Fort Hood Report Ignores Radical Islam, Demands Congressional Action
Round Rock, TX,
January 19, 2010
(ROUND ROCK, TEXAS) – The Department of Defense managed to write a 52-page report on the deadly Fort Hood attack and never use the term "radical Islam" even once, proving that strong Congressional action is needed to end the epidemic of political correctness now permeating the federal government, according to Texas Congressman John Carter. Carter, who represents Fort Hood in Congress, says the DOD report correctly cites the need to improve the performance of supervisors in detecting dangerous service members and civilian employees, but the painfully obvious scrubbing of the report by the Administration demands Congress move immediately to eliminate any culture of political correctness within DOD that discourages those supervisors from taking action against perceived threats. "It is not enough to examine just mid-level personnel," says Carter, who has introduced legislation to encourage preemptive supervisory action. "We must also make sure that those supervisors aren’t being intimidated from taking action." Carter in December introduced the Military Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, H.R.4267, to protect against future incidents like the November 5 attack on Fort Hood that left 14 dead and 43 wounded. Hasan, the suspected shooter, reportedly gave repeated warning signs of pending violence, but other service members did not report or take action on the threats due to fear of reprisal for violating unwritten rules of political correctness. Members were afraid of being accused of profiling based on religious and ethnic grounds, which could be a career-killing offense. The existing Whistleblower Protection Act protects military personnel from any negative personnel action or the withholding of any positive personnel action for the report of any regulation or law violation including those prohibiting sexual harassment or discrimination, among other protections. The Carter bill would further extend protected communications to include "ideologically based threats or actions" that the reporting service member "reasonably believes could be counterproductive or detrimental to United States interests or security." |