A.J. Strata has summarized the Able Danger open hearings.  And it appears that this program was working, that it was used to roll up Al Qaeda quickly after 9/11 , and that the reasons for discarding what it had uncovered do not pass a laugh test.

Strata's conclusion:

Able Danger was working to identify Al Qaeda and had struck gold with the Hamburg cell. But the same technology and group, working on a completely independent study implicates the Clinton administration so all the data, China and Al Qaeda targets, is destroyed in a moment of political panic. It is now highly possible 9—11 happened because the Clinton administration was afraid of bad PR

Further detail on the destruction of the data:

While Cambone tried to link the data purge to this 90—day rule, Weldon and the other witnesses (with first hand knowledge) pointed to the LIWA China Study that was being done in parallel to the Able Danger study. I have stated all along this was the lynchpin, the source of all later cover ups and mistakes and lost opportunities.

We all know the story so I will not repeat it here, but what we learned from the hearings is how far up this went. Weldon let slip that the initial China study report made it well outside of LIWA and Orion, up past the Army chain of command, beyond the Pentagon and hopped the Potomac to reach Capitol Hill (Item 54). Trust me when I tell you how stunned I was to hear that the China study report was seen by many in Congress — including Congressman Weldon himself. He briefed others on it. And it was this report containing nationally known names that caused the data purge.

There is no doubt of that now. Kleinsmith testified to the fact the order came from above his chain of command (Item 38). The fact the SOCOM folks were in an uproar means the order was above LIWA and SOCOM, putting it in the Pentagon or higher. Who was involved in this?

Well one person does come to mind: Jamie Gorelick. Another Weldon bomb shell was that no[t] only did Gorelick contact him last summer to claim she 'did nothing wrong', apparently she called Sen Specter twice to convey the same message (Item 31).

Now we can connect some dots. The China study hits Capitol Hill and obviously echoes down Pennsylvania Avenue as Democrats (and possible Reps) wonder if the town is going to be heading back into a second impeachment. My guess is it wasn't because of sufficient number of Republican names (like Rice), but the Clintons are not taking any chances. Gorelick has roots in the Pentagon's General Counsel Office and they devi[s]e a plan to destroy the study using the 90 day rule. This is put into effect, but somehow the Able Danger data is caught up in the mess because the two efforts share the same people and timeframes. What is required for China to disappear is necessary for Able Danger too. That includes purging data, contracts and personnel. DIA and SOCOM grudgingly end up allowing this to happen (but not without a 6 month battle) when they are allowed to open Garland.

Since the hearings appear to cover very important issues and received only 25 minutes worth of coverage on tv (all networks,including C—SPAN), you might want to read what Strata has gleaned from them.
 
Clarice Feldman   2 18 06