ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style1 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="116" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <a href="081609.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="465" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="283" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td width="116" height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="489" height="1" colspan="3"></td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td width="489" height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="5"><b> <br /> <br /> Hasan&#39;s Terror or Insanity?</b></font><p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright Nov.18, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span> <span class="style1">B</span>efore 39-year-old Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan went postal Nov. 5 and gunned down 13 comrades injuring 30, his medical colleagues at Walter Reed Medical Center expressed doubts about his mental health.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Calling Hasan s behavior at his six-year stint at Walter Reed  disconnected, aloof, paranoid, belligerent and schizoid, a number of compelling red flags prompted the military to take a hard look at whether Hasan went psychotic or performed a calculated terrorist act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While all indications point toward a garden-variety postal-type killing, Secretary Robert Gates ordered a complete investigation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Several members of Congress led by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) believe Hasan committed the first terrorist act on U.S. soil since Sept. 11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>President Barack Obama ordered an intelligence review to see what was shared among the FBI, military and law enforcement.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Reports from Walter Reed Medical Center, where Hasan trained and served six years as an Army psychiatrist, indicated that he had some mental health problems noted by his medical colleagues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>A 2007 Army Superior s report obtained by the Senate Homeland Security Committee indicated  inappropriately discussing religious topics and  a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Calling the Army s inaction with respect to Hasan  inexcusable gaps and communication failures at Fort Hood and Walter Reed that might have allowed use to prevent the attack, the panel s top Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) demanded a thorough investigation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Lieberman stated his goal of  correcting the system so that our government can provide the best homeland security possible for the American people, preventing future attacks.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Following up on Lieberman s committee, Gates wants to get to the bottom of whether Hasan acted alone or was part of a larger terrorist plot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The shootings at Fort Hood raise a number of troubling questions that demand complete but prompt answers, said Gates, trying to find out whether Hasan s act was indeed terrorism. Without tipping his hand, Gates also wants to find out the extent of Islamic infiltration into the U.S. military.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Estimated at between 5,000 to 20,000, current military regulations make it difficult to determine the exact number of Muslims in the Armed Services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Gate s investigation aims at determining whether there are others like Hasan both in terms of his radical affiliation and his mental illness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) wants Gates to identify soldiers who  might be threats to their fellow service members, a tall order when considering all factors.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>When a 2008 FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated Hasan s e-mail correspondence with radical New Mexico-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, they concluded there were no  red flags. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They gave Hasan a pass because his contact with al-Awlaki was consistent with his psychiatric research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Yet they didn t consider Hasan s $20,000-$30,000 contribution of foreign Islamic charities believed associated with terrorism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Despite the Task Force s findings, Atty. Gen Eric Holder called Hasan s correspondence  disturbing, prompting Gates, this week, to call the e-mails  troubling but cautioning against jumping to conclusions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>That same Task Force report indicated that Hasan told his fellow doctors that Muslim soldiers should be permitted to leave the Army as conscientious objectors rather than fight Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, hinting at his true loyalty.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Hasan apparently had no problem as a  conscientious objector killing 13 U.S. soldiers and wounding 30, apparently not part of his Muslim faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>That same Task Force reviewed e-mails to al-Awlaki between Dec. 2008 and June 2009, giving a powerful X-ray into Hasan s mental illness and radical involvement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> I can t wait to join you in the afterlife, read Hasan s e-mail, according to an unnamed official with top-secret clearance who inspected the documents.  Hasan told al-Awlaki that he couldn t wait to join him in discussions they would have over non-alcoholic wine in the afterlife, said the official, revealing Hasan s psychosis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Talking about non-alcoholic drinks in the afterlife showed the blurred line between Hasan and reality<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> My strength is my financial capabilities, wrote Hasan to al-Awlaki, referring to his cash contributions to Islamic charities supporting terrorism.</p> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; When hijacked jetliners piloted by Osama bin Laden s Islamic death squads plowed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon Sept. 11, the FBI was asleep at the switch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures prompted creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security to better coordinate intelligence among various government agencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Hasan s recent mass murder raises more  red flags about current intelligence failures at Fort Hood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The choice of this recipient of e-mails says a lot about what Hasan was looking for, said Senate Homeland Security Chair Lieberman, believing Hasan s actions were indeed the first domestic terrorist attack since Sept. 11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Failures of the FBI Task Force to communicate with other agencies gave Hasan the opening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Hasan s Nov. 5 massacre reveals continued U.S. vulnerability to garden-variety acts violence, mass murder and Islamic-inspired terrorism.</span><p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet </a>and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma.</a></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="116" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="283" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Homene.net" target="_blank">img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>