Fort Hood Shootings: WH Stalling, Senators Subpoena Obama Administration for Information
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on April 20, 2010
Fort Hood, November 5, 2009: Soldiers mourn their fallen comrades following a bloody shooting massacre on the Texas military base. | Photo credit: MSNBC Dallas-Fort Worth
More than five months have passed since the terrorist shooting attack by Muslim Army psychiatrist Nidal M. Hasan on Fort Hood soldiers on November 5, 2009.
Despite requests, no information has been released by the Obama administration about the massacre, and so yesterday, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) issued the first congressional subpoenas of the Obama administration concerning what appears to be White House stonewalling about the Fort Hood shootings.
From The Washington Post, Two senators subpoena Obama administration for information on Fort Hood shootings:
Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) issued the first congressional subpoenas of the Obama administration Monday after accusing the White House of stonewalling their requests for information about the Fort Hood shootings.
In a letter with the subpoenas, the chairman and ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said the FBI and Defense Department had ignored their requests for five months. The Nov. 5 shootings at the Texas base, the largest Army post in the United States, left 13 people dead.
Lieberman and Collins said they sought witnesses and documents about what the government previously knew about the alleged gunman, Army psychiatrist Nidal M. Hasan, and whether it had adequately investigated his pre-shooting communications with Yemeni cleric and suspected terrorist Anwar al-Aulaqi.
Lawmakers gave the administration until April 26 to respond or face a committee vote to take the administration to court.
“Given the warning signs of Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s extremist radicalization and growing hostility toward the U.S. military and the United States generally, why was he not stopped before he took thirteen American lives, and how can we prevent such a tragedy from happening again?” Lieberman and Collins wrote Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.
“Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to avoid reaching the conclusion that the departments simply do not want to cooperate with our investigation,” they wrote in the letter, which they said followed four other formal letters to the Pentagon and two to the Justice Department.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs referred questions about the matter to the Defense Department.
On Friday, Gates said that the military had “no interest in hiding anything” but that its most important priority was to prevent the release of materials that could compromise Hasan’s prosecution on 13 charges of murder and 32 charges of attempted murder.
“We are going to be reviewing the subpoena and determining the proper way forward,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Monday. “We will continue to cooperate with the Congress as we go forward, but it has to be with the caveat that whatever we do does not have a potentially negative impact on our ability to prosecute.”
Hot Air weighs in…
The White House has pushed off the requests, saying that testimony will interfere with Hasan’s prosecution and the internal disciplinary actions resulting from the incident. That may have made sense in the first few weeks, but it’s now over five months since the shootings. The foundation for Hasan’s prosecution should be fairly well established by now; it’s not exactly a whodunit anyway. And if the DoD hasn’t gotten around to its internal discipline over the failure to recognize the danger Hasan presented, maybe Congress needs to know about that, too.
From The American Pundit, Senate Issues Subpoenas to White House Over Fort Hood:
The White House says releasing the information could harm the case against the Hassan. Really? The margin of error in this case is that small? This isn’t exactly an Agatha Christie novel, folks.
There are countless witnesses. Multiple police officers were involved in shoot-outs with Hasan. Forty-three individuals were personally shot by him, most of whom survived and can testify. He was finally shot and detained by a civilian police sergeant. Never mind his extensive, publicly-known history of radicalism, or likely video of him during the shooting.
And we’re concerned that releasing some information to the US Senate could compromise the case? Uh huh. There was a failure to remove Hassan because of political correctness within the Department of Defense. People were afraid to be seen as intolerant.
Now the White House and Pentagon are dragging their feet. Hopefully the Senate Homeland Security committee can get some answers.
From Bunkerville, What no one is telling us about Fort Hood:
Major Muslim Hassan [Fort hood jihad] used an FNH 5.7×28 pistol. This is not a very well known weapon. It fires a 5.7 mm, 40 gr bullet at a very high velocity, 2034 fps, giving a muzzle kinetic energy of 367 ft-lbs. (about the same as a 9mm ). This bullet has a polymer expanding tip, and due to the expansion of the tip and the high velocity, it leads to a tumbling expansible bullet which has a very destructive course.
This is not a weapon that a unknowlegeable person would even know. Someone who was a weapons expert told him what to buy. This involves more than Hassan. This is not the Islamic terrorism of just one man. The same weapon had to be used in the Seattle shooting of four police officers at the cafe. These officers had their Kevlar vests. It is inconceivable that these were all head shots. There is an armor-piercing version of this bullet that is restricted from civilians. Someone supplied this version to the muslim assassin. This is more than just one man.
Previous articles after the terrorist attack:
Telegraph UK: Fort Hood shootings: gunman used ‘cop killer’ weapon in massacre at US Army base
Atlas Shrugs: Major Muslim’s Dawah Before Jihad
Newsweek: FBI Counter-Terror Officials Were Never Told About Hasan’s Gun Purchase
Daniel Kalder, Big Government: The Truth About Fort Hood
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Out of the Loop: FBI Officials Weren’t Notified About Terrorist Suspect Hasan’s “Cop Killer” Gun Purchase in August and Red Flags Ignored: Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala, SOA… Nidal Hasan’s Muslim Extremist Business Card Reveals His Loyalties and What’s with the Joking & Shout-Outs, Mr. President? Obama Fails in Leadership with Fort Hood Massacre Address, More on Shooter Hasan (video)
Pundit & Pundette: Intelligence agencies knew Hasan was a traitor
Michelle Malkin: Nidal Hasan’s calling card explained and The Beltway snipers and the Fort Hood killer: Peas in a jihad-inspired pod and Why do we have to read British papers to get Ft. Hood jihadist news?! and The massacre at Fort Hood and Muslim soldiers with attitude
Nice Deb: American Jihadists Praise and Pray for Nidal Malik Hasan and Obama’s Weird “Shout Out” and How Did The Army Miss All The Red Flags?
Hot Air: Why was Hasan still in the Army?
Greg Gutfeld, Big Hollywood: Daily Gut: Backlash Against the Backlash
This Ain’t Hell, But you can see it from here: Those “benign” emails
Gateway Pundit: ABC News: Nidal Hasan & Followers of Islam Are the Real Victims (Video) and Retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters ‘Offended’ That Obama Called Ft. Hood Act ‘Incomprehensible’ (Video) and Unreal… Obama On Hasan: He May Have ‘Cracked’ From ‘Stress’ and Chicago Mayor Blames Fort Hood Massacre On America’s Love of Guns and Nidal Hasan’s Imam Praises Fort Hood Massacre and Killer’s Imam Stunned– Describes Nidal Malik Hasan As Quiet Man Who Attended Mosque Daily …Update: Killer Shouted “Allahu Akbar” During Shootings
Flopping Aces: Ralph Peters Examines the Political Correctness That Killed 13 Americans at Fort Hood
The Weekly Standard: Will the FBI Properly Investigate the Fort Hood shooter’s Alleged al Qaeda Ties? and Hoekstra: Hold Evidence in Ft. Hood Shooting
Conservative Libertarian Outpost: Political Correctness on steroids: The Political Correctness Bomb That Exploded At Fort Hood
Fox News: George W. Bush Secretly Visits Fort Hood Victims
Dan Gainor, Fox Forum: Obama on Ft. Hood — Not Even ‘Shocked’
Diary of a Mad Conservative: Absolutely incredible! Questions if CIA briefed the Army of Hasan’s attempts to contact Al Qaeda! Refusing to brief Senate! and Ft. Hood is a family who belong to us all
Smart Girl Politics: Major Muslim Hasan Participated in Homeland Security Panel for Obama
VotingFemale Speaks!: Islamic ‘Hasan the Assassin’ at Fort Hood, an Obama DHS Advisor
Texas for Sarah Palin: Blue Star Mom Sarah Palin on Fort Hood Shootings
Blue Crab Boulevard: The Hole
GayPatriot: Ft. Hood Islamist Massacre
The Powers That Be: Obama: ‘Don’t Jump to Conclusions’ About Ft. Hood; Immediately Jumps to Conclusions
GOP Thinker: So Is Fort Hood OBAMA’S Fault, Libs????
Atlas Shrugs: Major Muslim Hasan Participated in Homeland Security Panel for Obama
Big Hollywood: Fort Hood: Wise Words From Michael Yon
Crush Liberalism: UPDATE: Obama fiddles while Ft. Hood smolders
About the author
Unreal !
Wachicago is alive and well and living on the Potomac.
Pandoras’ box is wide open.
We need to close it come November.
What’s left to find out? What else are they trying to cover up? Tea and crumpets were served to at Hasan’s Going Away Party? Jeebus, this is a screw up of biblical proportion and it keeps on going.