UPDATE # 4: How do we address the threat of radical Islam ? A committee.
Thinking Anew—Security Priorities for the Next Administration
A coherent strategy to address 21st century threats to the United States, one that treats national and homeland security as a seamless whole, has yet to emerge… To help fuel this process, in April 2008 The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) established the Presidential Transition Task Force, comprised of national and homeland security experts, policymakers and practitioners… The goal was to determine the top strategic priorities to advance the nation’s security in the coming decade…
Event Participants:
…Amanda Halpern
U.S. House of Representatives
Beth Hampton
Homeland Security Institute
Nidal Hasan
Uniformed Services University School of Medicine
Donald Hawkins
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Eric Heighberger
Homeland Security Council…
Well, he certainly was an expert on threats.
UPDATE #3: Obama weighs in with a bushel of nonsense about diversity on his radio broadcast today.
Hasan reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar!” before the killings, wrote Internet postings justifying Muslim suicide bombings, considered U.S. forces the enemy, and opposed American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as wars on Islam. His rampage at Ft. Hood has the markings of an act of Islamic terrorism.
But in his weekly address, Obama says, “We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing.” And while the killings were “heartbreaking” and “despicable” and “devastating,” the president says, it is important to remember not only that Hasan’s fellow soldiers responded bravely in coming to the aid of the wounded but also that “Americans of every race, faith and station” have served in the U.S. armed forces. “They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers,” Obama says. “They reflect the diversity that makes this America.”
What a load of crap !
UPDATE #2: here is the transcript of a call-in program that answers a lot of questions and provides some new information.
UPDATE: The shooter described his nationality as Palestinian. So much for his oath as an officer. WHy wasn’t this noticed ?
On a form filled out by those seeking spouses through a programme at the mosque, Hasan listed his birthplace as Arlington, Virginia, but his nationality as Palestinian, Khan said.
‘I don’t know why he listed Palestinian,’ Khan said, ‘He was not born in Palestine.’
Am Egyptian friend of mine, another physician, knows that is a bad idea. He got a wife from Egypt, arranged by his family, and she spent about 15 years in the US, then she divorced him, took all his money and went back to Egypt. Hie had a heart attack during the ordeal. I think he picked an American girl the next time.
I have a couple of observations that I haven’t seen much of so far.
1. It’s obvious that the legacy media is tying itself in knots to avoid the obvious fact that this was a “grass roots jihad.” This will be an increasing problem due to inflammatory rhetoric from Muslim mullahs. The New York Times earlier this morning was still maintaining:
Military records indicated that Major Hasan was single, had been born in Virginia, had never served abroad and listed “no religious preference” on his personnel records.
Now, at least, they are starting to face the truth, albeit reluctantly:
In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, a base spokesman, was asked about the reports that Major Hasan had yelled “Allahu Akbar.”General Cone said soldiers at the scene had reported “similar” accounts.
2. This physician had been using the army to pay for his education all the way through residency and fellowship. When it comes time to deploy, like a couple of other military trained physicians, he didn’t want to fulfill his obligation. I remember two cases (I can’t find the stories with Google), one a women physician in MIssouri during the first Gulf War, the other an Asian American physician in Washington state in 2003 or so. I apparently misremembered as he was not a physician. Note the reading he had been doing.
Anyway, the shooter had one other motivation, mentioned briefly by the cousin. His medical education, even at the Armed Service medical school, is worth $200,000 or more. He has an obligation to serve to repay it and wanted to get out of that obligation.
3. Finally, and the most significant perhaps, is the fact that, as a psychiatrist, he has been interviewing returned soldiers and their stories may have fed his Muslim rage about the war. Finally, it exploded in an act of personal jihad. As a psychiatrist, he was probably talking to young soldiers who may have witnessed disturbing things or even committed acts that bothered them. Nobody was thinking about this sort of stuff affecting the Muslim psychiatrist but I suspect it did.
If I were the military, I would be more concerned about Muslims now than gays. After all, it isn’t the first time.
Akbar, an African-American who grew up near Los Angeles, was born Mark Fidel Kools. He had his name changed when he was young by his mother when she married his stepfather, William Muhummad Bilal — a Muslim convert — more than 20 years ago.
Last night, as the FBI and Pentagon investigated his life, including interviewing members of the Los Angeles mosque where he worshipped, concerns were mounting over the effect his actions may have on the US military’s 4,700 other Muslim members, many of whom are Arab-Americans.
What has shaken the US military is the premeditation of Akbar’s alleged attack, and the political motives behind it.
That was 2003. Supposedly, other officers who knew Hasan had complained yet he was untouched.
Mike. What you refer to as a “grass roots jihad” I’d call one lone gunman – a nut.
Now… HERE’S what I find disturbing:
I have a buddy who is a physician at Ft. Hood.
(Yeah… he’s ok…)
When I first heard about the shooting (and at that point the media was reporting multiple gunmen) my initial reaction was: I hope to hell they’re sweeping the base medical center for explosives.
Why? Because thinking like a terrorist (or like your average American raised on TV, movies, and thriller novels) it occurred to me that a smart move to create real terror would be to have a secondary strike planned out where as the wounded were being brought to the medical center for treatment – which was where media focus would be and also no doubt some of the top brass and politicians – bombs would go off in the hospital… the place where most would expect to be safest.
My buddy at Ft. Hood… (*SHRUG*)… he didn’t see ANY search of the facilities (bomb sniffing dogs, etc.) after the sirens first went off.
Another thing he reports… (*SHRUG*)… no special security measures were being taken this morning. He arrived and was waved right in as usual with no security check of his vehicle.
Point being… (*SHRUG*)… the army isn’t looking at this as a terrorist incident.
BILL
The bomb squad were searching his apartment last night. I saw a photo. This long jihad syndrome is not a “nut” thing, it is a Muslim thing and we are going to be plagued by it until we figure out how to surveil these people. My daughter (FBI) is very concerned about prison recruitment.
While it’s good to hear that the bomb squad was searching his apartment, you’d think that the largest military base in America would have the resources to simultaneously do that and check for “stage two” threats at the same time.
You DO follow the logic of my initial post, right Mike…???
As to your daughter’s concerns… YEAH… damn right they’re valid! Prison recruiting is a MAJOR long term worry that – I’m sure your daughter will confirm – the Obama administration is not nearly concerned enough with.
Back to Major Hasan, though… if you have evidence pointing to a conspiracy or even a reasonable hypothesis you can back up by circumstantial evidence pointing to collusion between Hasan and terrorist elements… let’s hear it.
You know me, Mike… I’m always open to being proved wrong. It’s just that… er… you’ve got to make the case.
Hasan seems – as of now, at least based upon what’s public knowledge – to be a nut, not a martyr, not a terrorist.
BILL
There is an asymmetry with our foes in Iraq and Afghanistan: I doubt we will see a Christian radical in a Taliban staging area who stands up, shouts “Jesus saves!”, and opens fire.
I think it must rankle the officer corps that he is continually referred to as “Major”. Is there a way we could rescind his commission?
officers who knew Hasan had complained yet he was untouched.
An example of the bureaucracy sheltering its own, even if they are incompetent and dangerous. I imagine Hasan carried some politically correct cachet for his diversity cred.
The nonsense about him being harassed should be put to rest. He was a major, for Christ’s sake ! Nobody hassles majors but colonels and generals. That is really getting offensive. It’s in the same category as blaming “poverty” for Islamic terrorism when the worst terrorists are highly educated, often, like Khalid Sheik Mohammed, in the US on scholarships.
MIKE: It will be interesting to see to what degree he was tied into organized Jihad terrorism groups. The ‘lone gunman’ impression strikes me more as someone with paranoia or obsessions, and probably some degree of psychosis. I doubt Khalid Shit Mohammed, or Mohammed Atta were necessarily psychotic – they seemed too organized in their delivery of attacks and are rather just “evil” (though I would not withhold the evil term for Hasan, I just find him more of a pathetic loser who picked up a gun — and deserves no sympathy.)
My thought is this might just represent an unstable, jealous, ragefull mind that chose Jihad as opposed to UFOs and black helicopters as his obsession.
What irony he was trained as a psychiatrist. I would love to speak to his psychiatric colleagues. Somebody had to have noticed something classic and troubling about him.
There are a couple of people who spoke to him about it and he was “counseled” at Walter Reed for proselytizing patients. I think this another grass roots jihad case and they will be an increasing problem. The mosque he attended had a role in it. Look at this.
Obama’s reaction to this has been very poor. Maybe he is having a fight with David Axlerod.
Interesting, I`ll quote it on my site later.
Thank you
SuperSonic