[iwar] [fc:Weldon:.Did.Politics.Prevent.Hit.On.Al.Qaeda.Cells?]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-01-02 06:57:35
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 06:57:35 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Weldon:.Did.Politics.Prevent.Hit.On.Al.Qaeda.Cells?]
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Defense Week
January 2, 2002
Pg. 5
Weldon: Did Politics Prevent Hit On Al Qaeda Cells? 
By Linda Gasparello 
A senior member of the House Armed Services Committee is looking into
whether the 2000 presidential election got in the way of an Army plan to
destroy five al Qaeda cells. 
"A year ago, we had a picture of all the cells of the al Qaeda network,"
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) told a recent Defense Week Newsmakers Breakfast.
"[Army] Special Forces Command in Florida did a profile of the entire
network and actually came up with recommendations for an operational plan to
take out five cells of bin Laden's network." 
Weldon, who chairs the Military Readiness Subcommittee, said the Army gave
him a three-hour briefing on that plan. 
But weeks later, in January 2001, he said, they gave Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff Gen. Henry H. Shelton "a one-hour brief, and there was no
recommendation-at least I can't find it yet-for a complete operation" to
take out the five al Qaeda cells. 
"Was that brief in any way compromised by the Office of the Secretary of
Defense in anticipation of an election year?" Weldon asked. An answer to
this question, he said, "needs to be pursued, because ... perhaps we could
have had a more aggressive impact on bin Laden's [terror] capability prior
to Sept. 11." He told reporters that "it's something that I'm looking at." 
But perhaps more importantly, the United States needs a national operations
and analysis hub which would link the classified information systems of 32
federal agencies, Weldon said. 
Three years ago, he put language (recommendations to do studies) in the
defense authorization bill that called for the establishment of a central,
National Operations and Analysis Hub (NOAH) in the Department of Defense
composed of a system of agency-specified mini-centers, or "pods," of
participating agencies and services associated with growing
national-security concerns. 
Modeled on the Army's Land Information Warfare Activity [LIWA] center at
Fort Belvoir, Va., Weldon said: "The idea was to create ... a national
command authority so that when the president tasks our agencies and our
classified systems to run a profile of al Qaeda, they could instantly access
all 32 data sets of classified intelligence and unclassified information
available through TV reports, published accounts, using high-speed computers
[and] software systems like those developed by Pacific Northwest labs, that
allow you to do massive data mining." 
"Three years later, we still do not have that [collaborative threat
profiling] capability," the congressman said. "This is one of the biggest
[national security shortfalls], along with the political-correctness of
Congress-led by Sen. [Robert] Torricelli [D-N.J.]-that basically said we
shouldn't be using people who have committed human rights violations or
crimes as informants for the CIA. I mean, cut me a break!" 
Weldon said former Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre recognized the need
for such a central, national-level entity. 
"In fact, in his last year in office, Hamre said to me: `Curt, I agree with
where you want to go, but I can't get the FBI and the CIA to come onboard.
Why don't you convene a meeting in your office?'" 
The congressmen did just that. "We had four people: [me], John Hamre, and
the No. 2 persons at the FBI and the CIA. I said: `We've got to create a
unified, integrated capability that is controlled by the White House to
assess and analyze emerging threats.' The response from the CIA was, `Well,
congressman, we have a plan called CI21 that's beginning to get us to work
together.' " 
Weldon insisted that the CIA's plan is not the solution to the nation's
security threats. "I'm talking about a total change in the way we approach
intelligence in America. That's what's needed." And in the wake of Sept. 11,
he said, the FBI and the CIA "are coming around to see that." 
So is the White House. Two weeks ago Weldon and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.),
chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, discussed the national
data fusion center concept at a meeting with anti-terror czar Tom Ridge. 
Weldon's spokesman, Bud DeFlaviis, said Ridge's "interest certainly
encouraged" the congressman.

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