They Don't Call Her the Grey Lady For Nothin'

Somehow this story about a Congressman Spewing about the 9/11 commision missing Mohammed Atta in Brooklyn, is getting some attention. In fact this is no scoop, if anything the Congressman's information was displayed for all newsmakers to view way back on June 12th's Press the Meat. Did whatever investigation Jehl and Shenon perform really take this long (almost 2 months to the day) to determine wether or not Rep. Weldon was spewing on Meet the Press was acurate?

Here is the Transcript:

REP. WELDON: Well, that, again, differs with the meeting I had on January 26 in my office with two members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the governor's representative for security, the intelligence officer for New Hampshire. They, in fact, told me that the first day that they were informed of the credible threat to Seabrook was on November the 24th. That was the exact day that my informant told me that the reactor was going to be hit.

You know, Tim, this gets down to whether or not we're going to allow the CIA to be totally trusted. There are good agents in the CIA, doing great work. My book's dedicated to them. But they failed in 1992 when the highest-ranking-ever KGB defector, Vasily Mitrokhin, wanted to defect to the U.S. The CIA said, "We don't need him." His information, which was picked up by the British--he became a person who lived in Britain till his death last year--was a treasure trove of information about the Soviet KGB.

The CIA doesn't have a good record. They failed to predict 9/11. They failed to understand North Korea had a three-stage missile before it was launched in 1998. They were wrong on the National Intelligence Estimate, 95, 19, about the threat of long-range missile attack against us. And they've ignored Able Danger, the Special Forces command's secret project against al-Qaeda that ran in '99 and 2000, which CIA officials I've talked to said they weren't even aware of.

I do remember quite fondly saying WOW some tin foil hat stuff comming from the other side. However, I too am guilty of not really raising an eyebrow. I mean just listening to Michael Savage whilst stopped in Holland Tunnel traffic can give you a fair sampling of at least 20 simliar theories. Like I said, the only eyebrow I raised was the one that is stimulated by people in power spewing such theories and of course who the hell this Ali or Able Danger guy he's talking about was. Another Curveball? Perhaps Screwball? How about Sinker or Slider? There are only so many pitching refferences one could come up with.

However, if the congressman has been spewing this information out since way before the 9/11 commision was formed (according to War and Peace), an obvious question is raised:

Why the hell didn't this guy walk up to the commision and tell them "HEY this dude Able Danger had Atta in his Brooklyn sites in 1999!" Suddenly the guy who claims to be pissed off that the intelligence community is flawed at protecting us, becomes complicent himself in not wanting to fix the intelligence agencies until after loads of squabling resulted in passing legislation that some say doesn't address the problems at all.

Had Weldon blasted into the 9/11 commission hearings with his information, then perhaps an entire new post created to somehow relieve the National Security Advisor of the responsibility of reviewing intelligence on National Security (aka NID) wouldn't have to be created. As at least one able minded 9/11 family member rightly points out in today's Asbury Park Press.

Update: Suburban Guerilla knows Weldon better than any of us.