Accused Fort Hood Shooter Releases Excerpts from his Sanity Board Hearing

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Photo Credit: APOn the eve of his military trial, accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan has released to Fox News two pages of the “Full Report of Sanity Board, US v. MAJ Nidal M. Hasan.” The military “Sanity Board” determines whether an individual is mentally responsible for his actions.

Described as a “forensic evaluation,” the exam was conducted by a three-member panel. It took place at Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas on December 7-9, 2010, more than a year after the massacre at the military base.

Based on the excerpt, a full report dated January 13, 2011, was released to the defense, but only a summary to the prosecution. The 42 year-old Army major is now facing 13 counts of murder, and 32 counts of attempted murder from the November 5, 2009 attack.

Attorney John Galligan, who is handling civil matters for Hasan, confirmed the authenticity of the documents, and that they were specifically released to Fox News.

“Major Hasan has directed me to release the attached portions of the Sanity Board report prepared in his case,” Galligan said. “… He reserves the right to release it to other news media outlets, but has not done so at this time.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Whatever Happened to All Those Promises Obama Made During the State of the Union?

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All that applause. All that adoration. The president’s state of the union address was considered brilliant by much of the press.

So what happened to all the promises?

The president’s laundry list of goals for his second term have either been defeated or not even brought out for a vote by either House. The sole exception is immigration reform and most of that “comprehensive” measure is going nowhere in the House.

The Hill:

The White House’s problem is perhaps best epitomized by the battle over gun control. The crescendo of February’s speech was the president’s emotional call for a vote on new regulations, noting the presence of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) — who was shot by a would-be assassin — in the audience.

But the president’s push for new gun controls flamed out in the Senate, where Democrats were unable to corral enough votes even for a background check expansion favored by two-thirds of all Americans…

Rich Baehr thinks that the public is finally starting to tune out Obama. I don’t see how you can come to any other conclusion when you realize just how impotent Obama has become.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP House Leadership to Support Amnesty?

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On Fox News Sunday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) did not deny the House Republican leadership will support an “overall path to legalization” for all of the country’s illegal immigrants. Though not offering specifics, Cantor told host Chris Wallace that the House would be addressing the immigration issue and “would take a position” on the question after the August recess.

When repeatedly asked whether the House will vote on a bill to put at least 11 million illegal immigrants on a “path to legalization,” Cantor said the House Republican leadership has not made “any announcements about the schedule” and emphasized the House was “not going to be bringing the Senate bill up.” He also said the House Republican leadership was “going to take a position” “because we know the system is broken” and “we want to fix it.”

Cantor acknowledged that Committees in the House have already passed piecemeal immigration bills that deal with things like border security and guest workers and said, “we will have a vote on a series of bills at some point, and it will deal with a variety of issues.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: NSA Collects ‘Word for Word’ Every Domestic Communication, Say Former Analysts

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PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff talks to two former National Security Agency analysts about what made them reveal information about the NSA’s surveillance programs.

William Binney and Russell Tice were working for the National Security Agency as analysts when they learned about its wiretapping program — the controversial post-9/11 program in which the NSA collected phone and Internet activity without getting warrants first for the purpose of hunting down terrorists.

They disagreed with the agency’s tactics and the program’s scope.

Read more from this story HERE.

Fort Hood Shooter was “a Terrible Physician” and Promoted Because of “Political Correctness”

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Photo Credit: EPABy Suzannah Hills

Survivors of the Fort Hood massacre are suing the U.S. government for allowing a jihadist soldier to rise through the ranks unchecked because of ‘political correctness’…

And on the eve of his trial, which is due to get underway on Tuesday, 148 victims and their relatives are launching a legal claim against the government for $750million (£491 million) for failing to prevent the killings from happening.

It is alleged military chiefs under the George W Bush and Barack Obama administrations allowed Major Hasan to progress through the ranks despite his increasing jihad extremism because of ‘political correctness’.

Reed Rubinstein, the lawyer acting for the group, told the Sunday Telegraph that Major Hasan was awarded ‘preferential treatment’ because of his ‘ethnicity and his religion’.

He said: ‘The rules on the conduct of military officers were ignored. He was a terrible physician and had no business treating soldiers.

‘Yet, because of where he came from, and how he prayed to his god, they promoted him and set him loose and ignored his open, very obvious jihadism.’

Read more from this story HERE.

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The Voices of Fort Hood

By Elise Cooper

There was the cry of “Allahu Akbar,” a gun fired, mayhem all around, with the end result of thirteen dead and thirty wounded at an Army base in Fort Hood, Texas on November 5th, 2009. The culprit is not just any terrorist but a major in the U.S. Army, Nidal Malik Hassan. He was an officer sworn to protect, a psychiatrist sworn to help, and an American, sworn to the Constitution. American Thinker interviewed victims, their families, and someone who was a college classmate of Hassan.

David Wellington in his latest book, Chimera, wrote that those serving in the military need a good officer who “learns to respect them, their hard work, their sacrifice… and he comes to love them. But he can’t ever forget he’s responsible for them.” Hassan had none of these attributes. There were warning signs from his college days at the University of the Health Sciences in Maryland. A college classmate who knew him in 2007 said at that time Hassan had radical beliefs. “Hassan was a Muslim first, held to Sharia Law before the Constitution, believed he had a duty to fellow Muslims before Americans, and justified suicide bombings. I had an Environmental class with him where he did a presentation against the War on Terror, and in support of suicide bombings in the name of Islam. This was so completely off topic that a bunch of us complained to the professor who did nothing because of political correctness.”

Was Hassan suspended or thrown out of the Army? No, he was promoted. But there were other warning signs including his contact through eighteen emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, where he referred to the U.S. as the aggressor against Muslims. The FBI dropped the ball and handed it off to the Army, which never considered his radicalization as a perceived threat, instead writing it all off as an aspect of Hassan’s religious beliefs.

Political correctness has dominated developments since the shooting. The Obama Administration outrageously designated the attack as “workplace violence” instead of terrorism. Everyone interviewed agrees with Amber Gadlin, a victim: “The classification of workplace violence is the biggest slap in the face we can get as victims. Had it been classified as a terrorist attack we would be getting more benefits and pay. If we do not change the classification the shooting will be downplayed.”

Prominent congressmen are working diligently to try to change this classification. American Thinker interviewed two of them, Congressman Mike McCaul (R-TX), the Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Congressman Tom Rooney (R-FLA), a former JAG officer. Congressman McCaul strongly emphasized, “Major Hassan is not the common criminal this administration would like Americans to believe. This administration has gone to great lengths to avoid recognizing this event for what it was, an act of terrorism. Secretary McHugh has made statements implying the DOJ influenced the Army’s official designation as workplace violence. We are continuing to put pressure on this administration to change the official designation.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Bill Kristol: A year ago Obama Said al-Qaida is on the Run, and Now WE are on the Run (+video)

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Photo Credit: APWeekly Standard editor Bill Kristol remarked on Sunday that President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign rhetoric on foreign policy stood in stark contrast to the turmoil in the Middle East stirred by threats from al-Qaida, pointing out that the U.S. closed 22 embassies throughout the Muslim world.

“Four years ago President Obama gave a much heralded speech as outreach to the Muslim world,” Kristol said. “And now, four years later we are closing embassies throughout the Muslim world. A year ago, the president said al-Qaida is on the run. And now we seem to be on the run.”

“I’m not criticizing the decision to close the embassies. That’s probably the right thing to do for the sake of trying to save American lives and others, but it’s a terrible thing,” he added. “That you know, just a year ago boasting al-Qaida is on the run and Osama bin Laden is dead.”

Read more from this story HERE.

The Public-Private Surveillance Partnership

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Photo Credit: Martin ColeBy Bruce Schneier

Imagine the government passed a law requiring all citizens to carry a tracking device. Such a law would immediately be found unconstitutional. Yet we all carry mobile phones.

If the National Security Agency required us to notify it whenever we made a new friend, the nation would rebel. Yet we notify Facebook Inc. (FB) If the Federal Bureau of Investigation demanded copies of all our conversations and correspondence, it would be laughed at. Yet we provide copies of our e-mail to Google Inc. (GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) or whoever our mail host is; we provide copies of our text messages to Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), AT&T Inc. (T) and Sprint Corp. (S); and we provide copies of other conversations to Twitter Inc., Facebook, LinkedIn (LNKD) Corp. or whatever other site is hosting them.

The primary business model of the Internet is built on mass surveillance, and our government’s intelligence-gathering agencies have become addicted to that data. Understanding how we got here is critical to understanding how we undo the damage.

Computers and networks inherently produce data, and our constant interactions with them allow corporations to collect an enormous amount of intensely personal data about us as we go about our daily lives. Sometimes we produce this data inadvertently simply by using our phones, credit cards, computers and other devices. Sometimes we give corporations this data directly on Google, Facebook, Apple Inc.’s iCloud and so on in exchange for whatever free or cheap service we receive from the Internet in return.

The NSA is also in the business of spying on everyone, and it has realized it’s far easier to collect all the data from these corporations rather than from us directly. In some cases, the NSA asks for this data nicely. In other cases, it makes use of subtle threats or overt pressure. If that doesn’t work, it uses tools like national security letters. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesFBI pressures Internet providers to install surveillance software

By Declan McCullagh

The U.S. government is quietly pressuring telecommunications providers to install eavesdropping technology deep inside companies’ internal networks to facilitate surveillance efforts.

FBI officials have been sparring with carriers, a process that has on occasion included threats of contempt of court, in a bid to deploy government-provided software capable of intercepting and analyzing entire communications streams. The FBI’s legal position during these discussions is that the software’s real-time interception of metadata is authorized under the Patriot Act.

Attempts by the FBI to install what it internally refers to as “port reader” software, which have not been previously disclosed, were described to CNET in interviews over the last few weeks. One former government official said the software used to be known internally as the “harvesting program.”

Carriers are “extra-cautious” and are resisting installation of the FBI’s port reader software, an industry participant in the discussions said, in part because of the privacy and security risks of unknown surveillance technology operating on an sensitive internal network.

It’s “an interception device by definition,” said the industry participant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because court proceedings are sealed. “If magistrates knew more, they would approve less.” It’s unclear whether any carriers have installed port readers, and at least one is actively opposing the installation. Read more from this story HERE.

Egyptian Anti-Obama Video Goes Viral, Blames Him for Siding with Muslim Brotherhood (+video)

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US President Barack Obama appears to have angered supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, as well as supporters of the army coup that toppled him on July 3.

Leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is at the vanguard of the street protests against Morsi’s ouster, claim the US supported the coup. Those opposed to the Brotherhood claim Washington has been and still is supporting the Islamists.

An example of the vitriol in the country can be seen in a new video clip featuring a song by Egyptian performer Sama Elmasry. Titled “You Obama, Your Father, Mother,” it attacks the US president for allegedly preferring Islamic radicals over the army. It has gone viral, with over 160,000 views since last week.

The clip features Obama in traditional Islamic dress. Elmasry curses him while mentioning that he had called for former president Hosni Mubarak to leave immediately, seeming to imply that this proved he was pro-Brotherhood.

The song also mentions Obama’s support for Islamistled Turkey as well as Israel. It is highly nationalistic in tone…

[WARNING: VULGAR LANGUAGE]

Read more from this story HERE.

Members of Congress Denied Access to Basic Information About NSA

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Photo Credit: Getty Images By Glenn Greenwald

Members of Congress have been repeatedly thwarted when attempting to learn basic information about the National Security Agency (NSA) and the secret FISA court which authorizes its activities, documents provided by two House members demonstrate.

From the beginning of the NSA controversy, the agency’s defenders have insisted that Congress is aware of the disclosed programs and exercises robust supervision over them. “These programs are subject to congressional oversight and congressional reauthorization and congressional debate,” President Obama said the day after the first story on NSA bulk collection of phone records was published in this space. “And if there are members of Congress who feel differently, then they should speak up.”

But members of Congress, including those in Obama’s party, have flatly denied knowing about them. On MSNBC on Wednesday night, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct) was asked by host Chris Hayes: “How much are you learning about what the government that you are charged with overseeing and holding accountable is doing from the newspaper and how much of this do you know?” The Senator’s reply:

The revelations about the magnitude, the scope and scale of these surveillances, the metadata and the invasive actions surveillance of social media Web sites were indeed revelations to me.”

But it is not merely that members of Congress are unaware of the very existence of these programs, let alone their capabilities. Beyond that, members who seek out basic information – including about NSA programs they are required to vote on and FISA court (FISC) rulings on the legality of those programs – find that they are unable to obtain it. Read more from this story HERE.

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Amash: Snowden a whistle-blower, ‘told us what we need to know’

By Fox News

Rep. Justin Amash said Sunday that Edward Snowden is a whistle-blower — adding to the debate about whether the American should be considered a traitor for leaking National Security Agency secrets while working as a federal contractor.

Amash, R-Mich., acknowledged that Congress was aware that U.S. intelligence agents could gather information on Americans under the post-9/11 Patriot Act but not to the extent Snowden revealed this spring.

“Members of Congress were not really aware … about what these programs were being used for, the extent to which they were being used,” Amash told “Fox News Sunday. “He’s a whistle-blower. He told us what we need to know.” Read more from this story HERE.

We’re Living ‘1984’ Today (+video)

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Photo Credit: jason ilaganIt appears that the police now have a device that can read license plates and check if a car is unregistered, uninsured or stolen. We already know that the National Security Agency can dip into your Facebook page and Google searches. And it seems that almost every store we go into these days wants your home phone number and ZIP code as part of any transaction.

So when Edward Snowden — now cooling his heels in Russia — revealed the extent to which the NSA is spying on Americans, collecting data on phone calls we make, it’s not as if we should have been surprised. We live in a world that George Orwell predicted in “1984.” And that realization has caused sales of the 1949, dystopian novel to spike dramatically upward recently — a 9,000% increase at one point on Amazon.com.

Comparisons between Orwell’s novel about a tightly controlled totalitarian future ruled by the ubiquitous Big Brother and today are, in fact, quite apt. Here are a few of the most obvious ones.

Telescreens — in the novel, nearly all public and private places have large TV screens that broadcast government propaganda, news and approved entertainment. But they are also two-way monitors that spy on citizens’ private lives. Today websites like Facebook track our likes and dislikes, and governments and private individuals hack into our computers and find out what they want to know. Then there are the ever-present surveillance cameras that spy on the average person as they go about their daily routine.

The endless war — In Orwell’s book, there’s a global war that has been going on seemingly forever, and as the book’s hero, Winston Smith, realizes, the enemy keeps changing. One week we’re at war with Eastasia and buddies with Eurasia. The next week, it’s just the opposite. There seems little to distinguish the two adversaries, and they are used primarily to keep the populace of Oceania, where Smith lives, in a constant state of fear, thereby making dissent unthinkable — or punishable. Today we have the so-called war on terror, with no end in sight, a generalized societal fear, suspension of certain civil liberties, and an ill-defined enemy who could be anywhere, and anything.

Read more from this story HERE.