There is an axiom in homeland security that we have to be right every time we act and the terrorists only have to be right once in order to “succeed.” While true, the fact that preventing every terrorist incident is impossible is not a defense for why a particular attack was not prevented. Rather, a close examination of the specific facts and circumstances surrounding each incident must dictate the outcome on preventability and overall lessons learned. It should not be a witch hunt or partisan exercise. At least one can hope.
As for the Fort Hood Massacre, the federal government has yet to release any portions of its initial findings about what it knew when and how it reacted to what it knew. The findings were supposed to be released in some form on November 30th. A more extensive independent investigation into the FBI’s conduct, to be headed by William Webster, former CIA and FBI director, was announced last week. At this point, by all accounts, the massacre was an act of terrorism and the worst since 9/11 on U.S. soil. ABC News’s Brian Ross has done by far the best reporting on the Fort Hood attack and lays out compelling evidence as to why this was a terrorist incident and what the warning signs were. Until the government releases its preliminary findings this is all we have to go on.
The 9/11 Commission Report has a chapter entitled, “The System was Blinking Red” in reference to the intelligence coming in during the days and weeks leading up to the 9/11 attack. Based on Ross’s and other reporting, with Nidal Malik Hasan, the system should have popped. To put this in perspective imagine this: It’s 1985. Major Hasan has roughly twenty phone calls with recruiters inside the Soviet embassy (instead of emails with an al-Qaeda recruiter). The FBI monitors these calls (as they did the emails). During several public Army meetings Major Hasan states that he is a devout socialist (Islamist) and that capitalists (infidels) should have boiling oil poured down their throats and their heads cut off. On his business card Major Hasan has the words “Soldier of Lenin” written on it (in place of “Soldier of Allah”).
Major Hasan writes a letter to the editor of his local newspaper espousing the virtues of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (posts a comment on the internet that suicide bombers are heroes) and tells fellow Army members that the CIA’s support of the Afghan resistance is tantamount to war crimes (says that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan should be charged with war crimes). Hasan also states publicly that socialists should be granted release from the Army due to the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the inherent conflict this creates for socialists in the U.S. Army (Muslims in the U.S. Army should be released due to the conflict of interest they face based on the U.S. wars in two Muslim countries).
It’s hard to imagine Major Hasan lasting fifteen minutes in the U.S. Army in 1985 at the height of the Cold War under the above circumstances. How he lasted as long as he did in today’s Army with the multiple hot wars we are fighting against radical Islamists begs an explanation. It is an explanation we are still waiting for.
As for the Fort Hood Massacre, the federal government has yet to release any portions of its initial findings about what it knew when and how it reacted to what it knew. The findings were supposed to be released in some form on November 30th. A more extensive independent investigation into the FBI’s conduct, to be headed by William Webster, former CIA and FBI director, was announced last week. At this point, by all accounts, the massacre was an act of terrorism and the worst since 9/11 on U.S. soil. ABC News’s Brian Ross has done by far the best reporting on the Fort Hood attack and lays out compelling evidence as to why this was a terrorist incident and what the warning signs were. Until the government releases its preliminary findings this is all we have to go on.
The 9/11 Commission Report has a chapter entitled, “The System was Blinking Red” in reference to the intelligence coming in during the days and weeks leading up to the 9/11 attack. Based on Ross’s and other reporting, with Nidal Malik Hasan, the system should have popped. To put this in perspective imagine this: It’s 1985. Major Hasan has roughly twenty phone calls with recruiters inside the Soviet embassy (instead of emails with an al-Qaeda recruiter). The FBI monitors these calls (as they did the emails). During several public Army meetings Major Hasan states that he is a devout socialist (Islamist) and that capitalists (infidels) should have boiling oil poured down their throats and their heads cut off. On his business card Major Hasan has the words “Soldier of Lenin” written on it (in place of “Soldier of Allah”).
Major Hasan writes a letter to the editor of his local newspaper espousing the virtues of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (posts a comment on the internet that suicide bombers are heroes) and tells fellow Army members that the CIA’s support of the Afghan resistance is tantamount to war crimes (says that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan should be charged with war crimes). Hasan also states publicly that socialists should be granted release from the Army due to the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the inherent conflict this creates for socialists in the U.S. Army (Muslims in the U.S. Army should be released due to the conflict of interest they face based on the U.S. wars in two Muslim countries).
It’s hard to imagine Major Hasan lasting fifteen minutes in the U.S. Army in 1985 at the height of the Cold War under the above circumstances. How he lasted as long as he did in today’s Army with the multiple hot wars we are fighting against radical Islamists begs an explanation. It is an explanation we are still waiting for.
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