Army's Fort Hood Report Draws Criticism
by IPT News • Nov 10, 2010 at 3:01 pm
http://www.investigativeproject.org/2321/army-fort-hood-report-draws-criticism
Leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee are blasting an Army report into failures leading up to last year's Fort Hood shooting massacre by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. In a report issued Tuesday, the Army said it failed to properly identify the threat that existed before the shooting, the Washington Times reports.
While the report recommended greater education for troops on identifying "when individuals may commit violent acts or become radicalized," it did not mention Hasan by name, nor did it refer to the shooting as a terrorist attack, instead referencing the "tragedy."
Witnesses at a recent probable cause hearing described hearing him shout "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire inside a Fort Hood processing center.
A statement from Homeland Security committee spokeswoman Leslie Phillips said the report's findings "fall short of explaining why 13 Americans were killed over a year ago – namely that we are threatened by violent Islamist extremism and that an Army major who made public statements supportive of this murderous ideology was not stopped by his superiors. It is disappointing that these final reports fail to mention violent Islamist extremism and do not offer explicit policies or procedures to make sure that service members who become radicalized to violent Islamist extremism are identified, reported, and discharged."
Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and ranking Republican Susan Collins of Maine promise their own report on the massacre and recommendations later this month. Collins issued a separate statement, in which she shared criticism at the absence of any reference to violent Islamist extremism in the Army report.
"This lack of guidance does not help service members distinguish the threatening and violent ideology of terrorists from the peaceful and protected expression of religious belief by Muslims, including the many dedicated and patriotic Muslims serving in our military," Collins said. "As a consequence, the Department of Defense risks either missing the next terrorist threat from within its ranks or focusing unwarranted investigative attention on innocent persons."
The report recommended enhancing information sharing on threats between the military and law enforcement, and the Pentagon will add to its representation in FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces. It also suggested troops be screened more closely for "behavioral indicators that a person may commit violent acts or become radicalized."
The Army report can be read here.
Related Topics: Homegrown Terror | IPT News
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Reader comments on this item
We Need Two Camps, for Now
Submitted by Civilus Defendus, Nov 13, 2010 13:27
The families of the dead and injured should be standing at the steps of Congress shouting for justice, for the truth. The concerted efforts at denial and deflection must be called out as either ignorance and fear or compliance and agreement. Neither can we abide.
We need two camps, one the ignorant, dhimmified camp who feel the need for tolerance and understanding toward enemies and the other camp that studies history, looks behind the veil of practiced deceit to uncover the core of our enemy and stands resolutely against it in all arenas at all times. The dhimmi camp has chosen to remove our ability to analyze the threat by deleting the lexicon we need to discuss it. The freedom camp is forever pushed aside and slandered with epithets of bigot and islamophobe.
Elements of Islam are at war with us. Global islamic conquest and suzerainty are called for in islam's founding doctrine and practiced by living, breathing people today. Our blindness to this doctrine and to its followers will not make it or them go away. We must educate or isolate and weaken the dhimmi camp and enlarge and strengthen the freedom camp if we are ever to be rid of this perpetual war machine and its 'sacred' terror of jihad.