Sounds productive. What are the costs and benefits of not having the hearings public?
Private hearings will not let the American people know what happened. The Senate Intelligence Committee had an investigation, but never issued a report or held any public hearings so all we know is that they must have thought what they heard was significant because they moved a new law forward easing restrictions on data mining, including US persons.
Closed hearings will also not give Phillpott or Shaffer a chance to set the record straight, after all the negative things said about them. Closed hearings will also make it easier for the politicians to spin. Who can dispute what they tell us?
Gee, don't you trust our representatives to do the right thing after hearing the testimony? To keep it secure yet act in the public interest, and not compromise information vital to our security?
I trust them to not reveal any information that might be politically unpleasant.
To put it another way, I trust Phillpott and Shaffer considerably more. I am not concerned about Phillpott or Shaffer compromising our national securty, at all.
I hope a) they testify in an open hearing, and b) we learn more not only about why their work mattered, but why the 9/11 commission discounted them like they did.
As well you should. Shaffer has an excellent career and devoted his life to serving our country and trying to make it a safer place. He wants to put the truth out there. Unfortunately (for many politicians), this will uncover a lot of political wrong-doing that goes back thru GWB and the Clinton years to even the first Bush whitehouse. No wonder they want to keep it behind closed doors.
re:"we learn more not only about why their work mattered, but why the 9/11 commission discounted them like they did.
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Not only that but WHY in God's name was this program inexplicably shut down months before 9/11 happened???
Did Able Danger have a successor or two? What were they doing?
Commenting by HaloScan
