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Lieberman To Launch Fort Hood Shooting Investigation
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 9, 2009
Modified Nov 9, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 9, 2009
Modified Nov 9, 2009
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Senator Joseph Lieberman discussed the Fort Hood shooting on Fox News yesterday and said he would launch a Senate investigation, noting there were "strong warning signs" that suspect army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan was an "Islamist extremist." The Independent Democrat from Connecticut added, "If that is true, the murder of these 13 people was a terrorist act and, in fact, it was the most destructive terrorist act to be committed on American soil since 9/11."
Of course, Lieberman was basing his thoughts on initial evidence, but he said that if there were warning signs, "The U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance. He should have been gone." This comes as it's reported that Hasan "went to the same Virginia mosque as two Sept. 11 hijackers in 2001 when a radical imam was the preacher... It was not yet clear whether Hasan associated with the hijackers, investigators said."
A NY Times article looking at Hasan's behavior before his alleged rampage reports, "In recent years, he had grown more and more vocal about his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and tortured over reconciling his military duties with his religion. He tried to get out of the Army, relatives said, and apparently believed it to be impossible, though experts say he was probably given inadequate advice." Other Muslims in the military also confirm being harassed by other soldiers, but one said, "It gets to you sometimes. But the more personally you take things, the more you’re going to have a hard time surviving."
U.S. Army chief of staff George Casey said, '"It would be a shame - as great a tragedy as this was - it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well." The president of the Islamic Society of North America Ingrid Mattson told the Times, "I don’t understand why the Muslim-American community has to take responsibility for him. The Army has had at least as much time and opportunity to form and shape this person as the Muslim community."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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