Newly released video of Nidal Hasan in 2007, shows him giving a presentation at Walter Reed Medical Center in which he states “that Muslim soldiers should have the option of being released as conscientious objectors to reduce the prospect of ‘adverse events.’ “
Hasan was an Army psychiatrist recently sentenced to death for the murder of 13 people during a shooting rampage at Fort Hood military base in Texas. Thirty-two people were injured in Hasan’s killing spree.
“I think the Department of Defense should allow Muslim soldiers the option of being released as conscientious objectors to increase the morale of non-Muslim soldiers in the military as well as decrease adverse events,” Hasan says in the video during a power point presentation.
Hasan’s presentation displayed the FBI’s logo on it and was titled “The Koranic World View as it relates to Muslims in the US Military.” The presentation is full of statements that should have tippped-off our apparently political correct military that they might have a problem on their hands. What precisely did Hasan mean by “adverse events”? We know the answer to that question now.
One year later in 2008, Hasan would show up on the FBI’s radar when they noticed he was communicating with Islamic militant and Al-Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki. No dots were connected between Hasan’s communication with Al-Qaeda leader Awlaki and Hasan’s desire to avoid deployment and fight against radical Islam lest there be an “adverse event.” Hasan sought “comments” from Awlaki about soldiers who have “killed or tried to kill other U.S. soldiers in the name of Islam.”
Not only did Hasan want conscientious objector status for Muslims in the military, he described how “We always talk about God and country, but here we’re talking, we’re really talking about God versus country.”
None of Hasan’s outrageous statements in his Walater Reed presentation raised alarms for his supervisors. In particular, Hasan was speaking to soldiers at a hospital where their colleagues were being treated for severe war injuries. Did anyone think that it might not be a good idea to have a man who thinks war is immoral, who sees a battle between god and country treating the mental health issues of soldiers fighting a war and recovering from war injuries? What sort of counseling was he giving? How many times and where else did he give that presentation?
According to Hasan, “There’s a lot of soldiers, that once they actually leave the military, they’re actually joining or trying to join groups like the Taliban and al Qaeda and so you have to ask yourself..there’s something out there with these groups that’s really resonating.” Was this the kind of counseling Hasan was giving to our soldiers?
Hasan’s presentation went through several drafts because it was not “considered scholarly or scientific. One supervisor described the Army psychiatrist as quote ‘very lazy’ and ‘a religious fanatic.’ “
None of this stopped Hasan from getting promoted to Major in 2009.
Watch the video of Hasan here.