Fausta’s Blog

Army Wasn’t Told of Hasan’s Emails
Pentagon Says It Only Learned of Shooting Suspect’s Contacts With Cleric After the Fort Hood Killings

The Pentagon said it was never notified by U.S. intelligence agencies that they had intercepted emails between the alleged Fort Hood shooter and an extremist imam until after last week’s bloody assaults, raising new questions about whether the government could have helped prevent the attack.

A top defense official said federal investigators didn’t tell the Pentagon they were looking into months of contacts between Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki. The imam knew three of the Sept. 11 hijackers and hailed Maj. Hasan as a “hero” after the shooting last week at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead.

“Based on what we know now, neither the United States Army nor any other organization within the Department of Defense knew of Maj. Hasan’s contacts with any Muslim extremists,” the official said.

Hasan’s family is lying: Hasan did not formally seek discharge, Army official says

The Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people last week at Fort Hood, Tex., did not formally seek to be discharged as a conscientious objector or for any other reason, an Army official said, despite claims by one of his relatives that he had sought to leave the service.

There is also the issue of mainstreamism. Andy McCarthy explains,

Our inclination is to dismiss this as fringe “extremism.” In fact, it is mainstreamism. As I pointed out in yesterday’s column and last evening’s post, the positions that Muslims must not take up arms against other Muslims as part of an infidel military force, that infidel armies occupying Islamic countries must be expelled by force, and that Muslims should not serve in the U.S. military or perform civilian services that support the U.S. military’s missions in Islamic countries, are widely accepted by Muslims in the United States and overseas.

The rote government response is to point out, mulishly, that there are many Muslims honorably serving in the U.S. armed forces. This is absolutely true but utterly beside the point. And no institution should know that better than the U.S. armed forces, which — on the rationale of force effectiveness, cohesion, and protection — exclude homosexuals from serving despite the fact that the vast majorty of homosexuals would serve honorably, as do those who serve now.

The honorable service of many Muslims does not alter the reality that there is enormous pressure on Muslim soldiers, from their religious authorities, to sabotage American military operations. Hasan’s massacre of his fellow soldiers is the worst incident we’ve seen, but it’s hardly an isolated incident. Given the slavish political correctness about Islam to which government officials from President Obama to the FBI to Generals Casey and McChrystal are beholden, there is grave reason to fear that the obvious peril to our troops has not been addressed any better than the obvious peril to our nation.

In short, the military was kept in deadly ignorace by US intelligence.

Related:
The Beltway snipers and the Fort Hood killer: Peas in a jihad-inspired pod; Update: Hasan is awake, talking

The parallels with the Fort Hood case – jihad-inspired killers, media whitewash – are striking. They’re the parallels you can’t talk about without being labeled a bigot, racist, or “extremist.”

Expect more similar whitewash on the Hasan case. Meanwhile, the UK newspapers are keeping track of the story:
Taliban promises repeat of Fort Hood massacre: report
The Taliban claimed there would be more attacks like the Fort Hood shootings unless Washington ends it policies in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a report.

UPDATE
James Taranto:

In fact, this was not a terrorist attack. By definition, terrorism targets noncombatants. When an irregular force like al Qaeda attacks a military target, such as the bombing of the USS Cole, that is more accurately termed guerrilla warfare.

Tags: Fausta's blog, Fort Hood, John Allen Muhammad, Nidal Malik Hasan

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Islam, terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.