The Senate Judiciary Committee had as its star witness Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), who has been key in helping to remove the shroud covering the Able Danger data-mining enterprise. During his testimony, Weldon shared some of his experiences (read his statement here) in working with the Intelligence Community, saying that in 1999 he already arrived at the conclusion that “our government had a serious problem on its hands of stove-piped intelligence agencies.” Now, he believes, the 9/11 commission suffers from a “similar information sharing problem.” Weldon said he talked with two commissioners who told him they had never been briefed on Able Danger. One of those commissioners, former Navy Secretary John Lehman, suggested that Weldon should “pursue the issue further.” Weldon says he did that very thing, offering to share “all of the leads that I recently pursued on my own, [but] in the end, I was ignored.” Weldon maintains he is not alleging “wrong-doing, conspiracy, or cover-up,” however, he says he is “bewildered by the response to Able Danger—both by the 9/11 commission and the Pentagon.”
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.