Bedell Update -- Blog Wars: Was He Lib or Con, or Just Crazy? (Alex Jones, Joseph Stack, von Brunn, Charlie Sheen)

To my utter amazement, some left-leaning blogs and top MSM outlets this morning somehow managed to brand Bedell as a “right-wing extremist” anyway, despite the ever-growing pile of evidence contradicting this tired old narrative. The Christian Science Monitor titled its article “John Patrick Bedell: Did right-wing extremism lead to shooting?“, while top leftist blog Talking Points Memo ran with “Pentagon Shooter Worshipped Private Property Rights, Denounced Government ‘Schemes’ Like Public Education“. ~ Zombie

May I say most of the conspiracy theories lie on the left. Most presedential shooters were involved some way with the Communist or Marxist ideologies. Michael Medved points out the fact that Lane was a self-avowed Marxist. The guys behind the "Loose Change" "documentary" are also very involved in the Communist ideology. What does this,  being on the extreme left, have to do with conspiracies you might ask? Propaganda. Plain and simple. The NWO stuff is merely being pushed by person who wish to undermine the governments affairs instead of voting these bad policies out. I want to have the viewer look at the report on Bedell:

Now I want you to watch a video on Alex Jones, do you see what I am seeing?

Jones is crazier than Bedell. 

Zombie has gone off over at Pajamas Media (Anti-Bush Truther shoots up Pentagon; Should we play the political blame game?). Much of the below is from his article. After it I will post my old post on it, there may be some repeated info, but stuff that will help the layman counter arguments by the water cooler.

On Thursday, a “9/11 Truth” fanatic named John Patrick Bedell started shooting at the Pentagon and managed to wound two guards before they mercifully put him out of our misery.

We now know that the guy thought the government and the Bush family were behind the 9/11 attacks (or “demolitions” as he called them), and was basically frothing at the mouth with Bush hatred.

Now, I’ve been to innumerable “Truther” rallies over the last 8 years, and can say with some confidence that about 98% of folks who think 9/11 was a hoax are left-wingers, or at the very least fit in very comfortably in the left-wing milieu, since the impetus behind Truthism is to undermine the basis for Bush’s “War on Terror,” an impetus which is also a cornerstone of modern Leftist thought as well.

So far, however, I’ve noticed a deafening quietude on the left-leaning blogs about this guy’s affiliations and belief systems. Those brave enough to troll leftist comments sections have noted mumblings therein that the guy was probably a secret “teabagger,” despite all evidence to the contrary.

[....] 

Michelle Malkin uncovered a key inconvenient fact which doesn’t quite fit this predictable “right-wing extremist” narrative — that Bedell was a registered Democrat.

Ooops!

Bedell was also a marijuana smoker, grower and activist, as documented at Gateway Pundit.

Ooops!

Patterico has now posted a full transcript of one of Bedell’s internet rants — the same one cited by Talking Points Memo as evidence of his right-wing leanings — which has Bedell uncorking phrases like “economic justice” and paragraphs like (writing in 2006 during the Bush presidency) “This organization, like so many murderous governments throughout history, would see the sacrifice of thousands of its citizens in an event such as the September 11th attacks, as a small cost in order to perpetuate its barbaric control. This collection of gangsters would find it in their interests to foment conflict and initiate wars throughout the world in order to divert attention from their misconduct and criminality. The true nature of such a regime would find its clearest expression in Satanic violence currently ongoing in Iraq.” and anti-war conspiracy theories like “The political and military disasters such as the wars in Vietnam and Iraq that an illegitimate coup regime uses against the people…”.

Ooops!

Add all that to the previous discovery already linked above that Bedell’s Amazon “Wish List” featured the the left-wing conspiracy-theory books The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family and Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America.

Ooops!

And more evidence is being uncovered by diligent bloggers with every passing hour.

I post all this not to backtrack on my original wish to avoid the blame game, but to defuse the blame-the-right game now coming from the other side.

Tell me, Christian Science Monitor and Talking Points Memo (and the innumerable left-leaning sites which by now have surely followed in their wake): How many Tea Partiers or conservatives

- Shoot at the Pentagon and hate the military?
- Are registered Democrats?
- Hate George Bush and the whole Bush family?
- Think 9/11 was perpetrated not by Muslims but by Republicans?
- Grow and smoke marijuana?
- Read left-wing anti-Bush books?
- Are anti-war?
- Talk about “economic justice”?
- Think the Vietnam War and the Iraq War were not merely mistakes but were part of a government conspiracy?

Exactly as I had surmised, Bedell seems to be a nutcase who overwhelmingly tends to lean left but with a sprinkling of libertarian attitudes thrown in just to spice things up — and it is those exact libertarian sprinklings which the leftist mediasphere is focusing on, while completely ignoring the much larger pile of evidence on the other side of the scale.

Bedell may have been a left-wing conspiracy kook, but much more importantly: He was insane, and it was his insanity (not his politics) which led him to start shooting at the Pentagon.

Unfortunately, I can see now that the blame game is already in full swing and I am powerless to stop it, but at least I can say I tried.

UPDATE II:

Exactly as I had stated in my original post, we now know that Bedell was clinically insane:

The man who opened fire in front of the Pentagon had a history of mental illness and had become so erratic that his parents reached out to local authorities weeks ago and warned them that their son was unstable and might have a gun, authorities said Friday.

…

San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill told The Associated Press that Bedell, 36, had been at in-patient mental health institutions at least four times. Court records showed he was diagnosed as bipolar, or manic depressive.

…

The family put out a statement Friday saying they were “devastated as a family by the news from yesterday.”

“We may never know why he made this terrible decision,” it said. “One thing is clear though — his actions were caused by an illness and not a defective character.”

A completely crazy person goes berserk. That’s it. Can we for once not make this into a political boxing match?

UPDATE III:

Blogger “Ringo the Gringo” has this interesting and possibly on-target analysis of Bedell’s political outlook:

Seems to me that Bedell falls into the Alex Jones / Libertarian extremist camp. Contrary to what [some Web sites] are promoting, I know from first hand experience that these types of “truthers” are ubiquitous at all International ANSWER sponsored anti-war demonstrations, but I have not seen any of them at the handful of “tea parties” I’ve attended. You can call them “right-wing” if you like, but they are definitely not conservative. Actually, they are the exact opposite of conservative, they are radicals – and nuts. They’re anti-military, anti-war, anti-Bush, conspiracy kooks who often stink of marijuana.

If a group like this bunch Alex Jones supporters were to show up at any “tea party” I’ve been to, I suspect they’d be run out, or at the very least booed and heckled. At anti-war demonstrations these very same people are welcomed with open arms. In fact, it’s not uncommon to see followers of “Libertarian” Alex Jones and members of the Maoist group, The World Can’t Wait, marching together carrying the same “9/11 truth” banner.

Bedell may not have been a Leftist, but he was most certainly not a conservative either. And he was not a Republican.

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As you read, keep in mind the following stat:

• A Rasmussen poll shows that 35% of Democrats believe Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance.

Also, keep in mind Obama put in as one of his Czars a 9/11 Truther. 

FoxNews has the story the recent story:

....Signs emerged that Bedell harbored ill feelings toward the government and the armed forces, and had questioned the circumstances behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In an Internet posting, a user by the name JPatrickBedell wrote that he was "determined to see that justice is served" in the death of Marine Col. James Sabow, who was found dead in the backyard of his California home in 1991. The death was ruled a suicide but the case has long been the source of theories of a cover up.

The user named JPatrickBedell wrote the Sabow case was "a step toward establishing the truth of events such as the September 11 demolitions."

That same posting railed against the government's enforcement of marijuana laws and included links to the author's 2006 court case in Orange County, Calif., for cultivating marijuana and resisting a police officer. Court records available online show the date of birth on the case mentioned by the user JPatrickBedell matches that of the John Patrick Bedell suspected in the shooting....

...(read more)...

This small UPDATE comes from HotAir and it comes directly after posting an example of a story pigion-holing Bedell's "right-wingism":

....No mention in the story of Bedell’s Bush-hatred or his party affiliation. It fell to the boss emeritus to dig that up, not for the purpose of indicting Democrats for what he did but to try to preempt the inevitable tedious attempts to lay this at the feet of conservatives. I don’t think she has much to worry about this time. It’s simply too far a logical leap to blame the military-loving mainstream right for an attack on the Pentagon, which explains why even noted “wingnut” critics like John Avlon and Sullivan staffer Patrick Appel are taking a pass on this one. If there’s any silver lining in the very dark clouds created by Bedell and Joe Stack (and even the Kentucky census worker fiasco), it may be that partisans on both sides have necessarily become more cautious about trying to divine coherent motives from incoherent minds. Not all partisans, natch, but some.

Your exit question: Is it possible to be a “left-wing extremist” anymore or do nuts who embrace some lefty ideas before launching an attack automatically fall under the broader heading of “anti-government,” a term that’s conveniently also used to describe conservatives’ opposition to statism? That’s why CSM ended up labeling him a right-winger, I suspect. Righties want a smaller federal government and Bedell hated the military and the military’s part of the federal government. Voila!

UPDATE 2 (Gateway Pundit):

UPDATE: So… Will the state-run media report this? The Pentagon shooter is linked to several gay rights groups along with PETA, NPR, various drug legalization orgs, Greenpeace and Al Franken.

UPDATE: The media’s “right wing extremist” is a registered democrat.

 ============================================

===============================================

It was pointed out that much of what the IRS Joseph "the bomber" Stack talked about was directly from Michael Moore movies:

Have you noticed how things said in his manifesto seem to all be taken straight from Michael Moore movies?

Anti-health care system= Sicko
Anti-Capitalism= Capitalism, a Love Story
IRS cronyism with businesses= Capitalism, a Love Story
Anti-Bush= Fahrenheit 9/11
Blames Big Corporations for job issues= The Big One

(lots of debate here at the above quotes source) For a well thought out story string of stories, see Verum Serum's insights: Here, here, as well as the excerpt you see here:

One – Joe Stack was a liberal. As I pointed out recently, Stack:

Hates George W. Bush and his “cronies”
Hates Big Pharma
Hates Big Insurance
Hates GM executives
Hates organized religion
Refers favorably to communism
And in his last words before dying, denigrates capitalism.

...(read more)...

Remember von Brunn? He also was a bit left leaning in his understanding of politics and government:

...While Mr. von Brunn is currently being made out to be the poster child of the Republican Party, even a cursory look at his professed views shows he is the avowed enemy of the GOP in its current incarnation. Among many others, Mr. von Brunn hates Rupert Murdoch, Fox News (that means you, too, Shep!), George W. Bush and John McCain. And according to the FBI, Mr. von Brunn even had in his vehicle the address of the Weekly Standard, home base of the dreaded "neo-cons."

Seems Mr. von Brunn wasn't a big fan of the Iraq War and also believed that 9/11 was an "inside job." Given this political sketch, Mr. von Brunn would feel at home at Camp Casey, Cindy Sheehan's antiwar outpost in Crawford, Texas, and at the Daily Kos convention, rather than partaking in a National Review cruise with pro-Israeli war hawks Mark Steyn and Victor Davis Hanson.

It's not Charles Lindbergh's Republican Party any more. And it hasn't been for more than a half-century. But don't tell that to the facile minds at the DHS [the Department of Homeland Security] and CNN.

...(read more)...

Pentagon Shooter a 9/11 Truther and Anti-Marijuana Laws -- What Is With These Lefties?!

As you read, keep in mind the following stat:

• A new ["new" in May 5th, 2007] Rasmussen poll shows that 35% of Democrats believe Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance.

Also, keep in mind Obama put in as one of his Czars a 9/11 Truther. 

FoxNews has the story the recent story:

....Signs emerged that Bedell harbored ill feelings toward the government and the armed forces, and had questioned the circumstances behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In an Internet posting, a user by the name JPatrickBedell wrote that he was "determined to see that justice is served" in the death of Marine Col. James Sabow, who was found dead in the backyard of his California home in 1991. The death was ruled a suicide but the case has long been the source of theories of a cover up.

The user named JPatrickBedell wrote the Sabow case was "a step toward establishing the truth of events such as the September 11 demolitions."

That same posting railed against the government's enforcement of marijuana laws and included links to the author's 2006 court case in Orange County, Calif., for cultivating marijuana and resisting a police officer. Court records available online show the date of birth on the case mentioned by the user JPatrickBedell matches that of the John Patrick Bedell suspected in the shooting....

...(read more)...

This small UPDATE comes from HotAir and it comes directly after posting an example of a story pigion-holing Bedell's "right-wingism":

....No mention in the story of Bedell’s Bush-hatred or his party affiliation. It fell to the boss emeritus to dig that up, not for the purpose of indicting Democrats for what he did but to try to preempt the inevitable tedious attempts to lay this at the feet of conservatives. I don’t think she has much to worry about this time. It’s simply too far a logical leap to blame the military-loving mainstream right for an attack on the Pentagon, which explains why even noted “wingnut” critics like John Avlon and Sullivan staffer Patrick Appel are taking a pass on this one. If there’s any silver lining in the very dark clouds created by Bedell and Joe Stack (and even the Kentucky census worker fiasco), it may be that partisans on both sides have necessarily become more cautious about trying to divine coherent motives from incoherent minds. Not all partisans, natch, but some.

Your exit question: Is it possible to be a “left-wing extremist” anymore or do nuts who embrace some lefty ideas before launching an attack automatically fall under the broader heading of “anti-government,” a term that’s conveniently also used to describe conservatives’ opposition to statism? That’s why CSM ended up labeling him a right-winger, I suspect. Righties want a smaller federal government and Bedell hated the military and the military’s part of the federal government. Voila!

UPDATE 2 (Gateway Pundit):

UPDATE: So… Will the state-run media report this? The Pentagon shooter is linked to several gay rights groups along with PETA, NPR, various drug legalization orgs, Greenpeace and Al Franken.

UPDATE: The media’s “right wing extremist” is a registered democrat.

 ============================================

===============================================

It was pointed out that much of what the IRS Joseph "the bomber" Stack talked about was directly from Michael Moore movies:

Have you noticed how things said in his manifesto seem to all be taken straight from Michael Moore movies?

Anti-health care system= Sicko
Anti-Capitalism= Capitalism, a Love Story
IRS cronyism with businesses= Capitalism, a Love Story
Anti-Bush= Fahrenheit 9/11
Blames Big Corporations for job issues= The Big One

(lots of debate here at the above quotes source) For a well thought out story string of stories, see Verum Serum's insights: Here, here, as well as the excerpt you see here:

One – Joe Stack was a liberal. As I pointed out recently, Stack:

Hates George W. Bush and his “cronies”
Hates Big Pharma
Hates Big Insurance
Hates GM executives
Hates organized religion
Refers favorably to communism
And in his last words before dying, denigrates capitalism.

...(read more)...

Remember von Brunn? He also was a bit left leaning in his understanding of politics and government:

...While Mr. von Brunn is currently being made out to be the poster child of the Republican Party, even a cursory look at his professed views shows he is the avowed enemy of the GOP in its current incarnation. Among many others, Mr. von Brunn hates Rupert Murdoch, Fox News (that means you, too, Shep!), George W. Bush and John McCain. And according to the FBI, Mr. von Brunn even had in his vehicle the address of the Weekly Standard, home base of the dreaded "neo-cons."

Seems Mr. von Brunn wasn't a big fan of the Iraq War and also believed that 9/11 was an "inside job." Given this political sketch, Mr. von Brunn would feel at home at Camp Casey, Cindy Sheehan's antiwar outpost in Crawford, Texas, and at the Daily Kos convention, rather than partaking in a National Review cruise with pro-Israeli war hawks Mark Steyn and Victor Davis Hanson.

It's not Charles Lindbergh's Republican Party any more. And it hasn't been for more than a half-century. But don't tell that to the facile minds at the DHS [the Department of Homeland Security] and CNN.

...(read more)...

They Are Finally Figuring Out Fort Hood Act Of Terrorism (Hasan's Email)

LeBron a Little Hazy on History? ~ 7MM Magnum (Plus: Rypien over Stortini)

LeBron a Little Hazy on History?
7MM Magnum
by, Jake Swiftarrow, Sports Slayer
11-13-09

LeBron James is going to switch from number 23 to number 6 next season to honor Michael Jordan. James said, "He can't get the logo [Hall of Famer Jerry West's silhouette adorns the NBA's logo], and if he can't, something has to be done. I feel like no NBA player should wear 23. I'm starting a petition, and I've got to get everyone in the NBA to sign it. Now, if I'm not going to wear No. 23, then nobody else should be able to wear it." While I admit that Jordan was an amazing player who carried the NBA banner after Majic and Bird, I find it ironic that James wants to retire 23 and switch to 6. Number 6 was worn by Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics who won eleven world championships including 2 as a player/coach (Bill Russell’s bio http://www.nba.com/history/players/russell_bio.html). I think the if the NBA is going to retire the number, league-wide, of a great African-American player, it should be the number 6 of Bill Russell that James wants to switch to!

Only 29% of the news stories about Major Hasan mention that he is a Muslim. Are you freaken kidding me? It’s not important? It doesn’t help explain this act of terrorism, errrrr, man-caused disaster? I’ll tell you what is a man-caused disaster, the Obama administration. This little tidbit of information is not a piece of this nightmarish puzzle? So, in the interest of political correctness should we shake down the 65 year old Morman lady at the airport as to not offend the 30 year old Muslim male in line behind her? Put out an APB on common sense. It has gone missing. It is so sad that so many more Americans will have to die before we deal with problems head on and call them as they are. Charles Krauthammer put it best on Special Report this week when said, “Political correctness is not only a moral aberration, it’s dangerous.” By the way, for my money, Krauthammer is the smartest guy in the room.

Cincinnati Bengal wide receiver, Chad Ochocino, was fined $20,000 by the NFL for jokingly bribing an official with a $1 bill during last Sunday’s game. I, personally, would have fined him $20K for his teeth or for changing his last name from Johnson to Ochocinco, but whatever. The NFL (No Fun League) has to take a stand against this guy’s antics at some point. He may be a distraction, but at least he’s not part of the 400+ football players who were arrested last season for various crimes, and more importantly in the eyes of the NFL, he’s not Rush Limbaugh. Now that is a crime.

Obama and Attorney General, Eric Holder, have decided to try the 911 conspirators in Federal Court in New York City. If this goes bad, if one of these guys walks on a technicality, this will end the Obama administration and be his long lasting legacy. If there is one terrorist that Obama “creates or saves” from the hammer of justice that is coming to them, he will not be able to show his face in middle America or anywhere else where common sense still has a foothold.

The officiating in the SEC this year has been awful. The LSU interception during the Alabama game was reviewed using television replay and even though the defender got both (only one is required) feet in, they ruled no interception on the play. Conspiracy theories are in on the SEC wanting Alabama and Florida in the SEC title game. I’m not much for conspiracy theories, but that was an embarrassing call. They should let those good ol’ boys dip during the game to keep their focus laser sharp. I’m thinking Texas and Florida for the National Championship. Bama is good and I love the RB Ingram, but their QB threw his first TD in 8 games last Saturday. That’s not going to get it done. Hook em!

Rosie O’ Donnell… never-mind… nobody cares.

(Rypien over Stortini)

85% of Media Didn't Mention Fort Hood Attack Was Terrorism, Even Though Hasan Called Himself That

FoxNews --Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan called himself a "soldier of Allah" on business cards found in his apartment after the shooting rampage at Fort Hood in which he is accused of murdering 13 people.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, reportedly obtained the business cards over the Internet. In addition to listing his profession and contact information, the cards contain a discrete reference to his religion: "SoA(SWT)."

Watchdogs say the first letters are shorthand among militant Muslims to "soldier of Allah." The last letters refer to "Subhanahu Wa Ta'all," which means "glory to God."

The business cards were among numerous discoveries in Hasan's apartment of interest to investigators, who also are looking into whether Hasan wired money to Pakistan before last week's massacre....

• Networks Decide Attack Wasn’t Terror: 85 percent of the broadcast stories didn’t mention the word “terror.” ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news referenced terrorism connections to the Fort Hood attack just seven times in 48 reports.
• ABC, CBS, NBC Follow White House Line: Before Obama's Nov. 10 speech, 93 percent of the stories had ignored any terror connection. But after Obama hinted at what ABC called “Islamic extremist views,” all three networks mentioned terrorism.
• Alleged Attacker’s Muslim Faith Not Important Either: Slightly more than one-fourth (29 percent) of evening news reports mentioned that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a Muslim. Of those, half (7 out of 14) defended the religion or included experts to do so.

Ibn Warraq Responds to Fort Hood Tragedy: The Heavy Cost of Political Correctness

 Ibn Warraq's best book is "Defending the West," linked below.  The rest of the article can be found at Religion News Blog.

(Amherst, NY) — In response to the recent tragic events at Fort Hood, Texas, the Center for Inquiry, a secularist think tank, has released a statement/editorial from Ibn Warraq, Islamic scholar and leading figure in Quranic criticism.

Warraq is a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry and author of five books, including Why I Am Not a Muslim and Defending the West (both published by Prometheus Books). The statement follows below.

....It is time to abandon apologetics, and political correctness. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Muslims are implicated in the horrendous events of September 11, 2001 — or of November 5, 2009. However, to pretend that Islam has nothing to do with 9/11 or the Fort Hood massacre is willfully to ignore the obvious. To leave Islam out of the equation means to forever misinterpret events. Without Islam, the long-term strategy and individual acts of violence by Osama bin Laden and his followers make little sense. Without Islam, the West will go on being incapable of understanding our terrorist enemies, and hence will be incapable to deal with them. Without Islam, neither is it possible to comprehend the barbarism of the Taliban, the position of women and non-Muslims in Islamic countries, or — now– the murders attributed to Major Hasan.

We are confronted, after all, with Islamic terrorists; and we must take the Islamic component seriously. Westerners in general and Americans in particular no longer seem able to grasp the passionate religious convictions of Islamic terrorists. It is this passionate conviction, directed against the West and against non-Muslims in general, that drives them. They are truly, and literally, God-intoxicated fanatics. If we refuse to understand that, we cannot understand them....

(Read More)

One atheist admits his personnal dislike for the three major theistic religions, but then adds a caveat:

Islam like Christianity and Judaism are wrong and are – in large parts – morally repugnant. Unlike, Christianity and Judaism though, fundamentalist Islam is actively trying to kill me and people like me around the world.

Well, I am a Christian, and I can plainly state that they are trying to kill me as well.  One need only think of the convert to Christianity who, when he or she is baptized as the public expression of what has happened privately, they are often times tortured, burned alive, or put to death in other ways. I would venture to say this graphic example I posted recently is not atheists being burned -- in fact, why would an atheist find it necessary to promote his non-belief in an Islamic country? Since "survival" would be the leading "ethos" in the atheistic paradigm, there is not underlying spurning outside that stance. Christians are asked to be baptized (Acts 2:38, Acts 19:3-5), often times this is a declaration made in front of believers and non-believers alike in a river for instance.  this is a death sentence.

A recent story, for instance, comes from Infidels Are Cool and is entitled "California: Muslim man charged with 'anti-Christian' hate crime," passes this thought along:

Maybe they should start “stepping up security” at churches instead of mosques.  The Fort Hood shooting was a perfect opportunity for Islamists to show off their non-existent victimhood.  Yet we have heard any stories of hate crimes against Muslims since the Fort Hood shooting.

Maybe they should, I think Infidels Are Cool (IAC) will unfortunately be proved correct.  More from IAC:

What starts out as a peaceful debate between a Christian man and a Muslim woman quickly turns violent when the Christian claims “Mohammed was a pedophile” which spurs the usual reaction from the religion of peace…uncontrollable violent outrage…

Michelle Malkin on Nidal Hasan and the Massacre at Fort Hood

Bill O'Reilly & Ann Coulter -- Fort Hood Massacre. Also, Officer Crowley's Arrest of Professor Gates and Jumping to Conclusions... Obama Style

 Compare Obama's Quick Judgment On Officer Crowley to Hasan

Hot Air Posted About Pentagon Not Being Informed by FBI About Hasan's Contacts

 (An Important Puzzle Piece to PC Murder [Hasan going "undetected"], by HotAir)

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, we discovered that a failure to “connect the dots” left America unable to defend itself against 19 lunatics armed with boxcutters.  The Fort Hood massacre had far fewer casualties, but all of them could have been avoided had the FBI informed the Pentagon that one of its high-ranking officers had a new al-Qaeda pen pal in Yemen.  The Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon never heard from the FBI or other intelligence services that Major Nidal Hasan had begun corresponding with a radical Islamist imam in the hotbed of al-Qaeda terrorism:

The Pentagon said it was never notified by U.S. intelligence agencies that they had intercepted emails between the alleged Fort Hood shooter and an extremist imam until after last week’s bloody assaults, raising new questions about whether the government could have helped prevent the attack.

A top defense official said federal investigators didn’t tell the Pentagon they were looking into months of contacts between Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki. The imam knew three of the Sept. 11 hijackers and hailed Maj. Hasan as a “hero” after the shooting last week at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead. …

A person familiar with the matter said a Pentagon worker on a terrorism task force overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation was told about the intercepted emails several months ago. But members of terror task forces aren’t allowed to share such information with their agencies, unless they get permission from the FBI, which leads the task forces.

In this case, the Pentagon worker, an employee from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, helped make the assessment that Maj. Hasan wasn’t a threat, and the FBI’s “procedures for sharing the information were never used,” said the person familiar with the matter.

This is absurd.  Anwar Aulaqi gets a number of mentions in the 9/11 Commission report for his contacts with at least two of the 9/11 hijackers.  Anyone communicating with Aulaqi after the attacks, especially after Aulaqi relocated to Yemen and established his Islamist jihadist website and recruitment efforts, should have been immediately reported to the Army’s chain of command, especially a high-ranking officer.

From the 9/11 Commission report, page 221:

Another potentially significant San Diego contact for Hazmi and Mihdhar was Anwar Aulaqi, an imam at the Rabat mosque. Born in New Mexico and thus a U.S. citizen, Aulaqi grew up in Yemen and studied in the United States on a Yemeni government scholarship. We do not know how or when Hazmi and Mihdhar first met Aulaqi. The operatives may even have met or at least talked to him the same day they first moved to San Diego. Hazmi and Mihdhar reportedly respected Aulaqi as a religious figure and developed a close relationship with him.³³

When interviewed after 9/11, Aulaqi said he did not recognize Hazmi’s name but did identify his picture. Although Aulaqi admitted meeting with Hazmi several times, he claimed not to remember any specifics of what they discussed. He described Hazmi as a soft-spoken Saudi student who used to appear at the mosque with a companion but who did not have a large circle of friends.³⁴

Aulaqi left San Diego in mid-2000, and by early 2001 had relocated to Virginia. As we will discuss later, Hazmi eventually showed up at Aulaqi’s mosque in Virginia, an appearance that may not have been coincidental. We have been unable to learn enough about Aulaqi’s relationship with Hazmi and Mihdhar to reach a conclusion.³⁵

In sum, although the evidence is thin as to specific motivations, our overall impression is that soon after arriving in California, Hazmi and Mihdhar sought out and found a group of young and ideologically like-minded Muslims with roots in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, individuals mainly associated with Mohdar Abdullah and the Rabat mosque. The al Qaeda operatives lived openly in San Diego under their true names, listing Hazmi in the telephone directory. They managed to avoid attracting much attention.

And more from page 230:

At the Dar al Hijra mosque, Hazmi and Hanjour met a Jordanian named Eyad al Rababah. Rababah says he had gone to the mosque to speak to the imam, Aulaqi, about finding work. At the conclusion of services, which normally had 400 to 500 attendees, Rababah says he happened to meet Hazmi and Hanjour. They were looking for an apartment; Rababah referred them to a friend who had one to rent. Hazmi and Hanjour moved into the apartment, which was in Alexandria.⁷⁵

Some FBI investigators doubt Rababah’s story. Some agents suspect that Aulaqi may have tasked Rababah to help Hazmi and Hanjour. We share that suspicion, given the remarkable coincidence of Aulaqi’s prior relationship with Hazmi. As noted above, the Commission was unable to locate and interview Aulaqi. Rababah has been deported to Jordan, having been convicted after 9/11 in a fraudulent driver’s license scheme.⁷⁶

The Commission was unable to locate and interview Aulaqi, but Hasan found him without too much trouble.  The Commission also makes it clear that they themselves suspected Aulaqi of an operational role in 9/11, and that counterterrorism agents shared that suspicion.  This was no run-of-the-mill radical imam, but a man suspected of helping to murder almost 3,000 people in the worst terrorist attack in history.

And eight years later, no one thought it was suspicious or worthy of further investigation that a high-ranking officer in the Army was communicating with a man suspected of being one of the architects of 9/11?

There’s a failure to connect dots, and then there’s willful blindness.  This appears to be the latter.  Something is very, very wrong with our present counterterrorism effort if contacts between a military officer and a known radical imam in Yemen gets shrugged off like this, especially with a figure likely part of the 9/11 attacks.

.... (MORE)....

As if a pen-pal relationship with a suspected 9/11 plotter wasn’t bad enough, ABC News now reports that the suspected shooter in the Fort Hood massacre may have had other ties to jihadists.   Those dots should have been connected before 14 people died in a hail of gunfire:

A senior government official tells ABC News that investigators have found that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan had “more unexplained connections to people being tracked by the FBI” than just radical cleric Anwar al Awlaki. The official declined to name the individuals but Congressional sources said their names and countries of origin were likely to emerge soon.

Questions already surround Major Hasan’s contact with Awlaki, a radical cleric based in Yemen whom authorities consider a recruiter for al Qaeda. U.S. officials now confirm Hasan sent as many as 20 e-mails to Awlaki. Authorities intercepted the e-mails but later deemed them innocent or protected by the first amendment.

The FBI said it turned over the information to the Army, but Defense Department officials today denied that. One military investigator on a joint terror task force with the FBI was shown the e-mails, but they were never forwarded in a formal way to more senior officials at the Pentagon, and the Army did not learn of the contacts until after the shootings.

Awlaki (or in the 9/11 Commission report, Aulaqi) was bad enough.  And the FBI knew about Aulaqi, unlike the Army, which was kept in the dark about Hasan’s correspondence.  If they knew that Hasan had communicated with Aulaqi and other people on their terrorism watch lists, why didn’t they connect the dots?  Why didn’t they at least inform Hasan’s chain of command?

FOX News: DC Sniper John Allen Muhammad Executed By Lethal Injection

Politically Correct Murder -- Ramirez & IBD

Political Correctness: Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann (AKA, Osama bin Olbermann), News Busters, and Col. Ralph Peters

 

First Day Contrast: Olbermann Called Tiller Shooting 'Terrorism' and a 'Jihad,' But Avoided Those Terms for Fort Hood

By Tim Graham | November 10, 2009

On June 1 of this year, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann devoted most of his hour of Countdown to his withering outrage at the shooting of late-term abortionist George Tiller in Kansas (and how it was caused by Fox News).

The tone was dramatically different than his tone on November 5, the night of the Islamic terrorist shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas. Here’s Olbermann’s very dry opening: "Nightmare at Fort Hood: How could a soldier kill at least 12 other soldiers and wounded at least 31 more? And why?"

Here are words that Olbermann did not use on that first night last week: jihad, fundamentalist, crusaders, extremists, terrorism, zealot, Taliban, Hamas, al-Qaeda. All of these, however, were used in the first seconds of the Tiller show in June. That began this way:

Domestic terrorism: Dr. George Tiller -- women’s health physician, performer of legal abortions -- is assassinated in his church. And in the very same sentence, anti-choice zealots wash their hands of his murder and say he had it coming.

After all the promotional lingo, Olbermann grew even hotter:

A religious jihad by fundamentalist crusaders who believe that murder is justified, their acts of violence having the intended effect of changing behavior. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Not the Taliban, not Hamas, not al Qaeda. If the brutal murder of Dr. George Tiller -- the Wichita OB/GYN who, among many other things, provided abortions -- does not qualify as an act domestic terrorism, what does?

When comparing the two programs, it’s quite apparent that Olbermann has a lot more ardor and distaste for conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Bachmann than he does for Major Hasan. In fact, the Fort Hood shooting was demoted to story number four (it also got second billing in the show's introduction), so he could lead with the conservative-bashing:

An elected Republican official today is leading a protest on the west steps of the Capitol that compared health care reform to Nazi death camps and encouraged mindless harassment of and possibly violence against the government. Not tea baggers anymore, not demagogic commentators, an actual congresswoman inciting a hateful rebellion against the rule of law and order. Her name is Michele Bachmann.

In other words, he had more outrage for the alleged violence against the government that may some day be spurred by the rhetoric of Bachmann than the actual violence committed on federal property by Major Hasan.

His single segment on Fort Hood (as opposed to several on Tiller on the first night) made no ridiculous detours to blame cable-news networks -- even al-Jazeera.

...(read more)...

NYT WAPO CBS - U.S. Knew of Suspect’s Tie to Radical Cleric

Death by Political Correctness

WASHINGTON — Intelligence agencies intercepted communications last year and this year between the military psychiatrist accused of shooting to death 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., and a radical cleric in Yemen known for his incendiary anti-American teachings.

But the federal authorities dropped an inquiry into the matter after deciding that the messages from the psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, did not suggest any threat of violence and concluding that no further action was warranted, government officials said Monday.

Major Hasan’s 10 to 20 messages to Anwar al-Awlaki, once a spiritual leader at a mosque in suburban Virginia where Major Hasan worshiped, indicate that the troubled military psychiatrist came to the attention of the authorities long before last Thursday’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood, but that the authorities left him in his post....

FORT HOOD, TEX. -- Maj. Nidal M. Hasan corresponded by e-mail late last year and this year with a radical cleric in Yemen who has criticized the United States for waging war against Muslims, but the contact did not lead to an investigation, federal law enforcement officials said Monday.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist suspected of killing 12 soldiers and a civilian here on Thursday, will be tried in military court, the officials said.

U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted 10 to 20 e-mails from Hasan to Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen who once was a spiritual leader, or imam, at the suburban Virginia mosque where Hasan had worshiped, said a law enforcement official who spoke about the investigation on condition of anonymity.

Aulaqi responded to Hasan at least twice, according to Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee.

"For me, the number of times that this guy tried to reach out to the imam was significant," Hoekstra said. "Al-Qaeda and radical jihadists use the Internet to spread radical jihadism. . . . So how much of [Hasan's] lashing out is a result of . . . his access to radical messages on the Internet and the ability to interact?

"I believe that the responses from Aulaqi were maybe pretty innocent," Hoekstra continued. "But the very fact that he's sent e-mail . . . to this guy and got responses would be quite a concern to me."

The FBI determined that the e-mails did not warrant an investigation, according to the law enforcement official. Investigators said Hasan's e-mails were consistent with the topic of his academic research and involved some social chatter and religious discourse.

Hoekstra and others are raising questions about whether government agencies paid sufficient attention to warning signs about Hasan....

CBS - U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

According to the officials, the Army was informed of Hasan's contact, but it is unclear what, if anything, the Army did in response. ...

John Allen Muhammad -- Loses Supreme Court Appeal

John Allen Muhammad, D.C. sniper, loses Supreme Court appeal

Washington - Convicted D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad has lost his last appeal, opening the way for his scheduled execution in a Virginia prison on Tuesday. Mr. Muhammad and his 17-year-old accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, terrorized the Washington

Revolution Muslim -- CNN Reports: Radical Muslim Group's Homegrown Hate

(Tiger Hawk h/t)

NPR: Medical Staff At Walter Reed Worried About Hasan

Reformed Chicks Blabbing has another piece of the pre-shooting massacre piece of the puzzle.

Interesting interview about the Ft. Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, giving a lecture to other doctors at Walter Reed, freaking them out leading them to think he might be a terrorist:

It's funny that the media's narrative of this story, that he had "pretraumatic stress disorder," flies in the face of their own evidence.

A Quickley Growing Story -- Hasan's Radical Mosque and Affiliations (Sharia Law)

More from WND:

The suspected Fort Hood terrorist's former mosque in Maryland is controlled by the radical Muslim Brotherhood, a Saudi-funded worldwide jihadist movement which controls many of the mosques in America.

Conventional wisdom holds that Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan "self-radicalized" without any help from the Muslim establishment before allegedly shooting 46 fellow soldiers and security guards, and murdering 13 of them at the sprawling Texas base....

The Muslim Community Center has held fundraisers for Chechen jihadists, and promotes on its website a Shariah-based financial product offered by a Muslim Brotherhood front group under federal investigation.

The mosque distributes a pamphlet on Islam that says "it is permissible to fight" in jihad "warfare." It also requires women to wear headscarves.

"When leaving the home, a Muslim woman must at least cover her hair and body in loose and unrevealing clothing, obscuring the details of her body from the public; some also choose to cover their face and hands," the mosque pamphlet advises. "Islam forbids any sex appeal."

Hasan, the American-born son of Palestinian immigrants, refused to have his picture taken with women.....

Before attending Muslim Community Center, Hasan worshiped with his mother at the ultra-radical Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va. While there in 2001, he worshiped alongside some of the hijackers who attacked the Pentagon on 9/11.

He reportedly came under the spell of the mosque's imam Anwar al-Awlaki, who ministered privately to the hijackers.

Witnesses at Fort Hood say Hasan's eyes "lit up" when discussing al-Awlaki's teachings, which include graphic descriptions of carnal pleasures and rewards in paradise awaiting jihadi martyrs who fight infidels in the cause of Allah. Hasan, 39, was unmarried.

U.S. intelligence now believes the American-born al-Awlaki, who after 9/11 fled to Yemen, is one of al-Qaida's top spiritual advisers and recruiters....

Hasan Tries to Contacted Al Qaeda

HotAir has a good post on this, I will attach their Updates here:

Update (AP): In case you missed WaPo’s story on Hasan over the weekend, note what he told a neighbor on the morning of the murders after handing her a Koran: “I’m going to do good work for God.”

Update (Ed): Verum Serum has more on al-Awliki and Hasan’s “heroism”.

Update II: Joe Gandelman asks the right question: “If American intelligence agencies missed the signs pre-911 and they missed a big hint pre-Foot Hood, exactly what are they missing now, as you read this post?” I would also add this: “And why are they missing it?” Because in this case, it seems as though political correctness over the feelings of Muslims has played a part in hamstringing action — and that could be the case with other potential threats, too.

Officials: U.S. Aware of Hasan Efforts to Contact al Qaeda Army Major in Fort Hood Massacre Used 'Electronic Means' to Connect with Terrorists

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said.

One senior lawmaker said the CIA had, so far, refused to brief the intelligence committees on what, if any, knowledge they had about Hasan's efforts.

CIA director Leon Panetta and the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, have been asked by Congress "to preserve" all documents and intelligence files that relate to Hasan, according to the lawmaker.

On Sunday, Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) called for an investigation into whether the Army missed signs as to whether Hasan was an Islamic extremist.

"If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have a zero tolerance," Lieberman told Fox News Sunday.... (read more)...

Good Question: Did Hasan Radicalize Other Muslims at Fort Hood

World Net Daily asks an important question:

Did Hasan radicalize others at Fort Hood?
Alleged Army terrorist counseled 48 Muslims in chaplain's absence

The suspected Fort Hood terrorist served as a lay Muslim leader running Islamic services on the base in the absence of the Muslim chaplain, WND has learned. He also mentored at least one young convert to Islam whose parents worked at the sprawling Texas post.

Hasan's religious activities raise the specter that others may have been radicalized, investigators worry. There are nearly 50 Muslim soldiers serving on the base.

Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly shot 46 fellow soldiers and security guards and murdered 13 in the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11.

Witnesses say the devout Muslim officer jumped up on a desk and shouted, "Allahu akbar!" – Allah is greatest – before opening fire and spraying more than 100 bullets inside a crowded building where troops were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq.

"He was preparing for a martyrdom operation," a U.S. Army intelligence official said. "There is no evidence that this was an issue of an emotional aberration. It was well planned."

Not long after Hasan transferred to the base earlier this year, he sat down with Muslim chaplain Maj. Khalid Shabazz to discuss carrying out Shabazz's "vision" at the Fort Hood chapel when Shabazz was away. Shabazz helped lead Islamic services at the base's Ironhorse Chapel, which serves 48 Muslim soldiers.

"I found him to be very pleasant," Shabazz said of Hasan.

Shabazz, who recently left the base, met privately with Hasan several times.

Before his posting at Fort Hood, Shabazz ministered to Muslim inmates at the military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was known as a "sympathizer" among military police. Shabazz scolded MPs for making noise while al-Qaida detainees were praying.

"I would have to go down and chastise those guys," he recalled in a 2008 interview with NPR, "telling them, 'Hey man, those guys are praying. Have the decency not to play the national anthem and agitate them while they're praying.'"

The NPR interview was posted last year on the website of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which the FBI says is a front group for Hamas terrorists. (Following CAIR's blacklisting by the Justice Department as an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator, the FBI last year cut off formal ties to the group.)

Shabazz, who says it's tough trying to be a good Muslim and a good U.S. soldier, serves as a member of a chaplaincy steering committee for the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA.

Federal prosecutors recently named ISNA – a sister organization to CAIR – as an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator in the largest terror finance case in U.S. history. ISNA, they say, like CAIR is a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood, parent of Hamas and al-Qaida.... (read more)