Another 9/11 Travesty

A little more than eight years ago, a group of Muslim Terrorists attacked Americans on American soil. In the end, more than 3,000 innocent civilian Americans were dead. The attack on that day was just that: an attack. A well planned and executed military attack that murdered thousands of people.

This morning, another travesty relating to 9/11 occurred. President Obama and his loyal minion, Attorney General Eric Holder decided that the War Criminals who were responsible for 9/11 would be tried as civilians in a Federal Courtroom in lower Manhattan, a few blocks from their main and most deadly attack that day. A few blocks from Hallowed Ground.

I am angry. As all of you know from this column, I try to be fair and balanced in my arguments. I do not allow anger to rule the day. But today, I am angry. The Obama Administration has now decided that these War Criminals should have the same rights and privileges as ordinary citizens.

The ramifications of this are obvious. It is just another example of the appeasement and weakness of the Obama Administration and his policies. I want you all to remember the last time appeasement was used in the late 1930’s. After that travesty fifty million people were dead including six million innocent Jews. The last time we were weak was during the Carter Administration. The result, American held hostage for more than one year.

Having the trials of these War Criminals in civilian courtrooms will allow these hate mongers to abuse and mock the American citizens and families of those they have left tortured and depressed for eight years. The trials will be subject to public scrutiny and will be a media circus like that of Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson. National security measures will be made public and National Intelligence Techniques, not all of which are water boarding, will be made public. Relevant evidence will not be admitted because of technical issues on the rule of evidence. These War Criminals may actually be let free.

The Bush Administration, even with all of its faults, kept us safe. Just last week, another terrorist attack occurred at Ft. Hood on American soil. That left 13 Americans dead and more than 25 wounded. President Obama did not even call it a terrorist attack. He was too concerned about the feelings of the terrorists to say what it really was. And today, this travesty.

I urge all of you to go this website, click on the badge and sign the petition:  http://www.thebravest.com/

Ronald Reagan said it best, “peace through strength.” Maybe Obama should listen and learn. After all he claims to be a pragmatist.

© 2009 by Frank T. DeMartini. Permission to copy will be freely granted upon request.

The Keystone Cops by Ira Schwartz

Today was a somber day at Ft. Hood Texas as the soldiers and civilians killed and wounded in the horrific shooting there were honored. It was just last week on November 5th at 1:34 pm (CST) that the mundane routine of the sprawling military base in Killeen Texas was shattered by the sound of gunfire. When the smoke cleared 11 were dead and 32 lay wounded (two of the wounded later died at the hospital). The gunman, U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was himself seriously wounded by two civilian police officers. Unconfirmed reports flew across the media and internet; was this yet another terrorist attack or a crazed gunman acting on his own? Now that a fair amount of the facts have surfaced it appears to be a little of both.

So why would an Army Major, trained to treat combat related psychological injuries, calmly walk into a readiness area and start shooting.

Military records show Nidal Malik Hasan received his appointment to the Army as a first lieutenant in June 1997 after graduating from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Six years later, he graduated from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences' F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, and was first an intern, then a resident and finally a fellow at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Soon after, signs of a growing problem within Hasan began to surface. Several colleagues reported that Hasan was consistently expressing his opposition to the Iraq and Afghan wars. Nothing was ever done.

In 2007, Hasan turned a medical presentation at Walter Reed into tirade on Islam. He said, according to the Washington Post, "It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims." Again nothing was done.

It appears our intelligence community also knew about Hasan troubles. The FBI began an “assessment” of him in December of 2008 that continued into early 2009. They deemed him not to be a threat. Does this sound familiar? If not, it should. Our intelligence community was caught napping before 911 too.

According to “The Washington Post” Federal authorities (FBI) were aware for years that suspected terrorists with ties to Osama bin Laden were receiving flight training at schools in the United States and abroad.

Cox News – reported a memo written by a Phoenix FBI agent two months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks linked Arab flight students to a radical Islamic group in England that has ties to alleged "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid. And the list goes on.

Now 8 years later it has happened again. Let’s check and see what piqued the FBI’s curiosity with Nidal Malik Hasan.

Military officials told CNN that intelligence agencies intercepted communications from Hasan to Anwar al-Awlaki and shared them with other U.S. government agencies. Anwar al-Awlaki is a former imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb and is the center where Hasan went to pray. Al-Awlaki, who left the United States in 2002, was the subject of several federal investigations dating back to the late 1990s. Even with this information the federal authorities dropped the inquiry into Hasan's communications when a member of one of its Joint Terrorism Task Forces determined "that the content of those communications was consistent with research being conducted by Maj. Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Medical Center [in Washington]."

So according to the JTTF it’s okay for a Major in the US Military, who’s feelings are known to be against the war in the Middle East, to communicate with a known terrorist collaborator not once, not twice but some twenty times. Also a search of Hasan’s computer uncovered that he had been visiting several Islamic extremist websites.

Sadly it appears we have learned nothing in the eight years since 911. Despite the creation of The Office of Homeland Security, the catch all basin for terrorist threats, important information still seems to be slipping between the cracks. Well, maybe not slipping between the cracks as much as being brushed aside. Maybe our intelligence experts aren’t all that intelligent or all that expert. Maybe it’s time our government took a long, hard look at exactly who is responsible for gathering and processing the data that concerns the welfare and security of the American people.

Thirteen people are dead and thirty are wounded. Nidal Malik Hasan may have done the shooting but our Intelligence Community certainly put the bullets in the gun.

As a post script to this story FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that his organization will be investigating itself to see if the Bureau mishandled the investigation into Hasan. Nothing like an organization investigating itself to find the truth. Now there’s a report I’d love to see.

©2009 by Ira Schwartz. All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission.