The politically correct investigation of Major Hasan
I’ve suspected for quite some time that the feds are planning to cut Major Hasan, the Fort Hood murderer (um, not alleged), some slack. Of course, his lawyer and the Washington Post are complicit in this purveying of slack;
“He has no sensation from the nipple area down,” Hasan’s civilian attorney, John P. Galligan, said in a telephone interview.
During a closed-door hearing in Hasan’s hospital room on Saturday that lasted about an hour, a magistrate ruled that Hasan be confined until his military trial, Galligan said.
“In the middle of this hearing, he started to nod off and go to sleep,” Galligan said. “When I’ve spoken with him, he’s coherent, but your ability to have any meaningful exchange with him is limited in time and subject.”
But, Reuel Marc Gerecht in the Wall Street Journal today, makes these points about the treatment of Hasan before his shooting rampage on that November afternoon in regards to FBI’s investigations;
For the FBI, religion remains a much too sensitive subject, much more so than the threatening ideologies of yesteryear. Imagine if Maj. Hasan had been an officer during the Cold War, regularly expressing his sympathy for the Soviet Union and American criminality against the working man. Imagine him writing to a KGB front organization espousing socialist solidarity. The major would have been surrounded by counterintelligence officers.
A law-enforcement agency par excellence, the FBI reflects American legal ethics. Because the FBI is always thinking about criminal prosecutions and admissible evidence, its intelligence-collecting inevitably gets defined by its judicial procedures. Good counterintelligence curiosity—that must come into play before any crime is committed—is at odds with a G-man’s raison d’être. And much more so than local police departments—which are grounded to the unpleasantness of daily life—it is highly susceptible to politically correct behavior.
Political correctness since the shooting has been no less politically correct. The reports that Hasan was dead in the early hours of the aftermath, the reports that he had multiple tours in combat and that his rampage was a result of his combat stress. Even the announcement that Hasan’s computer showed no connections to foreign radical entities has been proven false by the large number of email communications Hasan had with a terror-supporting cleric in Yemen. And the FBI knew of those connections before the shooting and didn’t think it was important enough to tell the Army about.
Oops.
I shudder to think where the investigating agencies are looking these days for answers, when the answer is right in front of their stupid faces. If it was a snake….
Category: Terror War
If one didn’t know better, someone would probably cynically suggest the investigation would target random people on the internet, focusing on trivia instead of Hasan’s causation. Thank God we live in a country where that wouldn’t happen…
Our politikaly kastrated FBI komrades need to drop the “lone wolf terrorist” definition from it’s investigations handbook.
This is almost as good as Jamie Gorelick’s wall, hey? No. wait. It’s all Bush’s fault. There. I said it.
Hey, why look for answers when you can simply make up ones that fit what you want to work?
Much less labor intensive that way.
USMC Steve- That’s what the “scientists” did for Algore warming…
Don’t forget, while the Feeb’s piled into their black Suburbans and sped to Starbucks, then on to Ft. Hood, they pronounced that this was NOT terrorism. If they didn’t know it was Hasan when they made their pronouncement, and didn’t know who had done the shooting, how could they deduce it was NOT terrorism?
And, USMC Steve is right, if you don’t like the answers you have, make up new ones.
“I shudder to think where the investigating agencies are looking these days for answers, when the answer is right in front of their stupid faces. If it was a snake”
I’ll tell ya where they’re looking; they’re still looking at us Vets, making sure we aren’t joining any radical right wing extremist groups likr the tea party protesters. Cuz everybody knows weeze da haters.
HFS!!! JUST HEARD ON THE PHILLY STATION THAT HASAN IS GOING TO PLEAD NOT GUILTY!!! WTF????
I hope the Army realizes that the real threat here is the milbloggers.
Yeah, those Milbloggers are using unfair tactics. What’s up with somebody claiming freedom of the press or the first amendment? All that crap was fixed with the Fairness Doctorine wasn’t it? Doesn’t everybody know by now that the government knows best for us? Geez.
Based on things I hear, Bloggers are not covered by the same protections as the press.
Careful TSO. CID may already be on their way to your house.
Not only is CID on the way to TSO’s house, they’re bringing Louis Farrakhan to give him sensitivity training.
Oh, and Jonn, if it were a snake it would be a lethal bite considering how far their heads are up their fourth points of contact.
“Not only is CID on the way to TSO’s house, they’re bringing Louis Farrakhan to give him sensitivity training.”
I object to this insulting of my former profession. While I don’t know what the views are of the new crop, my email exchanges with a retired CID colleague of mine have been with the mutually-held private view that Hasan is a terrorist and this is basically the result of political correctness (i.e., the fact he wasn’t booted out before it got this far, or at least under close surveillance).
Also, I’m sure I shouldn’t need to tell you that the CID investigates violations of the UCMJ, and terrorism is not in the UCMJ. Of course, IMHO, terrorism is best investigated through conventional criminal investigation methods anyway. I think this is basically a cut and dried multiple-murder case and the max punishment if he is convicted should be more than sufficient. (Not that I have any current inside info or contacts…though early on, I did get the email containing an initial statement/description of the events written by a JAG lawyer who was a witness to the shootings, which appears to be authentic.)
Nah, Debbie, the CID reference is becoming an inside joke pertaining to the original thread on Nidal “I need a bullet in my melon” Hasan.
Some chicken choker was threateninhg Jonn and TSO with visits by CID for something; but I forget what that was.
Ah…guess I haven’t been following closely enough..