Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Phoenix Examiner:

Nidal Hasan, the Muslim U.S. Army Major accused of the mass killings at Fort Hood, is listed as participant in the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute’s (HSPI) Presidential Transition Task Force Report. While this is not entirely surprising, given Hasan’s former position in the Army, it raises significant questions about White House reluctance to release relevant records allegedly in its possession.

The HSPI is not a governmental organization, and was not directly tied to the Obama administration’s transition team. Rather, in its own words, it is a “nonpartisan ‘think and do’ tank whose mission is to build bridges between theory and practice to advance homeland security through an interdisciplinary approach…” HSPI has already issued a statement on Hasan’s participation in the task force as follows:

In his capacity as Disaster & Preventive Psychiatry Fellow at the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine, Nidal Hasan registered (“RSVP’d”) to attend as an audience member a number of Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) events in the period June 2008 to February 2009. All of these events were open to the public. At no time has Nidal Hasan been affiliated with HSPI or The George Washington University.

The HSPI furthermore stated that anyone who RSVPs to participate in the forum is listed in their report. Daniel Kaniewski, Deputy Director of HSPI provided an explanation, quoted here from the Gawker:

All of our events are open to the public,” Kaniewski says, “and when someone RSVPs we put their name in the [report] so everyone knows who was in the room.” He says institute staffers recall Hasan attending at least one task force event, and that he RSVP’d for several. “We do recall him speaking at one of our events as an audience member,” he says, “but none of us recall what he actually said. Generally, our events are attended by people in the homeland security community, and Hasan had a very legitimate reason to be there. He was a fellow at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.”

That sounds plausible. Hasan appears in Appendix C under the heading “Task Force Event Participants” The Appendix is many pages long and lists hundreds of names. His is but one. Either pages 22 through 26 are missing from the report or there is a typo. It doesn’t appear however, that any relevant information is missing.

Meanwhile, Pete Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Subcommittee has accused the White House of withholding information it has on Hasan and has promised to launch an investigation into the Ft. Hood shootings. For its part, the White House is getting downright nasty, recently threatening a Democrat strategist not to appear on Fox News. Things just keep getting weirder and weirder.

One wonders if this wasn’t at least part of what the Administration has been trying to hide, if for no other reason than to avoid being erroneously associated with the shooter. Masters at the smear campaign, the Obama team knows how damaging even mistaken associations can be. In fact they rely on it when smearing opponents. In this case they certainly don’t want to inadvertently be tied to the name.

And with good reason. The Obama administration seems more concerned with American perceptions of Muslims than in getting to the bottom of this case. President Obama’s first words following the attack were that we shouldn’t “jump to conclusions.” Homeland Security chief, Janet Napolitano’s were to reassure Muslims that DHS was doing everything it could to prevent an “anti-Muslim backlash,” not anything about this guy’s motives or connections. This is tantamount to a complete abdication of her responsibility for domestic security. But General Casey took the cake for absolute out of control lunacy when he said:

Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength, and as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a tragedy, I think that’s worse.

“..if our diversity becomes a tragedy, I think that’s worse…” How could anyone serve under this man after hearing that? How must soldiers in harm’s way overseas feel knowing that their commander thinks their lives less important than some amorphous and irrelevant social goal like “diversity?” How could someone so ignorant to the history and true goal of diversity, find his way to a top leadership post in our military hierarchy?

And in spite of the Obama administration’s fears, no one has yet jumped to any conclusions about Hasan. Yet those conclusions are way past due.

Hasan was a terrorist. He planned his attack. He purchased an FN 5.7, to accomplish his task (another demonstration of premeditation). The FN is one of the most lethal handguns on the market, capable of defeating body armor and designed to tumble upon impact, creating devastating wounds. He shouted “Allahu Akbar!” when he launched his murderous shooting spree.

But way before all this he was practically screaming out his violent Islamic sentiments.

His business cards included the acronym “SoA,” widely interpreted to stand for “Soldier of Allah.” According to the London Telegraph and the Washington Post, in an hour-long talk before staff at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Hasan stated these gems:

* Non-Muslims are infidels, condemned to Hell, who should be set on fire;
* Non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats;
* Muslims in the military should be excused as conscientious objectors to “avoid adverse events…”
* We love death more then [sic] you love life!

Okay! Well, let’s not jump to conclusions!

According to NPR, one doctor worried that Hasan could kill fellow soldiers, like the Army sergeant in Iraq, who killed 2 and wounded 14 with grenades. Another said, “Everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your foxhole.”

Despite lengthy talks and agonizing over the issue, Walter Reed ultimately decided to kick the Hasan hot potato down the road to Fort Hood rather than deal with the problem directly, “because they didn’t have clear evidence that he was unstable, and they worried they might be ‘discriminating’ against Hasan because of his seemingly extremist Islamic beliefs.” They further rationalized that because Hood had more psychiatrists he would be watched more closely…

Finally, we have Hasan’s connection to the radical Muslim cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, who allegedly recruited Islamic militants for al Qaeda. Hasan attended Awlaki’s mosque in Northern Virginia when the latter was Imam there, and e-mailed Awlaki multiple times over a period of months after Awlaki moved to Yemen. This contact was allegedly for research related to Hasan’s master’s degree, whatever that was about, but the London Telegraph reports that Hasan’s eyes “lit up” when Awlaki’s name was mentioned, according to another Muslim stationed at Fort Hood. (Update) A Washington Post article asserts that Awlaki considered himself Hasan’s confidant.

One question has not been asked. Did Hasan shave excess hair from his body and put on perfume? This is apparently a telltale sign for a Muslim about to conduct a suicide attack. According to Slate.com:

Traditionally, Muslims purify corpses by washing the skin and nails and sometimes by shaving the pubic hair. But suicide attackers are deprived of a proper burial, since there are usually no remains. To compensate, the attackers shear themselves ahead of time, both to guarantee some level of cleanliness at the time of instant incineration and to prove extreme devotion to personal purity.

This instruction, along with a lot of other more practical ones, was included in Mohammed Atta’s handwritten last letter to his fellow terrorists.

Whether Hasan acted alone or in coordination with some other individual or group, it is clear that he was a Muslim terrorist bent on destruction.

That he was able to kill 14 people (including the unborn child of one victim) and wound many others after leaving a glaring trail of warnings, is an indictment of today’s timid, politically correct, “leaders.”

Yet statements by the Obama administration confirm our worst fears that not only have they not learned their lesson from this unspeakable act, they are actually redoubling their efforts to make sure PC continues to reign supreme. No matter how lethal the attack, no matter how obvious the source, don’t profile, for in Casey’s words “if our diversity becomes a tragedy, I think that is worse.”

14 died to defend “diversity.” How many more have to before we say “enough is enough?” PC kills. Will they ever get it?