Fort Hood Cover-Up: A Dozen Tales of Disinformation

[unhappycamper]

Fort Hood Cover-Up: A Dozen Tales of Disinformation
by Mark Ames | November 9, 2009 - 11:59am

I don't want to go too deep down the Fort Hood Rabbit Hole Of Weirdness, so I'm just going to get off my chest some of the incredibly weird shit that's being thrown around in the media to confuse us or throw us off. It's looking pretty clearly like there’s a cover-up in progress, and not a very professional cover-up either. But the sad thing is that all the confusion and bullshit thrown our way will probably succeed in its goal of steering the public away from whatever it is the military doesn’t want us to find out about the shooting massacre.

~snip~

1. A ridiculous story planted in London's Daily Telegraph makes Hasan out to be an old pal of the 9/11 terrorists. The Telegraph also reported that a mysterious Arab-looking visitor came to Hasan's apartment 2 days before the shooting, like something out of a bad TV show:

~snip~

2. NPR ran a story sourcing an unnamed Walter Reed psychiatrist (again, unnamed!) who claimed to be a colleague of Hasan's painting a shocking portrait of a Muslim terrorist: supposedly Hasan went ballistic on his fellow students during a lecture that was supposed to be about medical issues. Instead, according to NPR:

~snip~

3. The FBI claims that they were monitoring Hasan ever since they supposedly caught him praising suicide bombers 6 months ago. Yet they did nothing. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson explained why, using the same excuse Condi Rice used after 9/11:

~snip~

4. In spite of all of this in-your-face evidence that Hasan was the craziest jihadist this side of the Jordan River, and in spite of all of the gazillions of officers and colonels and colleagues going on the air saying that Hasan's radical Islamic extremism troubled them, nonetheless, according to the New York Times, "officials were not prepared to say whether the attack was the act of a lone and troubled man or connected to terrorist groups, foreign or domestic.” Hutchinson added yesterday in the same article,


Rest of article at: http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/24853

[southpaw]

1. The links aren't working for me

Anyone else having trouble with them?

[unhappycamper]

2. Both of them are working for me.

:shrug:

[dionysus]

3. what's your guess as a motive for a coverup? what do you think they are hiding?

[conscious evolution]

4. Mutiny

The guy did not want to take part in war crimes and actually took up arms against them.
The military is terrified of mutiny amongst the troops.The BS being thrown about is an attempt to keep the troops in line.

[malaise]

6. Ding ding

While some (unidentified man) claimed he shouted something religious someone else heard I'm not fucking going.

[anigbrowl]

20. That hardly sounds like a reason to shoot 13 people

I don't think it's an organized terrorist attack, no do I think it was an organized mutiny. You don't make an effective political statement by shooting up 13 innocent people.

[dionysus]

7. i can see where people are trying to play up the muslin\terra angle, but i think it's a stretch he

did this nobly against "war crimes"

anyone who unloads on a room of unarmed people is crazier than a shithouse rat.

[blindpig]

One of the real reasons for the departure from VietNam

Large numbers of troops, particularly those in the field, were becoming unmanageable, incidence of fragging was getting out of hand. Friend of mine over there in the early 70's said that once you were issued a rifle you were essentially a free agent, orders were optional, said it was like the Wild West.

[blindpig]

12. One of the real reasons for the departure from VietNam

Large numbers of troops, particularly those in the field, were becoming unmanageable, incidence of fragging was getting out of hand. Friend of mine over there in the early 70's said that once you were issued a rifle you were essentially a free agent, orders were optional, said it was like the Wild West.

[WinkyDink]

13. Um, sorry. Mass murder is hardly a moral argument against committing "war crimes".

[JackRiddler]

23. Who said it was a moral argument?

I don't think anyone here excuses the act.

Mutiny appears to be the correct, neutral term for what he did. It wouldn't surprise me if it's called that at his military trial.

Not every act of mutiny is a good thing. This one wasn't. He had other forms of protest or ways to get himself discharged. Mutiny and murder are not mutually exclusive categories.

One may legitimately ask what stresses he was subjected to. That's an important question even from the army's perspective, as presumably they want to prevent such acts in the future, not merely condemn them after the fact.

One may also ask if he was being groomed for some function in Afghanistan, as apparently the Army was told by an intel agency that he tried to reach out to foreign jihadis, but nevertheless was about to deploy him there.

[JackRiddler]

18. Mutiny & possible grooming as an intel asset...

They were aware (the army was informed) of his attempts to reach out to jihadists six months ago but he was still being deployed to Afghanistan?

What's wrong with this picture?

[TornadoTN]

34. I still haven't seen any proof that he actually did try to reach out to jihadists

I don't doubt that the possibility is there, but everything is just rumor and false reports that are quickly retracted or hushed up.

I think it had to do with him not wanting to be deployed/fight Muslims. Perhaps stress from treating PTSD patients played a role.

And no, I'm not excusing or justifying it. It was a horrible, cowardly act and he needs to be punished severely. But trying to find a reason isn't equal to justification.

[JackRiddler]

41. Neither has the Senate Intelligence Committee, but they're demanding the records...

which the CIA so far refuses to produce.

That's according to ABC citing Hoekstra (R) and unnamed intelligence sources.

Please see here and give a kick:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6981996

Thanks.

[Frances]

5. I think he was a troubled man

who was not part of any organized group

That is much easier to believe than that RFK, JFK, and MLK were killed by lone gunmen

[TornadoTN]

36. I'm leaning that way as well

A troubled man, troubled by his religion and the anti-muslim sentiment that he perceived in his life. Add to that his impending deployment, and you've got a compelling argument for a man that snapped and took the lives of so many innocent.

But the OP makes some good points. Even though it appears to be a case of media information being erroneous after a tragedy, it still doesn't mean we should dismiss it without some careful study.

[Festivito]

11. I'm guessing he broke after hearing all the anti-Arab comments.

And, they can't let FOX, or any of the other RW pundits, take any blame.

At one time it was reported he had a list of people to get, as though it wasn't just random shooting. I wonder if some of the injured and killed were shot for brandishing a weapon and being targeted by people trying to stop the mayhem not knowing who was the originating shooter.

[tekisui]

8. I am still unsure whether he was a lone gunman,

and how many were killed by responding shooters.

[Rebubula]

9. 9-11

On and after 9-11, there was lots of disinformation floating.

In events such as this and others, information flows without many filters as news becomes available.

I do not see any conspiracy, just people spouting rumor as fact in order to give people SOME information. It is not right, but I do not see anything criminal here.

Of course, as time goes by that may change

[AntiFascist]

32. Lee Harvey Oswald is an interesting study...

he overtly had pro-Marxist sensibilities tending to side with the "enemy", at the time of the JFK assassination. But after several decades information is starting to shed light on his covert relationships with the CIA and even the FBI. He may have even been setup to participate in anti-Castro operations. One wonders if he may have cracked under the same type of pressure.

[jobycom]

10. Sounds like the normal rumors and uncertainty in a story like this.

People who had no idea what was happening on site giving confused impressions--every mass killing I know of was originally reported to have more than one gunman, for instance--and a thousand news sources each trying to trump each other with more shocking and attention-grabbing rumors uttered by a paranoid public and a group of casual acquaintences wanting attention. I can't even tell from the chit-chatty tone of the writer what he thinks is being covered up and what he thinks is being planted.

[tammywammy]

15. +1

[tammywammy]

16. +1

[WinkyDink]

14. What makes you so cock-sure about a NON-Islamic terrorist connection?

[Ohio Joe]

17. Yay! Tinfoil!

Conflicting early reports and media speculation, must be a cover up. Un-rec'd.

[JackRiddler]

19. Yay! Magic platitudes spray your worries away!

[Ohio Joe]

21. No platitudes

No moronic tinfoil either.

[JackRiddler]

22. True. Now you're down to vacuous slogans.

[crikkett]

24. LOL

:thumbsup:

[Ohio Joe]

25. Non-sense

Shifting the blame and making excuses for a mass murderer is, IMO, a moronic thing to do.

[JackRiddler]

26. Strawman.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6979494&mesg_id=6982737

[Ohio Joe]

29. No...

You start off with:

"I don't think anyone here excuses the act."

But then go on to excuse his act as one of protest... or that the army put him under to much stress... or that he was being groomed for "something".

You are very much shifting the blame and making excuses without any real facts to back them up.

[jus_the_facts]

27. One more time... LIHOP anyone?

:tinfoilhat:

[EFerrari]

30. I've come to the conclusion that LIHOP is true for most of these things.

But not because there's a conspiracy. They just don't really care about protecting us.

Their real job is to protect a few guys with money AND their money AND their businesses. The rest of us get to take off our shoes at airports and that should make us feel special and safe. Or, I hope it does because that's what we get.

[Soylent Brice]

37. right now

anything is possible.
i would like to think it's not the situation.

[blues90]

28. Whatever the reality is .

As always I do feel we will never get the real truth, we will get what they decide we will get then suddenly it will go away into the ether and be forgotten.

[bergie321]

31. If it was a conspiracy....

Why is he still alive?

[Soylent Brice]

35. yeah, alive meaning a breathing stump.

he is now a quadriplegic.

[Odin2005]

33. LOL, I see tones of tinfoil there.

[Blue_Tires]

38. normally i wouldn't go with this, but that first 'official' error-filled press conference

was so out of military character anything is possible

[LostInAnomie]

39. Yay! I can't wait for the newest round of LIHOP and MIHOP conspiracy theories!

I can't wait to hear how Delta Force or some other elite fighting force swooped in, shot up the place, planted an unconscious and pre-shot Hasan on the floor, and got away without being seen. I bet they knocked down WTC-7 too!

[nadinbrzezinski]

40. There is a coverup, but not too nefarious

what they are trying to cover up is just how broken the army is... like it was at the end of Nam and for similar reasons. Except this is ten times as bad. This force is that much more stressed than it was at the end of Nam.

That is what this "coverup" is about. This is the most spectacular event... not to justify Hassan, or anything, understand WHY things happen, does not mean one justifies them. And we have a lot of violence, read suicides, murder suicides and murders... in the armed forces. That is what they are trying to distract from