Victims of the First Fort Hood Attack Asked The President for a Meeting. Here's the Response.

Mother Jones ^ | Sunday, April 14, 2014 | Mariah Blake

[kristinn]

During last week's memorial service for victims of April 2 Fort Hood shooting, President Barack Obama spoke about the lingering hurt from the previous attack on the base in 2009. "Part of what makes this so painful is that we've been here before," Obama said. "This tragedy tears at wounds still raw from five years ago. Once more soldiers who survived foreign war zones were struck down here at home, where they're supposed to be safe." Yet, when victims of the first Fort Hood shooting invited the president to see those wounds up close, he refused, without explaining why.

The morning of the memorial, retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot seven times during the 2009 Fort Hood rampage, requested that the Obama meet briefly with victims and their families while he was on base. Lunsford's letter, which was addressed to the president's Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, also described survivors' disappointment with how they had been treated:

"As you may know, the President and high-ranking members of the military promised me, my family and the other Fort Hood terror attack survivors that the federal government would "make them whole." After more than four and one-half years, however, the government has yet to make good on this promise.

"We believe that if the President could hear, first-hand, our plight and our mistreatment at the hands of his bureaucracy, that he would take the steps needed to set things right. Therefore, we ask for ten minutes of his time."

In the years since Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire in a crowded Fort Hood medical center, killing 13 people and wounding another 32, victims have struggled to get medical care and financial benefits. This is largely because of how the incident has been labeled. Although Hasan is an avowed jihadist with ties to Al Qaeda, the Pentagon considers the attack to be workplace violence rather than terrorism or combat. Thus victims aren't eligible for many benefits and honors available to soldiers wounded or killed in action. (For more on this topic, see How the Obama Administration Failed the Victims of the First Fort Hood Attack.)

In 2012, nearly 150 Fort Hood victims and their family members filed suit against the Department of Defense, seeking compensation for their suffering and lost benefits. But the case has bogged down, and the Senate has balked at passing legislation that would give victims of the 2009 shooting the same benefits as soldiers killed or wounded in combat or terrorism attacks.

Lunsford and other survivors had hoped that a personal meeting might persuade the president to intervene and break the logjam. "Right now, he only knows our stories second hand," Lunsford says. "We wanted to meet with him face-to-face so he could look us in the eyes and see our pain. That's the only way he's really going to understand our situation." According to their lawyer, Reed Rubinstein, roughly two dozen victim and their relatives were planning to attend. But they didn't hear back from the White House until the day after the memorial, when McDonough sent a brief reply:

"After receiving your letter yesterday, and consulting with the White House Counsel’s office, we forwarded your letter to the Departments of Justice and Defense, who are leading the government’s efforts to ensure the victims of the 2009 shooting receive the justice and benefits they deserve. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet your specific request for a meeting with the President yesterday."

White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden declined to say why the president had demurred, but Lunsford isn't surprised. "Honestly, I expected to get that kind of response," he says. "The last five years has been so full of disappointments, it's not like I'm sitting around holding my breath."

You can read the entire exchange between Lunsford and the White House below.

[a fool in paradise]

This will never get the national media attention that Cindy Sheehan’s request for a SECOND meeting with President Bush got. Cindy also tried to meet with Obama and to my knowledge this has never happened.

[a fool in paradise]

Several years ago, their excuse was they couldn’t grant these benefits to the shooting victims because of the ongoing trial (it may bias a jury).

The trial is over. Nidal is convicted.

Time for the government to do the right thing (several right things including executing the condemned terrorist).

[PAR35]

we forwarded your letter to the Departments of Justice and Defense,

Sounds like the foolish letter writer will be dealt with. If DoJ and DoD can't take care of it, they can always send it over to the IRS.

Reminds me of the guy I read about that petitioned Adolf Hitler about brutal treatment in a labor battalion. Surely if the Fuehrer knew, he'd do something about it.

[Oldexpat]

The GOP candidate for Pres. needs to make this a campaign issue. There should be no doubt that a GOP Pres. we reclassify this as a terrorist attack and treat these veterans and victims with the respect and recognition they deserve.

[libstripper]

Thanks for posting this, especially because it comes from the extreme leftist rag, Mother Jones, that's named after a leading female socialist of many years ago. If even they can't stand the horrific treatment the Regime has given the Fort Hood heroes and their families, then it really stinks.

[the anti-mahdi]

God will crush Allah, and his minions as well.

[libstripper]

I like your screen name. I hope you view the Mahdi as the same thing I view “him” as.

[Ban Draoi Marbh Draoi]

Indeed He will.

They will come face to face with the original “bottled sunshine” courtesy of the One Who made it in the first place — and He will be in a vile temper that day.

Read Ezekiel 38 and 39.