Did the Army Ignore Red Flags Because of Hasan's Religion?

Interesting article from Time online.

As officials continue to investigate the alleged Fort Hood killer, it is looking increasingly likely that the Army missed several red flags in Major Nidal Malik Hasan's behavior. Many observers say it wouldn't be surprising if such signals had been missed, given that Hasan was a psychiatrist whom the Army desperately needed to help tend to the mental wounds of two wars. But at the same time, some members of the military are quietly discussing the more troubling possibility that the Army might have looked the other way precisely because Hasan was Muslim.

Army officials strongly deny any suggestion that Hasan's religion resulted in his being given special treatment. But one officer who attended the Pentagon's medical school with Hasan disagrees. "He was very vocal about being a Muslim first and holding Sharia law above the Constitution," this officer recalled. When fellow students asked, "How can you be an officer and hold to the Constitution?," the officer said, Hasan would "get visibly upset — sweaty and nervous — and had no good answers." This medical doctor would only speak anonymously because his commanders have ordered him not to talk about Hasan, he said.

This officer said he was so surprised when Hasan gave a talk about "the war on terror being a war on Islam" that he asked the lieutenant colonel running the course what Hasan's presentation had to do with health care. "I raised my hand and asked, `Why are you letting this go on — this has nothing to do with environmental health.' The course director said, `I'm just going to let him go.'" The topic of Hasan's presentation, the officer says, had been approved in advance by the lieutenant colonel.

The officer says he and another colleague complained to staff at the Uniformed University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, but got nowhere. "It was a systemic problem — the same thing was happening at Walter Reed," the Army Medical Center several miles away, where Hasan was working as a psychiatrist. (The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Hasan gave a similar presentation at Walter Reed in which he said Muslims should be released as conscientious objectors rather than being force into combat against fellow Muslims.) But "political correctness" inside the military, the officer asserts, insulated Hasan. "People are afraid to come forward and challenge somebody's ideology," he says, "because they're afraid of getting an equal-opportunity complaint that can end careers."

A retired four-star officer says that, based on the evidence gleaned so far, it was Hasan's career that should have been cut short. "They could have given — him a dishonorable discharge and said what he's doing works against good order and discipline," said the general, who also requested anonymity. But rather than any preferential treatment given to Hasan because of his religion, "My guess is he fell through the cracks," the general said.

Whether he fell through the cracks or was cut slack because of concerns about appearing to impinge on his religious freedom will be a focus of the investigations now underway. "The Army was just under such pressure that they planned to send him to Afghanistan," says Lawrence Korb, Pentagon personnel chief during the Reagan Administration. But Korb says he's perplexed by reports that Hasan received poor evaluations and still got promoted. "That tells me the Army didn't do its job," he says — though he attributes it to the unrelenting demand to keep mental-health professionals on duty, rather than Hasan's religion.

But Ralph Peters, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who now writes military books and a newspaper column, contends that Hasan's religion protected him from any punitive action by the Army, a view shared privately by many in uniform. While stressing "there shouldn't be witch hunts" against Muslims in uniform, Peters insists "this guy got a pass because he was a Muslim, despite the Army's claim that everybody's green and we're all the same."

Congress is already beginning to look into why an Army psychiatrist who reportedly had to be counseled against sharing his anti-war views with soldiers back from combat could have possibly been promoted in May. Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said Monday that he will hold a hearing next week to see "whether the government missed warning signs that should have led to [Hasan's] expulsion" before he he killed 13 people on the Texas post last Thursday. Hasan's former classmate, for one, says he wasn't surprised to see Hasan's face flash across his television screen. "After the shock," he says, "the first thing that went through my mind was, hey, I remember everything this guy said."

Source

I am not sure what to make of it. Seems like a lot of hypothesis and little fact. And I don't like anonamous sources.

To me it seems like more anti-islamist propaganda, but I can agree on why some people would be fearful of filing complaints due to the whole PC crowd.

Any thoughts?

~Keeper

"ANTI-Islamist propaganda."

Seems like we see you are searching for people whom agree with your vey biased opinion.

Maybe it is true?

I don't think it is entirely fair to say it is anti islamic...? I say that with a question mark because I didn't notice any leanings honestly, but could just be missing them.

I think it did bring out valid points about the political correctness maintained in society, when if say he was giving a presentation on fuzzy bunnies, he would've been stopped, but it had to do with his religion, well we can't do anything.

he should've been stopped just because it was wildly off topic.

if these reports are true, he shouldve been let go a looong time ago. if i am at work at mcdonalds and go on and on about how much better burger king is, i'm sure i'd get fired...this is, in a broad sense, no different.

make ball drop-age on this one by a lot of people.

This could only happen among commissioned officers.

I think any enlisted men will tell you we can take care of this. Cant touch an officer though! Any enlisted man from squad level on up through platoon and company / troop level wouldn't stand for it among their own...It's my humble opinion but I've been there...he'd have hung himself a long time ago.

It is basically true.

It is anathema to look at anyone in the US and tell them they are wrong unless they are a white, heterosexual, christian male with a job who pays his taxes and is a citizen.

Anyone who points out a fault in a member of a special interest group is labeled a racist or bigot regardless of motivation and usually suffers some sort of penalty .....all in the name of tolerance, fairness, equality or open mindedness.

Nope.

It's not all about racism as a previous poster would like to believe.

It's about militant political correctness and division along political lines.

Originally posted by crmanager
"ANTI-Islamist propaganda."

Seems like we see you are searching for people whom agree with your vey biased opinion.

Maybe it is true?

Not at all my friend. I have seen a lot of propaganda surrounding Islam as of late which is why I made that assertion. It was simply injected for the sake of conversation.

~Keeper

reply to post by badgerprints


I agree, you make a fine point.

I think it is a little more PC than it has to do with anti-islam sentiment among troop members.

I am pretty sure that soldiers don't care who you pray to when they are fighting side by side.

~Keeper

Something about this whole thing just stinks beyond explaination.
Listening on the radio today you'd think he was tunnelling from Pakistan for the last few years foaming at the mouth with focused rage.
The way it all went down, the way it was initially reported then the repairs and spins on the reports, well it just has me not so quick to eat from the plate offered for consumption, I need to feel convinced there isnt something else being covered up, my gut says theres more to this than meets the eye, or ears.