Thanks, John. I’m glad to see that there has finally been an answer, after all these weeks of swirling controversy.

I must note that this is not as cut-and-dried as the simple “No” you derive from the Washington Post story. According to that report, Mr. Hadley’s spokesman says Hadley actually does remember being shown a chart demonstrating the kind of link analysis that Weldon has described as the Able Danger work product. (Note – the report says Hadley remembers seeing such a chart, not being given one, as Weldon states.) And Hadley is not saying categorically that the chart he was shown did not depict Atta. He says, instead, that he “does not recall any chart bearing the name or photo of Mohamed Atta.” (Italics mine.) That’s not a categorical “No.”

BUT, to be sure, the NSC has done an internal investigation and spoken to staff – which was the responsible thing to do. Evidently, no one has, and no one recalls seeing, a chart depicting either Atta’s name or his photograph. I don’t see how Hadley and the NSC could have done anything more under the circumstances – I just wish they’d announced it sooner.

The reaction of Weldon’s spokesman, Russ Caso, to Hadley’s statement is at once predictable and maddening. Caso says that Weldon sticks by his account. That account, as the excerpt from Weldon’s testimony that I posted yesterday shows, was quite dramatic, featuring a purportedly startled Hadley saying he had to get this information immediately to the President. But Caso is now saying that “it was understandable Hadley may have forgotten or misplaced the chart, given the demands of his job.” Hard to square those two pictures.

I wonder what Rep. Dan Burton – who Weldon says was there when he delivered the chart to Hadley – recalls.