[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
“The Pentagon is preparing to ask President Donald Trump to authorize the execution of Nidal Hasan,” Fox News reports, “the former Army major convicted of carrying out the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas.” That invites a review of the massacre.
A Muslim born to immigrant parents, Major Hasan was an Army psychiatrist – a poor one by all accounts – who praised al Qaeda and described himself as a “Solider of Allah.” The jihadist posed a clear threat to American troops, but under the president Obama, formerly known as Barry Soetoro and raised in Indonesia, the Army kept him on the job.
Hasan was communicating with al Qaeda terrorist Anwar al Awlaki about killing Americans. The FBI was aware of the connection but judged that Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities. Someone in the bureau’s Washington office called off the surveillance.
On November 5, 2009, yelling “Allahu Akbar” as he fired, Maj. Hasan gunned down Michael Grant Cahill, Libardo Eduardo Caraveo, Justin Michael DeCrow, John Paul Gaffaney, Frederick Greene, Jason Dean Hunt, Amy Sue Krueger, Aaron Thomas Nemelka, Michael Scott Pearson, Russell Gilbert Seager, Francheska Velez, Juanita Lee Warman, Kham See Xiong, and one more. Velez pleaded for the life of her baby before Hasan shot her. Hasan wounded more than 30 others, including Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, who took seven bullets from the soldier of Allah.
“The red laser went across my line of site, I blinked,” Lunsford explained. “He discharged the weapon, the first round went in above my left eye. So the impact caused me to spin around.”
As Lunsford played dead, he heard Hasan’s “slow methodical fire,” and the shooter “counting his rounds.” Police officer Kimberly Munley managed to wound the jihadist.
For Obama, this was “workplace violence,” not terrorism, a crime, or even gun violence. The president wondered what could possibly motivate someone to commit such an act. Vice president Joe Biden expressed sympathy for the families of the “soldiers who fell,” but did not name the jihadist who killed them. For the Delaware Democrat it was all just a “senseless tragedy.”
As Sgt. Lunsford and other victims pointed out, Hasan got better medical care than they did, and continued to draw his pay. To explain the victims’ plight, Lunsford requested a brief meeting with President Obama, who turned him down.
Hasan was sentenced to death in 2013 but continued to praise terrorists from his prison cell. Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, with 13 Americans killed, prompted Hasan to proclaim “We have won! All praises be to almighty Allah!” and so on, with a plea for the Taliban to implement Sharia law.
Department of War Secretary Pete Hesketh is “100 percent committed to ensuring the death penalty is carried out for Nidal Hasan. This savage terrorist deserves the harshest lawful punishment for his 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood. The victims and survivors deserve justice without delays.” President Trump should give the order to take down the terrorist, but there’s more to it.
The “workplace violence” absurdity was a denial of Hasan’s motive – to kill for Allah – and an effort to prevent the victims from getting the benefits they deserved. Lunsford eventually got his Purple Heart but the case is strong for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for all those who remain.
Never again must American soldiers be left vulnerable to jihadist violence on their own territory. Never again must 16 years elapse before justice is done. As the execution order awaits, Kash Patel should reveal which official in the bureau’s Washington office called off the surveillance on the soldier of Allah. The people have a right to know.
