UPDATE: Who Has a High Power, Submarine-Borne Laser Weapon?

Able Danger Silenced forever on February 15th (media attention to Muhammad cartoon violence and Cheney's hunting accident muted the final testimony):

Under Secretary of Defense Stephen Cambone testified before Congress a week ago that 90 people searched through documents and interviewed people involved in the Able Danger program for about 6500 hours finding no evidence that U.S. intelligence had identified Mohammad Atta prior to 9/11. Nor was there any information about hijacker Atta resident in U.S. databases before 9/11. Cambone added that his investigators found no deliberate restrictions on the transfer of any military intelligence information to the FBI.

According to William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security in Early Warning Cambone is being truthful.

Jack Kelly of the Toledo Blade’s national bureau has a different take: The suppression of Able Danger: "It's unclear why the Bush Administration is covering up, since the suppression of Able Danger occurred on President Clinton's watch. But it is clear there is a cover-up." <<<<

The thoroughness of his "investigation" was called into question when neither Mr. Cambone nor the three underlings he had with him could name the man who ran Able Danger during its Garland phase. That embarrassing admission was elicited by U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, a Philadelphia-area Republican.

Congressman Weldon told the Canada Free Press, "Neither my own party nor the Democrats want to hear the truth about Able Danger." <<<<

Molten Eagle (speculation beyond fun):
Since all of the officers tesifying are probably truthful, but still have only a partial, so-called compartmentalized, knowledge of highly classified intelligence, more is probably going on here than meets the eye. This is also evident from the bipartisan support for silence.

Let us suppose, then, the mysterious downing of airliners off the east coast (before 9-11, but after the 1993 WTC attack) are tied together. Let's say a presumed friendly country with global reach and powerful, submarine-borne laser weaponry burned the aircrafts' central fuel tanks, to blackmail the U.S. to provide some form of special assistance. Let's presume the U.S. did not buckle, but customarily covered up the resulting hostilities. Obvious question: Who would do such a thing? The real question: Who has had a high-power, submarine-borne laser weapon?

Reality:
"The Navy is also evaluating laser systems for use by surfaced submarines. Since nuclear submarines have abundant onboard electrical power... The advantage of using lasers on board submarines is that they are a munition that would be stealthy, Navy officials reported." - source: Journal of the Air Force Association, Air Force Magazine Online, December 2002, Vol. 85, No. 12 [highlight added]

UPDATE #1: - Joint High Powered Solid State Laser (J-HPSSL) February 16, 2006
The goal of the J-HPSSL program is to demonstrate integration of scaleable subsystem technologies at the laboratory level into a 100 kW-Class solid-state laser system for use on a variety of military platforms.

more LASER weapon news (FY 2003) JHPSSL expected to pave the way for the U.S. military to incorporate high-energy laser systems across all services, including ships
The power scaling will be 25kW in two years leading to 100kW in an additional two years. ...the High Energy Laser project will leverage existing laser weapon programs such as the US/Israeli Tactical High Energy Laser Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration, the USAF Airborne Laser Program, and the Department of Energy National Ignition Facility. Work for this project is performed by the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), in Huntsville, AL and the Army Test and Engineering Center, White Sands Missile Range, NM.

UPDATE #2: FBI warns pilots to look away from unexpected light - Dec 09. 2004
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning airline pilots to look immediately away from unexpected sources of light in a new alert that suggests terrorists may use military-grade laser blinding systems to down planes.

While we hear about LASER weapons deployment in Air Force and Navy aircraft and surface ships, we are not surprised we do not hear about the same in submarines. To effectively accomplish stealth missions, submarines are always silent and strange. - Molten Eagle