Barack Obama honours Fort Hood massacre victims

The helmets, rifles and combat boots of the fallen were lined up in front of a stage from where Mr Obama addressed a crowd of 15,000, which included soldiers wounded in the attack and the families of the dead.

"It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy," Mr Obama said in a speech delivered at the memorial service.

"But this much we do know - no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favour.

"And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice - in this world, and the next."

In his speech, Mr Obama mentioned each of the dead by name, but he did not mention Hasan by name.

The president and the first lady, dressed in black, then followed US military tradition by placing a coin in front of a photograph of each of the dead.

Mr Obama, who has been criticised for his initial reaction to the tragedy and accused of misjudging the public mood, put back a trip to Asia to attend the service on the army base in Texas.

As investigations into the massacre continued, the FBI admitted its agents had been warned about Major Hasan as part of an anti-terrorism inquiry a year before the Fort Hood massacre but decided he posed no danger.

Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI, ordered an inquiry into why emails between the army psychiatrist and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical imam in Yemen who had contact with two of the September 11 hijackers, were not followed up.

Hasan had also openly declared that in order to avoid "adverse events", the army should allow Muslims to be released as conscientious objectors.

In a lecture given to senior army doctors 18 months before the shootings, he talked about Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, jihad and suicide bombers while projecting a slide onto a wall which read: "We love death more than you love life!"

Despite the presentation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Hasan was later ordered to deploy to Afghanistan. A short time after that, he went on his gun rampage.

Hasan had sent between 10 and 20 emails to Awlaki, who replied twice.

The first emails were picked up by US intelligence in Dec 2008 and passed to the FBI, which said they consisted of questions from Hasan and "innocuous" replies from Alwaki.

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Source: Telegraph

Details of the Victims Emerge; an Idealistic Group

They were soldiers preparing to go to war, sometimes for the second or third time. They were also sons, daughters, fathers and a mother-to-be.

They were 21-year-old Jason Dean Hunt, who his sister said was proudest behind the wheel of his Bradley Armored Vehicle, from rural Oklahoma; Francheska Velez, 21, who was looking forward to the birth of her first child, from Chicago; and Amy Krueger, 29, a sports and outdoors enthusiast, from tiny Kiel, Wis.

These were three of the 13 people -- a dozen soldiers and a civilian Defense Department police officer -- killed Thursday when an Army major on the Fort Hood base in Texas fired guns into a crowded area where soldiers were being readied for assignments overseas.

The Pentagon Friday afternoon was still contacting families and hadn't released the names of the victims. Dozens more soldiers were wounded when the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist, opened fire with two handguns, one of them a semi-automatic weapon.

Maj. Hasan was shot four times by a police officer and was in stable condition in a military hospital Friday.

Interviews with relatives and friends of the victims paint a portrait of an idealistic group, energized by military service. Mr. Hunt had signed a six-year extension while in Iraq last year, said his sister, Leila Willingham. "When he got into the military, he realized that was for him," she said. In August, he married while on leave. He planned to make the military his career.

Classmates voted Mr. Hunt "most quiet" member of the 2005 graduating class at Tipton High School in Oklahoma. "He was a good kid, soft-spoken and with a great sense of humor," said Kathy Gray, whose daughter was a classmate of Mr. Hunt's.

Ms. Velez had completed tours in Korea and Iraq, where she drove an oil tanker. She aimed to become a sergeant and to continue in the military, according to her father, Juan Velez. She was two months pregnant and had recently returned to the U.S. The family was preparing to travel to Texas for a visit, he said.

"She was a girl; she was still a girl inside," Mr. Velez said, trembling and choking back tears outside his west Chicago home. Ms. Velez was a homebody; she loved to go to the movies and watched cartoons on her time off, he said.

Ms. Krueger, a former high-school athlete and outdoors enthusiast, was a mental-health worker in Afghanistan, treating soldiers with combat stress. She quit the University of Wisconsin her freshman year and joined the military after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with a high-school friend, Kristin Thayer.

"We knew we had to do something, so we joined the Army. We were in the recruiter's office the next day," said Ms. Thayer, who said she talked to her friend on Wednesday. Ms. Krueger was recently promoted to staff sergeant and was preparing for a 10-month tour in Afghanistan. Earlier, she spent three months counseling soldiers at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

"She was feisty," recalled Dario Telerico, principal of Kiel High School. "She was a very determined kid; she didn't back down from anybody." Ms. Krueger graduated from the school in 1998.

Among the others killed were Aaron Nemelka, 19, who joined the Army in October 2008 after graduating from West Jordan High School in West Jordan, Utah. Mr. Nemelka's sister, Lindsey Nemelka, declined to discuss her brother. "Too hard," she said.

Mr. Nemelka, who was due to be sent overseas early next year, was a member of the 510th Engineer Company, which builds roads and deconstructs explosive devices.

John P. Gaffaney, 56, of San Diego, and Russell Seager, 51, of Racine, Wis., were among five Army reservists killed. Also killed was Michael Grant Cahill, 62, who worked as a contract physician's assistant at the processing center where the massacre occurred.

Source: WSJ Online

USS New York, made from Twin Towers steel, sails into New York

THE USS New York, a naval vessel whose bow was forged in part with steel from the World Trade Center towers destroyed on 9/11, has sailed for the first time into the city's harbour.

The newly built 208m amphibious assault ship, designed to carry up to 800 marines and helicopters, marked its maiden voyage into New York with a 21-gun salute just off Ground Zero.

Thousands gathered along the Hudson River to remember the nearly 3000 people killed on September 11, 2001 and to salute the ship, whose bow section contains 7.5 tonnes of steel from the towers destroyed by the hijacked airliners.

"I am here because my son Michael was killed on 9/11. He was a firefighter," Nancy Cinei said.

"He was on the job only nine weeks. Knowing that the World Trade Center is a part of the USS New York means a lot to me.

"To know that that ship will go all over the world and that the world and people will realise that it is part of the WTC which will never be forgotten."

Brian Dunwoody, with the Port Authority police, had mixed emotions on seeing the navy's latest vessel steam into his native city.

"It is a happy occasion. Unfortunately it is the result of something tragic," he said.

"My police department lost 37 officers that day.

"The fact that they built this battleship with that steel is a nice way to remember those that we lost that day."

The USS New York was built in Louisiana.

Two other ships - the Arlington and Somerset - are being built in honor of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, incorporating materials from the Pentagon, which was struck by an airliner, and United Flight 93, which crashed into a field after being hijacked.

Source: The Australian

Honor to the Victims of Horror(cides): civil(ized) World remembers them

Honoring the Victims of Honor Killing
American Thinker 11 June 2009 By Pamela Geller

For the very first time, non-Muslims have begun to take note of the victims of Islamic honor killing, and to serve notice to their killers that the victims will not be forgotten, or their murders ignored. Memorials to Aqsa Parvez are being erected in the Canadian town of Pelham, Ontario, and in Jerusalem.

Remember Aqsa Parvez? She was brutally murdered by her father and brother in December 2007 for refusing to wear the Islamic headscarf. But that was only the beginning: the abuse of this girl continued. She was buried in an unmarked grave. Her family refused to acknowledge her life, as she had "dishonored" them. In defiance of her devout father and brother, she had refused to live under the suffocating dictates of Islamic law. The eleventh grade student began taking off her hijab, a traditional Islamic headscarf, when she went to school, and would put it back on when she returned home.Her dad would go to her school during school hours and walk around trying to find her, trying to catch her not wearing Islamic garb, talking to boys or hanging out with "non-muslims"."She wanted to dress like us," said one friend of Aqsa. "To be normal." For this, her family prefers that she be forgotten - unknown, unloved, unmourned.
Last December, when I read that Aqsa lay in an unmarked grave, I felt sick. I started a memorial fund to get her a headstone. But I had no idea how difficult and ugly it would be simply to honor a teenage girl in Canada who just wanted to live free -- and how eagerly Western non-Muslims would aid and abet the family's efforts to dishonor her in death as they did in life.
Readers of my weblog, AtlasShrugs.com, opened their hearts and their wallets, and contributed $5,000 for a headstone for Aqsa. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch joined the effort, and we approved a design for a headstone that read, "In loving memory of Aqsa Parvez, Apr. 22, 1991-Dec. 10, 2007 -- Beloved, remembered and free." All was going according to plan until, after much silence, Meadowvale Cemetery in Brampton, Ontario, where Aqsa is buried, advised me that the family (yes, the family that murdered her) had refused to "sign off" on the headstone. The director of the cemetery said: "The family wants changes and is planning on coming in to see me. They did not book an appointment yet but I hope to see them soon."
Of course, the family never came, and when we inquired as to purchasing a plot near Aqsa's body, we could not. Not a tree. Not a rock. Not a bench. All the plots were owned by the Islamic Society of North America. I tried to contact the family at that time, but they would not take my calls -- I spoke to the them once, but they pretended not to speak English. And they were adamant: the family refused to allow the headstone to be put on Aqsa's grave, and according to the cemetery, could remove it if it were placed there by others.
But those of us who had contributed to the Aqsa Memorial Fund were determined to make sure that Aqsa would be memorialized. We checked into other locations, made plans, only to see them canceled at the last minute out of ... fear. We checked into the arboretum at the University of Guelph in Ontario, but a university official wrote me to say that "no matter how worthy, a memorial to Aqsa Parvez would draw much public attention and would thus be inconsistent with current use of The Arboretum."
But not everyone was ready to cower before Islamic anti-woman violence. Scott McLeod, the fire chief in Pelham, Ontario, proposed a resolution honoring Aqsa to City Councilor Aqsa Parvez Peace Park PlanSharon Cook -- and she went to work getting it passed. The Aqsa Parvez Memorial will be erected in Pelham this summer! A granite bench will be inscribed: "In loving memory of Aqsa Parvez, Beloved, Remembered and Free."
This will be placed in the Aqsa Parvez Peace Park.
Yes, the Aqsa Parvez Peace Park. I think she'd like that.
And in addition, there is the Aqsa Parvez Grove we are planting in American Independence Park in Jerusalem, Israel, where the plaque will read: "In Loving Memory of Aqsa Parvez and All Victims of Honor Killings Worldwide."
The memorials in Pelham and Jerusalem are the first indication that in the Free World we are not going to stand by silently while the Islamic world brutalizes women and treats them as worthless trash. They are two small steps toward widespread resistance against honor killing in the West and elsewhere.

on "Honoring the Victims of Honor Killing"

Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs website and former associate publisher of the New York Observer.

Source: http://europenews.dk/en/node/23892

Memo to Muslims: If You Enjoy Freedom, Take a Stand Against Sharia

Don’t be a victim of Sharia. If you are a Muslim in the West who appreciates the individual rights and freedoms you have enjoyed under a secular government, this memo is for you.

As you may be aware, many Muslims are Islamists, pushing for Sharia to be implemented in the West. If they succeed, you will be among their first victims.

Here’s how Sharia victimizes Muslims

• All Muslims lose freedom of expression. In a Muslim country, Muslims are not free to criticize Islamic doctrines such as Sharia. There are individual cases of people who get by with it, but there are also many who are punished. The path of history is littered with the corpses of executed Muslim reformers, and to this day, certain sects deemed heretical are heavily persecuted.
• All Muslims lose freedom of conscience. In the West, we take for granted the fact that people can choose to be a member of any religion or non-religion. This is of great value to people of any faith; first, because they can worship as they choose free of persecution; and second, because their faith has more meaning since they personally choose it, rather than faith being forced on them. Under Sharia, non-Muslims (at least, those of the Book) retain the right to follow their conscience as low-class dhimmis, but Muslims have no right to follow their conscience. They must be Muslims, without considering other faiths and making an actual choice in the matter.
• Muslim women lose basic rights. Under Sharia, Muslim women are treated as minors their whole lives, and worse. They are always under the protection of their fathers, brothers, husbands and/or sons. They may be married off at a very young age, even before puberty, with no say. Their testimony counts as half that of a Muslim man's in court. Their inheritance is half that of a Muslim man's. They can only prove rape with four pious male witnesses; otherwise, to allege rape could get them punished for illicit sex, which is the woman's fault. There's no such thing as rape in the context of marriage. Wife-beating is clearly sanctioned in the Koran. A man can divorce his wife by saying "I divorce you", in which case he has custody rights; a woman cannot divorce her husband. Although it is legal, at least in some circumstances, for a Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim woman, the reverse is not legal. Abortion is most likely illegal. Then there's the headscarf (burqa, hijab, et al), which may seem like the least of their worries, but under Sharia it can be a symbol of Islamic domination of women.
• Gay Muslims lose basic rights. In the West, reasonable people may disagree on what rights specifically gays should have; gays themselves disagree over this question. However, we can all come together in agreement that they should not be killed. This is not true under Sharia.

In addition to the four ways Muslims are victimized by Sharia I’ve listed above, I believe there’s also another way Muslims are harmed by Sharia. This is a subjective opinion, for which there is no proof, nor can there be. I believe that spiritually, Muslims are harmed if they support a system that harms others. So, all the Sharia provisions that discriminate against non-Muslims are spiritually harmful to Muslims who support Sharia. As I said, this is an opinion for which I have no proof, nor will I make any effort to defend it; it’s up to the reader to agree or disagree as a matter of conscience.

If you don’t want Sharia, take a stand against it!

Organize against Sharia. The Islamists are very well organized and well funded. They like to give the impression that they represent all Muslims, including you. Therefore, the more Muslims there are in a country, the more power Islamist groups claim. The very fact that you are a Muslim gives Islamist groups more power, even if you disagree with everything they say, unless you organize against them.

A good start would be to join an anti-Sharia, pro-freedom organization such as American Islamic Forum for Democracy. The more members they have, the more power they have.

Take a stand against every imposition of Sharia, from hate speech laws banning criticism of Islam to laws requiring special accommodation for Muslim sensibilities. The forces pushing for Sharia want the whole ball of Sharia wax, and will not stop with a few measures. In the beginning stages, Islamists push forward laws which put Islam on a level higher than other religions, to create a consciousness of Islamic superiority; however, don’t be lulled into complacency by measures that seem to benefit Muslims. Once Islam is established as superior and Sharia as a source of law, from there the Islamists are in a position to implement the rest of Sharia, a bit at a time.

Speak out anonymously on the internet. You are in a unique position to damage the Islamists’ talking points by pointing out the fact that Sharia victimizes Muslims, too, not just non-Muslims. If Muslims do not speak out against Sharia, some non-Muslims begin to say, “Well, if they really want Sharia, we could just give them Sharia.” (I suggest doing a little research into internet privacy to protect yourself before launching in.)

One thing you may already be aware of: taking steps to oppose Sharia is not necessarily good for your health. Many who do so receive occasional or constant death threats. However, giving in to fear tactics would not make the problem go away--it would only get worse. It’s up to everyone who values freedom, regardless of our religions, to find ways of opposing Sharia that have risk levels we can live with.

Copyright 2008, Citizens Against Sharia, All Rights Reserved.

Source: Citizens Against Sharia