ANDREW McCARTHY: WILLFULL BLINDING…THE CASE OF MAJOR HASSAN
The Article 32 proceeding (the military equivalent of a grand jury investigation in anticipation of an indictment) is underway for Maj. Nidal Hasan. You’ll recall him as the jihadist the military won’t call a jihadist, having assiduously averted its eyes from the fact that he was a jihadist before his terrorist murder of 13 American soldiers and wounding of numerous others — acts the military, taking its cue from the commander-in-chief, will not refer to as terrorism.
From the Associated Press report[2] on yesterday’s hearing [thanks to Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch][3] comes this mind-blowing detail, buried at the bottom of the story:
Earlier Friday under cross examination, Pfc. Lance Aviles said he used his cell phone to record the rampage inside the processing center but was ordered by an officer to delete both videos later the same day. Aviles was not asked if he knew why the officer ordered the videos destroyed. It’s unclear exactly what the footage showed, although it could have been used as evidence in the case….
Based on the Defense Department’s shameful conduct in this case, we have no choice but to believe (unless proven otherwise) that the military did not want to preserve a recording of a jihadist terrorist screaming Allahu Akbar! as he carried out a massacre unmistakably inspired by Islamist ideology. Remember, this is the same Defense Department that, in its purportedly thorough 86-page report on the mass-murder, failed to mention Islam a single time. As former Navy Secretary and 9/11 Commissioner John Lehman told[4] Time when the report was issued, the Pentagon’s silence “shows you how deeply entrenched the values of political correctness have become[.]… It’s definitely getting worse, and is now so ingrained that people no longer smirk when it happens.”
This is nothing to smirk about. The destruction of patently relevant evidence of a crime is itself a crime, obstruction of justice. If the military is not investigating it, then the Justice Department should be convening a grand jury. Of course, neither the Obama administration nor the Pentagon is likely to go near it, but the new Congress should be all over it until there is some accountability.
My column[5] this weekend is about the travesty in the Netherlands, where Geert Wilders has been put on trial for doing nothing more than what I did in order to prosecute terrorists. My main point is this: Political correctness betrays the core values of a free society. We cannot be forbidden from honestly observing the undeniable nexus between Islamic doctrine and jihadist terror. Those who would blind us from uncomfortable truths have no business occupying responsible positions.
[1] http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/249998/willful-blinding-andy-mccarthy
[2] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101015/ap_on_re_us/us_fort_hood_shooting
[4] http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1954960,00.html
[5] http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/249981/wilders-west-andrew-c-mccarthy
Comments are closed.
