After the maverick Republican Curt Weldon who is Vice-chairman of two important committees, Homeland Security and Armed Services, made his unbelievable remarks yesterday about the government knowing about the Atta terrorist cell WAAAAYYY before 9/11, the 9/11 commission members are scrambling to cover their asses.
Here's what some commission members said in this NY Times article:
"If this is true, somebody should be looking into it," said Thomas H. Kean, the commission chairman and a former Republican governor of New Jersey.
Intelligence sharing problems within the 9/11 commission..hmmm... and their problems with "recalling" intelligence briefings...hmmm...:
"None of them recalls mention of the name Atta," he [Kean] said. "I think if that had been mentioned, it would have been on the tips of their tongue."
Riiight. Remember they couldn't point fingers, thanks to how Bush approved of the 9/11 commission structure. Now they can't "recall" if they came across incriminating evidence of government negligence.
So off they go on their CYA mission. Today the 9/11 commission members..
..called on Congress to determine whether the Pentagon withheld intelligence information showing that a secret American military unit had identified Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers as potential threats more than a year before the attacks.
Four in 9/11 Plot Are Called Tied to Qaeda in '00 (August 9, 2005) The former commission members said the information, if true, could rewrite an important chapter of the history of the intelligence failures before Sept. 11, 2001.
"I think this is a big deal," said John F. Lehman, a Republican member of the commission who was Navy secretary in the Reagan administration. "The issue is whether there was in fact surveillance before 9/11 of Atta and, if so, why weren't we told about it? Who made the decision not to brief the commission's staff or the commissioners?"
Uh yeah. I wonder if they "recalled" being appalled when briefed by this whistleblower, who is still unnamed but who is speaking to the press on condition of anonymity. I wonder if the Bush crony installed in the 9/11 commission will "recall" this briefing:
The former intelligence official said he was among a group that briefed the former staff director of the Sept. 11 panel, Philip D. Zelikow, and at least three other staff members about Able Danger when the staff members visited the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in October 2003. The official said that he had explicitly mentioned Mr. Atta in the briefing as a member of the American terrorist cell.
Don't hold your breath America about any "recall."