Major Hasan to Face Court Martial — What to Expect
Court martial procedures under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Manual for Courts Martial are in some respects similar to those in civilian courts, but there are notable differences. As a former JAG officer, it is my belief that the court martial proceedings, in general, are better and fairer to the accused and also more likely to result in justice than those in many civilian jurisdictions. Here are the steps I think have been or will be taken:
1. An Article 32 investigating officer, equal or senior in rank to Major Hasan, was appointed by the commanding general at Fort Hood (or by the commanding general, with authority to convene a general court martial, of a subordinate command there to which Major Hasan was assigned).
2. The Article 32 officer conducted an investigation and interviewed witnesses. Major Hasan had an opportunity to testify, but on advice of counsel probably declined to do so soon after he ceased to be comatose. He was also entitled to cross-examine witnesses against him, normally through counsel. At the conclusion of the Article 32 investigation, the investigating officer apparently recommended to the convening authority that Major Hasan be tried on first degree murder charges.
3. The convening authority apparently agreed, and the trial has been or will be assigned to a military judge, almost certainly a full JAG colonel with many years of judicial experience. General courts martial are almost always the province of lieutenant colonels and above. There will be at least twelve members of the court of rank equal or superior to that of Major Hasan, if possible. At Fort Hood, it should certainly be possible to detail twelve or more senior majors or above to the court martial. The officers to be so detailed are to be, in the judgment of the convening authority, those “best qualified for the duty by reason of age, education, training, experience, length of service, and judicial temperament.” The convening authority has no further authority during the trial except perhaps to dismiss the charges. He is not permitted to exert “command influence” over the proceeding.
“No authority convening a general, special, or summary court martial, nor any other commanding officer, may censure, reprimand, or admonish the court or any member, military judge, or counsel thereof, with respect to the findings or sentence adjudged by the court, or with respect to any other exercise of its or his functions in the conduct of the proceeding. No person subject to this chapter may attempt to coerce or, by any unauthorized means, influence the action of a court martial or any other military tribunal or any member thereof, in reaching the findings or sentence in any case, or the action of any convening, approving, or reviewing authority with respect to his judicial acts.”
In about 1969, when I was a student at the JAG judge’s school, it was emphasized that several commanding generals had been relieved of their commands and otherwise punished for attempting to exercise command influence. I understand that it is now rare.
4. Numerous pretrial motions will be heard and decided by the judge. There will also be ample opportunity for discovery by defense counsel and for gathering witnesses, psychiatric experts, and others. Then the trial will take place, and the prosecuting attorney, called “trial counsel,” will present his case. I would be very surprised were trial counsel to be lower in rank than major. Although at the end of the trial counsel’s presentation the defense could ask for summary acquittal, that seems at the moment highly unlikely to be granted.
5. Next, defense counsel will have the opportunity to present his evidence and arguments. I hope that he will do a very good job of it, since otherwise a guilty verdict could be overturned on the basis of inadequate representation of counsel. The defense is entitled, under the Manual for Courts Martial, to have the assistance of trial counsel in securing witnesses and in other matters. The Army will have appointed a defense counsel for Major Hasan, but since he has apparently already retained a retired JAG colonel, appointed counsel will serve in an advisory capacity. At the moment, an insanity defense seems possible; it seems quite unlikely that Major Hasan will testify under oath, since that would open the door to cross-examination. He could make an unsworn statement, but they are not given significant weight by military courts.
6. At the conclusion of the evidentiary phase and arguments by counsel, the judge will instruct the military jury on the law and they will then decide on guilt or innocence based on the law as explained to them; the law as explained by the military judge will take precedence over any contrary interpretations presented by trial or defense counsel in their closing arguments.
7. Should Major Hasan be found guilty, there will be a second phase to determine the appropriate punishment. That should be interesting, with multiple counts of first degree murder. The death penalty — rarely imposed by a court martial — will be a possibility. Major Hasan will have an opportunity to make an “unsworn statement,” not subject to cross-examination, or a sworn statement, subject to cross-examination. Any such statement, sworn or unsworn, is subject to rebuttal by the trial counsel.
8. Following the conclusion of the trial, the record will be sent to the commanding general who convened the court. With guidance from his staff judge advocate, he will have the authority to do just about anything he wishes, except increase the severity of the charges or the court’s findings on them, or the penalty. After sending the case to the court martial and appointing the court and the judge, that will be the first opportunity for the convening authority to say or do anything; generals have been summarily relieved from their duties for exercising “command influence” over courts martial.
9. The record is then sent to the Army Review Board, where the Government Appellate and Defense Appellate Divisions will present their cases. Should the Review Board affirm the results of the court martial, the proceeding will almost certainly go to the Court of Military Review, where the Government and Defense Appellate Division counsel will brief and argue their cases.
10. There may be collateral appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.
It is anybody’s guess what sorts of evidence will be presented by trial or defense counsel, and there may well be some surprises in store.
I shall attempt updates as the matter proceeds.
If he’s convicted and sentenced to death. Can he still be shot by firing squad or hung? (The last military execution was decades ago and such options just, somehow, seem more appropriate under the circumstances than lethal injection.)
It will never get this far.
If we put him on trial we are putting Islam and Islamic jihad on trial and the Messiah administration and Holder cannot allow that to happen.
If it happens then all the Gitmo detainees will also face having their Islamic faith on trial.
The left will never allow this; it would shatter their worldview. This administration and the left cannot take the chance of Islam being found guilty of terrorism and murder.
What is the source of the quoted text at the start of this article? The text makes it sound like Obama said it, but I didn’t find it in the link to the article.
Dan; in addition to the evidence that he committed premeditated murder, is it relevant to the case the nefarious associations, past history of radicalism, possible funneling of money to Pakistan and other issues that would strongly suggest that this guy is an Islamic terrorist? That may be tangential information to the actual act of murder, but could it substantiate motive?
I have an idea. If found guilty, he should not be sentenced to death, he should be sentenced to life at hard labor shovelling manure at a pig farm. This will guarantee that he will never get to see Allah and his virgins.
Lethal injection now seems to be the method. The most recent military execution took place in 1961, by hanging.
There are nine military prisoners prisoners on death row, some of them for more than twenty years. The appeals process for any case, military or civilian, resulting in the death penalty is extremely lengthy. My guess is that, if convicted and sentenced to death, Major Hasan will spend the rest of his life in confinement and die of old age.
John Moore, you can find the text in the fourth paragraph from the bottom of the linked article, entitled “A Writing Exercise.” That article sets forth what its author would like President Obama to have said. It does not purport to quote President Obama. I rather agree with the statement, but for the reasons stated in my article, I am happy that he did not say that sort of thing.
TC, At this point, I have no clear idea what evidence might be available on Major Hasan’s various statements and radical activities. Nor do I know what other evidence the prosecution has, beyond multiple corpses and many still-alive witnesses who saw and heard the rampage. If, as I have read, he came on post with two pistols ready to fire, after cleaning out his apartment and doing other things suggestive that he had no intention of going back, I suspect there is more than enough to convict of premeditated murder without his history of radicalism, etc. If I were prosecuting the case, I would probably shy away from that sort of thing; why muck up a good case unnecessarily in a way likely to capture the interest of the appellate authorities and possibly result in a reversal?
If Major Hasan is convicted, the court martial will move on to the sentencing phase. That’s when I might consider offering evidence of that sort of thing. Maybe. But then maybe I’m overly cautious.
Why not an additional charge of “Treason”?
Blotto,
Do you REALLY believe that?
Do you REALLY believe that he won’t be tried and found guilty and punished with the maximum punishment allowed by law?
Islam as a religion isn’t on trial, Major Hasan is. For murder.
TO: Dan Miller, et al.
RE: What to Expect
[1] Change of venue.
[2] Lots of media hype.
[3] Justice in sentencing.
[4] An appeal.
[5] Appeal rejected.
[6] Execution.
[7] Islamist retaliation.
[8] More ‘incidents’
[9] More realization of reality that there’s a problem with Islamists by the population.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out....]
Justice for Hasan
Sorry to hear that the
Uniform Code of Marsupial Justice
can no longer rule any way it wants.
1969: Would that be about the same time
a US Navy Captain of an Aircraft Carrier
was relieved of his command for sending
in the Marines to put down a mutiny,
resulting in the death of a mutineer
whose ethnicity may not be mentioned ?
Will the trial run concurrently with the
trial in a civilian court of the 9/11
conspirators, whose religiousity may not
be mentioned.
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, except for those facts
the officials decide beforehand to ban
as irrelevant or prejudicial.
In addition to the charge of Treason,
could Hasan be shown to be an illegal
combatant; Such can still be stood up
against a wall and shot, no ?
There was a movie a few years back…
“The General’s Daughter” ? which evokes
the emotional response I suspect a lot
of people, in and out of uniform, are
feeling right now: Contempt for TPTB.
I predict he will be tried, found guilty, and sent to Bermuda for the rest of his life.
I predict he’ll be found not guilty on a technicality,and named Army affirmative action Tsar for Muslim affairs,by the Obama administration.
Well not only does he have a right to a speedy trial (whatever that is supposed to be) but he also has a right to any sentence to be carried out speedily also like the next morning, so conviction on Thursday and execution of sentence Friday morning at 6:00 a.m.
I believe the OBamas have put Americans and our safety in an untenable position. The prosecutors can bring out the evidence which exposes our intelligence gathering means, methods, & sources, or we can withhold them, making a hung jury more likely.
Exactly the no win situation the Obamas want.
I posted too soon. My comments are more appropriate to bringing KSM to NYC, BUT given the PC virus stricken military, with the Casey’s and Obama’s intimately involved, what do you think will happen?
To play on the words of a British “journalist”, where’s Jack Ruby when we need him?
The UCMJ has punitive articles relating to espionage (art. 106a), sedition and mutiny (art. 94) and, of course, conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman (art. 133). As best I can remember, and based on a brief review of the UCMJ, there is no article making treason a military offense, unless it could in some way be considered under articles 106, 94 or 133. Article 133 does not have the death penalty as a permissible punishment. Articles 106 and 94 seem to require some sort of conspiracy, as to which I am thus far unaware of any evidence. If it is desired to try Major Hasan for treason, a federal district court (civilian) would be the best venue.
As emphasized in the article, I can think of no good reason unnecessarily to complicate what should ordinarily be a simple case of multiple premeditated murder.
The military court has clear jurisdiction over the crime of premeditated murder committed on a military base against members of the military by a member of the military. That is far from clear but unlikely as to treason. The military can and probably will proceed more expeditiously than would a civilian court, and the post trial procedures, while cumbersome, seem less so than for a civilian tribunal.
Another point to keep in mind is that Fort Hood is an armor branch post, and armor is a combat branch of the army. Many of the members of the court martial panel will probably be armor officers.
“We have allowed a traitor to gain a position of trust in your midst. We gave him high rank. We gave him the prerogatives and honors due to a member of the medical profession and an officer in the Armed Forces. And he used that position to kill the men and women we are remembering today. We who demand of you the courage to routinely risk your lives in the service of our nation did not ourselves have fortitude to expel a man from the service who by rights should have been gone because we feared criticism. We feared being accused of bigotry. We feared being accused of persecuting a religion. We feared the bad publicity that would come from recognizing the danger signals which have all too tragically culminated in this. It was out of fear that we forbore and men died.”
Is it lost on anyone that by speaking these words, our President, a lawyer, knows or should know he has compromised our ability to get justice for this (alleged)monster’s crime against these 24 people, humanity in general, and the United States of America. Of course he knows. Of course he knows!
Timber @10: Yes I do. You drove right where the left wants you to drive: that Islam cannot be put on trial. That is what they will argue.
But he is Islamic and a terrorist and the two are not exclusive. Therefore to try him as a terrorist is to try Islam which we know can never happen.
To try him as a (criminal) murderer is whitewashing and simplfying the whole exercise and telling the Islamic world, yeah, you got us by the b@&&s and we give up.
Furthermore, NY will be looking at this trial and so will the defense attorneys.
I’ve been advocating Court Martial and summary execution for days. The mods eliminated my remarks. The primary charge should be treason. He has no defense. When did our military become such p*****s as to eliminate the firing squad?
I also thought that such technicalities did not exist in a military trial, because officers were beyond reproach. It is expected that they shall do their duty, regardless of preconceived beliefs.
What happened to the military I once knew? Do they no longer understand the history and customs of the military throughout history? Mutineers are hanged from the yardarm. Traitors are executed by firing squad.
They got the guy dead bang on 13 counts of murder, so it would be kind of a waste of time to hit him with some other charge, for example an article 134 for making disloyal statements.
I mean, what’s the point?
They could also charge him on an article 94, under this clause…
“Elements.”
“(1) Mutiny by creating violence or disturbance.”
“(a) That the accused created violence or a disturbance; and”
“(b) That the accused created this violence or disturbance with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority.”
He’s guilty as hell of mutiny.
But, again, what would be the point when you have an open and shut case of murder?
Why get sidetracked?
Another isssue is is that the liberal Democrats run the government and since they and their friends are more or less constantly engaging in things like making disloyal statements, they’re not going to want issues like loyalty to come up in this trial.
My guess would be that they’re going to charge the guy with murder, and leave it at that.
Since the poor misguided son of allah is now paralyzed, the odds of him being sentenced to death seems pretty slim.
What a shame that the US taxpayers, who he has already defrauded and attacked, will now be paying for his medical care for the rest of his worthless life.
FWIW: It used to be that the US Disciplinary Barracks, at Ft. Leavenworth, KS used swine husbandry as inmate work…That was in the old prison (the Castle) however, these days the inmates no doubt get their pork shrink wrapped and quick frozen. Too bad, the hogs need to eat too and Hassan is supremely qualified.
TO: Flighterdoc
RE: Actually….
….you’ve touched on MY variation to the Pershing Technique.
I’m not a big fan of the death penalty. And having our ‘friends’ tend pigs for the rest of their natural lives, in the full knowledge that when they die of whatever overtakes them, they’ll be fed to the pigs they tend strikes me as a VERY effective way of ‘curbing their enthusiasm’ for mass murder.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. As I understand the ‘Pershing Technique’…..
Captain Pershing was in the PIs when the Moros started acting up again. [Note: Like what is going on these days, there.]
So, his solution was that upon capturing some of them and giving them ‘due process’ of law, they were executed.
As part of the honors rendered to the honorees, the firing party (1) slaughtered a pig before their eyes, (2) slathered their bullets in the pigs blood, fat and entrails, (3) loaded their weapons and (4) completed the ceremony.
The result was that (1) the revolt ‘died’—almost as fast as the news would travel—and (2) Captain Pershing was recalled to Washington and promoted ‘below the zone’ to General.
[Nothing succeeds like success.]
My sources within the local police department in Killeen, TX tell me that Hasan is indeed paralyzed, (one of the bullets intended to put him down damaged his spine), no matter what, he will never walk again, much less work again, so forget the pig farm idea.
The military likes to keep the proceedings to a General Courts Marshal closed from the public purview, it helps them with their conviction rate. Most of the “jury” for a man with the rank of Major, will be of Lt. Colonel or higher, they will be far tougher on one of their own than a civilian court ever imagined, yet the death penalty is probably out of the question.
BTW, hanging was always the preferred military method of execution back in the “good old days”, when bad men were actually punished for their wrong doings.
In today’s Dallas Morning News, on the editorial blog online, an editor posted a letter from a reader saying essentially that the number of radical Islamists in the Muslim community is comparable to the number of KKK members back in the early twentieth century, as if that makes it okay. There is no denying that there are decent people who happen to practice Islam as their faith. But if they continue to stay silent through fear or indifference, and if they persist in support the more radical vestiges of their faith through money, jobs and education, then they are tacitly supporting actions by people just like the terrorist who shot up Ft. Hood. Like it or not, there is no getting away from the fact that the vast majority of terrorist acts have been committed by those who espouse radical Islam as faith. If Christian churches supported the KKK in a similar way, they would be reviled as hypocritical. So why should we not similarly slam the Muslim community for allow vipers to hide in their midst?
25. Chuck Pelto
The Pershing story and its variations are “urban myths.” They never happened.
TO: Charles Kirtley
RE: Okay….
….let’s go back and check Army official records and see if he WAS promoted from captain to general.
Might provide some ‘evidence’. Don’t you think?
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out....one way or another....]
P.S. Personally?
I think the technique would work…..
TO: Charles Kirtley
RE: Sooooo…..
It looks like Pershing WAS promoted from captain directly to general….’below the zone’.
I wonder why….
….three guesses….
….first two don’t count.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out....]
P.S. Forgot THIS part….
The authorities didn’t ‘miss’ the trouble signs. It’s obvious they saw the signs quite clearly, -and elected to completely ignore them. We now have a whole bunch of officials out there who should be tried as accessories to murder.
Chuck, please stop spamming the thread.
Since Hassan will certainly be convicted of the thirteen murders he committed, and sentenced to death,, pay attention, Mr, Miller; the appeals are automatic. We will be fortunate if we can rid the world of this Hero of Islam within a decade.
TO: Tim Smith
RE: [OT] “Spamming”?
Tim, please learn English.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.]
Several things: first, the discussion of whether Holder will allow the trial to go forward because he might be upset at the thought of Islam being put on trial. Problem is this is a military issue, and a court martial. Holder has nothing to do with it…it’s all under the jurisdiction of the Defense Department.
Second, I have to take issue with one of the general points the author made: that Obama was correct to call Major Hasan a traitor, but wrong to do it in a speech because he might be giving grounds for an appeal afterwords. First, if Obama hadn’t said this, we’d all be complaining that he was going soft on terrorism. Second, the evidence in this case appears to be very strong and very open and shut. The guy had a gun, it’s presumably linked via ballistics to numerous bullets in wounded and dead soldiers, there are numerous witnesses, etc? What’s the appeal going to say? Without the President calling the shooter a traitor, we’d have thought him innocent? Why don’t I think so?…
Political Correctness will not allow this trial nor that of the 9/11 Sheik to mention Islam whatsoever. Instead like in the OJ Simpson murder trial where Political Correctness, affirmative Action and Black RACISM combined to ensure that it was the POLICE on trial not him. So in the case of the Mohammedans the American MILITARY , CIA and FBI will b on trial while Islam will get a free pass. Don’t believe me just wait and see.
Btw, that was an excellent and informative article by Dan Miller.
Thanks, Dan
Hasan killed and maimed people. He deserves the death penalty.
He also changed the lives of 40+ families.
Mr. Miller – Of course they have regs regarding treason. Remember Benedict Arnold? I could get out my book, but it is so obvious, I see no need.
OTOH, I guess our pussified UCMJ might have eliminated it. We’re not going to Hell. Hell is coming to us.
I do not understand this obsession with demonstrating that we are morally superior to our enemies. Our enemies don’t care. I certainly don’t care. The only ones seem to believe that it is important are safely packed away in their posh estates, or on the thirtieth floor of a metro high rise, behind surveillance cameras, and private security, comfortably immune from the consequences of their largesse. And possibly Woody Allen and the usual gang of hollywood idiots. It is time that we play by Islamic rules: Take the 9/11 perps, slit their throats and pour hot oil down (if you are worried about their heart health, use vegatable oil). Do it on live TV and beam it across the Islamic world. Send a message: No more Mr. Nice-guy.
TO: Pragmatist
RE: An Interesting Thought
I recall that the OJ trial ran concurrently with the trial of the surviving Davidians. Absolutely NO ATTENTION was paid by the media to the Davidians trial. All the outrageous ‘focus’ was on the OJ fiasco.
You may be onto something here. That (1) the focus of the Hasan trial, on the media’s part, will be on things like you suggest and (2) something else will happen that will allow the media to be ‘distracted’ from the Hasan trial.
The key ‘indicators’ will be (1) if the change of venue is to someplace other than a maneuver combat formation installation, which would allow non-combat officers to sit on the court-martial panel and (2) if some other ‘incident’ occurs that will allow the media to shift their ‘focus’ away.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Half of history is hiding what happened. -- Captain Malcolm Reynolds]
David N — As pointed out in my comment 7, the “quote” from president Obama was not what he said. It was what the author of the linked article, wished he had said. I had thought that was clear in my article, but apparently my lack of clarity caused some confusion. I apologize.
Here is a good article dealing with some of the problems likely to be faced by the prosecution and the defense in Major Hasan’s court martial.
I never knew Guantanamo Bay was like what was shown, excellent to know, might go there to check it out, never know, may stay there permanently, climate looks good, later Frenchie
This Poor Arab being sent to New York, come on people this is really getting low. He is nothing but a terrorist so give him the death penalty, he doesn’t need to be sent to a court of law, let a piece of lead be the court of law or just strap some dynamite around the coward and let him blow his sorry self all the way to Allah, he killed our people what comes around goes around, he should get the same, enough said
Chuck,
He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1905, and was ALREADY a General when the alleged incident took place. Snopes has it merely undetermined, but has evidence it was a Colonel under his command who may have first used a similar tactic during that time.
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/pershing.asp
TO: Jeff Weimer
RE: Heh
Soooo….
….please explain why President Teddy Roosevelt was so enamored of Pershing to promote him from captain to general.
It certain is rather remarkable of him to have done that. What could Pershing POSSIBLY have done to warrant such an advancement?
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out....]
He also did it while shouting his Satanic God’s name Vivo or did that just slip your memory CONVENIENTLY.
Jeff, that doesn’t make any sense. Brigadier General is the lowest grade of General.
I thought it was standard to count unborn children as a person. When someone kills a pregnant woman, don’t they always get charged with two counts of murder?
TO: myth buster, et al.
RE: From Captain to Brigadier General
All generals have to start somewhere. It probably irked the General Staff pretty badly just having him jumped over all the majors and colonels that were ahead of him in the first place. No need to piss-off all the general officers as well.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses. -- Thomas Jefferson]
No, I mean he couldn’t possibly be promoted to Brigadier General if he was already a General. That’s what didn’t make any sense about Jeff’s statement. Upon further inspection, I take it that the promotion from Captain to Brigadier General was unrelated to the firing squad incident. That was what was confusing me.
Dan,
Aside from the portion of the “speech that Obama should have made”, this was an excellent article. The “stick to the facts, counsellor” form of reportage is particularly appropriate to this kind of controversy, and it’s nice to see someone with real-life experience being able to write about this.
If only Whopper sandwiches made for news….
Good article. It tracks with my courtmartial experience. (not as a defendant)
Chuck; I fail to see what relevance General Pershing has to the Ft Hood incident. At best it is just an interesting sidenote.
Maj Hasan will be tried by General Courtmartial at Ft Hood Texas. He is not being transfered to NYC and there is no legal mechanism that I’m aware of that would allow the AG or the President to do that.
The quotation at the beginning of the article is from “a writing exercise” by Richard Fernandez AKA Wretchard of Belmone Club fame.
President Obama never said those words and has not said or done anything that would endanger the assumption of innocence of Maj Hazan.
Again, Dan Miller has written an excellent article that is full of facts. But it needs to be read and understood before jumping to conclusions.
TO: John D
RE: Please….
….check out items 24 and 25 (above).
And YES it IS an ‘interesting sidenote’. And apparently VERY ‘interesting’ to certain people here trying to refute the concept.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[You know you're getting close to the target, because they start throwing more flak at you. -- US Air Force axiom]
TO: myth buster
RE: Ack Tso!
My misunderstanding of your argument AND my apology.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Nobody is perfect. Elect Nobody!]
For whatever it may be worth, hardly anything, Code Pink today invoked sympathy
“for the alleged terrorist as a reason to give money to Code Pink–even putting his act of terrorism on the same moral plane as the recent protest resignation of a former officer who left his diplomatic post in Afghanistan over Obama’s war policy . . . [According to Code Pink] the recent shootings at Ft. Hood and the resignation of top Foreign Service officer Matthew Hoh demonstrate how even our military officers are opposed to US strategy in Afghanistan. . . .This Veterans Day, our hearts ache for the soldiers and their families affected by the recent shootings at Ft. Hood. Our hearts also ache for the soldiers and their families who continue to be affected by war in Iraq and Afghanistan on a daily basis.”
Oh well.
“Code Pink today invoked sympathy”
Whatever. If I ever want the opinions of pro-terrorist traitors, I’ll be sure to consult with the membership of Code Stink.
The Obama administration and the mainstream media will never call Hasan a terrorist because that would be an acknowledgement that a terrorist attack occurred in the United States after only 10 months of the Obama presidency.
Obama cannot afford to admit that a terrorist attack happened under his watch because that will confirm that his soft approach to Islamic Jihadists worked against him and the country. And also, it reminds everyone and reinforces the fact that Bush kept us safe all those years after 9/11, despite all the horrible things Obama said about Bush and blamed on Bush.
Tim Smith, as in timothy k smith?
What has failed to be mentioned in the article that is pertinent, is that the President of the United States would pronounce death sentence or final sentence on the prisoner. Does anyone actually believe this President would allow Hasan to be put to death? I think not, as he is a fellow Muslim.
East Texas Rancehr