Fort Hood shooter tried to contact al Qaeda
U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan had been attempting to reach the al Qaeda terrorist network.
From ABC News:
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.
According to the officials, the Army was informed of Hasan’s contact, but it is unclear what, if anything, the Army did in response.
I’m guessing the Army did nothing with the information. If Congress can question Major League Baseball about it’s players using performance enhancing drugs, they can certainly question the U.S. Army on whythey allowed a Muslim man who wanted out of the Army, who had been trying to contact al Qaeda, was allowed to stay in the military.
His co-workers reported Hasan to their commanding officers in 2008 for comments he made concerning his religion and his duty as an officer in the U.S. Army. Reportedly he told co-workers that he was a Muslim first and an Army officer second. The Army’s response?
They promoted Hasan to major in May 2009.
The kicker in all this is that if instead of trying to contact al Qaeda, Hasan had instead gone on Craig’s List and attempted to seek out another man for gay sex, he would have been quickly discharged.
Our service members deserve better than this.
Just when I thought the shooting at Fort Hood could not get any worse
It turns out that some of the soldiers gunned down at Fort Hood by U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan may in fact been shot by some of the military security who responded to the incident. They refer to it as “friendly fire,” not that there is anything even remotely friendly about it. I’d hate to be one of the first responders who arrived at the scene and instead of saving people, it turns out actually contributed to the overall casualty count.
That’s a heavy burden to carry around in your head for the next fifty years.
Of course it’s not their fault. The fault rests squarely at the feet of Maj. Hasan.
The part of this whole tragedy that bothers me the most is the Maj. Hasan did what he did while wearing the uniform. The fact that he could murder his fellow soldiers while wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army seems incredibly perverse to me. In the military, you are taught to respect the uniform. It represents more than just clothing, it represents all those who have served.
I’m not big on symbolism, except I guess when it comes to the uniform of the U.S. military.
On a positive note, it seems Maj. Hasan is in really bad shape. He’s in a coma, on a respirator, and the doctors are saying that if he lives, he will probably be paralyzed.
Fort Hood shooter posted messages on the Internet defending suicide bombers
U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Malik Nadal Hasan, the American of Jordanian decent that brandished two handguns and opened fire on a large group of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, is still alive. He was not killed on the scene as reported yesterday. He was shot four times and is in custody at the hospital. Reports now say that he’s expected to live.
What a shame.
On the scale of things, a field grade officer who is also a psychiatrist, turning a weapon on his own fellow soldiers, has got to be one of the most horrendous things you can imagine. At least it’s one of the most horrendous things I can imagine. Whatever happened to doctors doing no harm?
About six months ago, Hasan posted a comment concerning martyrdom and suicide bombing that seems to be defending the practice. Hasan wrote:
There was a grenade thrown amongs [sic] a group of American soldiers. One of the soldiers, feeling that it was to late for everyone to flee jumped on the grave with the intention of saving his comrades. Indeed he saved them. He inentionally [sic] took his life (suicide) for a noble cause i.e. saving the lives of his soldier. To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause. Scholars have paralled [sic] this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees [sic] in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that “IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOUR INTENTION IS THE MAIN ISSUE” and Allah (SWT) knows best.
It’s ironic that a Muslim U.S. Army major can post a comment on the Internet that essentially defends suicide bombings by equating the terrorists who do them as being heroes, but if he had posted that he was gay, he would have been quickly discharged. Federal law enforcement officials learned about Hasan’s Internet postings six months ago. If six months ago he posted that he was gay, he would not have been Fort Hood yesterday.
He would have already been a civilian.
What some men will do to get out of the war
The things some men will do to get out of serving their country during a time of war. Roscoe Bartlett, my elected representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, avoided military service during World War Two by claiming that he wanted to pursue a career in the ministry, though never actually did. Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger wore a dress and pretended to be a woman to get out of serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Now it appears someone has come up with a new way of getting out of going to war. U.S. Army Major Stefan Frederick Cook has filed a lawsuit to prevent his deployment to Afghanistan. The reason?
Because he believes that President Barrack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States. It’s his contention that Obama was born not in Hawaii, but in Kenya.
From the Miami-Herald:
Cook further states he “would be acting in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President’s command, and that Plaintiff would thus be simultaneously unable to perform his duties in good Rule 65(b) Application for Temporary Restraining Order 22 conscience and yet be simultaneously subjecting himself to possible prosecution as a war criminal by the faithful execution of these duties.”
What surprises me about this story is the fact that Cook is an officer. In fact, he’s a field-grade officer. This seems like a scumbag move to pull just because he doesn’t want to go to Afghanistan and kill the Taliban.
Why’s he in the Army?
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