Changing the subject

Comments: 18

Why O nixed Ft. Hood probe

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

Last Updated: 4:20 AM, November 16, 2009

Posted: 12:51 AM, November 16, 2009

As he flew to Asia on Saturday, President Obama told the media in Alaska that he opposes a congressional investigation into the Fort Hood massacre, saying that we must "resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into political theater." Yet, even as he was posturing against political theatrics, he had just decided that the prosecution of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would proceed on the greatest of public stages -- New York City.
	 
With the strict evidentiary rules in force in federal civilian courts, it is easy to see how the prosecution of Mohammed could morph into an indictment of the Bush administration's interrogation techniques and waterboarding. As in rape trials, the magnitude of the underlying crime (masterminding the 9/11 attacks) might well be lost as the defense puts the victim (in this case, the government) on trial.
	 
It is not political theater itself to which Obama objects -- but theater that highlights issues that liberals would rather forget. He is quite content to let the Mohammed trial become the theater of the left. Perhaps even eager.
	 
Obama and his handlers know that the key to building favorable ratings is to control the agenda. And the more the national discussion centers on national security and terrorism, the more Republicans gain. So the Fort Hood terror attack comes at an awful time for an administration trying to turn the nation's attention away from the terrorist threat.
	 
As soon as the killing spree was over, Obama hastened to call it "an act of violence" -- obscuring the obvious fact that it was the most serious terror attack on US soil since 9/11. And, as evidence mounts that the FBI was on to Major Nidal Malik Hasan for years, the president is doing his best to stop Congress from finding out why these warnings went unheeded.
	 
Even as Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee confirmed that the government knew of 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and a radical imam in Yemen -- who was urging the killing of American troops -- starting last December, Obama hastened to urge Congress to refrain from investigating why the danger signs were ignored.
	 
The Obama administration has a clear agenda here:
	 
1) Stop people from focusing in how his administration permitted the worst domestic terror attack in eight years.
	 
2) Avoid a national airing of how liberal policies -- restraints on the intelligence community, political correctness in the armed forces -- might have inhibited the military from reining in Hasan.
	 
3) Re-ignite a firestorm on the left and abroad against the aggressive anti-terror policies of the Bush administration.
	 
Making all this particularly important for Obama are his other political needs.
	 
As he likely decides to send more troops to Afghanistan and eyes abandoning the "public option" to secure Senate passage of his health-care plan, Obama has to rebuild his credibility on the left. A public circus that focuses on waterboarding and interrogations could be just what he wants and needs.

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With the strict evidentiary rules in force in federal civilian courts, it is easy to see how the prosecution of Mohammed could morph into an indictment of the Bush administration's interrogation techniques and waterboarding. As in rape trials, the magnitude of the underlying crime (masterminding the 9/11 attacks) might well be lost as the defense puts the victim (in this case, the government) on trial.

Hasan: Focusing nation on terror threat.

It is not political theater itself to which Obama objects -- but theater that highlights issues that liberals would rather forget. He is quite content to let the Mohammed trial become the theater of the left. Perhaps even eager.

Obama and his handlers know that the key to building favorable ratings is to control the agenda. And the more the national discussion centers on national security and terrorism, the more Republicans gain. So the Fort Hood terror attack comes at an awful time for an administration trying to turn the nation's attention away from the terrorist threat.

As soon as the killing spree was over, Obama hastened to call it "an act of violence" -- obscuring the obvious fact that it was the most serious terror attack on US soil since 9/11. And, as evidence mounts that the FBI was on to Major Nidal Malik Hasan for years, the president is doing his best to stop Congress from finding out why these warnings went unheeded.

Even as Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee confirmed that the government knew of 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and a radical imam in Yemen -- who was urging the killing of American troops -- starting last December, Obama hastened to urge Congress to refrain from investigating why the danger signs were ignored.

The Obama administration has a clear agenda here:

1) Stop people from focusing in how his administration permitted the worst domestic terror attack in eight years.

2) Avoid a national airing of how liberal policies -- restraints on the intelligence community, political correctness in the armed forces -- might have inhibited the military from reining in Hasan.

3) Re-ignite a firestorm on the left and abroad against the aggressive anti-terror policies of the Bush administration.

Making all this particularly important for Obama are his other political needs.

As he likely decides to send more troops to Afghanistan and eyes abandoning the "public option" to secure Senate passage of his health-care plan, Obama has to rebuild his credibility on the left. A public circus that focuses on waterboarding and interrogations could be just what he wants and needs.

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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coswriter

11/16/2009 6:28 PM

Obama is a Marxist, he's left of far-left. He's an anti-American, terrorist sympathizing coward, and he should be prosecuted for not doing everything in is power to protect the American people.
Bob, Sutton doesn't talk like any soldier I know, just ignore him.
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Sutton542

11/16/2009 5:26 PM

Bobfrom: Great your son's shown guts, you haven't. All you've done is shoot your mouth off. Were you there when we went in Iraq 2003 when things were hot or were you in Kuwait & Iraq in 90 & 91? I was there both times, and not as a medic, but engaging the enemy, at times hand to hand. You haven't been face to with Muslim/Arab extremists, I have. Close enough to get their brains splattered back on me after sending them to Paradise. Don't EVER again question my loyalty to this country or my hate of terrorists, YOU FRAUD!
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BobFromBinghamton

11/16/2009 4:56 PM

Just shut up? Sutton..since you don't know thing #1 about me, let me educate you. No..I wasn't in Iraq..But my oldest son IS there right now as we speak, as a medic in the US Army. Now you can shut up. Stooge.
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Jreebus_Cipes

11/16/2009 3:49 PM

LOOK WHO'S BACK, THIS BOARD'S CHIEF INSTIGATOR, JEEBUS_CRIPES, I MEAN RANDALL FLAGG. THE THING THAT PATROLS THIS BOARD AS IF IT BELONGED TO THEM. THE THING THAT POSTS THE MOST VILE OF RACIST BIGOTRY AND WHO PURPOSELY AND WITH MALICE OF FORETHOUGHT, HUNTS DOWN OTHER POSTERS WHO'VE NOT ENGAGED IT. THIS "THING" IS MORE RECENTLY KNOWN FOR BEING A TOTAL FRAUD AND A FAKE. AFTER ATTEMPTING TO SCARE MULTIPLE POSTERS THAT THEIR IP ADDRESSES WERE GOING TO BE DISPLAYED, "IT" WAS CHALLENGED & DARED THAT THE "THING" POST THEM, BUT NOTHING EVER CAME FROM JEEBUS_CRIPES, POOR LITTLE JEEBUS. WHEN IT WAS SUGGESTED "IT" WRITE OUT THE IP ADDRESSES IN WORDS, POOR JEEBUS FROZE, LIKE THE COWARD AND FAKE THAT IT IS. POOR JEEBUS, POOR LITTLE JEEBUS. IT IS SO INSECURE IT ALWAYS SEEMS TO HAVE TO TRY TO GET THE LAST WORD, RIGHT RANDALL? WHY DOES POOR LITTLE JEEBUS START TROUBLE? MAYBE POOR LITTLE JEEBUS LIKES DANGER, IS THAT SO JEEBUS, DO YOU LIKE TROUBLE? BEEN TO TOMPKINS PARK IN LATELY RANDALL FLAGG, I MEAN JEEBUS_CRIPES?
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Jeebus_Cripes

11/16/2009 3:22 PM

Sutton542 or whatever name he's using now wrote:

11/16/2009 10:48 AM

BobfromBinghamton is at it again with his lies.

*

then, Sutton542 or whatever name he is using wrote:

11/16/2009 2:06 PM

helloMurray: I did defend the policy of waiting on the Congressional until the law enforcement and military investigations were complete. Can't you read? And I didn't "attack" Bob, I pointed out where is was wrong.

***

I don't know about you.. but where I come from, calling someone a liar is an attack on their character.
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Temmer

11/16/2009 2:36 PM

The president is absolutely correct - let the law take its course, and if a Congressional investigation is called for, they will have a solid foundation of evidence to work with.
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Sutton542

11/16/2009 2:06 PM

helloMurray: I did defend the policy of waiting on the Congressional until the law enforcement and military investigations were complete. Can't you read? And I didn't "attack" Bob, I pointed out where is was wrong. You point out what you think is wrong with other posters, so is it one rule for you and another for those you don't agree with? And Bob isn't hear to debate, just sling vile mud. Care to defend that?
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Sutton542

11/16/2009 1:41 PM

OOH BobfromBinghamton, such accusations from another know nothing. After you've spent time on the ground fighting not one but two military conflicts against muslim extremists, LIKE I HAVE, then maybe your attempt at a stinging come back at me will have some weight. Since I'm sure you haven't, and OBVIOUSLY since you don't know the first clue about my military history fighting Sadaam, not once but twice, in today's words by the Secretary of Defense, "JUST SHUT UP!"