Are Fort Hood survivors 'Swiftboating' Obama?

The survivors of Nidal Malik Hasan's jihadist attack are fed up, as they should be. They're tired of watching their country's leaders tell the world that Hasan's rampage was 'workplace violence'. In essence, a blatantly false motive has been attributed to someone who murdered people who were serving their country. The same dynamic has been at work over the Benghazi attack. As the Obama administration continues to waffle on who / what was behind the attack, it tried to blame a video for motivating those who murdered people who were serving their country.

In 2004, veterans who served with John Kerry called his service and his purple hearts into question. In 2012, the victims of an act of war still don't have purple hearts because Hasan hasn't been identified for what he is - a domestic enemy who infiltrated the U.S. Army.

Via the Washington Times:

Benghazi isn't the first time the Obama administration has struggled with whether to call an attack on a U.S. post a terrorist attack. Nearly three years after the fact, the Defense Department still calls the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, an act of workplace violence, despite the suspect's ties to al Qaeda.

A coalition of 160 victims and family members of the deadly rampage at Fort Hood in 2009 sees similarities in the Obama administration's reluctance to label the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya as a terrorist act and wants government officials to belatedly deem the assault in Texas as terrorism as they now have done with Benghazi.

"To have it not be called terrorism is a slap in the face," said Shawn Manning, who was facing his third deployment the day authorities say Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan shot him six times.

The assault on the army post in Killeen, Texas, was the most lethal terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, leaving 13 dead, more than 30 wounded by gunshots and dozens more injured. Survivors, many who suffered from multiple bullet wounds, have spent the past three years trying to rehabilitate their bodies and rebuild their lives. Maj. Hasan, 42, is awaiting trial and faces the death penalty if convicted. 

For the service members who died and those who were wounded, the terrorism distinction would mean that the military considered that their injuries took place in a combat zone, making them eligible for Purple Heart medals and access to medical care and benefits similar to what soldiers wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan receive.

Civilian victims, such as Kimberly Munley, the civilian police officer employed by the Army who shot Maj. Hasan four times and is credited with bringing him down and helping prevent a bigger massacre, aren't eligible for Purple Hearts. But Mrs. Munley said the designation would recognize the severity of the attack and provide her and others with much-needed closure. 

"To be honest with you, it would just help everyone, including me, start to be able to have closure and start to heal," she said. "To this day, mentally and emotionally, I don't think any of us have started to heal."

The Times report above refers to "13 dead". Perhaps as a consequence of the culture we have allowed to exist for far too long in this country, the number of dead is rarely reported accurately. Francheska Velez was one of those murdered... and she was pregnant. The correct number is 14.

In this incredibly well-done video, the survivors of the attack speak out against those who refuse to identify Hasan for what he is and his act as what it was - an act of war.

At one point in this video, though Velez's name is not mentioned, one of the survivors describes finding her laying on the floor, crying 'my baby, my baby'.

NYPD Jihad? National Guardsman shot and killed

Jihad from the NYPD?

Via New York Post:

An unarmed Army National Guardsman was pulled over on a Queens road and fatally shot by an elite NYPD officer yesterday — and the DA now is probing what the victim’s friend called a case of police “road rage.”

Noel Polanco’s hands were on the steering wheel of his 2012 Honda Fit moments before Detective Hassan Hamdy shot him once in the torso, a woman sitting in the front passenger seat told cops and reporters.

But police spokesman Paul Browne said it’s unknown if Polanco, 22, moved after Hamdy yelled, “Show me your hands!” to the three people in the car, one a sleeping off-duty cop in the back seat, on the Grand Central Parkway near La Guardia Airport at 5:15 a.m.

Look for this story to dominate some headlines.

Read it all.

h/t Keith

U.S. Ground Troops going in to Libya?

Obama seems intent on losing his far left kook base lately. If the anti-war crowd was up in arms over air strikes, imagine what kind of frenzy boots on the ground in Libya would do to them. On top of that, the mission is so unclear that the side we're choosing to fight on is the worst of two very bad options. We've already learned that al-Qaeda (Muslim Brotherhood) has a distinct presence among the rebels. In some cases, it's leading the effort.

Make no mistake; the Muslim Brotherhood wants the rebels to remove Gadhafi from power. So, why on earth would we help further that goal?

Via CBS:

(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - The United States may consider sending troops into Libya with a possible international ground force that could aid the rebels, according to the general who led the military mission until NATO took over.

Army Gen. Carter Ham also told lawmakers Thursday that added American participation would not be ideal, and ground troops could erode the international coalition and make it more difficult to get Arab support for operations in Libya.

Ham said the operation was largely stalemated now and was more likely to remain that way since America has transferred control to NATO.

He said NATO has done an effective job in an increasingly complex combat situation. But he noted that, in a new tactic, Muammar Qaddafi's forces are making airstrikes more difficult by staging military forces and vehicles near civilian areas such as schools and mosques.

The use of an international ground force is a possible plan to bolster rebels fighting forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Ham said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

Asked if the U.S. would provide troops, Ham said, "I suspect there might be some consideration of that. My personal view at this point would be that that's probably not the ideal circumstance, again for the regional reaction that having American boots on the ground would entail."

Adding insanity to an already insane situation is the fact that Obama has vowed to veto the bill that is supposed to continue funding the troops during the looming government shutdown.

War was not declared and congress was not consulted by Obama yet an escalation that involves U.S. ground troops supporting rebel forces laden with al-Qaeda, appears a distinct possibility. If ever actions dictated that Congress assert its authority, it's right now but the Democrats appear hell bent on martyring themselves through partisanship.

h/t Weasel Zippers

LADY GAGA, WIKILEAKS, AND THE GAY MAN RESPONSIBLE

The man allegedly responsible for getting hundreds of thousands of top secret military and diplomatic cables into the hands of Wikileaks is an openly gay man named Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is currently in military custody. Manning served as an Army Intelligence Analyst in Iraq and was able to secretly download the documents in question by burning them to a CD labeled 'Lady Gaga' and subsequently walk out with it.

Via The Guardian:

The US military believes it knows where the leak originated. A soldier, Bradley Manning, 22, has been held in solitary confinement for the last seven months and is facing a court martial in the new year. The former intelligence analyst is charged with unauthorised downloads of classified material while serving on an army base outside Baghdad. He is suspected of taking copies not only of the state department archive, but also of video of an Apache helicopter crew gunning down civilians in Baghdad, and hundreds of thousands of daily war logs from military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It was childishly easy, according to the published chatlog of a conversation Manning had with a fellow-hacker. "I would come in with music on a CD-RW labelled with something like 'Lady Gaga' … erase the music … then write a compressed split file. No one suspected a thing ... [I] listened and lip-synched to Lady Gaga's Telephone while exfiltrating possibly the largest data spillage in American history." He said that he "had unprecedented access to classified networks 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 8+ months".

The International Business Times has more on Manning:

Bradley Manning is a 23-year-old U.S. Army private who was working in Iraq as an army intelligence analyst when he was arrested in May this year. He was enlisted in the US Army in 2007. Half-British and half-American, he was born in a small town in Oklahoma. His parents divorced in 2001 and he went back to the UK with his mother where he attended secondary school in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.

He posted on his Facebook page jokes about 'military intelligence' being an oxymoron. He also wrote: "Bradley Manning is not a piece of equipment." Manning is openly gay and has been active in gay rights movements.
Manning has been described variously by fellow students as a "computer geek", "hot-headed", and an "introvert". He has been under a suicide watch since his arrest.

Before his arrest he had posted on his page disillusioned comment like he didn’t "have anything left" and was "beyond frustrated". A Telegraph report pointed out that he appeared to sink into depression after a relationship break-up.

Here is a gay man who has done untold damage to the United States and could quite possibly be responsible for an International crisis ostensibly because of a bad relationship while we debate whether 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' should be repealed.

h/t Gateway Pundit

SOLDIER JAILED FOR ANGRY RAP SONG

Thanks to webmaster Mitch, who happens to be a marine who served in both Somalia, Kenya, Zaire, and Albania for sending this one in. Apparently, Spc. Marc A. Hall was somewhat less than enchanted at the prospect of being told that he would have to continue serving in the army as a consequence of the Stop/Loss policy, which allows the army to extend their length of service. Hall channeled his anger into a rap song and is now in jail according to the Military's WEBSITE:

Angry that the military planned to send him back to Iraq past his date to leave the military, a Soldier recorded a hip-hop song that blasts the Army and describes going on a shooting spree, an act that led his commanders to decide that the Soldier posed a threat to his unit.

The infantry Soldier, Spc. Marc A. Hall, has been jailed on criminal charges in Georgia, for the past month for a song and other statements that one of his lawyers insists were simply a form of protest.

"They're saying it's a threat. We're saying it's a fantasy," said Jim Klimaski, a Washington civilian attorney who has talked to Hall about the case. "He's mad, but he's not stupid. He's not violent."

Charges filed against Hall, of South Carolina, on Dec. 17, a week after he was jailed, say his threats weren't just confined to his rap recording. The charging document said he also told Soldiers he would "go on a rampage" and that he "was planning on shooting the brigade and battalion commanders."

If you'd like to hear the song, click HERE and it will play automatically when you go to that site. Not having served in the military, I thought webmaster Mitch's take on this story would be better to post here:

WOW … what an idiot. Comes from upbringing. Parents are probably idiots too.

Seriously, what happened to him (being extended beyond his EAS – “End of Active Service”) has been going on in the military since LONG BEFORE I was ever part of it. AND … joining the military during a time of war, what the hell did he expect? Stupid. Just f’n stupid.

He needs to be jailed for a LONG TIME for what he did. He needs to be made an example of and let the rest of the military know that there will be NO TOLERANCE of this kind of s***. And then go after Maj Hasan. No more of this pu$$yfooting around.

The real laugher is the civilian attorney acting like his client should be facing any charges at all. LOL, there is no Constitution governing the US Military. It’s ALL the UCMJ. And yes, verbal threats are DEFINITELY punishable under the UCMJ and that Art 134 reference as the “catch all” … phhhhhhhhhhhhttttttttttttt. There’s a reason for it, the US Military is held to a HIGHER standard than civilians. Period. Basically, if this idiot had not violated 3 or 4 other articles under the UCMJ … there most likely would have been no violation of Art 134.

Here is the ARTICLE.

VIDEO: ARMY NAVY GAME ALL ABOUT PERSPECTIVE

This is so very nice to see. Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo truly understands how to prioritize. After his team was victorious in the annual game, he was approached by a reporter to give his take. Instead of focusing on the minutia of a victory on the gridiron, he Niumatalolo decided instead to tip his hat to his country's military. He got emotional not because he won but because he wants both sides to win.

To see true character, fast forward to the 1:00 mark and watch.



h/t to HA