Washingtonspeak

Congressman Curt Weldon, the Republican number two on the House Armed Services Committee, brought his "heated months long crusade" (so described by The Hill) to a climactic public hearing. Weldon has been pursuing the accusation that a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) "cell" (?) identified September 11 ringleader Mohammad Atta more than a year before the attacks, and that other government agencies failed to act on their warnings. Weldon further accuses the Pentagon of trying to cover up the story.

Among the more inflamatory items in the hearings: according to the testimony of supposed whistleblower Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, DIA admitted destroying relevant documents (presumably in a closed congressional hearing); according to Congressman Weldon's chief of staff Russ Caso, the 9/11 commission was aware of but made no mention of "Able Danger" (the DIA project said to have identified Atta as a threat early) because "It did not fit with the story we wanted to tell".

But my favorite part of this whole thing is the response by Stephan Cambone, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, to Weldon's accusations that Defense is squashing whistleblowers (emphasis mine): "I can assure you that no one is being subject to threats that I'm aware of."