Curt Weldon
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Curt Weldon (born 1947) is a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who represented the state's 7th congressional district for 20 years, rising to Vice Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Vice Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. A former fire chief and career firefighter advocate, Weldon is the most prominent congressional advocate for Able Danger and a leading critic of the 9/11 Commission.
Congressional career
Weldon served 20 years in Congress beginning in the late 1980s, chairing the Armed Services Committee's Research and Development subcommittee — through which he funded the Able Danger data-mining technology at Fort Belvoir. He co-sponsored legislation to convene the Gilmore Commission, a pre-9/11 body whose five reports on asymmetric threats and terrorism preparedness were later adopted by the 9/11 Commission without attribution.
In November 1999, Weldon proposed a National Operations and Analysis Hub (NOAH) to fuse intelligence data across the CIA, FBI, and DIA — specifically anticipating the information-sharing failure later cited as the primary cause of 9/11. The CIA rejected the proposal.
Weldon also conducted extensive diplomatic missions, leading the first congressional delegation to Libya in 25 years and hand-carrying a letter from Muammar Gaddafi offering to resign, which Weldon maintains the United States ignored.
For Weldon's Able Danger advocacy, the suppression of pre-9/11 intelligence, his assertion that two hijackers were on the CIA payroll, and the blocked testimony before the 9/11 Commission, see
Main article:
Able Danger
and
Main article:
9-11 Commission (criticism)
.
Retaliation and end of political career
Three weeks before his November 2006 re-election — at which point he was next in line to become chairman of the House Armed Services Committee — the FBI raided the home of his daughter. She was never charged, never arrested, and never even interviewed by investigators. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh later told Weldon that John Brennan and James Clapper did not want him to assume the chairmanship, and that the White House had authorized the raid three weeks before the election.
Weldon lost his 2006 re-election and his political career effectively ended. Three months later, former CIA Director and President George H. W. Bush delivered a public tribute to Weldon before 2,000 Washington leaders. Weldon has stated that two of his staffers who assisted his 9/11 investigation — both former CIA employees — subsequently died of fast-moving cancers, which he considers suspicious.
Later advocacy
At age 77, Weldon has resumed public disclosure efforts, advocating for a presidential commission on 9/11 with full subpoena authority, staffed by non-politicians. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed calling the 9/11 Commission an "incomplete investigation," corroborating Weldon's broader findings.