I say both.
Defense Department says giving Purple Heart to Fort Hood survivors would hurt Hasan trial
This was a "Benghazi like botched case" from the get go.
Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan was investigated by the FBI after intelligence agencies intercepted at least 18 e-mails between him and al-Awlaki between December 2008 and June 2009. Even before the contents of the e-mails were revealed, terrorism experts said that Hasan's contacts with al-Awlaki should have raised "huge red flags". FBI agents had identified al-Awlaki as a known, "important senior recruiter for al Qaeda", and a spiritual motivator.
In one of the e-mails, Hasan wrote al-Awlaki: "I can't wait to join you in the afterlife". "It sounds like code words," said Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, a military analyst at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies. "That he's actually either offering himself up, or that he's already crossed that line in his own mind." Hasan also asked al-Awlaki when jihad is appropriate, and whether it is permissible if innocents are killed in a suicide attack. In the months before the attacks, Hasan increased his contacts with al-Awlaki to discuss how to transfer funds abroad without coming to the attention of law authorities.
Case in point. Anwar al-Awlaki was regarded as a terrorist for years. So much so and subsequent to the Ft Hood massacre, and to my delight, he was hunted down by the CIA and killed by a drone.
Now the Defense Department is trying
to separate the goose from the gander.
This is how Hasan looks now. Last I heard he is still collecting his pay. Hasan has appeared in court sporting a beard. The beard violates Army regulations, but Hasan said it is an expression of his Muslim faith. I was in the army. Times have sure changed. I could see what would have transpired had I said, "Jesus had a beard and it is an expression of my faith." Only in America could a rag-head who killed 13 people get away with this maneuvering and the DOD is only to happy to go along with it for the sake of PC.
There are over 3,000 Muslims in the Army ranks. The Hasan case can't help but make one wonder which way they're going to break when the sh-- hits the fan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/us/politics/09casey.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The DOD states they don't want to indirectly influence the trail.
Why? Because granting the Purple Heart to the injured would deem Hasan a terrorist, which would jeoprodize their BS "workplace violence" theory. The Purple Heart goes away so Hasan's rights are not indirectly influenced. Sucking up to Muslims, the image the DOD is trying to project, is the real story here and comes across as..well...something this administration is truly adept at.
So if Hasan had been killed would it still be just another case of workplace violence, or a terrorist attack?
After all I have read on this case including shouting Allahu Akbar as Hasan began mowing people down is all the evidence I need.
Ask yourself this. If Hasan was Presbyterian do you think this would have happened? Or do you think he's just another wacko like Holmes, Lanza, and Loughner?
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Legislation that would award the injured from the 2009 Fort Hood shooting the Purple Heart would adversely affect the trial of Maj. Nidal Hasan by labeling the attack terrorism, according to a Defense Department document obtained by Fox News.
The document comes following calls from survivors and their families for the military honor, because they say Fort Hood was turned into a battlefield when Hasan opened fire during the November 2009 attack. Fox News is told that the DOD "position paper" is being circulated specifically in response to the proposed legislation.
The document reads in part:
"Passage of this legislation could directly and indirectly influence potential court-martial panel members, witnesses, or the chain of command, all of whom exercise a critical role under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Defense counsel will argue that Major Hasan cannot receive a fair trial because a branch of government has indirectly declared that Major Hasan is a terrorist -- that he is criminally culpable."
A source with knowledge of the position paper told Fox News that DOD is putting on a full-court press by sending senior officials, including generals, to meet with lawmakers in an effort to block support.
But Neal Sher, counsel for the Fort Hood families involved in a federal lawsuit against the department, told Fox News that the document -- an "official Army response" to the request for Purple Heart status -- is "an utter outrage" and that it was not surprising given it comes from the same department which labeled the attack "workplace violence."
"This is a cynical travesty. What the government has done by making this statement is guarantee that anything done to help the victims will effectively prevent or impair Hasan's prosecution. There was no reason for the government to put this kind of a statement in writing, even if it were true (which it is not)," Sher said via email.
Sher represents families who are suing the Defense Department over the shooting which killed 13 and injured dozens at the Texas Army base in 2009.
Fox News was the first to report in 2011 that DOD was handling the attack, in which survivors say the shooter shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire – in the context of workplace violence. Fox News was the first TV network, in June 2012, to interview the survivors.
The Defense Department document says that to expand the Purple Heart criteria to include "domestic criminal acts or domestic terror attacks would be a dramatic departure" from traditional criteria.
"The Army objects to (the proposal) because it would undermine the prosecution of Major Nidal Hasan by materially and directly compromising Major Hasan's ability to receive a fair trial. This provision will be viewed as setting the stage for a formal declaration that Major Hasan is a terrorist, on what is now the eve of trial. Such a situation, prior to trial, would fundamentally compromise the fairness and due process of the pending trial," the document said.
It continues: "Moreover, the effect of such an act by Congress would be to deprive the victims of these crimes the right to see justice done."
But Sher said the Army's legal arguments that such a situation prior to a trial would fundamentally compromise fairness and due process are especially troubling given the Holder Justice Department wanted to prosecute the self-described architect of 9/11 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-conspirators in a New York City federal court.
"Seriously? We could try KSM no problem, but helping out Hasan's victims creates due process problems?" Sher said.
Sher said the Fort Hood families he represents in the federal suit find it hurtful that DOD would now claim "such an unprecedented action would thwart the real and lasting measure that will bring closure to the grieving and harmed victims and families -- the trial itself."
While the document claims "the Government has vigilantly tended to the needs of the victims and families since the tragic events of November, 5 2009," Sher said the facts show the Army has failed to live up to its creed that no soldier will be left behind.
