And we have no idea what kind of requests, in regards to prep for deployment, were made of him; especially, with his language skills.

(in which case I assume he’s willing to undergo such scrutiny, given his ties to Manucher Ghorbanifar)

We can only hope.

Here’s some interesting updated information. Love the following:

Two officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case on the record said the Washington-based joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI was notified of communications between Hasan and a radical imam overseas, and the information was turned over to a Defense Criminal Investigative Service employee assigned to the task force.

That worker wrote up an assessment of Hasan after reviewing the Army major’s personnel file and the communications. The assessment concluded Hasan did not merit further investigation, in large part because his communications with the imam were centered around a research paper he was writing at the time, and the investigator had concluded Hasan was in fact working on such a paper, the officials said.

(my bold)

I agree that a lot of fingerpointing, shaping to fit your pet theory, etc. is occuring for the Hasan case. However, here is one very basic fact.

The guy actually was a threat and actually did do something. So, someone, somewhere, dropped the ball. Who, why and how we don’t know yet. But, in my opinion, all angles need to be pursued and none dropped out.

The full story is a long way from being out there.

This is a small detail and not relevant to larger discussion but, Jeremiah wright is NOT an “extremist cleric”. He has NEVER advocated or praised violence or revolution. He yells and gets worked up on the pulpit but that is a stylistic thing and dosent make him a political “extremist” (unless james brown was political extremist), and his comments about race and history in the U.S. are quite true and defendable positions, no matter how uncomfortable and resentful they make white folks feel.I see where your coming from with that but its kind of hypocritical to do that now.

In late 2006, Aulaqi was released from prison in Yemen, over US objections, where he says he was subject to interrogation by the FBI. Anwar never responded to my emailed inquiry about his relationship with “anthrax weapons suspect” (his counsel’s phrase) Ali Al-Timimi and only responded to a couple of 10-20 emails by the Ft. Hood shooter Hasan. By way of some background, in March 2002, fellow Falls Church iman Anwar Aulaqi — known as the “911 imam” — suddenly left the US and went to Yemen, thus avoiding the inquiry the 9/11 Commission thought so important. Upon a return visit in Fall 2002, “Aulaqi attempted to get al Timimi to discuss issues related to the recruitment of young Muslims,” according to a court filing by Al-Timimi’s attorney at the time, Edward MacMahon. McMahon reports that those “entreaties were rejected.”

Al-Timimi’s counsel explained in a court filing unsealed in April 2008: “]911 imam] Anwar Al-Aulaqi goes directly to Dr. Al-Timimi’s state of mind and his role in the alleged conspiracy. The 9-11 Report indicates that Special Agent Ammerman interviewed Al-Aulaqi just before or shortly after his October 2002 visit to Dr. Al-Timimi’s home to discuss the attacks and his efforts to reach out to the U.S. government.”

Falls Church imam Awlaqi (Aulaqi), who met with hijacker Nawaf, reportedly was picked up in Yemen by Yemen security forces at the request of the CIA in the summer of 2006. British and US intelligence had him and others under surveillance. Al-Timimi would speak alongside fellow Falls Church imam Awlaqi (Aulaqi) at conferences such as the August 2001 London JIMAS and the August 2002 London
JIMAS conference. They would speak on subjects such as signs before the day of judgment and the like. Dozens of their lectures are available online. Unnamed U.S. officials told the Washington Post in 2008 that “they have come to believe that Aulaqi worked with al-Qaida networks in the Persian Gulf after leaving Northern Virginia.” One official said: “There is good reason to believe Anwar Aulaqi has been involved in very serious terrorist activities since leaving the United States, including plotting attacks against America and our allies.” “Some believe that Aulaqi was the first person since the summit meeting in Malaysia with whom al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi shared their terrorist intentions and plans,” former Senate Intelligence committee chairman Bob Graham wrote in his 2004 book “Intelligence Matters.”

Awlaqi was hired in early 2001 in an attempt by the mosque’s leaders to appeal to younger worshipers. Born in New Mexico and raised in Yemen, he had the total package. He was young, personable, fluent in English, eloquent and knowledgeable about Middle East politics. Hani Hanjour and Nawaf Al Hazmi worshiped at Aulaqi’s mosque for several weeks in spring 2001. The 9/11 commission noted that the two men apparently showed up because Nawaf Hazmi had developed a close relationship with Aulaqi in San Diego. In 2001, Awlaqi came to Falls Church from San Diego shortly before Nawaf did. Awlaqi told the FBI that he did not recall what Nawaf and he had discussed in San Diego and denied having contact with him in Falls Church.

The travel agent right on the same floor as Al-Timimi’s Dar Arqam mosque organized trips to hajj in February 2001. San Francisco attorney Hal Smith was his roommate. Smith tells me that he was very extreme in his views when speaking privately and not like his smooth public persona. “Aulaqi is deep into hardcore militant Islam. He is not a cleric who just says prayers and counsels people as some of his supporters have suggested.” Sami al-Hussayen uncle checked into the same Herndon, VA hotel, the Marriot Residence Inn, on the same night — September 10, 2001 as Hani Hanjour and Nawaf al-Hazmi, and another hijacker. Hussayen had a seizure during an FBI interview and although doctors found nothing wrong with him was allowed to return home. During his trip to the US, al_Hussay had visited both “911 imam” Aulaqi and Ali Al-Timimi.

The unclassified portion of a U.S. Department of Justice memorandum dated September 26, 2001 states:

“Aulaqi was familiar enough with Nawaf Alhazmi to describe some of Alhazmi’s personality traits. Aulaqi considered Alhazmi to be a loner who did not have a large circle of friends. Alhazmi was slow to enter into personal relationships and was always very soft spoken, a very calm and extremely nice person. Aulaqi did not see Alhazmi as a very religious person, based on the fact that Alhazmi never wore a beard and neglected to attend all five daily prayer sessions.”

In March 2002, Awlaqi suddenly left the US and went to Yemen, thus avoiding the inquiry the 9/11 Commission thought so important. “Aulaqi attempted to get al Timimi to discuss issues related to the recruitment of young Muslims,” according to a court filing by Al-Timimi’s attorney at the time, Edward MacMahon. McMahon reports that those “entreaties were rejected.” The Washington Post explains that “After leaving the United States in 2002, Aulaqi spent time in Britain, where he developed a following among young ultra-conservative Muslims through his lectures and audiotapes. His CD “The Hereafter” takes listeners on a tour of Paradise that describes “the mansions of Paradise,” “the women of Paradise,” and “the greatest of the pleasures of Paradise.” In London, after leaving the United States, he spoke at JIMAS and argued that in light of the rewards offered to martyrs in Jennah, or Paradise, Muslims should be eager to give his life in fighting the unbelievers. “Don’t think that the tones that die in the sake of Allah are dead — they are alive, and Allah is providing for them. So the shaheed is alive in the sense that his soul is in Jennah, and his soul is alive in Jennah.” He moved to Yemen, his family’s ancestral home, in 2004.” Before his arrest in Yemen in mid-2006, Aulaqi lectured at an Islamist university in San’a run by Abdul Majid al-Zindani, who fought with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and was designated a terrorist in 2004 by the United States and the United Nations.

In court documents in New York filed in 2004, the United States alleged that while in the US, Aulaqi served as vice president of a charity alleged to be a front that sent money to al-Qaeda. The Washington Post reports that tax records show that in 1998 and 1999, while in San Diego, Aulaqi served as vice president of the now-defunct Charitable Society for Social Welfare, Inc., the U.S. branch of a Yemeni charity founded by Zindani. Documents filed in 2004 in Alexandria, Va., recount that in 2002, Aulaqi returned briefly to Northern Virginia where he visited Al-Timimi and asked him about recruiting young Muslims for “violent jihad.”

Law enforcement sources told the Post that Aulaqi was visited by Ziyad Khaleel, who the government has previously said purchased a satellite phone and batteries for bin Laden in the 1990s. The Post explains: “Khaleel was the U.S. fundraiser for Islamic American Relief Agency, a charity the U.S. Treasury has designated a financier of bin Laden and which listed Aulaqi’s charity as its Yemeni partner. In what is another seminal article by Susan Schmidt, the Washington Post explains: “The FBI also learned that Aulaqi was visited in early 2000 by a close associate of Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheik who was convicted of conspiracy in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and that he had ties to people raising money for the radical Palestinian movement Hamas, according to Congress and the 9/11 Commission report.”

He now has been released. What did Awlaqi, detained in mid-2006 and held for a year and a half, tell questioners, if anything, about his fellow Falls Church imam and fellow Salafist conference lecturer Ali Al-Timimi? The Washington Post reports that in a taped interview posted on December 31, 2007 on a British Web site, “Aulaqi said that while in prison in Yemen, he had undergone multiple interrogations by the FBI that included questions about his dealings with the 9/11 hijackers.” “I don’t know if I was held because of that or because of the other issues they presented,” Aulaqi said. Aulaqi said he would like to travel outside Yemen but would not do so “until the U.S. drops whatever unknown charges it has against me.”

Ali Al-Timimi’s defense counsel in a court filing told the federal district court that Al-Timimi was an “anthrax weapons suspect.” Has Anwar Aulaqi ever been questioned on the subject of anthrax? What did he say?

From a civil liberties standpoint, I actually find it somewhat encouraging that the FBI didn’t jump to a lot of conclusions about Hasan and go whole hog based on his religious intercepts, but it does make me wonder why. They spend resources tracking vegans and quilting grannies. They have gone to great lengths to make cases against what appear to me (and a couple of juries) to be sad, confused, pathetic, wannabe jihadists – but they miss making connections in a case that actually resulted in an “attack”. Of course the reality is that they can not track down every lead on every slightly suspicious person, make all of these connections in real time and figure out a potential perpetrator’s mind and motives. He had really not done anything yet.

This is why giving up excessive amounts of privacy to stop crime/terrorism is a bad trade unless you’re willing to go all the way to Thought Police. But of course gun privacy is the only privacy right that’s defended, when it’s the most directly applicable to intent to commit terrorism.

I was struck by the coverage on MSNBC, in particular on The Ed Show. Ed was trying to get the “military analyst” and the “former FBI profiler” to call this a terrorist attack. They stopped short of that but were emphasizing Hasan’s religious beliefs as the cause. They attributed his being retained in the military after reported poor reviews from co-workers and other warning signs to “political correctness.” They stated that the military had to be oh-so-careful of Muslims feelings. Seriously? If the military has to be that “politically correct” in regard to Muslims they’re the only ones in America who do.

What they very carefully avoided was any talk of Hasan’s motives being due to stress or pressure or PTSD related to the stories of those he treated (we don’t know what his motives were yet, it could well have been his religious views). Or any mention of other violent domestic incidents involving soldiers. Or any talk whatsoever of how the military itself is under stress or broken, multiple deployments, trouble recruiting and finding qualified personnel, lowering the standards for acceptance,etc. It seems likely to me that Hasan was left in place simply because so much had already been invested in him, he would be hard to replace and those around him making the decision are under great pressure to keep soldiers and staff coming to feed the machine. It seems to me that it was a case of everyone just allowing the usual process to take place with Hasan and not making waves, rather than political correctness.

We have a military that hands its soldiers with PTSD a couple of bottles of anti-depressants and sleeping pills and then sends them for a third combat tour. I doubt too many were losing sleep over Hasan’s fitness, in practice it’s probably not in their job description.

The other theme being forwarded by the two guests on Ed was that we don’t need no steenking congressional investigation into this. The repeated phrases were “the military is capable of handling this on their own” and “we don’t need congressional overreach or meddling.”

I haven’t watched Ed much, so I don’t know his usual slant on national security or the GWOT, but it really struck me that eventhelibrul was hitting the “terrorist attack” meme hard.