Nov 14 2009
Obama Administration Is Not Being Straight With America On Ft Hood Massacre
For the last week I have been posting about my suspicions regarding the Ft Hood terrorist massacre and how the Obama administration seemed to be in full spin mode, as if they knew something horrible about the incident.
The crux of my concerns have been the well established, far left positions held by AG Holder and President Obama regarding the fixes President Bush implemented to the FISA processes and guidelines that allow internal investigations into people who have suspicious contacts with known terrorist or terrorist allies. AG Holder has been abundantly clear in his view that we should expose ourselves to attack by dismantling the changes made by President Bush, and which kept us safe from serious attack since 9-11. Holder’s views are not hazy or in doubt:
In addition to closing Gitmo, Holder insisted the next president should:
…
Stop domestic search and seizures without warrant and end wiretapping of citizens.
“We have lost our way before,†Holder told the 350 attendees at the Friday evening session. “Now we must step back into the shining path envisioned by our founding fathers in such icons of liberty as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.â€
Clearly this position applies directly to Major Hasan, who is an American citizen who was also under surveillance after he was picked up last December (under the Bush administration) trying to contact a well known al Qaeda recruiter and supporter.
The timing of the matter is just too coincidental not to be suspicious. A first Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) picks up Hasan making many attempts to contact a radical Imam in Yemen (who is also American born and connected to the 9-11 high jackers). They pass the lead to a second JTTF in DC to investigate since Hasan is working at Walter Reed just outside DC in Maryland.
In the same time period President Obama’s team takes over, and Holder now decides which (if any) investigations will continue forward under the Bush guidelines (now the law of the land after Congress passed legislation twice). Apparently it is in this time frame that people stopped connecting dots. In quick succession the investigation stops short, is closed down and Hasan is promoted and shipped to Ft Hood on his way to Afghanistan. All very coincidental.
This happened around the April-May-June timeframe. Fast forward to November 5th and Hasan (who has made no secret of his Jihadist leanings and erratic behavior) mows down 23 people and an unborn baby.
What has struck me as odd is how quick the FBI (Obama’s FBI) started coming out claiming there was no terrorist connections. It happened almost immediately, culminating with this bizarre press conference in DC with unidentified FBI officials on 9/05/09. What makes this briefing so bizarre is what the officials knew versus what they don’t know. They don’t know anything about Hassan’s questionable behavior at Walter Reed, but they did have the fig leaf deflection story down pat. For example:
HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE HASAN’S COMMUNICATIONS?
The general tenor of the communications, at least in my mind, were fairly benign and did comport with a research project he was doing that was sanctioned by Walter Reed [Army Medical Center],” one official said. (Hasan was researching Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for his Master’s degree during the time he sent communications to Awlaki.) Another official said the communications appeared “consistent entirely with what he was doing as a licensed psychiatrist in dealing with soldiers [or] what he’s doing for his Master’s work.” As for the specific content of the communications, one official would only say that it included “social” topics and “religious guidance.”
They go through a lot of denial about seeing any big dots to connect, and then they do something stunning. They admit they did not do an in depth investigation at all, which is completely at odds with what they implied during the early part of the briefing:
One official said the assessment was “of a limited duration,” and it included reaching out to the military about Hasan’s work. One official said the JTTF looked at: “Who is this person? What are they working on? Any issues with them? Disciplinary matters? All those things just part of due diligence.” Hasan’s “performance reports were reviewed” but “there was nothing that raised … a red flag,” according to one official. The official said he didn’t know whether any of Hasan’s colleagues at Walter Reed had filed any reports about Hasan.
…
A FORMAL INVESTIGATION WAS NEVER OPENED. WHY NOT?
“What we had was some contact and some communications that wasn’t enough to get us into even the preliminary investigation box,” one official said. “We didn’t have enough for a preliminary investigation.”
“We cannot predicate an investigation of a U.S. person … solely on First Amendment activity,” the official said. “So if all you have is First Amendment activity — so it’s protected speech, there’s nothing that suggests advocacy of violence, nothing that suggests incitement to violence, nothing about the connection between him and the [individual overseas FBI was investigating] … then what do you have? In order to open a preliminary investigation we need information or allegations that person is or may be, in this context, a national security threat. And that can’t be based solely on protected First Amendment activity.”
That is actually 100% wrong. The Bush changes gave the FBI and other agencies plenty of room to determine if someone was a threat once they were detected contacting known terrorists overseas. These excuses reek of Eric Holder and his liberal ideology. The whole purpose of these changes was to see if there was a risk that needed to be addressed.
As if that was not enough right there to suspect the current administration dropped its guard and allowed 14 Americans to be brutally murdered, then came this news today It shows how “Major Hasan” was such an important name that his emails hit the President’s desks probably even before this FBI briefing to the news media happened.
Shortly after the Nov. 5 shootings, Obama reportedly saw e-mails that Hasan had sent to a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen whom the FBI has investigated since the 1990s for possible terrorist ties.
Why in the world would the President be looking over these emails? Did he get the entire JTTF report? Then we see this tidbit on the timeline:
On Nov. 6, the president ordered a far-reaching review of everything known about Hasan before the massacre, but the inquiry’s existence was not revealed until this week. By that point, sources had told The Dallas Morning News that Hasan had also wired money to Pakistan, which has become a hub for terrorist fundraising and is in the grip of a militant Islamic insurgency.
So in less than a week did the news media turn up more dots than two joint task forces did over the course of many months? Did the media discover the concerns of  Hasan’s Walter Reed coworkers in a fraction of the time the two joint task forces investigated, and apparently missed all together? Mark Steyn does a great job of noting the fact Hasan was lit up like a bright neon red light indicating s a serious threat. Could we all learn this in a week where the task forces fumbled for months and simply closed the case without finding anything but free speech?
Finally, I found this article interesting in terms of laying out some facts and how these administration/FBI briefings and leaks are complicating the Army’s investigation – which they lead now with the FBI in a supporting (and supposedly quiet) role:
According to an FBI update submitted to police organizations such as the National Association of Chiefs of Police, the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division is leading a coordinated criminal investigation with the support of the FBI and other components of the US Department of Justice as well as the Department of Public Safety’s Texas Rangers.
This is interesting, because the briefings keep coming from people outside this investigation it would appear.
The investigation is in its early stages, and the information they are able to provide now is limited at this point, according to the NACOP report.
Yeah, except all the spin and leaking. If there are connections between Hasan and Pakistan, including wire transfers, then we need to find out why the investigation was shut down so early and prematurely.
The investigation was shut down because Obama has to prove he is not President Bush. He just forgot, Bush kept this country safe for 8 years.
The Fort Hood massacre was a terrorist attack on the United States, who’s watch, yep, Obama’s watch, plain and simple. No wonder he had Hasan’s file on his desk ASAP.
It appears that Obama formed the opinion while running for office, that George W. Bush did the things he did and instituted the policies he chose because he was an evil man, a premeditatedly evil man, an inherently stupid man.
Obama is going to prove to the world he is better then George W. Bush, he tells us, he tells the whole world every time he opens his mouth that he is not George W. Bush. How many Americans have to die for this President?
Hasan was a member of the armed forces, someone should have been paying attention.
This is Obama’s message to Congress.
President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead. On an eight-day Asia trip, Obama turned his attention home and pleaded for lawmakers to “resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater.” He said those who died on the nation’s largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft. “The stakes are far too high,”
MORALIZING OVER AND OVER AGAIN. This is not political, really, you mean don’t judge my administration just yet, we are only respecting first amendment rights, afforded to all citizens, something George Bush never did, Islamist deserve first amendments rights too. The dead deserve justice, what does that mean? They deserved to not get mowed down on an army base in their own country. That’s what they deserved. It is Obama’s politicking that got these guys killed. He needs to face it and be held accountable.
Exactly AJ.
I wouldn’t be surprised in NY decision was ‘finalized’ after the terrorist attack.
This administration isn’t straight with the American people about much of anything. The sooner they leave town, the better.
I buy into Eric Holder not connecting the dots under the Bush guidelines which leads to the mass murders by Hasan. The Ft Hood murders are about as serious to the American people as 9/11 and therefore, I would think, Eric Holder and Obama risk a tremendous blacklash by the American people if under their watch their new policy contributed to this massacre. Obama asking Congress to hold off on any investigations while flying overseas would seem to indicate he is worried that Congress might connect the dots that were not connected.
However, what I don’t get is ….Why then on Friday did Eric Holder go ahead with the announcement to prosecute the Gitmo terrorist in NY ?? It is obvious that this is being done to embarrass the Bush administration and our intelligent agencies.
I would think Obama & Holder would hold off on this announcement …….if nothing more than to use the Gitmo trials as a bargaining chip for a big fat cover-up of Hasan with the powers that be who do not agree with these civil trials.
Can someone help me out here ?? Why would the Obama administration announce the trials ….only to have to reverse themselves later ?? I would think announcing would get some intelligent officials, the FBI or the military pretty upset setting off more exposure to other embarrassing details about Hasan that the administration might not want out there in public ??
The dots don’t seem to add up for me ??
crosspatch:
I had exactly the same thought. Word for word.
How can Obama tell Congress what to do? They are co-equal branches of office.
I hope that those investigations by Congress will not stop. They may be the only ones that can connect the dots.
I have to wonder…which judge will take up on these cases?
Andrew Cohen wrote an article attempting to dispel the reasons against holding the cases in Manhattan, NY. Did you read that? I disagree with him.
Amazing how so many people objected to Bush and the rest quiet.
Now when Eric Holder does something, the quiet ones come out of their nook and cranny to strongly object to his decisions and actions. He is getting lots of backlash on this one.
Question is…will he retreat on this one?
WGIRL,
Assume these people are way in over their head and pathetic and the answer is clear. They think trying the 9-11 masterminds will make them look tough on terror, and they get to wipe the Ft Hood Massacre off the front pages.
>Yeah, except all the spin and leaking. If there are
>connections between Hasan and Pakistan, including
>wire transfers, then we need to find out why the
>investigation was shut down so early and
>prematurely.
AJ,
Follow the money.
The real question is how many other Major Hasan’s are there sending money back to Pakistan. If there is one of them, there are more of them.
Consider what a 2009 tech upgraded, Able Danger type, data sifting system can do with complete access to the world money transfers that pass through the American internet.
I suspect that the Obama Administration is highly sensitive to US Intelligence tracking and keeping records of cash transfers between Americans and foreigners.
Look closely at how the Obama for President 2008 campaign funded itself through unvetted internet donations.
Having American intelligence paying very close attention to all transnational money transfers leaves them as vulnerable as Elliot Spitzer and his whore.
Major Hasan is a flaming datum that the American intelligence money transfer tracking system set up by the Bush Administration has been crippled by the Obama Administration.
Maybe its’ entirely appropriate that the Army is heading up this investigation with the help of the FBI and Texas Rangers, but count me skeptical that the organization that has Hussein Obama as its Commander In Chief would HEAD UP the investigation thus under orders be subject to shutting it down or covering it up!
Why would Pinnochio Hussein Obama demand congress shut down its investigation? Shut it down until he and Holder can do a thourogh whitewash of and elimination of the evidence that points directly at them and this EPIC FAILURE of and administration?
Perhaps Holder is runnin a bluff and when the heat gets hot enough offer to keep the trials in Military Court rather than NYC in exchange for a hush up of Fort Hood.
Is there anyone left that trusts this administration and their wild claims?
Jobs saved or created?
Lives saved by Healthscare?
Economic recovery in the midst of climbing unemployment?
H1N1 national crisis whenits no where near as dangerous as the regular flu?
This admin is packed with radicals and losers from the Clintoon Admin, the same folks who gave us 911!
God Help America!
A great article here.
[…] am also now suspicious about how quickly the Hasan-Aulaqi emails hit the President’s desk: Shortly after the Nov. 5 shootings, Obama reportedly saw e-mails that Hasan had sent to a radical […]
[…] in contact with known terrorist sympathizers. It is evident from the Ft Hood Massacre aftermath and how his team spun the news then, specifically this when discussing Major Hasan’s communications with radical cleric and al […]