No joke.
Conservative Republican Congressman Curt Weldon:
So, what I've had to do is to fight with both of them, both the 9-11 Commission and the [Bush] administration, who I think neither of whom wants this information to be put out to the American people. Now, what bothers me is that the bulk of the information in Able Danger acquired was open-source information; it wasn't classified. To deny these military officers, who are very dedicated, loyal Americans, to tell their story not only flies in the face of everything this country stands for, but it is also a personal attack against them. It also flies in the face of the legitimate role of Congress in oversight of the executive branch. So as Senator Grassley said yesterday, this is a lot of bigger than Curt Weldon or Able Danger: It's about Congress exercising its legitimate roll in oversight.
This is the first place I'm aware of that Weldon has actually accused the Whitehouse of a coverup.
In addition, the Pentagon, when people asked them for information that's open source, has no right, in my mind, to basically prevent that information or those people from talking. If this were a case where they might jeopardize our national security, I'd be the first to say, "Wait a minute. We'd better think through this." Or I would say, "Let's do the hearings in a closed session." The Pentagon didn't do either. They didn't want a closed session. They just said, "We are stopping these people from testifying." Now, [Sen.] Arlen Specter [R-Pa.] said publicly that he was not happy with this, and as you might have noticed, he didn't adjourn the hearing. He continued the hearing, which leads me to believe we're going to have additional hearings in the Senate.
Also see my previous post describing how the Pentagon has gone after the lead whistleblower, accusing him of among other things, stealing pens, as a justification for revoking the security clearance he needs to do his job.
Witness Pentagon silenced now accused of stealing pens:
An officer who has claimed that a classified military unit identified four Sept. 11 hijackers before the 2001 attacks is facing Pentagon accusations of breaking numerous rules, allegations his lawyer suggests are aimed at undermining his credibility.
The alleged infractions by Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, 42, include obtaining a service medal under false pretenses, improperly flashing military identification while drunk and stealing pens, according to military paperwork shown by his attorney to The Associated Press.
Shaffer was one of the first to publicly link Sept. 11 leader Mohamed Atta to the unit code-named Able Danger. Shaffer was one of five witnesses the Pentagon ordered not to appear Sept. 21 before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the unit's findings.
The military revoked Shaffer's top security clearance this month, a day before he was supposed to testify to a congressional committee.