Fort Hood Terrorist Nidal Hasan Faces Recommendation for Execution; Past Government Policies Criticized

Sixteen years after his deadly rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, the United States Army is preparing to formally recommend the execution of Islamist terrorist Nidal Hasan. The attack on November 5, 2009, resulted in the deaths of 13 American service members and wounded 33 others. Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he fired on unarmed soldiers.

Reed D. Rubinstein, who represented Hasan's victims and their families in a lawsuit against the Army and FBI, argues that the government's years-long policy of using euphemisms and avoiding the truth about Islamic radicalism empowered Hasan. This policy, he contends, began under President George W. Bush and continued through subsequent administrations.

Despite known warning signs, Hasan, an Army major, was allegedly given preferential treatment due to his religion and ethnicity. During his Army medical training, he reportedly espoused justifications for suicide bombings, defended Osama bin Laden, and stated that his religion superseded the U.S. Constitution. His business card reportedly read "Soldier of Allah," and two Army officers described him as a "ticking time bomb." However, a 2011 Senate investigation found that his official officer evaluation reports "sanitized his obsession with violent Islamist extremism into praiseworthy research on counterterrorism."

Further concerns arose from Hasan's communication with Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaeda cleric. Between December 2008 and June 2009, Hasan exchanged 18 messages with al-Awlaki, inquiring about the compatibility of service in the American military with Islam, martyrdom, and suicide operations. This communication was flagged by the San Diego Joint Terrorism Task Force and sent to FBI superiors in Washington. However, Hasan was not interviewed, and his chain of command was not notified. A San Diego field office official was reportedly told the matter was "politically sensitive."

Following the attack, then-President Obama did not use the words "terrorism" or "terrorist" in his memorial speech. Two days later, then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. stated, "What happened at Fort Hood is a tragedy, and I believe it would be a greater tragedy if diversity became a casualty here." Subsequently, the Pentagon classified the attack as "workplace violence," a designation that contradicted available evidence and Hasan's own admissions.

Rubinstein asserts that labeling the attack as workplace violence allowed officials to deny victims Purple Hearts and combat-related care, while purportedly protecting the Army's "diversity" initiatives. He claims that "political correctness" exempted Hasan from the same rules applied to other officers due to his ethnicity and religion. This, he argues, led to a terrorist attack being reframed as an HR incident to avoid acknowledging "violent Islamist extremism."

In 2015, Congress passed legislation that compelled the Obama administration to award Purple Hearts and appropriate benefits to Hasan's victims. The article suggests that under the current administration, the policy of what it terms "lies" that empowered Hasan is being purged from government, military, and immigration policy. However, it cautions that these same