(UPDATED: See below.) We’ll say it before, and we’ll say it again: It’s not just that the U.S. military discriminates against gays that’s so offensive, it’s that the U.S. military does so while knowingly hiring, training, and deploying ABSOLUTE NUTJOBS. Like white supremacists. And, evidently, Ft. Hood gunman and Army Major Nidal Hasan, the man who killed 13 people and who the Army knew was suffering from extreme emotional problems — and who reached out to al-Qaida, which the Army reportedly knew about. KNEW ABOUT! As Darren Hutchinson so succinctly explains: “Apparently, the military retained a person who suffered from known (or reasonably discoverable) psychological problems and who attempted to contact an anti-U.S. terrorist group. Meanwhile, the military continues to enforce ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and to discharge mentally fit and loyal gay and lesbian service members. No theory of military preparedness can justify this perverse outcome.”
UPDATE: We don’t delete much on this website, because what we publish is a matter of record, and hey, we’ll own what we say. But we do want to address some serious concerns about ABC News’s report that Hasan had been “attempting to make contact with an individual associated with al Qaeda.” The report — which carries the bylines of Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole, and Brian Ross — has since been, shall we say, “corrected” by other outlets including the New York Times, which says:
Major Hasan’s 10 to 20 messages to Anwar al-Awlaki, once a spiritual leader at a mosque in suburban Virginia where Major Hasan worshiped, indicate that the troubled military psychiatrist came to the attention of the authorities long before last Thursday’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood, but that the authorities left him in his post.
Counterterrorism and military officials said Monday night that the communications, first intercepted last December as part of an unrelated investigation, were consistent with a research project the psychiatrist was then conducting at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on post-traumatic stress disorder.
“There was no indication that Major Hasan was planning an imminent attack at all, or that he was directed to do anything,” one senior investigator said. He and the other officials spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying the case was under investigation.
Ross, meanwhile, has a record of obfuscating facts to manufacture a better story. We regret any conclusion we may have drawn based on ABC News’s report.
Jake the libertarian
First of all, Is there any doubt that he didn’t just “attempt” to contact terrorist groups??? I mean, I think we can probably assume he was a active operative considering he shot 43 people!
Some people are going to disagree on this, but I thing Queerty is dead on balls correct here. The Army has done nothing but talk about how brilliantly they reacted to this attack when it was clearly a massive failure on every level imaginable. On top of that, if one more person tells me “it could have been worse” I will scream. HOW IN THE HELL COULD IT HAVE BEEN WORSE??? One guy with a pistol shot 43 people and killed 13 of them. That is insanely bad. I guess he could have had an H-Bomb under his jacket, but seriously… given the circumstances… this is pretty close to a worst fucking case scenario.
The same Army (with whom I have deployed and fought BTW)joyfully kicks out competent, patriotic, and most importantly NON-TERRORIST gays and lesbians and pats itself on the back for that too. All supported by “The most progressive and gay friendly president we have ever had”. With friends like these… who needs enemies?
Hedo
When I heard about the shooting I immediately thought of how Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’s utter ridiculousness is well past the point of “painfully obvious.”
I’d add more, but Jake basically took the words out of my mouth. Hands. Brain. Whatever the text equivalent for taking the words out of someone’s mouth is.
terrwill
Please don’t attempt to expend any energy or brain cells pondering the maddening logic (or lack of) regarding the Gays in the military. Any military person will concur that the one of the most absolute critical positions to fill is soldiers on our side who are fluent in the many dialects of Arabic which are spoken in the areas our troops are concentrated. It takes years to become proficient enough to be of any use to help protect our soldiers. For some strange reason a highly disproportinate amount of the Gays specialized in that field. And guess what?? Despite our soldiers dying every week, they are still discharging the Gay linguistic specialists from active duty!! These poor troops on the ground are suffering every day, in battle I really don’t think anyone gives a shit who you sleep with, just so you can make sure you both can go home to whoever you sleep with………………
Cam
But gays are dangerous because….hmmmmm, well lets see, …..ummmmmmm. Well. Oh wait, I can think of two reasons using logic as smart as the armys!
1. Bigoted politicians can raise money by threatening people with “Those that are different and icky if you don’t donate!”
2. Mormons, now that they were forced to accept blacks into their church by social pressure, need to use gays to fullfill their churches need to look down on other groups of people. They can no longer (publicly) do that to minorities so gays fit the bill.
Seriously, there is one and only one reason the Army continues to discriminate. You have a bunch of fato old bigoted Generals in the Pentagon that think gays are “Icky”. But hey, these are the same guys who ran things in Viet-Nam so we shouldn’t be surprised that they can’t seem to get anything right.
RomanHans
Glad you caught the correction. That story was a total distortion of facts designed to tie Mr. Hasan to extremist groups whether or not it was true. First these “journalists” claimed Mr. Hasan contacted “people” connected to al-Qaida. Then it’s “person.” Now the al-Qaida connection is tenous, and the communications — intercepted by the FBI — turn out to be completely innocuous.
Fake story, fake facts. Sadly, more than enough for Fox News to further demonize Muslims and demand that they are banished from our military.
Maybe this story has something to do with gays in the military, but mostly it’s about how America is controlled by media lies.
GeoffM
Queerty you are right on the mark w/this.
xoxoman
Didnt the feds fuck this one up by not following through on the connection between hassan and am particular imam with ties to the 9/11 terrorists? i remember reading the -newspeak- when the story broke and was amazed at the level of detail surrounding the gov’t knowing of his having emailed certain characters….so before we scream ismlamic terrorist…lets point to the real letdown…our “homeland security” who seem to miss the ball always….WTF is wrong with this government….cant they do anything?
Jake the libertarian
Here comes the army covering their asses. Its my understanding that he was under CID investigation. This is nothing but the Army trying to cover their own ass. By all accounts I have heard, this guy was a known radical and a shitty officer. And I don’t watch foxnews.
I am not anti-muslim, but this is insane. The dirtbag was a terrorist, plain and simple. The army had knowledge that he was unstable and did not act. Thank sweet baby Jesus the hot rid of those gays though
Alexander
The remarks on the complete idiocy regarding DADT are right on point. However, it is Queerty’s responsibility (as it is any of us who proclaim to report “the news”) that we wait until the investigation is over before we start using words like “terrorist” or “extremist”
It’s far more likely that this man was incredibly disturbed, be it PTSD or another mental illness. The way that Queerty and other organizations make it sound is that Hassan was some kind of plant, instead of an ill man who reached out in desperation to an organization that he knew shared his warped views.
TeleUte83
“the man who killed 13 people”
Excuse me… he hasn’t been convicted. He is alleged to have killed 13 people. Even if it seems like case-closed, professional journalists learn that in J-school 101, you follow constitutional principles of innocent until proven guilty. At least, that’s what I swore to protect.
alan brickman
bet you won’t see this on CNN or Fox…but on here …keeping clicking the Morning Goods Guys…
B
Jake the libertarian wrote, “First of all, Is there any doubt that he didn’t just ‘attempt’ to contact terrorist groups??? I mean, I think we can probably assume he was a active operative considering he shot 43 people!”
What you can assume is that he shot 43 people. He’s alive and will be questioned to determine the motive. Don’t jump to conclusions. That’s the mistake Bush et al. made when Saddam’s game-playing with weapons inspectors was taken as “proof” that he had weapons of mass destruction. He didn’t (the sanctions were effective). Bush et al. assumed that Saddam had something to hide when he was more interested in getting the Iranians to think he had something to hide as a deterrent against another war.
Let’s not go off half cocked on some dubious assumptions, kill a lot of people, and piss the survivors off enough that we end up creating another round of terrorists to deal with.
spar-k-ling
I had the opp to chat up this stud of a man in midtown….in uniform…so fuck=in hot…..god i love being gay….i told him…yeah man im here for you , can we fuck? he laughed…he wanted it….god dmn…i love my all american military boys…so homo…so deliscious….i fuckin eat them up…..ahhhh!
jason
I agree with the notion that we may have a nutjob here. However, it’s still useful to point out that the military prefers nutjobs to decent, sane gay guys.
Charles Merrill
Certainly not all Muslim’s are terrorists, everyone knows that, but to sanitize the Ft. Hood shootings by excusing fundamental Islamic religion is doing the dead soldiers a disservice. The Army made a mistake by not questioning him about his faith and he should have been given the option of being discharged as a conscientious objector.
B
Charles Merrill wrote, “Certainly not all Muslim’s are terrorists, everyone knows that, but to sanitize the Ft. Hood shootings by excusing fundamental Islamic religion is doing the dead soldiers a disservice.”
Withholding judgment until a full investigation is completed is not a disservice to anyone. Let’s at least wait until they can determine if the main cause was extreme religious fundamentalism versus schizophrenia or some other mental illness, or something else that has not yet been hinted at in the press reports.
It’s pointless to speculate when you don’t even have access to his current medical reports.