ABLE DANGER AGAIN?

Things have been quiet on the Able Danger front, but this evening I received two emails alerting me to the fact that Curt Weldon had just given a fiery speech about Able Danger on C-Span. (hat tips: Larwyn and DK in Sunnyvale).

The following points were made by Weldon by those who heard it on TV (and these are tentative until I can find the official link!):

1. Weldon has a new witness, with a sterling reputation, who claims that Able Danger data still exists.

2. Weldon stated that Wolfe Blitzer claims that the DIA told him that Lt. Col Shaffer was having an affair with someone in Weldon's office. Weldon is demanding to know who gave Blitzer that information.

3. Weldon is suggesting apparantly that the DIA is atively attempting to discredit Shaffer. Besides the above gossip that was passed to Blitzer; the DIA apparently sent Shaffer some boxes "personal" belonging gathered after his security clearance was recinded. These "belongings" included $500 of government property, including government pens (remember that Shaffer was accused of stealing government pens as a justification for his security clearance suspension) and even classified memos!

4. Weldon is demanding an investigation into all this, or he will resign from Congress.

I have not been able to find a link to Weldon's speech yet either on his own site, or elsewhere, but will post it when its available. All the information I
have was sent to me by two people who listened to the speech on C-Span.

Able Danger remains extremely interesting. In a previous post on this subject, I said:

This story is just slowly getting more and more interesting. There are powerful forces at work here trying to hold it back. From that alone we can estimate its importance.

Like Weldon, I would like to get to the bottom of these powerful forces trying to hold it back. In fact, my first "loose association" when I learned of these latest revelations, coming after I have been reviewing the CIA's (or at least a portion of that Agency) aggressive attempts since 9/11 to undermine the Bush Administration and selectively leak information to a gullible press (who will print anything that is detrimental to Bush), was how completely screwed up the priorities of our intelligence agencies seem to be.

What precisely is going on here? Someone, somewhere in the executive and/or oversight legislative branch needs to get them under some control and all working on the same page. I can live without knowing all the national security secrets that are entrusted to these people every day in the course of their work.

But, what I can't live with is being continually manipulated by the selective release of information for purposes that undermine our government and country--especially in a time of war.

Bush Derangement Syndrome may have infected some of the analysts committed to the previous administration. If that's the case, then it's well past time to clean out all those closets, I think. If it's something deeper, or even uglier-than-usual politics, then those closets need to be cleaned AND disinfected.

UPDATE: The Strata-Shpere and Michelle Malkin have lots more! For all the details, go there. Here is a UPI article on the call for a new probe.