Judiciary Committee 

on

“Able Danger and Intelligence Information Sharing”

Wednesday, September 14, 2005
9:30 a.m. Senate Dirksen Building, Room 226

PANEL I

The Honorable Curt Weldon
United States Representative [R-PA, 7th District]

PANEL II

Mark Zaid, Esq.
Attorney at Law
Washington, DC

Erik Kleinsmith
former Army Major and 
Chief of Intelligence of the Land Infomration Warfare Analysis LIWA
Project Manager for Intelligence Analytical Training
Lockheed Martin
Newington, VA

PANEL III

Gary Bald
Executive Assistant Director
Counter Terrorism/Counter Intelligence
Federal Bureau of Investigation
United States Department of Justice
Washington, DC

William Dugan
Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight
United States Department of Defense
Washington, DC

            
Curt Weldon is the Congressman who has been leading this charge; not everyone scores his credibility at 100%.

Mark Zaid is the attorney for several of the Able Danger team members.  Presumably, he will pass on hearsay about what they knew, or perhaps describe their whistle-blower status.

Erik Kleinsmith worked in military intelligence, but in what capacity?  E-mail him here and ask him yourself!

Gary Bald is familiar with Joint Terrorism Task Forces.

William Dugan is an internet cipher but from the Times story we pick up this:

Mr. Whitman, the Pentagon spokesman, said that in place of members of the Able Danger team, a senior defense official would be sent to the Wednesday hearing to discuss "what the law and policies are on domestic surveillance and to provide some insights about information-sharing between agencies."

The witness list that was being discussed by Rep. Weldon seems to have gone by the boards.  The UPI has more on the Pentagon shut-down:

Mark Zaid, an attorney for Army Reserve Col. Tony Shaffer, said his client, a Defense Intelligence Agency liaison to the Able Danger team, was told in a letter not to testify.

The letter, which gave no reason for the order, was signed by the principal deputy general counsel for the Defense Intelligence Agency, Robert Berry.

Mr. Zaid said the team members "were told verbally that they would not be allowed to testify" and that the order was put in writing only with regard to his client at his request.

He said that the team leader, Navy Capt. Scott Philpott, civilian analyst James Smith and other members of the team had been denied permission to testify. A Judiciary Committee aide said panel staff members already have interviewed Capt. Philpott and Col. Shaffer.

Since this is a Judiciary Committee hearing, I had imagined that Specter's hook into an oversight role was the issue of intelligence sharing between the military and the FBI.  My hope was that Specter would produce a witness who could explain the details of the meetings allegedly scheduled between the Able Danger team and the FBI - were the meetings actually scheduled, and what legal area shut them down?  Defense Dept. lawyers, or lawyers at OIPR would be the obvious candidates, and the Pentagon seemed to rule out Defense Dept lawyers.

It is possible that William Dugan is my man.  Time will tell.

Comments

[kim]

Sniff.
======

[kim]

They just damn well better have this discussion in an open forum. It's only Privacy vs Public Order and we're entitled to talk and hear about it.

What makes them think this discussion can be private? Only if we're already slaves.
================================================

[kim]

Where is the law allowing them to ignore Congressional subpoena? People have gone to jail for Contempt of Congress.
==========================================

[BurbankErnie]

You thought the 9/11 Commission coverup was disgusting?
How about a Hearing with no witnesses. No questions asked. Literally.

Just a spokesman hand picked by Lawyers hand picked by Rummy hand picked by Bush.

Mac at Macsmind got it right. Summer is over. So is Sheehan. So is Plame. So is Able Danger.

[JayDee]

Who's hiding what?

From Shaffer on the Jerry Doyle Show:

Doyle: Well, when you say DoD, where's this coming from at DoD? Is this instructions to DoD from higher ups? Is this people in DoD who are afraid of what information gets out? I mean who is the person who's making this happen?

Shaffer: What I will tell you is I was told by 2 DoD officials today directly that it is their understanding that the Secretary of Defense directed that we not testify tomorrow. That is my understanding....

Each individual within the group had their own horror story at how we attempted to say, look this is pretty important stuff, global terrorism, you know these guys have killed Americans we should continue this. And we were told to a man and woman, no, sit down, shut up, move on, it's time to forget about it. And this all happened in the spring of 2001 right before the attacks. So I can't tell you what the philosophy was, I can't tell you who actually was behind it, I can just tell you that obviously my observations, the fact that it happened, the fact that we had Atta, we had other information which we tried to pass to the FBI. Plus, Jerry, I don't know if your listeners are aware, Captain Philpott actually told the 9-11 Commission about the fact that Able Danger discovered information regarding the Cole attack. The USS Cole which was attacked in October of 2000. There was information that was Able Danger found that related to Al Qaeda planning an attack. That information unfortunately didn't get anywhere either. So that is another clue that was given to the 9-11 Commission to say, hey, this capability did some stuff, and they chose not to even look at that.

I hear tin foil hats are going to be the hot fall fashion item.

[susan]

I am wondering who from the prior adminstration hid in a Trojan Horse during the incoming adminstration and helped to dissolve Able Danger in the early spring of 2001?

When in a time of war,I can understand why the current adminstration would want to prevent exposing information that the prior adminstration was secretly spying on American citizens. Such exposure would certainly influence public paranoia towards such action whereby making it more difficult to trace Islamic Jihadists. American's are paranoid enough about the Patriot Act, exposing secret data mining operations established during the prior adminstation under the public's radar would create more paranoia that is necessary. United we Stand, Divided we Fall.

We do know that 2001 was the longest transistion period for any incoming adminstration and that George Tenent, Joe Wilson, Richard Clarke (all members of the prior adminstration and heavily involved in National Security) remained to aid the incoming adminstration. What a convenient coincidence. I find it odd that Joe Wilson and Richard Clarke were the first to scream 'bushlied' while George Tenent remained mute.

[Nolan]

I am wondering who from the prior adminstration hid in a Trojan Horse during the incoming adminstration and helped to dissolve Able Danger in the early spring of 2001?

Yes, and why is that Clintonite, Donald Rumsfeld, insisting they be protected?

[susan]

"Yes, and why is that Clintonte, Donald Rumsfeld, insisting they be protected?"

Maybe because DoD's 'attorneys' (many of whom in our PC world likely come from the National Lawyers Guild) forced him to protect the guilty?

[Syl]

I'm of two minds about this.

One wants to know who, what, why, where, when and the implications of it all for security and for privacy.

The other doesn't want to know a thing. Program cancelled never-to-be-heard-from-again is okay by me. I've never been the paranoid type, this would change all that. I'd rather be left in the dark.

Then there's the third mind that is referee between the other two minds.

And the fourth one who is content to sit back and watch it unfold, or not.

[kim]

I think it is just as likely that the incoming administration shut it down in outrage as the outgoing did from a guilty conscience. I'm also lining my tinfoil hat with depleted uranium, because I'm VERY dubious that datamining is not happening. I think the dataminers are covering their tracks better.

The fact that the current administration seems to prefer quiet about this leads me to the conclusion that they are dismayed that they shut it(the other guy's operation) down, without checking out the findings a little better. Can't you see them recoiling in disgust at the thought of tainted datamining from the ugh Dems.

The problem is, the cat is out of the bag. There must be a public debate on privacy vs public order for the 21st Century. The tools have changed, the rules have changed.
===========================================

[TM]

Taciturn is very good on this. My current offical editorial position is in his comments (suitably caveated, I hope....)

[kim]

d, and I'm angry.
=================

[kim]

If you never hear from me again, the datamine went off, and there's fire from the banks.
=================================================

[kim]

This must be an open conversation about privacy vs public order or Rummy and Co. will be giving it away in '08, not to mention that much of current datamining technique probably can learn more than most of us would care to have known.

And what makes anyone think that a valuable and useful tool like this has been thrown away? If it was too much of a hot potatoe for some, cooler hands may have taken over.
===============================================

[Syl]

Do I detect some hysteria here?

[kim]

I'm just angry that I predicted a week ago that these hearings would blow up.
=============================

[vch]

archivio livecam
arcuri tette
arena di verona
aria giovanni lesbo
arnaldo vacca
arrapata davanti allo specchio
arrapate collant
arrapate nonne
arrapate vecchie
arrapato
arrivando dalla festa
art geisha
arte erotica graca
articoli erotici
artificiali
arturo cazzo duro anziano
ascot upskirt
ashley judd nude
asian bdsm
asian latex
asiatica lesbica
asiatiche amore in ufficio
asiatiche anale fotti
asiatiche anale gratis
asiatiche ass to mouth a letto
asiatiche azione a letto
asiatiche azione in pace
asiatiche azione sul yacht
asiatiche cagano
asiatiche cielo
asiatiche con grossi seni
asiatiche dildo in stagno
asiatiche dildo nella residenza
asiatiche diteggiatura in ufficio