In a focused 90 minute, conference call with Congressman Curt Weldon R-Pa. his intensity of purpose is a reminder that not all Washington Politicians sway with the wind, some stand, and fight. Last night I talked with one of them and it gives me some hope, given his position as Vice Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, that our country will find its way out of the confused mess our Government Bureaucracies have placed us. Our call centered on what Congressman Weldon believes, and for what it is worth I believe, will be one of the most damaging scandals to hit our government, the dismantling and cover up of “Able Danger”. Able Danger, the operation that exposed both the brilliance of our defenders, people like General Schoomaker, General Hugh Shelton, Commander Scott Philpot and the dangerous role of bureaucratic lawyers armed with an unrealistic version of the good, for example the Wall of Jamie Gorelick, that finally, allowed 19 terrorists to perpetuate the worst terrorist attack in history.

The task of Able Danger was to expose our enemies. It succeeded in ways the originators of the program could never have imagined and in fact, that success led to the frantic dismantling of the program and even the denial of its existence when first exposed by Congressman Curt Weldon. Able Danger was the sort of program that we all believe and hope the Government has running to discover our enemies. It used innovative entrepreneurial techniques, out of the box thinking and off the shelf equipment to identify not only 4 of the September 11 hijackers including Mohammed Atta, but many other terrorists that were higher level threats than those 19. However, when you are using neural networks, open source databases, and enormous nets, you will catch some unintended targets and if those unintended targets end up being former administration officials and future potential Presidential Candidates things get bumpy quick.

William Perry former Sec. of Defense under President Clinton turned up when the Able Danger folks did a run showing links to China. Current Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice turned up in the same run. Both of those folks were undeniably innocent of any wrongdoing but imagine you are a Bureaucrat, feel the panic? You have under you a program that identifies these two folks in the same piece of paper that it identifies Chinese spies, are you brave, and hope that you can explain to the press that this sort of thing happens when the net is cast so far? Alternatively, do you kill the program as fast as you can in the hopes that you won’t even have to explain it to your superiors who will be far less thrilled than even you are? Bravery is not a trait often rewarded in the Bureaucracy. Able Danger also exposed the weakness of the Bureaucracy.

A full year or more before the 9/11 attacks Able Danger identified Mr. Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, as well as Mr. Mihdhar and Mr. Hazmi all terrorists who took part in the 9/11 Attacks. I know of no other terror attacks anywhere in the world at any time in history where more people were killed at once and targets that are more important were successfully attacked. If there is any event in US History that could have better served as a catalyst for radical change inside of a sclerotic bureaucracy it is unknown. Yet 5 years distant from that tragic day where only the incredibly brave actions of a few regular citizens saved even worse horrors from occurring in the very seat of our Government, it remains business as usual.

As if spitting on the graves of those who died that horrible day bureaucrats spend their time finding ways of making retirement instead of critically analyzing why we failed. Worse, they threaten those who do try to improve our reactions and methods with defamation, libelous slander, even physical threat to prevent the sort of reforms that might actually make a difference. Why you might ask would they spend such effort on trying to prevent improvement? Because in a Bureaucrats eyes change is threat and threat is bad. Blame is worse and worse is to be avoided at all costs. Ruining people’s lives and causing our nations security to suffer are all immediately and gladly laid at the altar of any particular bureaucrats continued successful career.

And worse, all of us, who watched in horror as our fellow citizens jumped from flames into an abyss of terror, who made promises that we would fix the problems that caused such a nightmare to be visited upon our friends, neighbors and fellow citizens have decided instead to take a bye and let someone else worry about it. After all, this weeks Celebrity Whoring is on and cannot miss that show.

Well there is no excuse. You can have an effect. You can make a difference. The idea that as a regular citizen you cannot have a voice is simply and unequivocally incorrect. I am proof of that since last night I spoke with a US Congressman, four years ago I would have declared that impossible. Here is what you need to do and no this is not going to take you forever. If need be I will put it in terms I use with my 3 year old. It’s going to take you about 4 cartoons worth of time to review and to get to a point where you understand the issue.

First educate yourself in regards to Able Danger, it is critically important that you review the testimony by Lt Col Shaffer one of the true hero’s in our war against terror. He has voluntarily ruined his military career, which has seen him briefing CIA Directors, Joint Chief of Staff Chairman’s, Army Chief’s of Staff and has also seen him serving in Afghanistan on the very front lines of our war. His is not the testimony of a bureaucrat attempting to limit the damage to a department or career but that of a patriot who is fighting to prevent any more of us from the sort of terrible deaths faced by our fellow citizens on 9/11. You can find his testimony to the House of Representatives here. Here is a in-depth interview by a journalist who is smart enough to ask the right questions.

Then review Rep Curt Weldon's speeches and interviews. Start here and then continue here then for extra credit read his book Countdown to Terror. This man is serious about security and the Vice Chair on the House Armed Services Committee meaning he knows of that which he speaks.

After you have done that you will probably want to go to AJ Strata and take about 4 more cartoons worth of time to read through his site. He has a knack for making his way through mountains of data to find the important bits that make a case worth reading about!

Don't miss out on the Able Danger Blog a collective with some of the finest minds in the blogsphere chasing this story down.

Do all of this then here is the important bit. Do not email your Representatives in Congress, everyone ignores emails, FAX them, phone them and heaven forbid sit down with pen and paper and write them. Tell them that it is imperative we get to the bottom of this story. Tell them that it is shameful that we allow bureaucrats to threaten military hero's with ruin to save their own careers. Let them know its important. Make them face down the bureaucracy. Right now we have what in other countries might qualify as a Coup D'etat by the very bureaucracies that are meant to defend us from foreign enemies. Our Representatives respond to written letters, to fax and to telephone calls, trust me on this.

Here are the bloggers who were in on the conference call!
Dana from Common Sense Political Thought
Curt from Flopping Aces
Mike of Able Danger Blog
QT MonsterRory O’Connor
Pierre from Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
Bluto from Jawa Report and The Dread Pundit Bluto

Other posts by Pierre Legrand on Able Danger and related topics
Why the Able Danger story is important and why we must insist on an investigation!
The Shame of not being "Able" to admit you are wrong
Why would President Bush's administration attempt to put the lid on ABLE DANGER.
The Right Wing Blogsphere goes wobbly
Important to remember that Atta traveled to Prague multiple times...
Why was Atta singled out as significant by ABLE DANGER
Problems with the Timeline brings the Crop Duster Anthrax coincidences back into play.
Pre War Open Source Intelligence Regarding Saddam's Threat to the United States

QT Monster's Place: Able Danger Blogger Conference Call with Curt Weldon

ABLE DANGER Curt Weldon War on Terror data mining CIA NSA

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