Re: FBI Tracking 100 Suspected Extremists In Military

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/06/22/504937/bachmann-muslim-brotherhood-penetration/

On Jun 25, 11:58 pm, Travis <baconl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> :
>
> But too incompetent to remove them?
>
> FBI Tracking 100 Suspected Extremists In Militaryhttp://www.npr.org/2012/06/25/155710570/fbi-checking-100-suspected-ex...
> 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."
>
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