Anwar al-Awlaki “May Have Encouraged” Fort Hood Gunman Nidal Malik Hasan

malik_nadal_hasanLamar Alexander has told radio station WOAI (and their web site) FBI Director Robert Mueller says the bureau is investigating whether a radical Islamic imam in Yemen Anwar al-Awlaki ‘had been encouraging’ Fort Hood gunman, jihadist, and terrorist (Yes I said it, TERRORIST) Nidal Hasan to commit violent acts against U.S. soldiers.

“They had no real early warnings,” U.S. Rep Lamar Smith (R-Tx), who is the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, reported Mueller as telling him earlier today. Smith spoke with 1200 WOAI’s Michael Board. “He said they had some of the intelligence that we have heard about, the connection to the radical, but because the individual in question seemed to be a major in good standing, they didn’t pursue it as much as they might have.”

Awlaki wrote on his blog Monday that Hasan ‘is a hero’ and a ‘man of conscience.’ Awlaki has been identified as the imam at a mosque in Falls Church Virginia, where Hasan and his family occasionally worshipped.

“I have been told that the individual who had been perhaps even encouraging the major in these violent acts, had previously had contact with three of the terrorists that were involved in the 9/11 attacks, so this may be a widening story, and the major may well have been in touch with those who were known terrorists, and if that is the case, this really opens up this situation to the fact that we need to be very very careful in the future, and we need to perhaps pay more attention to any red flags that may come to our attention.”

Smith said he is worried about the FBI and other agencies ‘covering up’ any ties between Hasan and ‘radical Islam.’

“In the future, when that comes to our attention, we shouldn’t try to diminish it or play it down,” he said.

Smith said the U.S. needs to make sure its ‘intelligence capability is not compromised,’ and we need to be willing to make sure the U.S. ‘intelligence activity is not compromised, whether they live in this country or not, whether they are citizens or not.’

“When we get the intelligence, we need to act on it, make sure we don’t succumb to political correctness and not be afraid to confront somebody. That surely should have been done in this case.”

“Initially, we thought he was acting totally on his own, and I think he was acting on his own as far as the violence goes. But on the other hand, he may have been encouraged by this radical cleric, who we find out now has ties to three of the 9/11 terrorists. It gets worse and worse and the circle keeps widening broader and broader. We now have a real life example of home grown terrorism, meaning a citizen, who has raised in our country, who has not become radicalized, and we need to watch out more and more for these kind of situations.”

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November 10, 2009 · Filed Under muslims, Nidal Malik Hasan, Terrorism


Comments

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  • Reggie

    I hope the intelligence community, always hungry for more funding and power, does not successfully use this “homegrown terrorist” spin on the story to justify further domestic surveillance, and further erosion of civil liberties.

    If the FBI tries to hide its intel on this guy, I’m guessing it would only be in the attempt to defuse criticism that they don’t need more surveillance power when they aren’t even using what they already have.