Former ambassador Joe Wilson may not be the White House’s worst nightmare. But Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a public-safety wireless champion, quite possibly is.
So it was last week at a House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing on information sharing that Weldon cracked it was all well and good the 9/11 Public Disclosure Project sent him a Sept. 22 letter-signed by the 9/11 Commission Co-Chairmen Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton-thanking him for support in getting analog spectrum held by TV broadcasters into the hands of first responders sooner rather than later. But Weldon really wanted to hear from Kean and Hamilton on another matter: whether there was a bungling of key pre-9/11 intelligence that could have helped disrupt the terrorist attacks and is now a cover-up by the Bush administration and the 9/11 Commission itself. At first blush, all this smacks of a far out, after-the-fact conspiracy theory that attempts to make sense of the savage, senseless tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. The Department of Defense and 9/11 Commission don’t buy Weldon’s line of inquiry.
Weldon asserts 9/11 terrorist ringleader Mohammed Atta was identified in name and photo prior to 9/11 by the “Able Danger” data analysis at the Army’s Land Information Warfare Activity and by another data-mining effort conducted by the Special Operations Command under the leadership of Gen. Peter Schoomaker.
DoD officials know all this, according to Weldon, but he said some in the Pentagon are trying to discredit military officers who worked on “Able Danger.” Weldon said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is blocking their testimony in Congress.
Weldon is no novice when it comes to technology, defense, intelligence and foreign affairs. A former volunteer firefighter, Weldon has been an outspoken proponent of public-safety communications interoperability and other wireless issues important to police, firefighters and medics. Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, believes the interoperability concept goes far beyond technical capability. He views interoperability in the context of how intelligence, defense, FBI and other government officials share and leverage information critical to national security.
Weldon is passionate-animated to the point of appearing possessed at times-about getting the truth out on “Able Danger.” He said he does not care if he offends the Bush administration (as well as former Clinton administration officials) or puts his chances at chairing the Armed Services Committee in jeopardy as a result of his quixotic quest to challenge the conventional notion that 9/11 could not have been prevented.
Last week, Weldon, frustrated with Washington’s official response to date, went public in a big way. Look for DoD, GAO and congressional investigations and possibly a criminal probe in the near future. This is definitely the type of guy you want yelling and screaming about the disgraceful lack of wireless tools first responders need to communicate with each other during emergencies.
