It's not really news that Nidal Malik Hasan has been convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shootings that left 13 dead and 31 injured. After all, many saw him do it, and on the first day of trial Hasan himself said the evidence would show him to be the shooter.
Now a military jury will consider whether he should receive the death penalty. If they so decide, they would have to do so unanimously, and it would still require President Obama's sign-off.
We share America's relief that the trial is over. We also share America's irritation at the outrages it raised.
AP
Courtroom sketch of Nidal Malik Hasan.
From the start, Hasan has exposed troubling things about our Army and our government. Begin with this: Before he went on his rampage, federal authorities had seen his Internet postings on suicide bombings and had intercepted more than a dozen e-mails he'd sent to Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born imam based in Yemen. In them, Hasan asked whether killing US soldiers would be considered an act of jihad. When he was investigated, the conclusion was that these e-mails constituted "professional research."
He then told fellow soldiers Muslims would be justified in killing US troops. Instead of being reported, he was promoted.
Even after the killings and his arrest, Hasan played the system. First, he prevented the Army from forcibly shaving him, even though military regulations forbid beards. Later he would succeed in getting the judge who initially ruled against him tossed from the case for supposed bias.
But the greatest shame of the Fort Hood massacre — the worst mass shooting on a US military installation — is what our government calls it: "workplace violence." Not only is this inaccurate, it means victims and their families are not eligible for special compensation that provides disability pay and a higher level of medical benefits.
The fact is, this case has been plagued from the beginning by a lack of honesty. Now that the trial is over, let's hope our government can at least call the Fort Hood attack by its rightful name: terrorism.
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