:
But too incompetent to remove them?
FBI Tracking 100 Suspected Extremists In Military
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/25/155710570/fbi-checking-100-suspected-extremist
s-in-military?ft=1&f=2&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Fe
ed:+NprProgramsATC+%28NPR+Programs:+All+Things+Considered%29
by Dina Temple-Raston
The FBI is investigating more than 100 suspected Muslim extremists who are
part of the U.S. military community, officials tell NPR. U.S. authorities
have increased scrutiny since the 2009 shooting attack at Fort Hood, Texas,
that left 13 dead. Maj. Nidal Hasan, charged with the killings, is shown
here in an April 2010 court hearing.
June 25, 2012
The FBI has conducted more than 100 investigations into suspected Islamic
extremists within the military, NPR has learned. About a dozen of those
cases are considered serious.
Officials define that as a case requiring a formal investigation to gather
information against suspects who appear to have demonstrated a strong intent
to attack military targets. This is the first time the figures have been
publicly disclosed.
The FBI and Department of Defense call these cases "insider threats." They
include not just active and reserve military personnel but also individuals
who have access to military facilities such as contractors and close family
members with dependent ID cards.
Officials would not provide details about the cases and the FBI would not
confirm the numbers, but they did say that cases seen as serious could
include, among others things, suspects who seem to be planning an attack or
were in touch with "dangerous individuals" who were goading them to attack.
Details Revealed At Closed Congressional Hearing
The FBI and the Department of Defense declined to discuss the figures on the
record, but three sources with direct knowledge confirmed that the numbers
were revealed in a closed session of a House-Senate committee hearing in
December. The FBI also declined to say whether it has compiled more
up-to-date figures since that time.
"I was surprised and struck by the numbers; they were larger than I
expected," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut and
chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, told NPR. He stopped
short of confirming the numbers.
The Oft-Delayed Trial Of Maj. Nidal Hasan
Maj. Nidal Hasan, the man charged in the 2009 Fort Hood shootings, has had
his trial postponed several times already. At a pretrial hearing last
Tuesday, a military judge kicked him out of the courtroom and barred him
from future hearings as long as he keeps his beard, which violates military
regulations.
Hasan, who was warned about his beard previously, was taken to a nearby room
to watch the proceedings on a closed-circuit television.
His trial is now set for Aug. 20, and prosecutors are seeking the death
penalty for the shooting rampage that left 13 dead and more than 30 injured
at the Texas military base.
Hasan was shot by police that day. He is paralyzed from the waist down and
uses a wheelchair. He remains jailed, though he still draws his military pay
for now.
- Greg Myre
"I know one can say that as a percentage of the millions of people in active
military service or working with contractors, the numbers you talk about are
a small percentage of the total, but the reality is it only took one man,
Nidal Hasan, to kill 13 people at Fort Hood and injure a lot more,"
Lieberman said.
Hasan was an Army major at Fort Hood in Texas who is charged with opening
fire on soldiers in the base's processing center in November 2009. The
rampage is considered the most serious terrorist attack on U.S. soil since
the Sept. 11 attacks.
Prosecutors say Hasan had been in touch with an American-born radical imam,
Anwar al-Awlaki, to ask for spiritual guidance ahead of the shooting; and
Awlaki is said to have blessed it. Awlaki was killed in a drone attack in
Yemen last year.
Investigators also say Hasan had been displaying signs of increasing
radicalization before the shooting took place, but the behavior had not been
properly reported. Hasan's court-martial is set to begin on Aug. 20, and he
faces the death penalty.
The FBI compiled its tally of Islamic extremist cases in the military late
last year for a joint hearing that Lieberman co-chaired. The hearing was
looking at possible threats to military communities inside the United
States, and the number of cases was revealed at that time.
About A Dozen Cases Face Full Investigation
The FBI typically divides investigations into three categories: assessment,
preliminary investigations, and then full investigations in which agents
have enough evidence to justify using all the investigative tools at their
disposal. As of last December, there were a dozen cases in that last
category.
"This number speaks not only to the reality that there is a problem of
violent Islamic extremists in the military, but also that the Department of
Defense and the FBI since the Nidal Hassan case are working much more
closely together," said Lieberman.
Officials stressed that the FBI and the Department of Defense track all
kinds of extremism within the military community from white supremacists to
neo-Nazis, not just Islamic extremists.
But the Fort Hood shooting inspired new reporting procedures aimed at
catching plots before they unfold. Since 2001, law enforcement officials
have foiled and prosecuted more than 30 plots or attacks against military
targets within the United States.
U.S. Army soldiers attend a Nov. 10, 2010, service for the 13 people killed
in the shooting rampage five days earlier at Fort Hood.
Enlarge Joe Raedle/Getty Images
U.S. Army soldiers attend a Nov. 10, 2010, service for the 13 people killed
in the shooting rampage five days earlier at Fort Hood.
A Conviction Last Month
Just last month, an AWOL Muslim soldier named Naser Abdo was convicted of
plotting to attack Fort Hood. Officers found components for an explosive
device in Abdo's hotel room not far from the base.
Abdo told the judge that the plot was supposed to exact some "justice" for
the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. In an audio recording played during the
trial, Abdo said his Islamic faith was part of the reason he planned the
attack.
Lieberman says that Abdo actually called out Major Hasan's name shortly
after he was found guilty of conspiring to attack a restaurant just outside
Fort Hood where active service members often went with their families. Abdo
is expected to be sentenced in July. It is not clear whether his case was
one of the cases on the FBI's list.
Military Bases Considered Likely Targets
Officials say for many aspiring violent jihadis a military base is seen as
fair game for an attack. Al-Qaida's narrative revolves around the idea that
America is at war with Islam the world over, and the perception is that the
U.S. military is at the forefront of that battle.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army doctor named as a suspect in the
shooting death of 13 people and the wounding of 31 others at Fort Hood,
Texas.
The Two-Way
Senate Report: Authorities Could Have Prevented Fort Hood Shootings
Counterterrorism officials say that for many freshly minted jihadists, a
military target is an easier choice and easier to justify than targeting a
shopping mall or other soft civilian targets - precisely because it is seen
as part and parcel of the battle.
"After the Fort Hood shooting, having just one serious case, much less
having a dozen, is cause for concern," says Bruce Hoffman, a professor and
counterterrorism expert at Georgetown University and a distinguished scholar
at the Wilson Center.
"You have to think about how people in the military community aren't just
your run-of-the-mill jihadis," Hoffman says. "These are people who have
access to guns and to bases and are supposed to have security clearances.
This is not the community you want to be radicalizing."
==========================================
(F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this
message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to
these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed
within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with
"Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976.
The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The
Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain
permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials
if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting,
teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria
for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies
as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four
criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is
determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not
substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use
copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS
PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.
But too incompetent to remove them?
FBI Tracking 100 Suspected Extremists In Military
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/25/155710570/fbi-checking-100-suspected-extremist
s-in-military?ft=1&f=2&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Fe
ed:+NprProgramsATC+%28NPR+Programs:+All+Things+Considered%29
by Dina Temple-Raston
The FBI is investigating more than 100 suspected Muslim extremists who are
part of the U.S. military community, officials tell NPR. U.S. authorities
have increased scrutiny since the 2009 shooting attack at Fort Hood, Texas,
that left 13 dead. Maj. Nidal Hasan, charged with the killings, is shown
here in an April 2010 court hearing.
June 25, 2012
The FBI has conducted more than 100 investigations into suspected Islamic
extremists within the military, NPR has learned. About a dozen of those
cases are considered serious.
Officials define that as a case requiring a formal investigation to gather
information against suspects who appear to have demonstrated a strong intent
to attack military targets. This is the first time the figures have been
publicly disclosed.
The FBI and Department of Defense call these cases "insider threats." They
include not just active and reserve military personnel but also individuals
who have access to military facilities such as contractors and close family
members with dependent ID cards.
Officials would not provide details about the cases and the FBI would not
confirm the numbers, but they did say that cases seen as serious could
include, among others things, suspects who seem to be planning an attack or
were in touch with "dangerous individuals" who were goading them to attack.
Details Revealed At Closed Congressional Hearing
The FBI and the Department of Defense declined to discuss the figures on the
record, but three sources with direct knowledge confirmed that the numbers
were revealed in a closed session of a House-Senate committee hearing in
December. The FBI also declined to say whether it has compiled more
up-to-date figures since that time.
"I was surprised and struck by the numbers; they were larger than I
expected," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut and
chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, told NPR. He stopped
short of confirming the numbers.
The Oft-Delayed Trial Of Maj. Nidal Hasan
Maj. Nidal Hasan, the man charged in the 2009 Fort Hood shootings, has had
his trial postponed several times already. At a pretrial hearing last
Tuesday, a military judge kicked him out of the courtroom and barred him
from future hearings as long as he keeps his beard, which violates military
regulations.
Hasan, who was warned about his beard previously, was taken to a nearby room
to watch the proceedings on a closed-circuit television.
His trial is now set for Aug. 20, and prosecutors are seeking the death
penalty for the shooting rampage that left 13 dead and more than 30 injured
at the Texas military base.
Hasan was shot by police that day. He is paralyzed from the waist down and
uses a wheelchair. He remains jailed, though he still draws his military pay
for now.
- Greg Myre
"I know one can say that as a percentage of the millions of people in active
military service or working with contractors, the numbers you talk about are
a small percentage of the total, but the reality is it only took one man,
Nidal Hasan, to kill 13 people at Fort Hood and injure a lot more,"
Lieberman said.
Hasan was an Army major at Fort Hood in Texas who is charged with opening
fire on soldiers in the base's processing center in November 2009. The
rampage is considered the most serious terrorist attack on U.S. soil since
the Sept. 11 attacks.
Prosecutors say Hasan had been in touch with an American-born radical imam,
Anwar al-Awlaki, to ask for spiritual guidance ahead of the shooting; and
Awlaki is said to have blessed it. Awlaki was killed in a drone attack in
Yemen last year.
Investigators also say Hasan had been displaying signs of increasing
radicalization before the shooting took place, but the behavior had not been
properly reported. Hasan's court-martial is set to begin on Aug. 20, and he
faces the death penalty.
The FBI compiled its tally of Islamic extremist cases in the military late
last year for a joint hearing that Lieberman co-chaired. The hearing was
looking at possible threats to military communities inside the United
States, and the number of cases was revealed at that time.
About A Dozen Cases Face Full Investigation
The FBI typically divides investigations into three categories: assessment,
preliminary investigations, and then full investigations in which agents
have enough evidence to justify using all the investigative tools at their
disposal. As of last December, there were a dozen cases in that last
category.
"This number speaks not only to the reality that there is a problem of
violent Islamic extremists in the military, but also that the Department of
Defense and the FBI since the Nidal Hassan case are working much more
closely together," said Lieberman.
Officials stressed that the FBI and the Department of Defense track all
kinds of extremism within the military community from white supremacists to
neo-Nazis, not just Islamic extremists.
But the Fort Hood shooting inspired new reporting procedures aimed at
catching plots before they unfold. Since 2001, law enforcement officials
have foiled and prosecuted more than 30 plots or attacks against military
targets within the United States.
U.S. Army soldiers attend a Nov. 10, 2010, service for the 13 people killed
in the shooting rampage five days earlier at Fort Hood.
Enlarge Joe Raedle/Getty Images
U.S. Army soldiers attend a Nov. 10, 2010, service for the 13 people killed
in the shooting rampage five days earlier at Fort Hood.
A Conviction Last Month
Just last month, an AWOL Muslim soldier named Naser Abdo was convicted of
plotting to attack Fort Hood. Officers found components for an explosive
device in Abdo's hotel room not far from the base.
Abdo told the judge that the plot was supposed to exact some "justice" for
the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. In an audio recording played during the
trial, Abdo said his Islamic faith was part of the reason he planned the
attack.
Lieberman says that Abdo actually called out Major Hasan's name shortly
after he was found guilty of conspiring to attack a restaurant just outside
Fort Hood where active service members often went with their families. Abdo
is expected to be sentenced in July. It is not clear whether his case was
one of the cases on the FBI's list.
Military Bases Considered Likely Targets
Officials say for many aspiring violent jihadis a military base is seen as
fair game for an attack. Al-Qaida's narrative revolves around the idea that
America is at war with Islam the world over, and the perception is that the
U.S. military is at the forefront of that battle.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army doctor named as a suspect in the
shooting death of 13 people and the wounding of 31 others at Fort Hood,
Texas.
The Two-Way
Senate Report: Authorities Could Have Prevented Fort Hood Shootings
Counterterrorism officials say that for many freshly minted jihadists, a
military target is an easier choice and easier to justify than targeting a
shopping mall or other soft civilian targets - precisely because it is seen
as part and parcel of the battle.
"After the Fort Hood shooting, having just one serious case, much less
having a dozen, is cause for concern," says Bruce Hoffman, a professor and
counterterrorism expert at Georgetown University and a distinguished scholar
at the Wilson Center.
"You have to think about how people in the military community aren't just
your run-of-the-mill jihadis," Hoffman says. "These are people who have
access to guns and to bases and are supposed to have security clearances.
This is not the community you want to be radicalizing."
==========================================
(F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this
message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to
these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed
within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with
"Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976.
The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The
Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain
permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials
if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting,
teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria
for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies
as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four
criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is
determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not
substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use
copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS
PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.
--
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