Nidal Hasan is a Terrorist

Nidal Hasan is a Terrorist
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
June 5, 2013

On May 22, British soldier Lee Rigby, 25, was beheaded in broad daylight in London by two radicalized British Muslims, one of whom shouted Allah akbar (G-d is great). Both murderers were shot by a British policewoman as their act was immediately called terrorism. Rigby is survived by his two-year-old son.

Three days later, French soldier Private Cedric Cordiez, also 25, was stabbed in the neck by a convert to Islam. The attacker was arrested, while Cordiez survived the assault – an act called terrorism, was treated and released.

Flashback to November 5, 2009 where at Fort Hood, TX, Army Major Nidal Hasan, while shouting “Allah akbar,” opened fire slaughtering 13 innocent people – colleagues – and wounding another 32 innocents. This unquestionable act of premeditated terror was labeled “workplace violence” by the Pentagon on the directive of a feckless Obama administration.

This is not new news that Hasan has been charged with workplace violence instead of the obvious charge of terrorism, which is exactly what Hasan committed. But on the eve of the advent of jury selection in Hasan’s trial, it bears noting that this case should be tried in a military tribunal as opposed to the civilian court where it will be heard.

This entire case stinks from the top down. During the three and a half years of incarceration, Hasan has been paid his salary in full – to the tune of $278,000, vastly unknown to the taxpaying public who has foot this unconscionable bill. But, as Hasan has yet to be tried or found guilty, he apparently is entitled to his compensation, although he did absolutely nothing to earn it.

An additional obscenity in the Hasan case is that he has been granted permission to defend himself, with the presence of backup attorneys should the need arise. The only plus here is that Hasan has been declared sane in order to defend himself, and guilty by reason of insanity is out as a defense. Clearly the old adage of “he who defends himself has a fool for a client,” applies here.

The flip side of this travesty is that the surviving wounded victims can be called to the stand to be questioned by Hasan and forced to relieve that horrific day one more time, as if they already don’t relive it every day.

Furthermore, while Hasan is collecting his full salary, the wounded have not had the same access to medical care or benefits had this rampage been declared terrorism, as it should have been declared. And because of the workplace violence label, the living wounded victims and the 13 who were murdered will be unable to receive the Purple Heart, either live or posthumously.

Shockingly, the Defense Department said there is not enough evidence to call Hasan's heinous actions terrorism, yet it was Hasan himself who said the shootings were to protect the Taliban. Apparently the DOD can't see the forest for the trees.

In being tried in a civilian court, Hasan will be granted a forum to pontificate in ways that are linked to his defense, which due to all the witnesses, should not amount to much, but the show must go on, as they say on Broadway.

Bright lights and big city or not, Hasan, 42, an Army psychiatrist, made his objections to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan well-known as well as his animus toward his comrades. For this, the trial should be an open and shut case with the penalty being either life in prison or the death penalty.

But the trial is merely a symptom of a bigger problem, that being the mollifying of radical Muslims who seem to get a pass at every turn and rights not afford other groups or protections not afforded other groups.

A couple examples of this include workers making demands of employers to not fulfill certain aspects of the job for which they were hired because they might violate their religious beliefs, and punishing people for potentially offending Muslims, when the same offenses of other religious groups are allowed to occur unpunished.

There is a double standard growing in the United States simply because there is an administration sympathetic to the cause of radical Islam. This administration turns a blind eye and a deaf ear in an effort to placate the Muslim community to which this administration seem beholden.

Well, blind eyes and deaf ears will not be found here and we will be paying attention to the Hasan trial with the hopes that 12 men and women will do their jobs, find this terrorist guilty of workplace violence and sentence him to death.

The Obama administration can call this workplace violence all day long, but at the end of that long day, we the people know the truth – Nidal Hasan is a terrorist.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.