ABC News (of all places!):
Three years after the White House arranged a hero’s welcome at the State of the Union address for the Fort Hood police sergeant and her partner who stopped the deadly shooting there, Kimberly Munley says President Obama broke the promise he made to her that the victims would be well taken care of.
“Betrayed is a good word,” former Sgt. Munley told ABC News in a tearful interview to be broadcast tonight on “World News with Diane Sawyer” and “Nightline.”
“Not to the least little bit have the victims been taken care of,” she said. “In fact they’ve been neglected.”
There was no immediate comment from the White House about Munley’s allegations.
Thirteen people were killed, including a pregnant soldier, and 32 others shot in the November 2009 rampage by the accused shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, who now awaits a military trial on charges of premeditated murder and attempted murder.
[…]
Munley, since laid off from her job with the base’s civilian police force, was shot three times as she and her partner, Sgt. Mark Todd, confronted Hasan, who witnesses said had shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire on soldiers being processed for deployment to Afghanistan.
As Munley lay wounded, Todd fired the five bullets credited with bringing Hasan down.
Despite extensive evidence that Hasan was in communication with al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki prior to the attack, the military has denied the victims a Purple Heart and is treating the incident as “workplace violence” instead of “combat related” or terrorism.
Al-Awlaki has since been killed in a U.S. drone attack in Yemen, in what was termed a major victory in the U.S. efforts against al Qaeda.
— Oh. So these people are al Qaeda terrorists when Obama benefits from labeling them such, but, well, fuck the po-lice, and fuck the baby killers of the imperial US military industrial complex! Right, red diaper baby?
Munley and dozens of other victims have now filed a lawsuit against the military alleging the “workplace violence” designation means the Fort Hood victims are receiving lower priority access to medical care as veterans, and a loss of financial benefits available to those who injuries are classified as “combat related.”
Some of the victims “had to find civilian doctors to get proper medical treatment” and the military has not assigned liaison officers to help them coordinate their recovery, said the group’s lawyer, Reed Rubinstein.
“There’s a substantial number of very serious, crippling cases of post-traumatic stress disorder exacerbated, frankly, by what the Army and the Defense Department did in this case,” said Rubinstein. “We have a couple of cases in which the soldiers’ command accused the soldiers of malingering, and would say things to them that Fort Hood really wasn’t so bad, it wasn’t combat.”
Secretary of the Army John McHugh told ABC News he was unaware of any specific complaints from the Fort Hood victims, even though he is a named defendant in the lawsuit filed last November which specifically details the plight of many of them.
“If a soldier feels ignored, then we need to know about it on a case by case basis,” McHugh told ABC News. “It is not our intent to have two levels of care for people who are wounded by whatever means in uniform.”
Some of the victims in the lawsuit believe the Army Secretary and others are purposely ignoring their cases out of political correctness.
“These guys play stupid every time they’re asked a question about it, they pretend like they have no clue,” said Shawn Manning, who was shot six times that day at Fort Hood. Two of the bullets remain in his leg and spine, he said.
“It was no different than an insurgent in Iraq or Afghanistan trying to kill us,” said Manning, who was twice deployed to Iraq and had to retire from the military because of his injuries.
An Army review board initially classified Manning’s injuries as “combat related,” but that finding was later overruled by higher-ups in the Army.
Manning says the “workplace violence” designation has cost him almost $70,000 in benefits that would have been available if his injuries were classified as “combat related.”
“Basically, they’re treating us like I was downtown and I got hit by a car,” he told ABC News.
For Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot seven times at Fort Hood and blinded in one eye, the military’s treatment is deeply hurtful.
“It’s a slap in the face, not only for me but for all of the 32 that wore the uniform that day,” he told ABC News.
Lunsford’s medical records show his injuries were determined to be “in the line of duty” but neither he nor any of the other soldiers shot or killed at Fort Hood is eligible for the Purple Heart under the Department of Defense’s current policy for decorations and awards.
Army Secretary McHugh says awarding Purple Hearts could adversely affect the trial of Major Hasan.
“To award a Purple Heart, it has to be done by a foreign terrorist element,” said McHugh. “So to declare that soldier a foreign terrorist, we are told, I’m not an attorney and I don’t run the Justice Department, but we’re told would have a profound effect on the ability to conduct the trial.”
Members of Congress, including the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, say they will introduce legislation to force the military and the Obama administration to give the wounded and dead the recognition and honors they deserve.
“It was clearly an act of terrorism that occurred that day, there’s no question in my mind,” McCaul told ABC News. “I think the victims should be treated as such.”
Former Sgt. Munley says she now believes the White House used her for political advantage in arranging for her to sit next to Michelle Obama during the President’s State of the Union address in 2010.
Munley says she has no hesitation now speaking out against the President or taking part in the lawsuit, because she wants to help the others who were shot that day and continue to suffer.
[My emphasis]
It’s who they are. It’s what they do.
And it was no different last evening, when they brought in emotional human props to push their attack on the Second Amendment, which isn’t meant to curb violence or protect children, but rather is meant to grow their own power and protect themselves. These are callous, opportunistic people — haughty, snobbish, self-important, narcissistic — who I truly believe despise the great unwashed whom they pretend to champion.
How or why this story got past ABC News editors is beyond me. Perhaps this is Brian Ross’s mea culpa for trying to tie mass shooters to the TEA Party. Having unburdened himself of that embarrassment, now he can go back to carrying the President’s water with a clean conscience.
Forward!
it’s a good time to remember what a teensy weensy twat food stamp is
i really don’t know why anybody would want to call this twat their commander in chief
Shorter Obama: I won again. So double fuck you.
i really don’t know why anybody would want to call this twat their commander in chief
I’m a civilian. He is not my CiC.
haughty, snobbish, self-important, narcissistic
Bordering on sociopathic in some cases.
Yay us.
To award a Purple Heart, it has to be done by a foreign terrorist element,” said McHugh
Horseshit. Has nothing to do with it being a terrorist or not. He knows better, so this is a misquote or a lie.
This part is true: “…but we’re told would have a profound effect on the ability to conduct the trial.” i.e. it would stop their efforts to let him get away with it.
And Jeff wrote: “Having unburdened himself of that embarrassment” Embarrassment? As a lawyer would say: alluding to facts not in evidence.
Doesn’t the army need this to be a case of the stereotypical disgruntled employee inflicting violence on the workplace, lest they be forced to admit that the administrations politically correct muslim outreach has left the armed forces vulnerable to enemy infiltration?
Or something like that.
politically correct muslim outreach has left the armed forces vulnerable to enemy infiltration?
Vulnerable?
They’ve been appointing MBs all over the place, in higher echelons of DoD. Who do you think those “higher-ups” were that overruled the “terrorist” designation?
Even the Seal team that took out bin Laden is getting short schrift. This CiC is a true wonder to behold.
Doesn’t the army need this to be a case of the stereotypical disgruntled employee inflicting violence on the workplace,
Yes, they do, despite all the evidence from the case contradicting that exact position.
Credit where credit is due: we’ve been promoting MB since Carter was president.
Next time this jug-eared piece of shit stands before flag-draped coffins, I hope some proud Marine gives him a little love tap with the butt of his rifle.
No justice. No peace.
It’s sabotage. Of the economy, of elections, of the Constitution, of the military…
And it’s not an accident.
And you’re paranoid or worse if you say it out loud.
What does the Justice Department have to do with Hasan’s UCMJ trial?
Nice catch, Pablo. I didn’t notice that.
What did Himmler have to do with Röhm?
According to the internet, Rohm (stupid diacritics) stopped having anything to do with anyone sometime around that Night of the Long Knives.
This should probably serve as a warning to those who keep playing ball with these people.
This is completely off-topic and is personally embarrassing as it shows that I so often use wiki but I thought the left and right political descriptors in this opening paragraph to be rather surprising. Here:
My emphasis. Apparently Minitrue doesn’t have time to read everything.
The Hobbesian viewpoint, which if not entirely reckless, has nevertheless something of the odor of truth about it:
Sen Burr: CIA Has “Flatly Refused” to Give Up Benghazi-Related Documents
It’s a funny synchronicity that you mention that “desire of power after power” because I recently (like yesterday, I think) went back through Kirk’s Ten Principles and I really liked how he framed a proper fear for that power. In the ninth he says, “Knowing human nature for a mixture of good and evil, the conservative does not put his trust in mere benevolence [from those who’ve gained power].”
There is another longer term analog between the ObaZmians and the dark German Reichists: over-promise, underdeliver. Plus the incident: hang the consequences.
Nasty? Sure.
I should probably ask if your “Z” is meant to allude to Ozymandias. I’ve been assuming this for some reason.
z is for popcorn
fluffy and white
z is for mittens
foe of frostbite
z is for poodles
smart trusty wugs
z is for donuts
almost like hugs
i wroted a poem for you!
I like the Z for many (very loose in my head) reasons.
It’s like the Omega at the end; it’s like the Big S on Superman’s chest; it’s a reminder of fellows like the Shabazz one and others of that ilk; and it’s a Z, a zed, or a part of a Zed and Two Noughts, a goofy thing concerning corruption. And possibly other stuff I’m forgetting now but reckoned way back when.
It certainly fits him, sdferr.
I wrote a short-dumb poem a couple of hours ago:
With the Superman motif, let’s add Zod and his admonition to kneel before him then.
Oh yeah, I forgot (about the Z): Spasm.
I was assuming it denoted the numeral zero, as in the other way to read an O.
It does that too. Most assuredly.
I blame Bush. And the drinking.
I’m content to stick with “little god-king.” Everyone seems to know who I mean.
His ‘uns Presidential Library will surely be a great burial chamber to behold, more magnificent by far than any dusty old pyramid.
Given a choice between the pyramids and Ozymandias’ monuments, I’d choose the latter. Surely he was proclaimed divine too, wasn’t he?
I think Ernst has it right- “Workplace violence” is the Obama administration narrative. There was no terrorist attack. Hassan was protesting a video or something. They’re only terrorists if Obama drone kills them.
Maybe Hasan was a frustrated whistleblower, just trying to get attention for his noble cause.
[…] “Fort Hood Hero Says President Obama ‘Betrayed’ Her, Other Victims | protein wisdo… […]
Heh,I just heard Harry Reid on the radio bemoaning any delay in approving Chuck Hagel because, as he put it “it’s shocking the country would be left without a fully-empowered SecDef in a time when so many dangerous situations exist in the world”.
Good argument Harry. Now turn it on Hagel’s absence of viable intellect and see where that gets you.
In From the Cold: What About the White House Logs?
Right, Harry. The country is utterly defenseless without a SecDef. And just imagine if an even higher office were vacant — like, say, VPOTUS!
*** Reid pointed out that NATO military leaders are scheduled to meet next week to discuss global military matters including the nearing end to the Afghanistan war. He said that it would reflect poorly on the United States that a secretary of Defense would not be representing the country at the meeting in Brussels.
“Republicans are telling our troops, ‘Well you can have a leader later. The meeting in Brussels doesn’t really matter,’ ” Reid said. ***
Oh Woe! No leader in Brussels? A greater tragic circumstance cannot be conceived! The nation will be doomed.
But y’know, it does kinda make one wonder what the-little-god-king has on his schedule those days, since he’s a more capable chief-of-staff than his chief-of-staff, and a more capable speechwriter than his speech writers. Heck, it’d probably be the easiest thing in the world for him to just step in for the SecDef for a couple of days of NATO bafflegab.
And his diplomacy would have the exact same effect as Hagel’s.
*** Marine Gen. John Allen is planning to retire rather than be re-nominated for the powerful post of NATO supreme allied commander-Europe, after White House officials forced him to step aside, a source familiar with the discussions told Fox News on Wednesday. ***
Sounds like a case of Gen. Allen not playing ball the way the White House demands he do, at least to the extent that “Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said earlier in the day that he told Allen on Tuesday that Allen needs to take time to decide what is best for him and his family.”
I was preparing to leave a very snide remark about Kerry’s purple hearts. The stories I heard made me think they were bogus. The awards, not the stories, but I was led directly to Snopes which debunked the stories not the awards. Reading Snopes changed my view completely and now I feel like a bit of a schmuck.
i only wanted to one time see you laughing i only wanted to see you laughing at my purple heart
Didn’t the swiftboat guy’s in 2006 put the lie to Kerry’s claims of not only his purple hearts, but his silver star too?
Regardless, the miserable bastard threw them all away in a shameless display of anti-American petulance. He should be shown all the reverence a Vietnam vet gives Jane Fonda…
Sorry, I mean 2004, when he was running for pres.
“Regardless, the miserable bastard threw them all away in a shameless display of anti-American petulance.”
I thought the current Pravda was that he threw away someone else’s medals, not his own.
Did he change the story again?
Oh, I kinda forgot about that particular revelation.
Probably ‘cuz it didn’t really change the story, it just added a new layer of scum.