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RED HOT: TRAYVON MARTIN
CHINA,
AFGHANISTAN, FIGHTING RACISM, OCCUPY WALL STREET,
PEOPLE'S POWER, SAVE OUR POST OFFICES, WOMEN, AFRICA,
LIBYA, WISCONSIN WORKERS FIGHT BACK, SUPPORT STATE & LOCAL WORKERS,
EGYPT, NORTH AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST,
STOP FBI REPRESSION, RESIST ARIZONA RACISM, NO TO FRACKING, DEFEND PUBLIC EDUCATION, ANTI-WAR,
HEALTH CARE,
CUBA, CLIMATE CHANGE,
JOBS JOBS JOBS,
STOP FORECLOSURES, IRAN,
IRAQ, CAPITALIST CRISIS,
IMMIGRANTS, LGBT, POLITICAL PRISONERS,
KOREA,
HONDURAS, HAITI,
SOCIALISM,
GAZA
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People’s investigation of Fort Hood shootings needed
By
Greg Butterfield
Published Dec 5, 2009 10:36 AM
The shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5, which left 13 people dead, have
brought into bold relief the terrible strains on soldiers and their families as
we enter the eighth year of the alleged “war on terror.”
Washington politicians and Pentagon brass are exploiting the deaths for
political gain. A Senate committee headed by Joe Lieberman seeks to conflate
the desperate outburst of the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, with a new
“terrorist threat,” and to intensify racial profiling inside and
outside the military.
Police agencies are exploiting the shooting to obtain more repressive powers.
Meanwhile, the corporate-owned media are attempting to implicate Yemeni Imam
Anwar al-Aulaqi and the Muslim community as a whole.
But in fact, as ABC News reported Nov. 16, Hasan was repeatedly rebuffed and
ignored by his superiors when he sought prosecution of war crimes in Iraq and
Afghanistan that were brought to his attention by Army personnel in psychiatric
counseling.
An unnamed federal investigator told ABC, “The Army may not want to admit
it, and you may not hear much about it, but it was very big for him.”
Hasan was also about to be deployed to an overseas combat zone.
Now Hasan faces 13 counts of premeditated murder. Army prosecutors are expected
to seek the death penalty. It is obvious that in a military court he cannot
receive a fair trial. Will such a trial allow his defense to include
information about U.S. war crimes committed against the people of
Afghanistan?
The scapegoating of Muslims that has already accompanied this traumatic event
presents a real danger of new violent attacks on Arab, South Asian, Black
Muslim and other communities. This danger will grow and intensify as the
military case against Hasan proceeds.
It comes as Washington is undertaking a new campaign of repression against
Muslims and those who dare to defend them, including the FBI assassination of
Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah in Detroit, the seizure of four mosques in New York
allegedly linked to Iran, and the revocation of bail for civil rights attorney
Lynne Stewart.
Fort Hood deaths on war-makers hands
Today millions of military families are struggling to make ends meet. The
suicide rate in the U.S. Army will hit an all-time high this year. Workers in
the U.S. face the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.
Yet the priority of government and military officials is to make scapegoats
while continuing their “endless war.”
The real criminals are those who profit from Pentagon wars and their political
mouthpieces who block every attempt to bring the troops home. The deaths at
Fort Hood are on their hands, along with the thousands of U.S. soldiers’
deaths and hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan,
Pakistan and elsewhere.
It is both appropriate and necessary for labor, community and anti-war
organizations to call for an independent people’s investigation of the
Fort Hood tragedy; one that takes into account the suffering of Nidal Hasan and
other soldiers faced with being killed or killing their sisters and brothers in
racist wars for profit and domination.
It is urgent to raise the demand that Washington stop scapegoating Muslim, Arab
and South Asian communities and bring all the troops home now.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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