Troubling new facts about the Fort Hood shooter
When I first learned of the Fort Hood shootings, and who the suspect was, I was genuinely torn about how to react...other than with shock and grief. I truly tried to keep an open mind about the role of religion in this tragedy -- believe me, I am the kind of person you'd want on your jury -- but the past few days have revealed many troubling things about Hasan.
My feelings changed and intensified after learning that he had visited radical Islamist websites, chatting up suicide bombers...and that he had been in contact with that radical Imam for a year. An Iman known for his incendiary anti-American teachings...and whose website is now praising what Hasan did.
Hasan's mind had to be sick to begin with, and if they weren't actual co-conspirators in the shooting, these jihadists helped to inflame his mind with extremist religious dogma before he snapped.
Let's be clear -- if a madman just happens to be a Muslim, then religion might be immaterial. But if he yells "God is Great!" in Arabic right before he shoots 43 people, then he commits his crime in the name of Islam.
I read that the Departments of Defense and Justice have decided that Hasan will be prosecuted in military court...which means that they believe he acted alone. Because his case would be tried in civilian court if they thought he conspired with non-military people.
Some people are saying that Hasan went on the shooting rampage because he was a coward and didn't want to go to Afghanistan. Well, then why didn't he just commit suicide? At first I thought he was trying to cause "suicide by cop"...but, since he was trying to take so many soldiers with him, now I think this was his "suicide bomb."
Hate to say it, but it looks like the Army dropped the ball on this one. Regardless of what they knew and when they knew it, they should have let this madman out of the Army. Yes, investigators said that Hasan's emails with the radical Imam were consistent with a research project he was doing at Walter Reed on post-traumatic stress disorder...and that there was nothing to suggest any threat of violence. BUT, wasn't this something to worry about, given the nature of the Iman's communications with others?
Maybe the Army is too keen on keeping either Muslims or psychiatrists in the service. Muslims are valuable with Iraqi and Afghan locals; the Army has only 408 psychiatrists for 545,000 soldiers...a ratio of 1 to 1335.
And since there were no flaming threats, the Army just didn't follow up on the FBI and Homeland Security investigations. Like they should've been watching when he bought the "cop killer" gun.
What gets me is that in the middle of the FBI investigation, the Army left Hasan in his post, even promoted him to Major last May.
Here is the latest news on Hasan from CBS.
Aside: Notice that the "D.C. Sniper" John Allen Muhammad is executed at the same time rightie blowhards are bellowing that the shooting at Fort Hood is the first terrorist attack since 9/11.
