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Congressmen Move to Strip Military Paycheck From Fort Hood Shooter, Other Violent Offenders

Photo Credit: APA coalition of Republican congressmen have introduced the Stop Pay for Violent Offenders Act, which would suspend pay for military service members if charged with a violent offense, including rape, sexual assault, or murder.

The bill comes as a response to the revelation that the alleged Fort Hood Massacre shooter, Nidal Hasan, has received over $278,000 worth of military pay while awaiting trial for charges of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder.

The representatives co-sponsoring the bill include Reps. Joe Barton (R-TX), Tim Griffin (R-AR), Tom Rooney (R-FL), and Frank Wolf, (R-VA).

“It is outrageous that taxpayers continue to pay an accused terrorist that killed more than a dozen people,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. “Does anyone think this make sense? You are innocent until proven guilty in this country, but that doesn’t mean you should be rewarded while awaiting trial.”

Hasan’s trial, which began Tuesday, added fuel to the fire once Hasan, representing himself, admitted he was guilty of the charges held against him. During his brief opening statement, he confessed that he “is the shooter,” and explained that his motivation came from jihadist principles, which led him to shoot American soldiers to stop the ‘war on Islam.’

Read more from this story HERE.

Lawyer: Fort Hood Shooting Suspect Trying to Get Death Penalty (+video)

Photo Credit: APBy Nomaan Merchant and Paul J. Weber

The standby attorney for the soldier charged in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage accused Maj. Nidal Hasan on Wednesday of deliberately charting a course toward a conviction and death sentence, abruptly halting the trial after only one day.

Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, Hasan’s lead court-appointed standby attorney, said he is willing to step in and be Hasan’s defense lawyer. But he asked that his responsibilities as co-counsel be minimized if Hasan, who is representing himself at trial, continues to work toward being executed.

It is “clear his goal is to remove impediments or obstacles to the death penalty and is working toward a death penalty,” Poppe told the judge overseeing the case at the Texas military base.

Hasan responded: “I object. That’s a twist of the facts.”

The judge, Col. Tara Osborn, then cleared the courtroom.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Fort Hood gunman’s apparent death wish no surprise to veteran prosecutors

By Joshua Rhett Miller

The apparent death wish of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, which brought his court martial to a temporary halt Wednesday, came as no surprise to veteran prosecutors who have handled high-profile cases involving terrorists.

Hasan is representing himself but is advised by a team of attorneys appointed by the military court trying him for the Nov. 5, 2009 shooting at a Texas military base that left 13 dead and 30 injured. On Wednesday, members of his legal team told the military judge the former Army psychiatrist appears to be angling for the death penalty as he represents himself in the military trial.

One of the attorneys, Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, said he is willing to step in and serve as Hasan’s attorney, a day after Hasan gave an opening argument that lasted less than two minutes and included an unambiguous admission that he “was the shooter” who killed 13 and injured 30 in the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at the Texas Army base. Hasan’s court-appointed legal team is refusing to be part of a process in which Hasan seems determined to become a martyr, according to one former prosecutor experienced in terror cases.

“This is his soapbox,” said Andrew McCarthy, who, as a federal prosecutor, made the government’s case against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. “He’s really doing a performance to the world here, to the jihadists of the world here, and, secondly, he wants to get their case out there.”

McCarthy predicted Hasan will get the death penalty, regardless of how his legal team feels.

Read more from this story HERE.

Fort Hood Trial Turns Bizarre as Shooter Grills Witnesses (+video)

Photo Credit: Fox NewsBy Perry Chiaramonte

The trial of the Fort Hood gunman, who is acting as his own attorney, took a surreal turn as the former Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 in the November 2009 attack grilled witnesses — including his former boss in the military and a fellow Muslim who spoke to him the day of the shooting.

After a short opening statement in which ex-Army Maj. Nidal Hasan called himself a “mujahedeen,” admitted to the rampage and said “the dead bodies will show that war is an ugly thing,” Hasan cross-examined prosecution witnesses, including retired Lt. Col Ben Kirk Phillips, his former boss. When pressed by the defendant, Phillips acknowledged that his officer evaluation report had graded Hasan as “outstanding.”

But he declined to cross-examine one of his shooting victims, Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, who provided the day’s most damning testimony.

Lunsford – who was shot seven times during the incident – described what happened that day, saying he first saw Hasan sitting in a chair, with his arms on his knees while looking at the floor.

He said Hasan then jumped up and ordered the one civilian in the room to leave before shouting, “Allahu akbar” and opening fire. Panic set in among the soldiers, who crowded toward a rear door, which was jammed.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Three Forgotten Facts About the Fort Hood Massacre

By Michelle Malkin

Finally. Four years after Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan walked into the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, Texas, and perpetrated the bloodiest massacre ever on an American military base, the self-confessed jihadist’s court martial proceedings began this week. Have you forgotten?

Americans obsessed over the O.J. Simpson, Casey Anthony and Jodi Arias trials. Gun-control lobbyists turned Newtown, Aurora and Tucson into national awareness-raising, fundraising and legislation-promoting campaigns. But where are the celebrity lobbyists and high-profile advocates for the victims of bloodthirsty Muslim vigilante Nidal Hasan?

The White House, which downplayed the terrorist mass murder as “workplace violence,” exacerbated national apathy for his evil acts. Our soldiers deserve better. Here are three facts you’ve probably forgotten — or never knew — about the Fort Hood terror spree.

–Fourteen victims fell on Nov. 5, 2009, not 13. Thirteen of our U.S. military personnel died in cold blood at the deployment center. But the death toll was actually 14. Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, was pregnant when Hasan shot her during the first round of gunfire. At a military Article 32 hearing in 2010 (analogous to a civilian grand jury hearing), a survivor of the Fort Hood shootings testified that Velez cried out, “My baby! My baby!”

In his opening statement on Tuesday, Hasan (acting as his own lawyer) apologized to his fellow jihadists for not destroying more innocent life.

Read more from this story HERE.

Accused Fort Hood Shooter Releases Excerpts from his Sanity Board Hearing

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.

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

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.

Hasan Renounces Citizenship, Military Oath in Handwritten Documents Provided to Fox (+video)

On the eve of his military trial, accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan released seven pages of handwritten and typed documents to Fox News in which he appears to renounce his U.S. citizenship, abandons his military oath as a commissioned officer, and explains his relationship with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki — the first American targeted for death by the CIA.

Most of the documents also include the acronym “SoA,” which is considered shorthand for “Soldier of Allah.” Hasan’s business card, also bearing “SoA,” was found in his Texas apartment after the shooting…

The documents may help illuminate Hasan’s state of mind and could challenge the Defense Department’s attempt to deal with the attack in the context of “workplace violence.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Accused Fort Hood Shooter Releases Statement Saying US at War With Islam

Acting as his own attorney, accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan has released a statement to Fox News claiming that the U.S. military is at war with his religion.

However, he does not directly address the shooting at the Texas Army Base in November 2009 that killed 13 and injured more than 30 others.

“My complicity was on behalf of a government that openly acknowledges that it would hate for the law of Almighty Allah to be the supreme law of the land,” the 42-year-old Army psychiatrist said. Hasan then apparently asked if this was a war on Islam. “You bet it is,” he said. “I participated in it.”

The statement, which begins “In the name of Almighty Allah, the most gracious and the most merciful, my name is Nidal Hasan, Major Nidal Hasan, and I would like to convey a message to the world,” runs more than six pages.

Hasan also says he regrets his years in the Army, claiming that his service was inconsistent with his religious beliefs. “I would like to begin by repenting to Almighty Allah and apologize to the (Mujahideen), the believers, and the innocent. I ask for their forgiveness and their prayers. I ask for their forgiveness for participating in the illegal and immoral aggression against Muslims, their religion and their lands,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Fort Hood Terrorist Trial: Court Denies Nidal Hasan’s Motion to Access NSA Surveillance Evidence

Photo Credit: APBy Associated Press. The Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, cannot access evidence obtained through secret electronic surveillance, a federal appeals court ruled.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans also denied Maj. Nidal Hasan’s motion to suppress the evidence the government plans to use against him. The court’s decision Wednesday upheld a lower court’s ruling issued before Hasan recently began serving as his own attorney.

Hasan faces execution or life without parole if convicted in the 2009 rampage that left 13 dead and nearly three dozen wounded on the Texas Army post. Jury selection in his court-martial started Tuesday at Fort Hood, and testimony in the trial is to start Aug. 3.

In his motion, Hasan’s attorneys had argued that without access to the evidence obtained through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, his legal rights would be violated. But the appeals court said “it cannot be said that this exclusion rises to the level of a constitutional violation.” The ruling said every appeals court that has considered a constitutional challenge to FISA has upheld the statute. Read more from this story HERE.

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Fort Hood massacre trial: Hasan goes on the defense

By Rick Jervis. Kimberly Munley has spent countless hours rehabilitating a shattered knee while trying to erase haunting images of a rampaging killer’s 10-minute onslaught here four years ago.

Now Munley faces another ominous challenge: the prospect of answering questions from her would-be murderer in a military courtroom.

Munley, 38, is one of several dozen survivors of the shooting assault by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist accused of opening fire on soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood in 2009. Hasan is charged with killing 13 people and injuring nearly three dozen more before police shot him, paralyzing him from the waist down. The American-born Muslim, who has acknowledged his role in the shootings, faces the death penalty in a case that spawned congressional hearings as well as an ongoing debate as to whether the shooting was a terrorist attack or “workplace violence,” as the Pentagon has classified it.

“It’s hard when the guy who tried to kill you is up there asking you questions,” said Munley, a federal police officer at Fort Hood at the time who was the first person to confront Hasan, exchanging gunfire with him. “That’s a whole different monster.” Read more from this story HERE.

Hasan Says He Killed for the Taliban, Exposes Obama’s False Workplace Violence Claim

The Army major on trial for murdering 13 at Ft. Hood in 2009 plans to argue that he acted in defense of the Taliban. So much for the administration calling the shootings “workplace violence.”

One of the great scandals of the Obama administration has been its shameful designation of the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at the Army base in Killeen, Texas, by Maj. Nidal Hasan as “workplace violence.”

While Hasan continues to draw his pay, this designation has denied the dead and the survivors the benefits they would have been entitled to had the attack been properly labeled an act of terror.

One would expect that when a self-proclaimed “Soldier of Allah” shouting “Allahu Akhbar” opens fire on dozens of American citizens and soldiers, killing and maiming as many innocents as he can, it would have been called an act of terror…

The White House so far has not commented on Hasan’s stunning announcement that he will defend not only himself but also “the leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban.” In other words, he committed an act of terror on behalf of an enemy of the United States.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo Credit: AP

Fort Hood Shooting Victims Struggle While Defendant Draws Big Salary (+video)

Photo Credit: Bell County Sheriff’s Office handout/ReutersSoldiers wounded in the Fort Hood shooting spree in November 2009 have a new problem on their hands: getting the shooting’s classification changed from “workplace violence” to “combat related.”

As reported by Dallas-Fort Worth’s NBC 5 Investigates, the injured soldiers are struggling to pay their bills. Because the government doesn’t classify the shooting as an act of combat or terror, those injured don’t receive additional pay or Purple Hearts.

Receiving the “pay and medical benefits earned by those wounded in combat” would be a big help to these soldiers and their families, reports NBC 5.

Adding to the soldiers’ concerns: Major Nidal Hasan, the man charged in the shootings, continues to be paid his salary and has earned more than $278,000 since the shooting, which resulted in 13 deaths and 32 injuries.

The news team reported that the Department of Defense confirmed that Hasan has continued to receive his salary because he has not yet been proved guilty. The salary rule is documented in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (That Hasan would still receive his pay was first reported in 2011.)

Read more from this story HERE.