Transcript of Curt Weldon Interview on the Sean Hannity Radio Show

This is a transcription of Sean Hannity's interview of Congressman Curt Weldon on The Sean Hannity Show, a Radio Talk Show that was broadcast during the afternoon of 10/20/2005:

Rep. Curt Weldon interviewed by Sean Hannity on The Sean Hannity Radio Talk Show during the 3rd hour on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005:

Sean Hannity: ...and now we're at a point where the people that are whistle blowers here now find themselves the subject of persecution by the government. Why is this happening, what's the latest on this? We're joined by Congressman Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania. Congressman, welcome back to the program.

Rep. Curt Weldon: Sean, it's always great to be with you, you're a great American.

SH: You're a great American my friend. You now find yourself in this unbelievable position where you have to ask for a new probe into what you are now saying has become a witch hunt by defense officials against Army Colonel Anthony Shaffer. What's going on here?

CW: There are a couple of things, Sean, that have happened just in the last day. First of all we have had another witness come forward that I talked to 2 days ago who has impeccable credibility who was not interviewed by the Pentagon, who was not interviewed by the 9-11 Commission, who was a leader in Able Danger and who told me that this whole notion of destroying data because of this 90 day window was hogwash. And furthermore that his analysis, separate from the original analysis identified Mohammad Atta before 9-11 not by photograph but by name. So now we have a whole separate supplier of data for Able Danger who's verifying that same information.

SH: Hang on a second, how many guys now have officially-these are high ranking military intelligence people that were appointed to some very dangerous work to identify terrorists in this country. How many of them are on the record of corroborating and confirming your story and what Col. Shaffer has said?

CW: 7 people including an Annapolis grad who in January will take over the command of one of our destroyers, one of the top positions that the Navy has. He has impeccable credentials. He will stake his entire career on this. Sean, this story, that there are people who are holdovers from the previous administration, and the Defense Intelligence Agency (inaudible). And we're also going to break a story that there are people on the staff on the 9-11 Commission that didn't want the 9-11 Commissioners to know the details of Able Danger as well because of the potential to embarrass those commissioners and the previous administration. This story, Sean, I predict will grow to be worse than Watergate. The American people need to have the answers. Tony Shaffer's career is being ruined. The DIA is so ridiculous that they most recently charged him with stealing pens from the government (inaudible) these pens were taken when he was 15 years old when his father worked at an embassy overseas and he admitted that he took them when he took a lie detector test to get into the service.

SH: Congressman, hang on, I need to slow you down. I sense this real frustration and anger. I share your anger here, I really do. Anthony Shaffer, Col. Shaffer has served his country admirably. He tried to warn this country about the danger we faced. He put his life on the line and these guys identified that Atta and his co-conspirators were in this country. He tried to tell the officials and he was warned to shut up and be quiet. Now there are 17 people now on record, you're saying that are corroborating his story and they've gone public. So you're basically saying that there was a potential of cover-up and that this will be proven by the 9-11 Commission and commission members because they themselves didn't want to be embarrassed regarding this issue?

CW: The commission members themselves were never briefed on Able Danger. It was commission staff who made a decision staff-wise, not to raise this up to the commissioner level. I spoke to Commissioner John Lehman again this week and he affirmed that. He encouraged me to keep pursuing this. Sean, there's a bigger story here and the attempt to silence Tony Shaffer by taking away his pay and health benefits for his 2 kids, is the most outrageous, un-American I've seen in my 19 years in Congress. From a guy who has commendations from Gen. Patrick Hughes, the former head of DIA, letters from George Tenet, the former head of the CIA. For the work he did he received the bronze star and they're going to threaten to take away health care for his 2 kids?

SH: That's part of it, but he identified Atta. He also, these other people identified Atta. We were supposed to have an investigation into this. What happened?

CW: Well, there are several committees, probably 6 different committees, who are looking at various aspects of this. And there are a number of committees just looking at the Atta issue itself. But like you said, we have 7 people who will testify under oath, that in fact they identified Atta. The bigger picture, Sean, is that we had massive information about Al Qaeda and the Brooklyn cell that was ignored. Why was it ignored? Who made the decision not to share that data? If you saw Louis Free on Meet the Press this past Sunday, the first question he took was about the 9-11 Commission and he said, let me tell you something, if I would have had that information that Able Danger had, that was actionable intelligence that would have prevented or could have prevented the attack of the airplanes on the Trade Center. That was Louis Freeh this past Sunday on Meet the Press, referring to Able Danger data.

SH: Well listen, if the purpose of the 9-11 Commission, and the only intelligent thing that came out of that thing in my view was and it was a big, colossal waste of money and time, was that they identified that there was a group of people at war with us and we didn't go to war with them and the only other thing they said that was reasonably intelligent was it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when we get attacked on American soil here again. But here we have 2 specific instances that we now know of where they have fallen down on the job of looking into the vulnerability of this country and the mistakes that were made leading up to 9-11 and this has got to be right at the top of the list. And that is that here we identified these hijackers in this country 1 year prior and yet this information was brought to the 9-11 Commission, they're ignoring this specific information. One has got to scratch their wooden heads and ask why, just like why did they ignore the fact that Bin Laden had been offered to the United States to Bill Clinton on multiple occasions, Bill Clinton acknowledged it in his own words, and they ignored that tape. I don't get this Congressman.

CW: Sean, I've got a new one for you and you can run with this one, they will also testify under oath, that Able Danger 2 weeks and 2 days before the attack on the USS Cole...

SH: Wait a wait a minute. Stop. Say that slowly.

CW: 2 weeks before the attack on the USS Cole and then again 2 days before the attack on the USS Cole, saw through their analysis that a major event was going to occur in Yemen. They told the Navy not to bring the Cole into Yemen harbor and it went in and was attacked. That information was also compiled and the analysis was done by Able Danger. That story has not been told. These people will testify to that story as well.

SH: I'm stunned, Congressman.

CW: I am also, Sean.

SH: You know, we're now at the point, the last time we went through the newest developments of this and we brought you on this program and immediately the attacks on you began. And then we brought Col. Shaffer on and others and immediately the attacks against him began. I've got to wonder if you've got 7 people corroborating all of this information, at what point are the American people going to be made aware of this. Where is the main stream media coverage of this, Congressman?

CW: If it wasn't for talk radio and The New York Times has been aggressive on this and Fox News and talk radio such as yourself. The main stream media doesn't want to get into this because they don't want to know where this one goes. A third rate burglary cover-up brought down a president when no one was killed and no money was stolen. Here we have 3000 people slaughtered and yet the main stream media doesn't want to look at it. What happened prior to that, to understand why decisions were made that kept that data from being acted upon by Louis Freeh who said Sunday on national TV that actionable intelligence could have allowed us to stop the hijackings.

SH: You know what I'd like to do, Congressman? I actually have the ability, I would like to sit down with all 7 of these guys for a national 1 hour TV special on the Fox News channel. If you can get all 7 of these guys I will tape it. This weekend, next weekend, I'll fly down to Washington. You let me know what you want me to do. This needs to be brought to the attention of the American people. We need to expose this. And we need to get some more main stream coverage. I cannot believe that if we don't learn the lessons from the past, our countrymen are going to die again.

CW: Here's our problem, the Pentagon today will not allow any of these people who work for the Pentagon, to talk to the media and they have gagged them from talking to members of Congress.

SH: Can Col. Shaffer no longer talk to us?

CW: Col. Shaffer is prohibited by his lawyer from talking. He's at great risk, he has talked to some people. He's at great risk, which is why they want to take away his pay and his health care benefits so they can hold it over his head and not allow him to talk while he's under suspension. This is not America, Sean. There's nothing here about our national security. There's no classified information. This is a story that needs to be told, that has been stopped by people in the Defense Intelligence Agency, who were in that agency, the career bureaucrats that were in that agency, when they had access to this information, and did nothing with it. They're still there, Sean. And for the life of me I can't understand why, and I said to Mr. Don Rumsfeld 10 days ago, who I support, I said, Mr. Secretary, why can't they talk in public.

SH: What did he say?

CW: He hasn't answered it to me yet. That's a question that the media needs to answer. You've been very positive with the secretary, you know him very well, you need to ask that question as I have.

SH: I will at the next opportunity I have, I promise you. Absolutely that question needs to be answered.

CW: These people will talk to you, they have nothing to gain. They will give you their story, they will give you the details. These are dedicated, you know Sean, they really believe the words, duty, honor and country. When you talk to them, you see in their eyes (inaudible) this is risking my career, but I want to do this for my country. I mean, how can faceless bureaucrats in an intelligence agency deny these brave soldiers a chance to tell the truth?

SH: It's unbelievable.

CW: This is not what America is about.

SH: Congressman, I promise you that this story is going to stay in the forefront of this audience's mind. They need to hear from you again and again, they need to hear from these 7 people. Let these people speak. Let these people tell their story. Then let the American people decide who they want to believe. Let the American people come to their own conclusions here. Let's not have this dictated by a bunch of bureaucrats.

CW: Thank you, Sean.

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