Best to be Cautious
Here is the text of the 9/11 Commission's statement. And note that Jim Geraghty at National Review sounds a note of caution.
I tend to be agree that it's time for Congressman Weldon to put his cards on the table and allow his source to come forward and tell what he knows (and recalls) in detail.
That being said, it still isn't clear to me why the Commission denied meetings that had, in fact, occurred.
We'll follow this matter and keep you posted. Whatever the truth is -- whether the Commission has grievously erred or Congressman Weldon has -- we deserve the truth.
I tend to be agree that it's time for Congressman Weldon to put his cards on the table and allow his source to come forward and tell what he knows (and recalls) in detail.
That being said, it still isn't clear to me why the Commission denied meetings that had, in fact, occurred.
We'll follow this matter and keep you posted. Whatever the truth is -- whether the Commission has grievously erred or Congressman Weldon has -- we deserve the truth.
posted by Carol Platt Liebau at 2:43 PM
2 Comments:
Carol -
Weldon needs to get his stories straight. He seems to have a few loose ends...let alone screws.
According to Time
In a particularly dramatic scene in Weldon’s book, Countdown to Terror, the Pennsylvania Republican described personally handing to then-Deputy National Security Adviser Steve Hadley, just after Sept. 11, an Able Danger chart produced in 1999 identifying Atta. But Weldon told TIME he’s no longer certain Atta’s name was on that original document. The congressman says he handed Hadley his only copy. Still, last week he referred reporters to a recently reconstructed version of the chart in his office where, among dozens of names and photos of terrorists from around the world, there was a color mug shot of Mohammad Atta, circled in black marker.
Pentagon officials are playing down any controversy. They say they can find nothing produced by the Able Danger program, which involved fewer than half a dozen intelligence analysts, mentioning Atta’s name.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1093694,00.html
Carol,
Following up on cookie jill's point; Eric Umansky has an interview with Rep. Curt Weldon posted on his blog.
The basic summary of Rep. Weldon's latest version is that sometime after 9/11 he was given a chart, but he doesn't really remember what was on it. Rep. Weldon passed his only copy of the vaguely remembered chart on to President Clinton's deputy national security officer. Three year's later when Rep. Weldon is writing a book he asks his original sources for a copy of the chart. They also don't have a copy. Fortunately (for Rep. Weldon's publisher if no one else) the original sources claim that Mohammed Atta would have been on the chart if they had one, which they don't.
Let's pretend that we think Rep. Weldon might be telling the truth. Doesn't it strike you as odd that he wouldn't remember Mohammed Atta's name on the chart? Especially given that Atta was far and away the most publicized terrorist of the group.
So, Carol, from the evidence we have to date, your "biggest story of the summer" seems more like a farce than a tragedy. On this you wasted hours on the Hugh Hewitt show and multiple entries in your blog. Wow, color me impressed.
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