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| Pentagon stonewalls in Fort Hood probe |
| 2010-04-25 |
| What and when did US Army brass know about Maj. Nidal Hassan's extremist views and his ties to a key jihadist cleric — and why didn't they act before he gunned down 13 soldiers at Fort Hood six months ago? It's a simple question — and a very significant one, to boot. But neither the Pentagon nor the Justice Department wants that information made public. Which is why the two top senators on the Homeland Security Committee — Joe Lieberman (I/D-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) — have subpoenaed stonewalling Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Attorney General Eric Holder. “We have repeatedly sought your departments' cooperation,' they wrote. “Our efforts have been met with delay, the production of little that was not already public and shifting reasons for why the departments are withholding [information] that we have requested.' Before he went on his terrorist rampage, Hasan was in regular e-mail contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, the US-born imam who ministered to at least three 9/11 hijackers as well as the would-be Christmas Day underwear bomber. Indeed, FBI and Army investigators reportedly intercepted those e-mails, and also knew that he'd been heard making statements justifying suicide bombing. “Given the warning signals about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's extremist radicalism,' ask Lieberman and Collins, “why was he not stopped before he took 13 American lives?' The Pentagon conducted an internal investigation, and in January released an 86-page report that blamed what Gates called “20th-century processes and attitudes mostly rooted in the Cold War.' Whatever the hell that means. Astonishingly, there was not a word, as Lieberman noted, about “the specific threat posed by violent Islamist extremism to our military.' Or maybe not so astonishing. After all, just hours after Hasan's rampage, Army Chief of Staff George Casey said it would be “an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here.' Both agencies have rebuffed the subpoena — as they have all other committee requests — by claiming that releasing the info would jeopardize Hasan's criminal prosecution. That's nonsense: As the senators note, they are not investigating the massacre but rather “whether the government agents responsible for protecting our homeland . . . correctly did their jobs.' Here's hoping the committee keeps pressing this until Holder and Gates are forced to make the information available — no matter how embarrassing it may prove to be. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 Bestest, most wonderfullest secdef ever pleases everybody once again... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2010-04-25 21:17 |
| #2 They're far too busy disinviting Franklin Graham from a Pentagon prayer breakfast. You can bet this order came from the top! FACE SAVING DAMAGE CONTROL FOLLOWS: Billy Graham in poor health – President Obama scheduled to visit with evangelist today April 25, 2010 10:27 AM EDT I didn’t know Billy Graham was ailing, but according to the Associated Press, President Obama is "fitting in a visit" today with the 91-year-old evangelist which seems to suggest that Graham's condition is worsening. A spokesman for Graham called the elder’s health "unpredictable." Graham has visited with 11 presidents over his lifetime. His son, Franklin Graham, was recently in the news after being disinvited to a Pentagon prayer breakfast over concerns about some of his statements about Islam. Link |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-04-25 11:29 |
| #1 No one died at Tailhook. It took Congress to suspend the usual rubber stamping of any further approval of officer promotions to get the Navy to budge. We really don't want have to go there, but the idiots are doing the same stupid bureaucrat tricks. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-04-25 11:19 |