“Fort Hood” on The Daily Caller

This past week, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) provided remarks to the Heritage Foundation as Protect America Month kicked off. Outlining the ongoing threats facing the United States, Rep. Cantor emphasized two issues of pressing importance: global nuclear proliferation and domestic and foreign terrorism. (more)

Late Monday evening, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation pulled Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen off of a plane at John F. Kennedy International airport in New York. Faisal, wanted in connection with the attempted bombing of Times Square on Saturday night, is now sitting in jail and charged with five counts, including attempting to detonate a weapon of mass destruction. Questions about how close Faisal came to escape aside, we must applaud the impressive performance by federal, state and local law enforcement that the lead to this rapid arrest. (more)

FORT WORTH, Texas — Military prosecutors sent a notice Wednesday indicating they plan to seek the death penalty against the Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, a defense attorney said. (more)

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon says it will provide some but not all of the materials a Senate committee wants on last year’s Fort Hood shooting rampage, setting up a potential legal showdown with Congress. (more)

NBC News has obtained a scathing report from Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who says that most of the Defense Department’s safeguards were “unclear” or “inadequate” to identify the threat and prevent the mass shooting that killed 13 soldiers at Fort Hood in December. (more)

Today marks the 7th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War and it’s quite remarkable to see just how far this country has come. In looking at the preliminary election results it’s hard not to reflect on the 2000 presidential election in the United States. It’s close and the votes are still being tallied. At one point this week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki trailed his closest contender, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Now, with al-Maliki back in the lead, some 40,000 votes separate their coalitions out of 83 percent counted. He is fighting for his political life. (more)

Colleen R. LaRose became one of the few women to be arrested in the United States on charges of terrorism. A 46-year old white woman with an American passport, she is exactly the type of person who national security officials have feared Islamist extremists would try to recruit. (more)

One of America’s highest-profile murder cases gained further notoriety last week when the defense attorney for Major Nidal Hasan, the man accused of killing 13 and wounding 30 in a November shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, publicly expressed his indignation over the trial online. (more)

Gen. George Casey, silver-haired Army chief of staff, the White House, and mainstream media are dancing fast and singing loud. They are convincing us the Fort Hood massacre was the act of a lone and sadly deranged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who just incidentally happens to be a devout Muslim. They are doing a great whitewash of that November day when Hasan shouted Allahu Akbar as he shot and killed 13 and wounded 30 in the worst terror attack since 9/11. But a month later, on Dec. 15, 2009, the “Jackson Five” appeared and threatened to upstage the whole show. How could five nameless upstarts force Gen. Casey and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) into damage control? (more)

1.) Anticipating health care showdown, Republicans studying, slapping one another in the face — Congressional Republicans training for Thursday’s health care summit swallowed an extra raw egg and ran additional wind sprints upon learning Sunday night that Pres. Obama plans to further empower health care regulators. The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward reports that Obama plans to “include in a health care proposal new authority for the secretary of health and human services to veto insurance rate hikes that it deems excessive, and will create a federal panel that would set guidelines for health insurers to follow in determining their rates.” On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell went on the TV and asked a very interesting question: “If they are going to lay out the plan they want four days in advance, what are we discussing?” Answer: Open your mouth and close your eyes, and you will get a big surprise! (more)

Washington (BOSTON GLOBE) – Army superiors were warned about the radicalization of Major Nidal Malik Hasan years before he allegedly massacred 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, but did not act in part because they valued the rare diversity of having a Muslim psychiatrist, military investigators wrote in previously undisclosed reports. (more)

I was looking over my past few articles and I’ve come to the conclusion that people who don’t know me might think I’m a frightening malcontent. Due to the current political climate, it feels like I’m constantly complaining. Thanks to the train wreck being created by the president and Congress, it’s true that I haven’t been so upbeat lately. However, I’m not just some miserably bitter grouch, so I figured I should take some time run down a few things that fill me with genuine optimism. (more)

“On November 5, 2009, the United States Army was viciously attacked from within by an ideologue bent on pursuing an agenda of Islamist extremism. This ideologue fell under the separatist influence of political Islam while serving as an officer. It is incumbent upon our force to begin to understand this theo-political ideology that threatens our soldiers internally and externally.” (more)

The President of the United States tomorrow will inform the Congress on the State of our Union, as he is constitutionally mandated to do. The past 12 months have seen our country head down a dangerous course, and The Heritage Foundation can only hope that the President will use this time of reflection, coming on the heels of a stunning electoral loss, to change direction. (more)

This may not be a news flash for anyone other than those who vacationed on a remote Caribbean island over the holidays, but the terrorists are out to get us. (more)

Fear of offending Muslims or being insensitive to religion was likely a key factor to why Army supervisors missed signs that the suspect in the deadly Fort Hood shooting rampage was a Muslim extremist, according to national security experts. (more)

Rarely in the course of human events has a report issued by any government agency been so cowardly and delusional. It’s so inept, it doesn’t even rise to cover-up level. (more)

Accountability is still lacking over the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt. (more)

In the past week, at least three different House and Senate committees and subcommittees have announced intentions to hold hearings to examine the security failures that led to an attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight landing in Detroit, Michigan, by suspected al-Qaeda operative Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. (more)