Re: Pat Robertson's father , a former US senator :

I don't know a lot about him , however I do know he was one of 19 senators that signed the Southern Manisfesto. ( condemnation of SC on Brown v Board of Ed. )

Well, that tells me all I need to know ~

Sooz

I got this WaPo "News Alert" email while I was out earlier ~ Jeanne, I'll go in search of the full article but I'm curious if this impacts your opinion ~ Hasan more than fulfilled his service required for his medical school obligation years ago ~ so he obviously kept re-upping ~ I'm curious what his opinion was prior to 09/11/01 ~ and if his opinion changed following 09/11/01 ~ Sooz


News Alert
01:45 PM EST Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Source: Hasan did not seek discharge

The Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people last week at Fort Hood, Tex., did not formally seek to be discharged as a conscientious objector or for any other reason, an Army official said, despite claims by one of his relatives that he had sought to leave the service.

Interesting . I read he gave a presentation as a sr pysch resident that included a slide recommending CO given certain circumstances for military members of the Islam faith. I wonder if that was bologna. So much speculation , likely 1/2 truths and non - truths out there. Sad , I know.

I don't understand all of this article. It seems too fragmented and selectively sliced to make much sense.But it bears on my thinking of his position.

Admittedly, this is my "spin" and others have and will have their own versions of spin. We will likely never know what the truth is for what happened, because what happened wasn't a sane thing. It was an event indicative of a total breakdown of the normal civilized behavior of a normal civilized human being.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/09/AR2009110903618.html

Although his family indicates he wanted a discharge, the Army, for all its other criticisms and suspicions, and suggested prior concerns, doesn't seem to have been the first to proclaim Hasan's desire for a discharge.

As you mention, Sooz, his military obligation had been met, and, in the WaPo article I just listed, there is a fellow, female, military person who is quoted saying that an early discharge would be UNlikely due to his "military obligations." So the question of that is up in the air.

On the way to the previous article, I came across this.

This is in relationship to the imam who went to Yemen, (the congressman using this intel information for his own self aggrandizement claimed the imam was "deported." One of many casual utterances by people who don't know what in the hell they're talking about trying to make things look worse than they are.

Stunned I am to see the quote from the imam, Anwar al-Awlaki.

That imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, a "radical American" now living in Yemen, is praising Hasan as a hero:

Clearly, very clearly, the imam is not praising Hasan a hero for killing Americans. He is praising Hasan for being a man of conscience who could not bear living a contradiction......" This is a very, very different perspective than the one given by the news media, that the Imam has "Praised Hasan as a hero.....(that means period. and without further explanation, one is given the impression that the praise was for the slaughter of Hasan's fellow soldiers.

http://www.getreligion.org/?p=21112

Just some not so usual discussion of the character of the murderer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/us/09reconstruct.html?pagewanted=1

One thing we can be sure of is that we'll never konw the truth. The Armed Forces PR wonks will see to that.

Not surprising ~ I don't see how there could be any lesser charges ~ Sooz


News Alert
11:37 AM EST Thursday, November 12, 2009

Hasan to be charged with 13 counts of murder

Army officials this afternoon will charge Maj. Nidal M. Hasan with 13 counts of premeditated murder in last Thursday's killing of 12 soldiers and a civilian at Fort Hood, Tex., according to an Army official.

I haven't read the news yet, Sooz, but I would hope they would add the "attempted murders," or "assault with intent to kill" charges as well.

With all of the victims who have survived, and all of the witnesses present, there isn't much expectation he would be found not guilty of rhe murder charges, but the other charges still seem appropriate.

So much thought has to be given to the innocents who were murdered, people who were just going about their daily routines and just happened to be there. It isn't matter who they were, I don't think. It was just people who were available that he could kill. Sort of like, who happened to be flying on that airplane when the engine fell off.

Because I believe this man acted out of some personal conviction, some personal mental dysfunction, I would hope it would not put the whole of American Muslims on trial, but I fear that it will. I don't think his attack was planned in collaboration with terrorists cells or overseas contacts,or at the behest of some enemy of America. I don't think the American Muslilm communiity should be put on trial. I am afraid that may be the case.

We have aleady seen the propensity of certain judgmentalist extremists (non Muslilm) to attempt to connect public figures, from the President to Sarah Palin, to some sordid person or event in order to smear them. Dr. Husan needs no smearing. He publically committed the murder of thirteen innocent people and attempted the murder of dozens of others.

Any further pronouncements like those of Pat Robertson, or other prejudicial people, to smear, and stimulate hatred toward, Muslim Americans could result in a truly horrible retaliation such as we haven't seen since the days of the fully empowered KKK. It could leave the sane public with some tough decisins to make.

jd