Hannity concocts smear that Obama at fault for Ft. Hood shooting
Sean Hannity speculated that "there is a chance our government knew all about" alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan "and did nothing because nobody wanted to be called an Islamophobe," and asked, "What does it say about Barack Obama and our government?" But there is no evidence that Obama was aware of the emails between Hasan and an imam with alleged ties to Al Qaeda; moreover, Hannity did not address what the incident says about President Bush, who was in office when the authorities reportedly first intercepted the emails.
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Hannity: "there is a chance our government knew all about Hasan," "What does it say about Barack Obama?"
From the November 9 edition of Fox News' Hannity:
HANNITY: This Fort Hood situation is really beginning to disturb me and should disturb everybody. And that is that there is a chance our government knew all about this guy Hasan and did nothing because nobody wanted to be called an Islamophobe. We're not talking about Islam, we're talking about radical Islam. You know, this guy going in there, god is great, etc., etc., and all the things he's saying. But everybody hat worked with him, Bob, knew ahead of time, our government apparently knew and did nothing. Now, this is a terrorist act, if in fact this was motivated in such a way. What does it say about Barack Obama and our government?
Hasan communications with imam with alleged ties to Al Qaeda reportedly intercepted in "late 2008"
Reports: Army and FBI aware of emails during Bush administration. Several news outlets, including the Chicago Tribune and Associated Press, have reported that the FBI and Army became aware of emails between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki in late 2008, during the Bush administration. These reports contain no evidence that Obama (or Bush) were made aware of the emails. From a November 9 Chicago Tribune article:
The FBI and the Army looked into contacts between the Army psychiatrist accused of last week's deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood and a Yemen-based militant Islamist prayer leader but concluded that he didn't pose a terrorist threat, senior law enforcement and military officials said Monday.
The disclosure that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan had ongoing communications with an imam who had ties to Sept. 11 hijackers was sure to raise the question of whether U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies had information that, if properly shared and investigated, might have helped to prevent the attack.
[...]
Several U.S. officials said U.S. intelligence agencies first intercepted communications between Hasan and Awlaki starting in late 2008 as a result of another investigation, and that the information was given to one U.S.-based multi-agency Joint Terrorism Task Force and then to another one based at the Washington Field Office because of Hasan's assignment at the Walter Reed medical center.
The Washington task force, which included FBI agents and Army criminal investigative personnel, launched a probe and determined that Hasan was contacting the radical cleric -- who has ties to other Al Qaeda-affiliated individuals -- "within the context of the doctor's position and what he was doing at the time, conducting research on the issues of Muslims in the military and the effects of war in Muslim countries.''
The official said Hasan had ''reached out to Awlaki several times before he got a response,'' and that there was little in the correspondence to raise serious red flags.
From a November 9 AP article:
FBI Director Robert Mueller has ordered an internal inquiry to see whether the bureau mishandled worrisome information gathered about Hasan beginning in December 2008 and continuing into early this year
Based on all the investigations since the attack, including a review of that 2008 information, the investigators said they have no evidence that Hasan had help or outside orders in the shootings.
A military is a form of controlled insanity. After several years of keeping these guys on speed while ordering them to kill fellow human beings, the control broke down.
It's time to make the Karzai government shape up or make deals with the warlords so we can stop this insanity. (It was the awakening groups, not the surge that brought semi-peace to Iraq. The surge was just political theatre)
Good Christ I hope not!! If the right-wing uses 9/11 as a comparison to the Ft. Hood shooting... oh wait... this is Cluster Fox we are talking about...
I give it by the end of the week for it to happen, if it hasn't already!
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Isn't is amazing how seldom the "Party of personal responsability" ever takes responsabiilty for anything?
Sheesh!
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Notice how they conveniently leave out THAT little detail!
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HANNITY, OTOH seems to think differenlty...
Downside - nothing really. If nothing becomes of it, no one else will mention it and, when is the last time Hannity issued a retraction?
I wonder if it is not much of a stretch that Bush/Cheney regime is more to blame than anything else??
Plus all the gun worship in Texas may have something to do with it.
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So I don't think it's a stretch AT ALL to say that Buch/Cheney bears the majority of the responsibility, at least to the extent that the executive brach even can.
Obama lied, troops are dying! US out of Iraq and Afghanistan now!
Hillary Clinton:
"I am sick and tired of people who call you unpatriotic
if you debate this administration’s policies. We are Americans
and have the right to participate and debate any administration."
being thoroughly unreasonable and misguided on policy issues is one thing.but its gone way beyond any of that.
at first i laughed,then i got angry,but now...im just sad.truly,truly saddened.
think about it...they trashed the pres for speaking to schoolchildren.as bad as that was,it was still kinda funny.but once they attacked him for going to dover to pay his respects to fallen soldiers,i knew there was simply no turning back.
these disgraceful,knownothing hypocritical greasestains on the surface of decency,have absolutely zero regard for the stunning hypocrisy of their attacks.there are so many points to be made about pres bush's handling of this aspect of the wars,but i dont feel comfortable politicizing fallen soldiers.
and with the ft hood situation...i still was naive enough to hold out hope that the fnc crowd wouldnt make the completely predictable/unconscionable move of blaming it on pres obama.
but of course...
they never disappoint,do they?
we were all lectured foir eight years about how unpatriotic it was to criticize our pres during a time of war.
if any progressive type even dropped the most subtle hint that something like ft hood was bush's fault,foxnews collective head would explode
Obama lied, troops are dying! US out of Iraq and Afghanistan now!
Hillary Clinton:
"I am sick and tired of people who call you unpatriotic
if you debate this administration’s policies. We are Americans
and have the right to participate and debate any administration."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/09/AR2009110903618.html?hpid=topnews
Apparently Dr. Hasan suggested Muslims should be able to leave the service as CO's. The great Dave Ross asked the same question this morning (11/10/2009) - if we have an all-volunteer army, why can't people resign?
More to the point, however. Here's substantial evidence members of the US Military knew some time ago that Dr. Hasan held some views outside the norm. What was done about it? Apparently, not much. Perhaps because the service is so desperate for personnel that they must tolerate this sort of thing just to keep going.
That would be President Bush's military, wouldn't it?
Because you sign a contract, a commitment to serve for a certain amount of time on active duty, then a certain amount of time in the Reserves. You usually can only get out of that contract due to medical or family issues that keep you from serving.
And that is a pretty bold and ignorant statement when you say "the service is so desperate for personnel that they must tolerate this sort of thing just to keep going."
Did you ever serve? I can't speak for the Army, which has the LOWEST standards for recruitment of any of the US Armed Forces, but the Marines does its best to police internal problems with its personnel.
When I had an idiotic barracks roommate that I couldn't stand and he kept staggering in drunk half the time, I apparently made an offhand comment to someone that I could "just kill the guy." You know, as in the figure of speech. I spent the next two weeks talking to NCO's and officers (including the Muslim base Chaplin) because they thought I might physically harm the guy and I should attend anger management classes. And I didn't even remember making the comment! It eventually got cleared up and the matter was dropped, but they were all over what they thought was a potential issue that didn't really exist. That was good leadership looking out for the safety of it's Marines.
This isn't a Muslim issue, this isn't an overall Army issue. Its an issue of poor leadership and poor response to a potential problem when there were red flags waving everywhere. To call this an issue because of retaining troops is just plain ridiculous. But its easy to point fingers and place blame after the fact, isn't it?
It also matters what your military occupational specialty is and if it is needed at that time if they will apply the stop/loss to you. If you don't like those options than you shouldn't voluntarily enlist in the military and sign the contract to begin with. It's part of your commitment. Simple as that. Is it one-sided? Yes. Are you a piece of meat to the military? Yes. But again, its the individual's choice to sign the contract, they aren't drafted you know.
The military should have done something about Hasan. Somebody screwed up and it cost this country big time.
I would have expected the 'this is Obama's fault' stuff to come on Friday.
It shows real restraint for them to wait until monday.
lol
Listening to some of the things that come out of Hannity's puke port reminds me that there are things worse than shoveling the chickenschidt out of the henhouse on a hot August afternoon.
Lots worse.
Well Hannity will never say that or still find a way to say Obama still should be blamed.
*Facepalm*
Well Hannity will never say that or still find a way to say Obama still should be blamed.
*Facepalm*