20
Oct
Weldon on the Warpath
Representative Curt Weldon, Republican from Pennsylvania, has declared war on his own Defense Department. Upset with the Defense Intelligence Agency over its continuing refusal to allow public scrutiny of the controversial Able Danger ‘information warfare’ program (which identified Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers a year before the World Trade Center attacks,) as well as transparent DIA attempts to smear whistleblower Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, Weldon is calling for a full “felony investigation” of DIA’s actions by the Defense Department Inspector General.
As first reported here (10/10/05 ) DIA recently returned several boxes of “personal items” to Lt. Col Shaffer, who is employed by DIA as an analyst. Although Shaffer’s security clearance was recently revoked by DIA (on spurious grounds,) the boxes included classified documents marked ‘Secret No Foreigners,’ which Weldon says contain details of ongoing intelligence operations undertaken by both DIA and the Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
”This is a series of felonies,” Weldon told me. “It’s also further evidence of stupidity, incompetence and gross ignorance” on the part of DIA officials.
Weldon also called for a “federal theft investigation of DIA” because other items mistakenly sent to Shaffer, valued in excess of $500, are actually government property. “This illegal transfer of public property represents a fraud upon the taxpayers,” according to Weldon.
Weldon accused DIA representative William Huntington of misleading members of the House Armed Services Committee on September 8 about the supposed destruction of personal documents belonging to Lt. Col Shaffer. “He lied about it,” Weldon said. “Huntington said they had none — and then they sent them back to Shaffer!”
Weldon also characterized the Defense Department in general and the DIA in particular as “a bureaucracy out of control,” and criticized DIA for revoking Shaffer’s clearance, gagging him and other Able Danger analysts from speaking publicly about the program, and attempting to destroy Shaffer¹s reputation.
”This is worse than any gulag in Russia,” Weldon said. “This is something I would expect from Kim Jong-Il in North Korea. This is not America!
”Lt Col Shaffer has done nothing wrong,” he added. “This is a massive DIA effort to cover its ass because agency officials are embarrassed that a special unit of SOCOM came up with crucial information and DIA did not. DIA needs to be taken to task, not Lt. Col Shaffer.”
Weldon also revealed that he has yet to receive an answer to a letter he sent to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on October 7th, alleging that DIA officials, “in the course of contending with the Able Danger inquiry, have engaged in behavior that is at best questionable, and perhaps better described as dishonorable.”
Telling Rumsfeld, “You know as well as I that inside the Beltway, there is a time-honored tradition of smearing the accuser rather than answering the charge,” Weldon went on to detail how DIA has “attempted to undermine his reputation through the tired old techniques of personal destruction.” He then sent a blast across Rumsfeld’s bow: “If this treatment is supposed to be a warning to future whistleblowers that the costs of speaking out are too high, then the United States Congress will be forced to reply with a stern warning of its own.”
Weldon concluded his unanswered letter to Rumsfeld by wondering if “ulterior motives” are behind the DOD decision not to allow Shaffer and other analysts to brief Members of Congress about Able Danger, and he posited that Congress “will not allow this brave man to be gagged” by what Weldon calls nameless bureaucrats. “While it may be uncomfortable for some who operate out of public view to have the light of day shone upon them, the truth will inevitably be told. The only choice for the like of you and I is to decide which side we will be remembered to have been on when the history of these events is ultimately written.”
I asked Weldon if he was at all concerned about going after high Defense officials from his own party in such a public way.
”Am I concerned about retribution? Absolutely!” he replied. “But this is larger than the party…this is about 3000 dead people, the worst terror attack ever on U.S. soil. And, as (former FBI director Louis Freeh) told Tim Russert on Meet the Press last week, Able Danger is ”the kind of tactical intelligence that would make a difference in stopping a hijacking.” So why can’t Congress and the American people hear about it? Ultimately, the buck stops with Rumsfeld.”
the remarks by representative Curt Weldon prove that slowly but surely, Republicans as well as Democrats are realizing that this administration will smear anyone that gets in its way.
October 20th, 2005 at 4:48 pmVongratulations, Congressman Curt Weldon. I saw you on CNN. I am so glad that you have finally awakened to what is really going on in America. perhaps, you wouldf like to join a few YahooGroups.com; example Diehard Dems@yahoogroups.com, or Democracy Depot@yahoogroups. There are hundreds of us who saw ther light along time ago.. You would be most welcomed. If you would like to receice our emails, simply send us your email so we can send you uptodate news, some from all over the world, not Fox and some of the others who sold out and report only what the neo-cons want.
Good Luck, and watch your back.
October 21st, 2005 at 12:30 amI applaud Representative Weldon on his passion and conviction. Am I too optimistic that his actions, genuinely courageous in today’s political environs may inspire/provoke/shame some of his peers into similiar behavior?
I would be remiss in failing to point out Mr Weldon’s naivete, however. I believe that the inclusion of classified documents and gov’t property should be viewed as an escalation of the attack on Lt Col Shaffer. I have no question about a search warrant exactly naming the particular items was in the near future for Shaffer.
October 22nd, 2005 at 5:33 pmLets also figure in that eight of the cole bombers escaped and two were later reported dead in suicide bombings in Iraq. Not to mention the allegation that Yemeni president Saleh had foreknowledge of the attacks.
October 23rd, 2005 at 2:15 pmPlease follow up on what happens. I’d like to know. Something similar to this happened to my own father. After promotions from Captain to Lt Colonel on the battlefield, he was frozen to that rank for the rest of his career, even though he was Commanding Officer at his last post.
October 25th, 2005 at 3:22 pmThere is nothing new I suggest in this letter’s sick, sorry, tragic picture of totalitarians at work Those without amnesia might recall these same actions were taken illegaly against then-presidential candidate and foreign policy expert Senator John Kerry, during the late parody of a free-election (2004). His warnings about the nature and dangers of an invaded Iraq went unheeded; his every statement was derided by neo-con republicans at the highest levels, using their strangehold over imperial-presidency-worshipping media hacks as the conduit of their nonsense and slander–who then proceeded to bicth up every act they did, use Kerry’s suggestions as a priority list and then ignore other priorities he had named. at their whim… The result, as we all now know, is the Iraq impasse of 10/2005–a non-country that held a non-election leading to the adoption of a pseudo-constitution. Even if exquisitely and sincerely brought into being, any country based on this undemocratic tribalized nonsense and unconstitutional farcicality would result in the creation a theocratic and totalitarian anti-U.S. elected tyranny; one made up of volatile and hopelessly un-selfish elements; officials and citizens lacking in self-dsicipline, defined rights and any ability to interfunction with others in a secular space-time in any reasonable or successful manner. So, another brave and intelligent truth-telling officer can be added to the list of all the others vilified by the Bush administration’s imperial force of spin-meisters, postmodernist pretenders at ‘higher truth’ and paid born-again fellow-traveling slander artists and liars. What will it take before US citizens realize that such horrifying and unethical incidents as this are merely the tip of an iceberg of Washington folly, and not the whole of their danger? Your guess is as good as mine.
October 25th, 2005 at 4:24 pmI think you’re doing a very courageous job, and I totally support your investigation. Please, keep up the good work, and get the word out, make a speech on live congressional sessions that are televised. We need accountability in government, and congress. Do you have a web page to gather up support? The American people want the truth, with all the cover-ups, the Bush Administration thinks he’s a dictator.
November 10th, 2005 at 1:35 pmMy comment is in response to the comment by Robert M. Cerello, response #6. Robert states “There is nothing new … in this … picture of totalitarians at work. Then he expains how Kerry warned and was opposed and put down by the media. I believe our two options for president are two puppets on the hands of one person so to speak. Both were members of an elite secret socity the skull and bones. I aslo believe Howard Dean who was more of an outsider than Bush or Kery was truely derailed for fear of a presidential win by a person without ties to the totalitarian regime, unlike Regan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr. It is mor likely that Jimmy Carter was not being puppeted. Anyhow the media is almost exclusivey owned by a handful of people who relentlessly played a clip of Howard Dean yelling “were going to take, New York, and Maine, and Georgia” Or whatever states he was saying. He seemed very loud. Then media news hosts began saying look at this man he is going crazy he isn’t credible or things along these lines over and over again until masses of people stated believing them. This is a technique called brain washing, the repitition of lie until adopted as fact. Bush uses the tactic frequently too. If it wasn’t for an independant observer in the crowd of Dean’s speech with a camcorder we wouldn’t have known why Howard Dean was Yelling. Watching the camcorder footage we can hear that the crowd is cheering so loudly for Dean that we can hardly hear him. The reason he was so loud on the media clips was that his voice was being picked up by a directional microphone that only pics up sound directly in front of it. Question media and authority, try to think for yourself.
November 17th, 2005 at 11:51 am