Shocking investigation; Big Army is PC
I know, no one who has spent a day in uniform is really shocked, but this time, Big Army’s political correctness cost lives of some of our finest soldiers in Fort Hood when Nidal Hassan opened fire in a processing center where soldiers were preparing to deploy to Iraq. Fox News reports that a review of the incident by former FBI Director William Webster concluded that Big Army is too PC;
In emails to a known terrorist, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan expressed his support for suicide bombings and killing civilians, while the terrorist, Anwar al-Awlaki, encouraged Hasan to stay in touch….
Yeah, but despite the emails which expressed a desire to engage in terrorist activities against Americans, the FBI somehow concluded that it was all part of Hasan’s research;
Soon after the attack, it was revealed that members of two FBI anti-terrorism task forces saw emails between the Army psychiatrist and al-Awlaki beginning in December 2008. Those task forces reviewed the communications and decided they were in keeping with Hasan’s research at the time, and as a result, no formal investigation of Hasan was opened. Hasan was writing a research paper about the effects of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I guess that they didn’t investigate Hasan’s state of mind and the veracity of the expressed intentions in the email because Hasan maybe used “eyeroll” and “big grin” emoticons in the communications which fooled the FBI agents into thinking that he was just joking, maybe?
It’s good that the Army learned their lesson, though, because, you know, calling the mass murder of soldiers preparing to deploy to war “workplace violence” isn’t PC at all.
And it’s good to know that the FBI has made changes to the way they do business as a result;
One major change was that if al-Awlaki comes up as part of a terror investigation, FBI headquarters would be alerted, Mark Giuliano, assistant director for the FBI’s National Security Branch, said last year.
Well, that should be real helpful, now that al-Awlaki is dead.
Category: Terror War
What REALLY burns me is that the Army is still steadfastly refusing to award the Purple Heart Medal to the military casualties, or the Defense of Freedom Medal to the civilian casualties, AND the Army refuses to authorize Hostile Fire Pay to all military personnel stationed at Fort Hood, Texas during that time period, AND the Army continues its policy of requiring all personnel to be unarmed (unless in a training situation, et cetera).
I’ve personally written about this in letters to the Army, with no response, and I’ve written letters to editors of newspapers and Internet web sites, as have other equally concerned individuals.
In the “politically correct” opinion of our national government, what happened was not an act of war, but merely an unrelated crime.
I commute to Fort Lewis every day. It’s the only place I can’t go armed.
If I were Hasan’s lawyer, I’d have a field day with calling it “workplace violence” in court. I’m betting he’ll use that as a significant advantage.
The irony is that they’re saying “we were being too PC” and continue to be “too PC” by continuing to call it “workplace violence.”
All too often the military is used for sociological experiments and this is a perfect example.