http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383865/posts?page=21#21
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Posted on 11/11/2009 7:43:51 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
FORT HOOD — One of the most sensational allegations stemming from last week's shooting spree at Fort Hood was a claim that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan shouted “Allahu akbar!” before firing into scores of soldiers at a large post processing center.
A day after Army chief of staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. expressed concern over potential anti-Muslim reaction in the wake of the mass shooting, Fort Hood appeared to distance itself from the controversy.
A spokesman for the post, asked to clarify comments made last week by Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the Fort Hood commander, who suggested that Hasan issued the jihadist battle cry, called it “speculation.”
“The supposed shouted quote is still a matter of speculation and under investigation by CID,” Bruce E. Zielsdorf said. “Lt. Gen. Cone is correct in saying he'd heard such reports, but without audiovisual documentation of the incident, it is still an issue to be addressed through the investigative process, and we will do nothing to jeopardize that effort.”
The post has offered no hard evidence that Hasan uttered those words or shown that witnesses have confirmed it independently of each other before word spread around the post and in the media.
Cone told the CBS “Early Show” on Friday that “there are reports, unconfirmed, that he was saying ‘Allahu Akbar.'”
In an interview Friday on NBC's “Today” show, Cone said there were “first-hand accounts here that are similar” to reports of Hasan using those words.
One of the wounded, Pfc. Joseph Foster, told CNN that he was doing paperwork for his deployment in January to Afghanistan when said he heard a cry and then nearby gunfire.
“I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled ‘Allahu akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire,” Foster told CNN's “American Morning”
In an interview that aired Monday, Foster, who refused to discuss the incident in a news conference Sunday, said he couldn't be certain the shooter said those exact words, explaining that “with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things.”
Americans across the country have reacted in anger, and media reports worldwide have drawn a tighter focus on Hasan's opposition to the war in Iraq and ties to a mosque used by two 9-11 hijackers.
One conservative Web site, Pajamas Media, ran a column Monday in which the writer, Ron Radosh, denounced efforts by the Army to play down religion as a factor in the attack. “Any objective observer would think it a tragedy if the Army swept the motivations of someone like Hasan under the rug,” Radosh wrote.
But both Casey and Fort Hood's commander continued to express concerns that people were rushing to judgment. Casey worried in a Sunday television appearance of a backlash against Muslim soldiers, while Cone dismissed the notion that Hasan was waging a holy war on his fellow soldiers.
“I would say this in my view did not have to do with religion,” Cone said in a “town hall” televised Monday night on a Killeen-area PBS affiliate.
He also alluded to concerns that the Army has long held about the toll that multiple deployments have taken on soldiers and their families.
“In many ways, it was for many of us one of our worst fears, that this would happen and it would be one of our own that is suspected of conducting this attack,” he said.
Cone briefed viewers on today's memorial ceremony featuring President Barack Obama. Earlier in the day, he met with the media and promised that the Army would take a “hard look” at what, if anything, could have been done to prevent Thursday's shooting.
“We are going to take a very hard look at ourselves, and anything that might have been done,” adding that the examination would be “a big look.”
Hasan remained in Brooke Army Medical Center. The Associated Press reported that family members Monday had hired a former military judge, John P. Galligan, to act as Hasan's attorney.
The AP reported Monday night that Galligan met with Hasan briefly, and that the attorney said law enforcement would not be questioning Hasan at this time.
Earlier in the day, Galligan avoided specifics about the case, saying, “There's a lot of facts that still need to be developed, and the time for that will come in due course.”
But he cautioned that the intense publicity surrounding his client had complicated efforts to try him at Fort Hood. The Army said Sunday that 328 media organizations from several nations were reporting the story from the post.
Typically, the trial would be here, with legal proceedings initiated by Hasan's commanders.
“You've got his commander-in-chief showing up tomorrow,” Galligan told the AP. “That same kind of publicity naturally creates an issue as to whether you find a fair and impartial forum, whether that's in the military or even if it were in a federal forum.”
Galligan oversaw a case 12 years ago in a small post courtroom on Fort Sam Houston that involved Robert Shapiro, the defense attorney in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. As the judge, Galligan began court early, and it generally ran into the evening each day. He even brought the jury back on a Saturday night to hear additional testimony.
“I thought he was a very, very intelligent judge,” Shapiro said. “I found that he paid very close attention to the evidence, that he researched the law and he actually made some very unprecedented rulings that allowed polygraph evidence to be entered in our case, so I found him to be a terrific judge, obviously very, very hard working and very dedicated.”
One veteran military attorney said publicity in the case cuts another way — at witnesses who have claimed they heard Hasan cry “Allahu akbar!”
A decade ago Frank Spinner represented Marine Capt. Richard Ashby, accused of killing 20 people by flying his jet into an Italian gondola cable.
Ashby was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in the 1988 incident.
One key to the defense was impeaching eyewitness testimony. Spinner raised questions about what the witnesses actually saw by showing that their minds might have been influenced by media reports after the tragedy.
In Italy, Spinner said, “we found there were a lot of witnesses that saw immediate reports about what was going on, and we were able to show that they incorporated into their memory what they saw on TV. So they might have seen the plane fly nearby, but we had testimony to show that they may have been contaminated or influenced by what they saw in media reports.”
The issue is likely to come up, especially because there are hundreds of potential witnesses and little way to avoid publicity over the shooting, which has been the dominant news story since Thursday.
As of Monday evening, Foster, 21, of Ogden, Utah, and 26 other wounded troops had been discharged from area hospitals. Fifteen remained hospitalized, with six of those in intensive care units.
[I just ordered it and some other books from Amazon...
At least I think I did....]
Lol, hope it went through for you!
THIS IS A FLAT OUT LIE
ROBERTS: So you were acting like a soldier. You were acting heroically. We should point out that you’re with the 20th Engineer Battalion and despite your best efforts and I guess the efforts of your comrades, as well, four members of the battalion were killed, 10 others were injured. And you were shot in the hip and you didn’t realize it at the time?
Foster: I hadn’t realized it at first, but with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things.
CNN LIES!
Either he said it or he didn’t, and there were witnesses.
Generals these days, seriously.
The spin they put on Pfc. Joseph Foster’s quote is a flat out lie. Read the original transcript I posted above and the link to the original interview.
Is what we are seeing the clean-up operation? ....laying out the bread-crumb trail for the trial?
Casey can’t really say anything that would allow Hasan’s lawyers to call for a mistrial. So I don’t blame him for being non-specific about details. I blame him for his diversity crap.
 General Cone, YOU'RE a Commander — NOT a politician. We KNOW this PC garbage originates from the Civilian Leadership, but you don't need to encourage it. You endanger the lives of your troops and Americans in doing so. So all due respect ... lead your men and women, stop enabling more Islamic terrorist attacks on the soldiers, and STFU! |
Thanks.
-"How many shots did you hear?"
-"Four to six."
"Impossible! ....You heard echoes!! ECHOES. We have three bullets and three shots that came from the Book Depository. That's all we'll say."
-"No, sir. I saw a man shooting from behind that fence. What are you going to do? You go out there and get him!"
-"That's taken care of! You only heard three shots, and don't discuss this with anyone. No one. Understand?"
-(Which is strange 'cause it's less than 20 minutes after the assassination.)
"Get her out of here."
-(I knew something was crooked as a dog's hind leg.)
I believe the wounded warrior who said, when asked, on Camera, with his doctor by his side, said "Yes", he shouted "Allah Akbar". This was guy that the "shouter" shot. I do believe he was there.
Army Chief (Gen Casey ) Speaks Out On Texas Massacre -Video of Nov 6 statement
See link at post #73 for video of Casey’s actual statement on Nov 6 at Fort Hood.
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