We were all shocked upon hearing of the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and families of those brutally murdered and wounded in the incident. However, when we began finding out more about the alleged gunman, we realized that this was more than just an unfortunate tragedy it was terrorism.
Many who worked with Major Hasan knew something was wrong. For example, even though he checked no religious preference on his enlistment papers, he was a devout practicing Muslim. In fact, there were even complaints from some of his patients that he tried to convert them to Islam. There is nothing wrong with being a Muslim in our country but we must ask ourselves why he felt it necessary to lie about his religious preference. Is he not proud of his beliefs? Did he have something to hide?
The most alarming fact is that this attack was preventable. Investigators were prohibited from launching a full-scale probe into Major Hasan’s emails sent to a radical Imam. These investigators were told this would be a violation of his First Amendment rights. I do not believe this is what they had in mind when they added the First Amendment to the constitution.
What they had in mind was that the newly formed nation would not become tyrannical like the government from whom they had just gained independence. To prevent this from happening, the founders wanted to guarantee an individuals right to speak out against government policy when they disagreed with it. However, this was not the case with Major Hasan. The emails in question were to an Imam of terrorists, including the 9/11 terrorists, who are enemies of this nation. In order for this nation to protect our security, we must look at emails from an officer of our military to individuals with ties to enemies of our nation.
In addition to this, others who worked with Major Hasan had concerns but were afraid to voice their concerns out of fear of being branded a racist. It is interesting that no one seems to be concerned about their First Amendment right to express these concerns.
After the attacks of 9/11, the citizens of this nation were urged to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity. This vigilance has kept us save for over eight years and been instrumental in foiling many potential terrorist attacks on our soil. Are we now going to put the nation at the same level of risk that existed prior to 9/11 by placing a gag order on citizens who witness suspicious activity?
The bottom line is that our nation is now in the same position it was on September 10, 2001. Back then, our intelligence services were not allowed to share information with each other. Because of this limitation, the terrorists of 9/11 were able to carry out their acts resulting in the deaths of thousands of Americans while the bloated intelligence bureaucracy could do nothing.
The incident at Fort Hood exposed weaknesses in our national security. Unless we repair these weaknesses, it is just a matter of time before some terrorist group attempts to exploit these weakness and commit another 9/11 type of attack. We as a nation need to wake up and realize we are at war with terrorism, we have enemies that want to kill us, and our government needs to be free to do everything possible to prevent it including sharing and investigating suspicious activity.
I invite your to comments on this issue.
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