ABC reports that U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda. Why did our government not act on this information?
The Associated Press reported that prior to his deployment to Fort Hood Hassan attended a mosque in Falls Church, Virginia that was led by a radical imam. This mosque was also attended by 9/11 terrorist prior to their attack. The iman, Anwar al Awlaki, now lives in Yemen. He posted on his website that Hasan “did the right thing… He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.”
Hot Air reports (via ABC) that there was plenty of indications of Hasan’s radical views:
A fellow Army doctor who studied with Hasan, Val Finell, told ABC News, “We would frequently say he was a Muslim first and an American second. And that came out in just about everything he did at the University.
Finell said he and other Army doctors complained to superiors about Hasan’s statements.
“And we questioned how somebody could take an oath of office…be an officer in the military and swear allegiance to the constitution and to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic and have that type of conflict,” Finell told ABC News.
Why was this information and other reports ignored by intelligence agencies and the military? Previous speculation was that people were afraid to report Hasan’s statements for fear of repercussions for going against political correctness. But it appears that there were plenty of reports on Hasan that should have resulted in at least containing him while these reports were investigated.
It looks like our government is reverting to the pre-9/11 approach to dealing with terrorism. This is not surprising given the views of the Obama administration. For eight years, Bush / Cheney prevented attacks by identifying potential terrorists and acting on the information before they could do harm. This attack raises concerns that the blindness of the current administration may overlook other plots that are developing. Is the Fort Hood terrorist attack going to be a wake up call for Obama or are we going to have to wait for a bigger 9/11 type attack? Based on the Obama administration’s reaction so far, I am afraid that the outlook is grim.
