Some Fort Hood jihadist details:
Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a “spiritual adviser” to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.
Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother’s funeral was held there in May that year.
The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.
Hasan’s eyes “lit up” when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki’s teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday’s horrific shooting spree.
Hot Air misses the boat:
And so a personnel file already teeming with red flags gets another giant one. If you’re wondering how a British newspaper managed to track down this information when the U.S. military apparently couldn’t, you’re not alone.
No, it’s perfectly understandable. It’s batshit crazy, but it’s perfectly understandable. Our government is not allowed to investigate the worship practices of its citizens. Our expansive interpretation of First Amendment rights makes that impossible. Likewise, for that matter, the Brits can’t do much about radical mosques there.
Curiously, though, we can investigate what we damned well please abroad, as can they. (That was the beauty of the Echelon program, which outsourced surveillance of American suspects to Britain, with the actual intercepts done on foreign soil.)
Factor in that the press can investigate what it damned well pleases—more civil liberties!—and it’s clear that a British newspaper can find jihadist traitors in America’s armed forces more easily than the FBI can.
Just picture the lawsuits, ACLU protests, and cable network appearances if Major Hasan had been bounced out a few years ago. We’ve reaped what we’ve sown.
