The Obama Administration famously refused to designate the Fort Hood jihad massacre as terrorism. A lawyer for the victims says: “It’s just yet another piece of evidence demonstrating that the government really has been lying about Hasan and his motivation for years.” This is true; the government has indeed been lying, and this is more evidence — but if the Obama wonks were able to ignore the mountains of evidence that Hasan committed a jihad terror attack before, they will cheerfully ignore this as well.
“Fort Hood victims say shooter’s letter is ‘salt in our wounds,'” by Susan Crabtree, Washington Examiner, August 30, 2014:
Victims of the Fort Hood shooting are pointing to news of a letter from the shooter, Nidal Hassan, as further evidence that the 2009 attack was a terrorism attack.
Hasan sent a two-page undated letter to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdad asking to become a member of the extremist Islamic group, Fox News reported Friday after obtaining the letter.
In the letter, Hasan says it would be an honor to become an “obedient citizen soldier” for ISIS and signed the missive with his name and the abbreviation “SoA,” or “Soldier of Allah” – the same identification he used on business cards before the shooting.
News of the letter immediately stirred a renewed debate over why the administration designated the Fort Hood shootings an act of workplace violence rather than terrorism despite Hasan’s proven ties to al Qaeda.
A lawyer for the victims says Hasan’s letter to ISIS is just more “salt in their wounds.”
“It’s just yet another piece of evidence demonstrating that the government really has been lying about Hasan and his motivation for years,” Reed Rubinstein told the Washington Examiner Friday. “It’s almost like [Hasan is] taunting him – especially given the federal government’s response to the attacks.”
A coalition of 160 victims and family members of Hasan’s deadly rampage at Fort Hood have been fighting the Obama administration for nearly five years to label the shooting an act of terrorism.
The assault on the army post in Killeen, Texas, left 13 dead, more than 30 wounded by gunshots and dozens more injured. Survivors, many who suffered from multiple bullet wounds, have spent the past three years trying to rehabilitate their bodies and rebuild their lives.
For the service members who died and those who were wounded, the terrorism distinction would mean that the military considered that their injuries took place in a combat zone, making them eligible for Purple Heart medals and, the victims say, access to medical care and benefits similar to what soldiers wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan receive.
The victims point out that Hassan had several email exchanges with top al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki about the attack, about whether the attack was justified to “protect our brothers” and followed al-Awlaki’s advice to scream “Allah Akbar” (“God is Great”) to invoke fear before starting to shoot. Until his death by a drone airstrike in 2011, Yemen-based Awlaki was one of the United States’ top enemies.
Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, who represents part of Fort Hood, along with Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, said Hasan’s letter to ISIS is further evidence that the attack was “positively a terrorist attack carried out by an extremist as everyone already knows, including Hassan who has admitted as much.”
“Only the Obama administration denies this,” he said in an email to the Examiner Friday. “Again, I hope this administration will do the right thing for once by reclassifying this attack from workplace violence to what it really is — terrorism — in order to get the victims and the families of those we lost the benefits they have earned and deserve.”
A White House spokeswoman referred inquiries to the Pentagon, which did not respond to a request for comment….
duh_swami says
I don’t get this letter thing…Is Hasan allowed to send out uncensored mail? Did he actually expect Abu Bakr to get it? How did FOX get it?
Gail Griffin says
Was there an address?
gravenimage says
I was wondering the same thing, Swami.
Are violent criminals now allowed to correspond with enemy governments?
pongidae rex says
When magical thinking becomes accepted in a court of law, as was the government’s case in the Ft. Hood massacre legal fiasco, your legal system has degenerated into farce. Magical thinking is universally recognized as a precursor to, and characteristic of, human insanity. That a court judgment based upon it has been rendered and upheld bodes ill for the future of the USA.
Jay Boo says
As Obama nears the end of his term will his Muslim ‘friends’ turn on him after having milked out all of his usefulness or will they spare him in hopes of reviving soon to kick the bucket Jimmy Carter’s legacy.
John C. Barile says
They won’t diss him before his last day in office, when he pardons Aafia Siddiqi and the Blind Sheikh.
John C. Barile says
The Obama administration BE DAMNED for all eternity.
jewdog says
No, his request to join the Islamic State is meaningless here. Hasan is a perpetrator of workplace violence who wants to join an organization that has nothing to do with Islam. I don’t know where you get your information, but mine comes from high government officials, including the President. Hasan might as well ask to be a citizen of Togo for all the difference it would make.
ringgo1 says
Bullshit.
gravenimage says
Jewdog is being sarcastic here. He is a staunch Anti-Jihadist, and *was not* defending this vile Mohammedan.
Eunice Well says
Somebody please send a copy of Hassan’s letter to Pres. Obama…although I have a feeling that Obama is pro-Hassan (and by the same token anti-USA).
ApolloSpeaks says
STUPID PIGHEADED OBAMA
He wouldn’t even do a simple, sensible compromise on the Ft. Hood massacre to avoid looking completely foolish. Okay, if you don’t want to use the term ISLAMIC in any description of the massacre to avoid offending Moslems and their useful idiots on the Left then why not compromise and call the event WORKPLACE TERRORISM? And Hasan a WORKPLACE TERRORIST? There’s no reference to Islam or jihad. It’s not politically incorrect. Very few Moslems and Leftists would object to it. And we on the Right would say that Obama is at least half right . What a putz.
http://www.apollospeaks.com
Joe Murphy says
It should be clear why the Administration does not want this classified as a terror attack — recognizing it as a terror attack exposes Obama’s butt: he was responsible for the policies which allowed this Jihadi terror attack to happen. To protect his butt, don’t even recognize that it was a terror attack at all.
So, to those soldiers who risked life and limb to make their country safe — sorry, but truthful recognition of your sacrifice and loss. and proper compensation, must take second place to saving Obama the embarrassment of recognizing his part in your loss.
Bezelel says
I don’t see that geography has anything to do with being wounded while on duty during a time of conflict. They were on duty and we are involved in a conflict. No doubt or has there ever been any doubt that hasan, while yelling alla akbar, shot our soldiers. That really is enough even though there is much more damning evidence. He should be in Gitmo waiting for a firing squad. The big brass needs to rock the boat. They took that oath too. You know? That oath servicemen take.
David, Thailand says
Terrorism is not specific to any faith, while Jihad is specifically conducted by Muslims, specifically against non-Muslims, specifically commanded by the Koran, specifically on behalf of Allah, and in all other aspects specifically with the goal to further Islam with the specific goal of the dysfunctional ideology to dominate the world as the supreme religion.
The Left have won, and so we knuckleheads allow our glorious leaders and complicit media to use the word ‘terrorism’ to describe Jihad.
PRCS says
“we knuckleheads allow our glorious leaders and complicit media to use the word ‘terrorism’ to describe Jihad”
That is correct.
Why call the problem as it is when there are so many euphemisms the gullible will so willingly accept.
Even now, as the atrocities being conducted by Muslims around the world–in the name of Allah–are exposed almost daily, by almost instantaneous television and internet broadcasts, so many of our fellow citizens continue to buy into the kinder, gentler, and phoney explanations of the issue.
I’m afraid it really will take a major attack on our soil to jolt them into reality.
Dave J says
If you cannot bring yourself to even name the enemy that has long since declared war on you, then you will lose everything.
gravenimage says
Hasan’s bloody Jihad had nothing to do with Islam—and neither does his fervent desire to serve as a soldier for the Islamic State…sarc/off
What fools these dhimmis be!