The Fort Hood Massacre: One Year Later

From Michele Malkin:

Fort Hood massacre: One year later


By Michelle Malkin • November 5, 2010 10:10 AM



Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Fort Hood massacre at the hands of jihadist soldier Nidal Hasan.



Thirteen men and women, plus the unborn child of Pvt Francheska Velez, died in the bloody rampage.



1. Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, 55, Havre de Grace, Md.

2. Maj. Libardo Caraveo, 52, Woodbridge, Va.

3. Cpt. John P. Gaffaney, 54, San Diego, Calif.

4. Cpt. Russell Seager, 41, Racine, Wis.

5. Staff Sgt. Justin Decrow, 32, Plymouth, Ind.

6. Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, Kiel, Wis.

7. Spc. Jason Hunt, 22, Tillman, Okla.

8. Spc. Frederick Greene, 29, Mountain City, Tenn.

9. PFC Aaron Nemelka, 19, West Jordan, Utah

10. PFC Michael Pearson, 22, Bolingbrook, Ill.

11. PFC Kham Xiong, 23, St. Paul, Minn.

12. Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, Chicago, Ill.

13. Michael G. Cahill, Cameron, Texas [civilian]



Never forget.



Military officials have planned a weekend of remembrance as Hasan’s Article 32 hearing grinds on. The process has been adjourned until November 15:



A weekend of remembrance is planned in Fort Hood, TX to commemorate the first anniversary of one of the worst mass shootings on a U.S. military base in American history.



“It is an important mark in the history of Fort Hood and Central Texas that we should pause and reflect,” said Fort Hood Senior Commander Maj. Gen. William Grimsley. “And [it] is an opportunity to connect spiritually and bring the community back together.”



Grimsley said there was a tremendous outpouring of support and love from throughout the U.S. immediately following the Nov. 5, 2009 attack.



On that day, authorities say Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sprayed bullets inside a crowded medical processing center at Fort Hood, killing 13 people and wounding a dozen others. The Army psychiatrist was shot four times then taken into custody by police after the shooting rampage.



According to news sources, the 40-year-old American-born Muslim began having second thoughts about a military career several years before the shooting after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim.



Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. He could face the death penalty if prosecutors show his alleged actions were premeditated and deliberate.



The Army is still going through pre-trial investigation in what is called an Article 32 hearing. The military proceedings are used to gather evidence from both prosecution and defense witnesses.



The prosecution concluded its questioning in the hearing on Oct. 21. The Article 32 is adjourned until Nov. 15, when defense lawyers will have the opportunity to present evidence and witness testimony.

Have we learned?



GOP Rep. John Carter of Texas raises lingering concerns in a statement today marking the anniversary:



Fort Hood Shootings Still Far from Resolved



(FORT HOOD, TEXAS) – America should pause to remember those killed and wounded one year ago in the terror attack on Fort Hood, and recognize that sacrifice with a renewed commitment to assist and honor the casualties and their families, and to prevent similar future attacks, according to Congressman John Carter, who represents the Fort Hood area in the U.S. House of Representatives.



Carter, who is also Co-Chairman of the House Army Caucus and Secretary of the House Republican Conference, says the ongoing trial of Major Nidal Hasan for the Fort Hood shootings one year ago is just one of many issues still not resolved. The victims have still not received the treatment and status they deserve, the military has not acknowledged the nature and causes of the attack, and there is numerous security improvements still needed to prevent future attacks.



Carter says radical Islamic terrorism has still not been acknowledged as the cause of the Fort Hood shootings which left 14 Americans dead, and the Department of Defense must not allow political correctness to continue to skew its policies on force protection.



“It has been a year since the terror attack on Fort Hood, and DOD still refuses to even use the words ‘radical Islam’ in their report on the attack or recommendations on how to prevent future attacks,” says Carter. “That does not instill confidence in Congress that DOD is taking the necessary steps to protect our troops.”



Carter, a former Texas judge, has introduced legislation authorizing the same status for Fort Hood victims as that awarded casualties of the 9-11 attack on the Pentagon, and granting whistleblower protections to military and civilian personnel who report potential threats from radical Islamic sympathizers.



“The families of the 13 adults and one unborn child who died, along with the wounded, deserve the same treatment as we provided the Pentagon casualties,” says Carter. “Congress must not rest until these families receive what they deserve.”



Carter also introduced legislation providing “active shooter” training for all military and civilian law enforcement protecting military installations. Fort Hood officers credit the training with their success in stopping the Fort Hood shooter in an open gunfight.



Carter succeeded in passing a resolution in the House and Senate recognizing the good response of Fort Hood law enforcement and base command in responding to the attack. The rest of the Carter bills await passage as part of the pending National Defense Authorization Act.





Previous Fort Hood massacre blogging.



Flashback November 11, 2009…



Blind diversity = death

by Michelle Malkin

Creators Syndicate

Copyright 2009



The violence at Fort Hood, President Obama told mourners on Tuesday, was “incomprehensible.” The “twisted logic that led to the tragedy,” he reiterated, may be “too hard to comprehend.” If the Bush administration suffered a systemic failure of imagination on homeland security, the Obama administration is suffering an willful failure of comprehension.



What exactly is so hard to comprehend? Fort Hood jihadist Nidal Hasan made his means, motives, and inspiration all too clear for those willing to see and hear. In his 2007 slide presentation to fellow Army doctors on “The Koranic World View As It Relates to Muslims in the Military,” Hasan spelled it out: “We love death more then (sic) you love life!”



Hasan exposed the deadly tension between his adherence to Islam and service in the U.S. military. Slide 11 stated: “It’s getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims.” Slide 12 cited Koranic sanctions for killing fellow believers. And Hasan made clear he wasn’t alone among Muslim soldiers who “should not serve in any capacity that renders them at risk to hurting/killing believers unjustly.”



Slide 13 ominously listed “adverse events” involving Muslim soldiers– including the fatal 2003 fragging attack on American soldiers in Kuwait by Sgt. Hasan Akbar (who was sentenced to death but remains alive while his case is on appeal); the desertion case of Lebanon-born Muslim Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun; and the espionage case of Muslim chaplain James Yee (the charges were dropped, but the case raised lingering security concerns about Muslim chaplains at Gitmo and elsewhere trained by terror-linked, Saudi-subsidized institutes).



Hasan missed a few “adverse events” that have faded from public memory in our reflexive age of “Islam is peace” emotionalism-over-comprehension:



– John Muhammad, the Beltway jihadist put to death Tuesday night, was a member of the Army’s 84th Engineering Company. As I’ve reported previously, Muhammad was suspected of throwing a thermite grenade into a tent housing 16 of his fellow soldiers as they slept before the ground-attack phase of Gulf War I in 1991. Muhammad was admitted to the Army despite being earlier court-martialed for willfully disobeying orders, striking another noncommissioned officer, wrongfully taking property, and being absent without leave while serving in the Louisiana National Guard.



Although Muhammad was led away in handcuffs and transferred to another company pending charges for the grenade attack, an indictment never materialized. Muhammad was honorably discharged from the Army in 1994 before brainwashing young Lee Malvo in black nationalism and jihad – and then carrying out the three-week killing spree together that left 10 dead in 2002 in the name of Allah.



– Muslim American soldier Hasan Abujihaad was convicted last year on espionage and material terrorism support charges after serving aboard the USS Benfold and sharing classified info with al Qaeda financiers, including movements of US ships just six months after al Qaeda operatives had killed 17 Americans aboard the USS Cole in the port of Yemen.



– Jeffrey Leon Battle was a former Army reservist, convicted of conspiring to levy war against the United States and “enlisting in the Reserves to receive military training to use against America.” He had planned to wage war against American soldiers in Afghanistan.



– Egyptian Ali A. Mohamed joined the U.S. Army while a resident alien despite being on a State Department terrorist watch list before securing his visa. An avowed Islamist, he taught classes on Muslim culture to U.S. Special Forces at Fort Bragg, N.C., and obtained classified military documents. He was granted U.S. citizenship over the objections of the CIA. Honorably discharged from the Army in 1989, Mohamed then hooked up with Osama bin Laden as an escort, trainer, bagman and messenger. Mohamed used his U.S. passport to conduct surveillance at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi; he later pled guilty to conspiring with bin Laden and admitted his role in the 1998 African embassy bombings that killed more than 200 people, including a dozen Americans.



Political correctness is a gangrenous infection. My generation has submitted to a toxic diet of multiculturalism, identity politics, anti-Americanism and entitlement. The problem festered under the Bush administration. Despite 9/11, government at all levels refused to screen out jihadi-apologizing influences in our military, at the FBI, in prisons, and even fire departments. [And in the GOP, too.] Despite the bloody consequences of open borders, the Bush Pentagon allowed illegal aliens to enter the military. One of my favorite P.C. idiocy moments from the Bush State Department: Spa days as counter-terrorism! The grievance lobby has plied the Muslim jihadist-as-victim narrative for nearly a decade now.



They prevail. In June, Muslim domestic terror suspect Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad went on another shooting spree at an Arkansas recruiting station that left one serviceman dead. The Obama Justice Department response: To redouble its efforts to use “criminal and civil rights laws to protect Muslim Americans.”



Next week, Attorney General will speak at a banquet featuring the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an unindicted co-conspirator in the terrorism financing case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.



How did Fort Hood happen, obtuse Washington asks. Simple: Blind diversity equals death.