Fort Hood shooter found guilty on all counts, qualifies for death penalty.

Fort Hood shooter found guilty on all counts, qualifies for death penalty.HT: RussiaToday.
Maj. Hasan, 42, was found guilty by a military jury on Friday for the 13 murders he committed during an outburst almost four years ago. Additionally, a panel of the Army psychiatrist’s peers also elected to convict him on each of the 32 counts of attempted murder he was up against as well.
Now pending the outcome of the court-martial’s penalty phase, Hasan could be sentenced to die for his role in the massacre. That portion of the legal proceedings is scheduled to begin on Monday.
Jurors in the Hasan court-martial began deliberating Thursday afternoon after 12-days of proceedings in which the defendant served as his own attorney.
When the proceedings began earlier this month, Hasan told the court, “the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter.”
“Evidence will show I was on the wrong side of America’s war and I later switched sides,” he said in opening statements.
“We in the mujahedeen are imperfect beings trying to establish a perfect religion,” Hasan added. “I apologize for any mistakes I have made in this endeavor.”
Hasan rested his case without calling any witnesses, testifying in his own defense or making closing arguments. The prosecution elicited testimony for nearly 90 people during their turn to call witnesses.
"There is no doubt, as I said in the beginning, the accused is the shooter," prosecutor Col. Steven Henricks told the jury before they were asked to deliberate.  “The only question for you is ... is this a premeditated design to kill?"
"He did not want to deploy, and he came to believe he had a jihad duty to kill as many soldiers as possible," Henricks said.
On his part, Hasan claimed he was justified, citing “adequate provocation" for the attack because those killed would be participating in the United States’ " illegal war" in Afghanistan. Hasan acknowledged that it wasn’t done in “the heat of sudden passion.”

Hasan was injured by authorities during the shoot-out and has been forced to be confined to a wheelchair ever since. Hasan has suggested that he wants to receive the death penalty for his actions, and according to the New York Times said, "I'm paraplegic and could be in jail for the rest of my life. However, if I died by lethal injection, I would still be a martyr."

Fort Hood trial: judge bars most motive evidence.

The Djinn made me do it.

Fort Hood trial: judge bars most motive evidence.(Guardian).

The judge overseeing the Fort Hood shooting trial blocked prosecutors on Monday from using several witnesses and most evidence they had sought to explain the alleged motive behind the 2009 attack.

Prosecutors had asked the military judge to approve evidence and several witnesses to explain the mindset of Major Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others at the Texas military base in November 2009.
Such evidence included references to Hasan Akbar, a Muslim soldier sentenced to death for attacking fellow soldiers in Kuwait during the 2003 Iraq invasion. Prosecutors wanted to suggest a copycat motive.
But the judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, barred prosecutors from referencing Akbar, saying Akbar wasn't on trial and introduction of such material would "only open the door to a mini trial." She also said it would result in a "confusion of issues, unfair prejudice, waste of time and undo delay."
Osborn also told prosecutors that they couldn't cite Hasan's interest years ago in conscientious objector status and his past academic presentations. Osborn said such evidence was too old and irrelevant.
However, the judge will allow evidence about Internet searches on Hasan's computer around the time of the attack and websites that Hasan had listed as "favorites."
Prosecutors indicated Friday that they had between 15 and 25 witnesses left, meaning Hasan could get his chance to defend himself as early as Tuesday or Wednesday. He signaled before trial that he had just two witnesses.
Hasan – who is acting as his own attorney – could face the death penalty if convicted.Read the full story here.

Former counter terrorism head: FBI never called Ft.Hood 'Workplace Violence'.

Former counter terrorism head: FBI never called Ft.Hood 'Workplace Violence'.HT: Breitbart.

Michael Steinbach, former head of the FBI’s counterterrorism division and now special agent in charge of Miami, told over 30 congressional staffers in March of 2012 that, contrary to the White House's classification, the bureau does not refer to the Fort Hood shooting as "workplace violence." 

As head of the FBI counterterrorism division, Steinbach oversaw the investigation into the mass murder at Texas Army base. Steinbach made this claim during an unclassified counterterrorism briefing on Capitol Hill.

“Do you guys teach your agents that Fort Hood was workplace violence?” one staffer asked.

“I’m not gonna go there for you,” Steinbach responded.

“I think that’s along the lines of what we’re trying to discern here,” the staffer answered back.

“I appreciate it. I was just at a hearing yesterday and the very same question came up to our executive assistant director to the head (inaudible). No, that’s not the description of it. In that case, we took a very, very hard look at ourselves as well,” Steinbach explained.

He continued, “There was an internal review into the Fort Hood matter and what it was that we did and didn’t do well in that case and I don’t think anyone considers that—I’ve never heard that term used in the FBI or by any official in the FBI and there are some concerns as to whether or not people outside the FBI use that term."

"I’ll leave that to whoever said that to explain their words," Steinbach concluded. "I have not heard it used at the FBI.” 

Army Major Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is accused of opening fire on November 5, 2009 at the Fort Hood, Texas Army Base, killed 13, including a pregnant woman, and injuring over 30 others. According to Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, a Fort Hood general, Hasan yelled "Allahu Akbar" (Arabic for "God is Great") before he began shooting.

The Department of Defense classified the Fort Hood shooting as “workplace violence.” Such a classification has denied the victims of the attack purple hearts and medical care Americans wounded overseas in combat zones would receive.

According to ABC News, a Pentagon position paper issued on March 29 says that issuing purple hearts to the victims would “irrevocably alter the fundamental character of this time-honored decoration” and “undermine the prosecution of Major Nidal Hasan [the alleged Fort Hood shooter] by materially and directly compromising Major Hasan’s ability to receive a fair trial.”

The Army’s chief of staff at the time of the Fort hood attack, Gen. George Casey, said in November of 2012: “As horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.”

The paper was issued in response to legislation put forth again by Rep. John Carter (R-TX), whose district includes Fort Hood. The legislation would award both military and civilian fatalities of the attack combatant status.

Former police sergeant Kimberly Munley helped stop the attack at Fort Hood. She told ABC News she felt “betrayed” by President Obama, who promised the victims of the shooting would be taken care of.Read the full story here.

MFS -The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

  Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Vanuatu 5.1!More info here.

• Are you kidding me?FBI open to US Muslim Brotherhood groups "establishing a committee to review materials used in FBI anti-terrorism training"(AS). And you thought it was bad that the FBI submited to demands to purge counter terrorism materials of jihadic doctrine documentation: Obama disarms FBI counter terror training programs, purges truth about jihadYou ain't seen nothing yet. The Muslim Brotherhood and their jihadist brothers are on the march, emboldened by a pro-jihadist Obama adminstration."FBI officials say they are willing to consider a proposal from a coalition of Muslim and interfaith groups to establish a committee of experts to review materials used in FBI anti-terrorism training."Maybe the Taliban and Al Qaeda can review it as well. Hamas-CAIR is already all over it. Is there any rational man who believes that this makes us safer? Our government is clearly no longer a government by the people and for the people. It is now a government against the people.The Washington Post is reporting:"FBI officials say they are willing to consider a proposal from a coalition of Muslim and interfaith groups to establish a committee of experts to review materials used in FBI anti-terrorism training."“We’re open to the idea, but they need to submit a proposal first,” said Christopher Allen, an FBI spokesman who was in the meeting.Read the full story here.

• Trouble in Obamaland: U.S. May Hit Debt Ceiling Before November Election.(BP).President Obama held out last August for a debt increase that would take him past the November 2012 election. Obama didn't want the voters thinking about his gargantuan deficit spending right before election day. However, President Obama's inability to curtail spending may put him in that very situation anyway. A new study has predicted the government will run out of money again in mid-October.The United States Department of Treasury will reach the the statutory limit it is allowed to borrow money before election day, according to a new study by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio., former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.“Following the contentious debt ceiling last August, President Obama promised that he would take action to address the country’s fiscal crisis. He has failed to do that," Portman said. "In fact, his new budget increases spending and projects that Washington will be hitting the debt ceiling again in mid-October – burning through a $2.1 trillion debt limit increase in just over 14 months."Read the full story here.

• Lawmaker Demands DHS Cease Monitoring of Blogs, Social Media.(Wired).Rep. Jackie Speier (D-California) said Thursday she wants the Department of Homeland Security to cease its social-media and news-monitoring operation.Speaking at a Homeland Security subcommittee hearing, the California lawmaker said she was “outraged” that the agency has hired a contractor to review a variety of social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter, and that General Dynamics is being tasked with reviewing news sources, blogs and their bylines for all types of articles, including those containing anti-American sentiment and reaction to policy proposals.“This should not be a political operation,” she said.Read the full story here.

• US gets Barak to backtrack and deny Iran has reached nuclear point of no-return.(Debka). By suddenly stating, contrary to all informed estimates, that Iran’s nuclear arms program has not yet reached the point of no return, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak implied that Israel was in no hurry to strike its nuclear facilities, a message for which Washington has been angling for months.In a Kol Israel interview from Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 16, the defense minister’s pronouncement contradicted every reliable evaluation, including those of Military Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi on Feb. 2 and his predecessor Amos Yadlin who wrote on Jan. 26 that Iran had passed the point of no return four or five years ago. But his words were a perfect fit for the recent assertions by US President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that Israel had not yet made up its mind to attack Iran.Kochavi’s information was detailed: He reported that Iran had amassed 10 kilos of 20-percent enriched uranium and four tons of uranium enriched to 3.5 percent. In his view, nothing remains to stop Iran building a bomb but a decision by its ruler. Once taken, Iran’s nuclear program could produce its first bomb or warhead by the end of this year or early 2013 and four or five by 2015.The defense minister backtracked on a second issue: While noting that Iran was scattering or burying its nuclear facilities to “impede a surgical strike,” he avoided his previous estimate that no more than three to six months were left before all those facilities had been hidden in what he himself called “zones of immunity.Before these changes in outlook, Barak was indirectly criticized by Obama administration officials for underlining the mortal threat to Israel of a nuclear Iran. One official complained, “Israelis are looking at the problem too narrowly.”Why the defense minister suddenly changed course is unclear. It is also hard to know if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu okayed his radical departure from Israel’s information strategy on the nuclear Iran issue.What is apparent, debkafile’s sources report, is that the change of tune coincides with the reports circulating in Washington and Jerusalem that the US and Iran have agreed to resume nuclear talks shortly. Those sources point to an article in the New York Times by Dennis Ross, President Obama’s former senior adviser on Iran, entitled “Iran is ready to talk.” Ross is too experienced to go out on a limb and make this sort of statement without being sure of his facts.Hmmmmm........"Trust me said the scorpion to the frog".Read the full story here.

• 'Homs hit with an average of 4 rockets a minute'.(JPost).Syrian President Bashar Assad continued his bloody crackdown on protesters on Friday, marking the 14 days of heavy shelling in Homs. According to activist Hadi Abdullah, Friday's violence is the "the like of which we have never seen before, with an average of four rockets every minute,” AFP reported.In a telephone conversation with the Al Arabiya paper, Abdullah explained that the city's shelters were over-crowded with residents fleeing the indiscriminate bombardment. On Thursday, the 193-nation UN General Assembly ratcheted up the pressure on Assad by overwhelmingly approving a resolution that endorses an Arab League plan calling for him to step aside.Russia and China were among those opposing the resolution, which was drafted by Saudi Arabia and submitted by Egypt on behalf of Arab UN delegations. Unlike in the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly, and its decisions lack the legal force of council resolutions.Read the full story here.

• Afghan government involved in U.S.-Taliban peace dialogue, says Karzai.(AlArabiya).The Afghan government is part of a three-way peace dialogue involving the U.S. and the Taliban, President Hamid Karzai reportedly said, despite the militia’s denunciation of his “puppet regime.”Kabul has expressed fear of being marginalized as United States officials explore a dialogue with the Islamist Taliban, who in turn have said they have no intention to talk to the president’s U.S.-backed government.But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Thursday, Karzai said the Afghan government was indeed involved in the dialogue and that most Taliban were “definitively” interested in a peace deal as foreign troops exit.“There have been contacts between the U.S. government and the Taliban, there have been contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and there have been some contacts that we have made, all of us together, including the Taliban,” Karzai was quoted as saying in the interview, conducted Wednesday.The president, who is due to hold summit talks in Islamabad with leaders of Pakistan and Iran on Thursday, did not give any further details about the contacts.Karzai did not mention any Pakistani involvement in the Taliban dialogue, but said the cooperation of Afghanistan’s fractious neighbor “would make the whole matter easier for us, for the Taliban, and for the U.S.”The Taliban said last month that they planned to set up a political office in Qatar ahead of possible formal talks with the United States. Afghan and U.S. officials have said that exploratory contacts are already underway.To build confidence, President Barack Obama’s administration has confirmed tentative talks with the Taliban on a possible transfer of five inmates from Guantanamo Bay to Qatar, and on potential local ceasefires with the militia.The nascent dialogue comes as the United States and its foreign allies prepare to draw down their combat troop presence and hand full control of Afghanistan’s security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.The Taliban have often decried Karzai’s government as a “puppet regime” propped up by foreign troops and cash, but the president dismissed such talk as rhetoric.In the interview, he said the Taliban might even accept a peace deal that allows for the long-term presence of U.S. troops.Afghanistan could give ground on the question of legal immunity for U.S. personnel in Afghanistan, he said, a stumbling block that prevented a similar strategic pact between the United States and Iraq last year.“That’s an issue that we can discuss,” the president told the Wall Street Journal. “We want a partnership with America. And we will do all we can to make that possible.” Read the full story here.

• Egyptian preacher wants end to U.S. “humiliation” by replacing aid with local donations.(ALArabiya).Egyptian Salafist preacher Mohammed Hassan has called for the replacement of U.S. aid to Egypt with local donations, Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported on Wednesday.Egypt receives around $1.3 billion annually in military aid from the U.S. government but Washington has threatened to cut off the flow of money after Cairo charged 43 activists, including 19 Americans, with violating laws regulating the operation of NGOs.Accusations against the activists include working for organizations not properly registered in Egypt and receiving foreign funds illegally.Egypt, as one of the main recipients of U.S. aid worldwide receives military assistance in the form of arms and services including maintenance.Hassan explained that his idea comes in response to what he called American “humiliation” of Egypt.“If America wants to cut military aid, very well; Egypt isn’t less than Iran which is self-dependent when it comes to producing its own military equipment,” Hassan said. “The Egyptian people will not be broken anymore.”Hassan received support for his statement by two Islamist lawmakers, Mohamed Selim El-Awwa ad Abdel Moneim Aboul Foutuh.Aboul Foutuh was quoted as saying that the aid served U.S. interests rather than being granted for charity purposes.Meanwhile El-Awwa said Hassan’s initiative would prevent interference in Egypt’s internal affairs.On Tuesday the dispute further escalated when state-run Egyptian newspapers accused the U.S. of spreading anarchy.Based on remarks by Minster of International Cooperation Faiza Abul Naga, Al Gomhuria newspaper declared on its front page “American is behind the anarchy.”While the front page of Al Ahram newspaper read “American funding aims to spread anarchy in Egypt.”In her remarks made in October but revealed only this week, Abul Naga linked between what she saw as the surge in U.S. funding for civil society groups in 2011 and the attempt to steer the course of the post-Hosni Mubarak transition in “a direction that realized American and Israeli interests.”“All the indications show that there was a clear desire to abort any chance for Egypt to emerge as a modern democratic state with a strong economy,” she was quoted as saying by the official MENA news agency, adding that that would be a threat to “American and Israeli interests.”Last week, Egypt’s ruling military council released a statement stressing that relations with the U.S. were government by common interest of both parties and “Egypt does not bow to the domination of anyone.”The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted on Tuesday to urge Egypt to “immediately cease its intimidation and prosecution” of democracy activists. The chairman of the panel, Senator John Kerry, said lawmakers were “sending a signal that American patience is being tested” in Egypt.The row is one of the worst in over 30 years of close U.S.-Egyptian ties and has complicated Washington’s efforts to establish relations with the military council that took power from Mubarak after his overthrow in a popular revolt a year ago.Read the full story here.

• Israel's Netanyahu PM in Cyprus: sanctions on Iran not working.(JPost).NICOSIA - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tour of Iranian centrifuges halls Wednesday is an indication that the worlds sanctions against Iran are not working, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday.Netanyahu’s comments came during a press conference in Nicosia with Cypriot President Demetris Christofias.“If anybody needed a reminder that the sanctions have not stopped the nuclear program, it was the guided tour by the Iran’s president in the centrifuge hall yesterday," he said. “I hope they work, but so far they have not."Netanyahu characterized Iran as a regime that “breaks all the rules." A regime that was formed through the taking of the US embassy in Tehran, Iran -- Netanyahu said -- has ever since continued to show no respect for international rules. The most recent example, he said, was attacking foreign diplomats and their wives.“They send children into mine fields, they have suicide bombers, they send tens of thousands of rockets into our cites and towns," Netanyahu said. “Such a regime should obviously not have an atomic bomb, and I believe that the international community is becoming aware by the day of what it means for Iran” to have nuclear potential, he said.Asked about whether the US should fear an Israeli attack on Iran, Netanyahu said that Israel, the US and the rest of the world should be concerned about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.Read the full story here.

• Online Jihadi Incites American Muslims To Lone Wolf Attacks, Recommends Following 'Inspire' Magazine and Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan; Says: 'Mujahid Can Carry Weapons, Enter Public Places Where There Are Christians, And Kill'.(Memri).On February 10, 2012, a member of the Shumoukh Al-Islam jihadi forum, "Abu Asma' Al-Cubi" ("the Cuban") posted an article detailing how Muslims living in the West, particularly in the U.S., can aid the global jihadi movement and can weaken the U.S. from within.Al-Cubi writes that it has become clear to all that the two main forces operating in the geopolitical and ideological arenas are Al-Qaeda and its supporters on the one hand, and the U.S. and its allies on the other. Referring to Al-Qaeda as a "hidden phenomenon," he says that the organization has proven itself to be the force that is the stronger and more united of the two, especially after it defeated the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan and Iraq.Read the full story here.