Politically Correct Terrorism, and the Invincible Ignorance of the Left

It is Marxist in its roots, stifling in its influence, and destructive in its effects.

By Jim O’Neill

Europe is no longer Europe, it is Eurabia, a colony of Islam, where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense.  Servility to the invaders has poisoned democracy, with obvious consequences for the freedom of thought, and for the concept…of liberty.” — Oriana Fallaci Italian journalist/author/activist (1929-2006)

“…as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.” —General George W. Casey,  U.S. Army Chief of Staff, speaking of the murders committed by an Islamic terrorist at Ft. Hood

“Politically correct.”  Leave it to the Left to come up with an Orwellian concept that muzzles free speech, stifles free thought, suppresses free choice, and then claim that it frees you.

“Politically correct”—as if any other way of thinking, speaking, or behaving, is incorrect. 

If you are politically incorrect, then you are not following the party line—your politics are somehow out of sync, and you must be brought back into alignment with the correct, approved way of thinking, speaking, and behaving—for the good of the collective. 

As the Star Trek Borg would say, “Resistance is futile.  You will be assimilated.” 

Sadly, an increasing number of people seem all too willing to hand over the reins of their free will to the collective, and get assimilated.  They are content, even eager, to exchange the struggle and rewards of personal endeavor, for numb acquiescence to the “thought police.”

It is Marxist in its roots, stifling in its influence, and destructive in its effects

Political Correctness (PC) seeks to impose a uniformity of thought, word, and behavior on all Americans.  It is Marxist in its roots, stifling in its influence, and destructive in its effects.  It is diametrically opposed to the traditional American values of free speech, free thought, and freedom itself. 

As G.K. Chesterton noted years ago, “Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”

Or as I note today, “Bulls—t, is bullsh—t, no matter what cologne you spray on it.”  No doubt my statement lacks some of Chesterton’s savoir-faire, but nonetheless, it is perhaps the more striking meme.

PC is a social virus—of an especially virulent variety.  Step out of line, and the PC watch dogs will attack with vociferous verbal tirades, and threaten with fines, or even jail-time.  Political correctness is essentially a political extortion racket—shut up, or else.

Agustin Blazquez and Jaums Sutton summed it up well in an article they wrote seven years ago, “Political Correctness remains just what it was intended to be: a sophisticated and dangerous form of censorship and oppression, imposed upon the citizenry with the ultimate goal of manipulating, brainwashing, and destroying our society.”

Antonio Gramsci: Marxism can best be spread in the West by subverting Western culture

One can trace PC’s roots back to Antonio Gramsci, who helped found and lead the Italian Communist Party during the early part of the last century.  Gramsci’s ideas and writings were, and are, very influential in spreading the idea that Marxism can best be spread in the West by subverting Western culture—i.e. infiltrating and dismantling the culture from within.  He coupled this, with a process he called “cultural hegemony.”

According to Wikipedia, “Cultural hegemony is…the dominance of one social group over another, i.e. the ruling class over all other classes. The ideas of the ruling class come to be seen as the norm; they are seen as universal ideologies, perceived to benefit everyone, whilst only really benefiting the ruling class.”

Gramsci’s concepts of cultural infiltration and cultural hegemony were influential at the German University of Frankfurt adjunct, the Institute for Social Research (ISR), founded in the early 1920s.

The ISR attracted a coterie of Marxists who combined Gramsci’s teachings with Freudian psychology, and other ingredients, in a potent witch’s brew.  Many of the teachers at the so called “Frankfurt School” left for the United States, when Hitler’s Fascism (the “wrong type” of collectivism) rose to power in Germany during the 1930s.

The “Frankfurt School” teachings infested American academia, where it slowly spread, until going viral in the 1960s.  One of the more insidious manifestations of Gramsci’s doctrines, is “political correctness” which, with a little help from Mao, first gained momentum on college and university campuses.

Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book” was all the rage on college campuses in the late 1960s.  One of Mao’s quotes from that book is, “…go to the masses and propagate and explain these ideas until the masses embrace them as their own…  And so on, over and over again in an endless spiral, with the ideas becoming more correct….  Such is the Marxist theory of knowledge.”

Read “more correct,” as “more Marxist.”

To a large extent, America’s teachers these days, are not teachers in the traditional sense at all—i.e. Instructing their students in the fundamentals, and how to think for themselves.  They are political ideologues who indoctrinate their students in what to think—not how to think.  Note the NEA’s recent glowing endorsement of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.”  (You may want to read my article on the topic).

Global Collectivists, by whatever name—Marxist, Statist, Socialist, Fascist, Communist, Progressive, Communitarian, Fabian

The majority of America’s teachers are wolves in sheep’s clothing—as are many lawyers, politicians, judges, scientists, etc.  Behind the masks of the various labels they hide behind, and trades they ply, they are committed collectivist ideologues. 

Some of them even hide behind the mask of “a conservative Republican.”

They are Global Collectivists, by whatever name—Marxist, Statist, Socialist, Fascist, Communist, Progressive, Communitarian, Fabian, etc.  They want to destroy America’s middle class, and force us all to be subservient to an all powerful planetary regime—a “workers utopia” controlled by a global “cultural hegemony” of big banks, large corporations, and a Ruling Elite.

“We the people,” as a free and democratic republic, are perilously close to being swept into the dustbin of history.  It is only through God’s grace, and the brave and tireless efforts of (largely unheralded) patriotic Americans, that it hasn’t happened already. 

It is important that we realize that these Global Collectivists have no interest in the truth—none whatsoever.  “The end justifies the means” to these people; the fact that their “end” is vague, ephemeral, and bogus, notwithstanding.

That means that they lie.  Couple their “the end justifies the means” philosophy, with doctrines rooted in atheism, and you have a moral/philosophical foundation firmly grounded in shifting quicksand.  You cannot trust a thing these weasels tell you.  Ever.

What they tell you may be the truth, but just as likely it is not.  It doesn’t matter to them.  They have no reason to be anything but self-serving narcissists, and lying is simply seen as one more tool in their bag of tricks.  After all, their glorious “end”—a workers utopia—justifies any “means.”  Right?

They not only dismiss the truth as being relative, malleable, and ultimately unknowable, but they refuse to acknowledge the truth when it stares them in the face, or bites them in the butt, as the case may be. 

Witness the “scientists” who decry the findings of Intelligent Design as being “theological nonsense,” or the climate “scientists” who close their minds to any data that doesn’t conform to their politically motivated findings.  These “scientists,” aren’t scientists—they are ideological hacks.  Many “teachers,” aren’t teachers—they are ideological propagandists.  Many government “representatives,” aren’t representatives—they are ideological con-artists.  And on, and on, ad nauseum.

(Yes, there are numerous exceptions to the above, but such exceptions are often afraid of speaking out for fear of ridicule, censure, fines, and/or dismissal).

These brainwashed ideological drones (many of whom are quite bright) are largely incapable of seeing the truth.  It is a rara avis indeed, who leaves the flock once they are indoctrinated. 

The fact that during the 20th century, collectivism was responsible for over 100 million deaths, does not register with them.  The fact that the only reason that socialist countries work at all, is because of the remnants of capitalism they retain—doesn’t compute.

These Global Collectivists suffer from Invincible Ignorance (ignorantia invinciblis).  That is, they are willfully blind to anything that runs counter to their political mind-set.  Nothing—certainly not the mere truth—will change their minds. 

They are not interested in the truth; they are only interested in their agenda. 

Soviets were totalitarian, power-hungry and expansionist brutes that started and prolonged the Cold War

Reporter Jamie Glazov ran into this wall of Invincible Ignorance, when he was working on his doctorate (in Cold War history).  He writes, “When the Soviet archives were opened after the fall of the Soviet tyranny in 1991, I hungrily devoured all the information…in declassified documents, disclosures from former Soviet officials, etc.

Glazov found that the newly available documents “confirmed and substantiated what conservatives had been arguing for decades…that the Soviets were totalitarian, power-hungry and expansionist brutes that started and prolonged the Cold War.”

With this new found proof, Glazov confronted his liberal associates, but he reports that, “When I approached my colleagues with this new evidence…instead of hearing a mea culpa, a stated regret, or admission of some kind of lesson learned, all that I witnessed, (in a manner that remains extremely eerie for me to remember), was a callous indifference and smug contempt for the issues at hand.”

Invincible Ignorance.  They don’t care about the truth. 

But they care very much about forcing other people to think, talk, and act in a certain way—a politically correct way.

In the world of the politically correct, if you disagree with Obama you’re a racist, if you disagree with Education Czar Kevin Jennings you’re a homophobe, if you disagree with NOW you’re a sexist, and if you disagree with Islam or Sharia Law you’re a Islamaphobe.

In the world of the politically correct, anyone who questions Islam, for any reason, is politically incorrect.  Such a stance is suicidally infantile.  It will lead to the destruction of America.

Which, of course, is just fine with the Global Collectivists—which is why the radical left is in bed with Islamic extremists.  Strange bedfellows indeed, but in line with the old saw, “My enemies enemy is my friend.”  They see no reason not to join forces—for the duration—until America is destroyed.

Let me hasten to add that I am not opposed to Islam per se.  There are many decent, wonderful followers of Allah.  Islam has contributed much of value to the world.  I enjoy the works of the 13th century Muslim poet, Jelaluddin Rumi.  I am not anti-Islam.

I am, however, strongly opposed to Islamic extremists, or accepting Sharia Law in the U.S.  I do not welcome the “Islamification” of America.

If that makes me some sort of “redneck Islamaphobe,” then so be it—I’ll proudly be one. 

According to the asinine protocols of political correctness, any preemptive actions taken against suspected Islamic extremists, in order to safeguard America’s safety, sovereignty, and freedom, are taboo.  That insane nonsense must stop. 

Supporting diversity is one thing, enabling suicidal ineptitude is another.

(Permit me a short aside:  To my mind, political correctness has made America much too passive.  Passive behavior is fueled by a lack of self-respect, while the equally undesirable, aggressive behavior, stems from a lack of respect for others.  The healthy alternative—assertive behavior—comes from respecting others, AND yourself.  Patriotic Americans need to be much more assertive (not aggressive, and certainly not passive), both collectively, and individually).

The media outlets recently reported on how government agencies foiled several terrorist plots against various targets around America.  These news stories were a slight indication of an ongoing “behind the scenes” battle that is being fought everyday across America.

There is, however, another more subtle form of dangerous Islamic infiltration, and Americans need to be aware that a great deal of time, effort, and money has been, and is being, spent on the Islamafication of America. 

The most pernicious sign of this, is the slow, incremental acceptance of Sharia Law in America.  Any efforts to legitimize Sharia Law in the U.S. must be quashed without exception.  America follows the U.S. Constitution—period.

Both Yale and Harvard have been churning out lawyers and other professionals with a Global Collectivist bent, for some time.  Now both of these institutions are accepting huge sums of money from Saudi Arabia.

(It would appear that Yale and Harvard are in some sort of contest to see who can be the most politically correct, unpatriotic, anti-American indoctrination center.  I don’t know if UC Berkeley is even in the running anymore.  Let’s see: Bush Sr.—Yale, Clinton—Yale, Bush Jr.—Yale AND Harvard, Obama—Harvard.  Even giving Harvard extra credit for Supreme Court Justice Ginsberg, I’d say that Yale is slightly ahead).

Yale University Press recently made the courageous decision to publish a book about purportedly anti-Islamic caricatures, or cartoons, published by a Danish newspaper in 2005.  The cartoons caused a world-wide uproar. 

Unfortunately, Yale University Press neglected to include any of the cartoons in their book (lest they offend any sensitive Muslims).  Which makes about as much sense as publishing a pictorial history of slavery in America, without any pictures (lest any Afro-Americans be offended). 

Talk about some dry reading.  As the saying goes, “one picture is worth a thousand words.”

Looking at the Yale Daily News, I believe that the woman who made the first entry in the comments section, hit the nail on the head, “The money trail is pretty clear. Yale is a partner to the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.  I am sure they do not want to lose their $50 million gift from the Saudis by offending them with this book.”  Give the lady a cigar.

In an article titled “Harvard’s Segregated Gym,” Annie Jacobsen discusses Harvard’s new rules that allow only Muslim women access to the university’s gym during specified periods.  Jacobsen says that such segregation harkens back to the “Jim Crow” laws of the Old South.

Jacobsen asks, “Could it possibly have anything to do with the $20 million gift Harvard recently accepted from Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Addulaziz Alsaud?”  Hmmmm…what do you think?

And aside from college and university campuses across America, do you think that it’s possible that individuals on Capitol Hill might be accepting “donations” from Saudi Arabia, and other Islamic countries?  What about folks in the Obama Administration? 

Just asking.

(Perhaps it’s time we told the “greenie weenies” to go take a hike, and started some serious oil drilling in the U.S.—God knows we could use the jobs.  Let’s make America energy independent, and stop bank-rolling OPEC.  Whatta ya say?)

To get an idea of what the USA might look like in a few years, you should check out this video by the EDL (English Defense League).  I can’t vouch for the EDL, as I know nothing about them—they may be nothing more than a bunch of soccer hooligans for all I know, but the headlines in the British papers shown in the video, are ignored at our peril.

Sharia Law has already raised its barbaric head in America.  Perhaps you’ve heard about the Muslim fellow in Buffalo, New York, who beheaded his wife after she attempted to divorce him.

Or how about twenty-year-old Noor Almaleki in Phoenix, Arizona, whose Muslim father ran her over with a car and killed her, because he felt that she was engaged in conduct shameful to Islam.

The list goes on, and will continue to grow and expand exponentially, unless Sharia Law is stopped in its tracks.  It does not belong in America, and mustn’t be allowed to grow roots here.

What is NOW’s stance on such “honor killings?”  Who knows.  Their silence on the subject lets you hear the crickets chirp.  Their blanket shrug of indifference on the whole subject of Islamic misogyny, is simply more proof of the Far Left’s collusion with radical Muslims.  NOW’s just being politically correct, and following the party line.  Mums the word.

Before closing this article, I want to mention a couple of organizations that you should be wary of, and a few that will be helpful to know.

You should keep an eye on CAIR (Council on American and Islamic Relations).  As Doug Hagmann noted in a Northeast Intelligence Network article, CAIR’s “rabid pro-Islamist operatives have managed to gain positions or exert influence inside a variety of law enforcement agencies on all levels. Perhaps the most insidious infiltration of all, however, is within the U.S. Department of Justice.”

That’s the same Department of Justice that is hell-bent on presenting Islamic terrorists with a world stage in New York City.

To know more about CAIR, you should buy and read the book “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America” by Dave Gaubatz and Paul Sperry.  At least read the short forward by Sue Myrick (R-NC), it’s posted online.

Also actively working to expose CAIR, is Brigitte Gabriel, founder of Act! For America, and one of the world’s foremost experts on terrorism.  You might want to go to her web-site and sign her petition.

CAIR is not the only organization worth keeping an eye on.  There is a veritable alphabet soup of Islamic NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) that have dubious connections.  Perhaps foremost among them, is ISNA (Islamic Society of North America).  For an eye opening look at ISNA, you should check out Dave Gaubatz’s article “

The ISNA Conference” on American Thinker.

In 2006, as 77-year-old Italian journalist/author Oriana Fallanci was dying of cancer, she gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal.  She was wanted in Italy on criminal charges at the time, for having dared to speak out against, what she saw, as the decline of Western culture, and the ongoing spread of Islam throughout Europe.

During the interview she asked rhetorically where the conservative revolutionaries were.  Where were the conservative leaders with intelligence, audacity, and valor? 

Where indeed.

I would add, where are America’s Christian leaders?  At what point do they stop playing “meek and mild,” and show some backbone for Christ’s sake!  If they can’t respect themselves, they can at least respect Jesus.

Laus Deo.

Addendum:
A few web-sites worth checking out

Islam: the Religion of Peace (and a big stack of dead bodies)
Christian Action Network (CAN)—[Now there’s some “backbone!]”
Jihad Tube  For your friends who are not fond of reading.

Read the original article on the Canadian Free Press

Hasan, Not KSM, Is Our Real Problem

Violent Islamic Web sites pose a clear and present danger to the U.S.

By DANIEL HENNINGER

If it accomplished nothing else, the Obama administration’s announcement last Friday to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in lower Manhattan blew the Nidal Hasan murders out of the news. The KSM fiasco deserves all the attention it gets. What Hasan represents, however, is a more immediate concern.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is an old-school jihadi. They sit in far-off redoubts, assembling terror teams of foreign nationals who now must figure out how to get themselves and their plot inside the U.S. Not impossible, but harder than before 9/11.

Hasan is new school. He is what’s known as a homegrown terrorist. Virtually all the Islamic terrorist plots thwarted here in recent years were homegrown, not designed from afar by a KSM.

Najibullah Zazi, the Colorado airport-shuttle driver arrested in New York this September and charged with conspiring to detonate bombs, came to the U.S. in 1999.

The Fort Dix Six, convicted in December of conspiring to attack U.S. military personnel, were mainly ethnic Albanians whose family came to New Jersey in the 1980s.

Zakaria Amara, the leader of the Toronto 18, who were planning to blow up skyscrapers in Canada, was born in a Toronto suburb.

In testimony to Congress in September, the director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Mike Leiter, said the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab includes “dozens of recruits from the Unites States,” mostly ethnic Somalis.

Jersey, Toronto or Texas suddenly transform into mass murderers for jihad? Most of the time, they become radicalized by spending vast amounts of time viewing violent Islamic Web sites run from abroad.

Two years ago, Lawrence Sanchez of the New York City Police Department’s intelligence division told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that the Internet is “the most significant factor in the radicalization that is occurring in America.” Mr. Sanchez described this process as “self-imposed brainwashing.”

In New York Times reporter David Rohde’s account of his captivity by the Taliban, he wrote that “watching jihadi videos” was his guards’ favorite pastime. He describes them as “little more than grimly repetitive snuff films” of executions.

If you sit in the United States and watch this stuff ’round the clock—self-brainwashing—it is fully protected activity. It qualifies as “speech,” protected by the panoply of First Amendment law. These protections exist nowhere else in the world.

The biggest controversy surrounding Maj. Hasan is that the Army knew about his radical Islamic sympathies, from the Walter Reed lecture and the monitored emails to the English-speaking, American-born Yemeni imam Anwar Awlaki, whose Facebook page, with a reported 4,800 “friends,” is depicted nearby.

The argument is that the Army should have mustered him out of the service and thereby avoided the 13 murders. Really? After kicking him out of the Army, there was no probable cause for authorities to surveil a civilian Nidal Hasan. In time he as easily could have killed 13 Americans in a suburban Texas mall.

Read the rest of the article online Wall Street Journal

Shooter praised God before Fort Hood massacre

By Sharon Jayson and Dan Reed, USA TODAY

FORT HOOD, Texas — An Army psychiatrist who had counseled troops and was upset about being deployed to Iraq shouted “Allahu Akbar!” and opened fire on an unarmed crowd at Fort Hood Army base Thursday afternoon, killing 13 people and wounding 30, military officials said.Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. citizen born in Virginia to Jordanian parents, was wounded by a civilian police officer responding to a shooting rampage that is believed to be the worst ever at a U.S. base, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, commanding general of Fort Hood.

 Cone told NBC‘s Today show on Friday that Hasan made the comment, which is Arabic for “God is great!” before the melee that killed one civilian and 12 soldiers. Thirty people were wounded.

 Hasan was unconscious Friday, on a ventilator and in custody in a hospital. Immediately after the shootings, authorities began trying to determine whether the incident was a coordinated act or the work of a lone gunman. Three other people were questioned but were released, Cone said.

As of Friday morning, all of those wounded were listed in stable condition, said Col. Steven Braverman, hospital commander at the sprawling base. Half of those wounded required surgery, Braverman said.

 The shooter was wearing his uniform, said Col. John Rossi. Investigators are still tracing the handguns that were used in the shootings, Rossi said.

 ”We believe the evidence indicates it was a single shooter,” Cone said late Thursday, adding that despite earlier widespread reports that Hasan had been killed, the alleged gunman’s death was “not imminent.”

 Hasan, 39, is a Virginia Tech graduate who spent six years studying at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., before moving to Fort Hood, according to military records.

 Nader Hasan, who described himself to Fox News as a cousin, said Hasan is a Muslim who went into the military against his parents’ wishes. Nader Hasan called his cousin a “good American” who never got into trouble but added that he did not support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 PHOTOS: Fort Hood rampageREACTION: President Obama comments on tragedy

 ”He had always wanted to just get away from the war and (that) environment,” Nader Hasan said. “He wasn’t someone who even enjoyed going to the firing range.

 ”We’re blown away as a family. We’re shocked.”

 Noel Hamad, Nidal Hasan’s aunt, said the family had not talked to Hasan since he arrived at Fort Hood.

 ”He didn’t tell us he was going to deploy. We didn’t know,” Hamad said in an interview with USA TODAY from her home in Falls Church, Va. “He was trying to get out of the military since 9/11 because they were giving him a hard time,” she said, without elaborating.

 Fort Hood is home to the 1st Cavalry Division, whose soldiers have deployed multiple times to Iraq. At 339 square miles, it is one of the largest military bases in the world, and has been a focus of the Pentagon’s efforts to counter rising wartime stress among troops.

 The shootings occurred at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers preparing to deploy overseas go for medical care and other duties. In an adjoining auditorium, 600 people had gathered to celebrate the college graduation of 138 soldiers, Cone said. When the shooting began, soldiers closed the doors to the auditorium to prevent the shooter from entering, he said.

 Base officials locked down the base and began a building-by-building search across the fort that continued more than six hours after the shootings, said Hilary Shine, spokeswoman for the city of Killeen, which abuts Fort Hood.

 Most of the dead and wounded are soldiers, Cone said. Two civilians were among the wounded.

 Cone said he could not rule out terrorism but said the evidence “doesn’t suggest that.” He said he did not know whether the gunman had shot randomly or targeted certain people or units.

 Ten of the shooting victims were taken to Scott and White Health System in nearby Temple. All arrived with gunshot wounds, said hospital spokesman Glen Couchman. He said four were in surgery late Thursday. The other six were in the emergency room and all would wind up in intensive care, he said.

 He said hundreds of people had answered the hospital’s request for blood donations immediately after the shootings.

 The thirteenth death was announced early Friday by Fort Hood Spokesman Tyler Broadway. Late Thursday, officials said 12 people had been killed and 31 wounded in the afternoon attack.

 President Obama cut short his speech at the White House Tribal Nations Conference and consulted with Pentagon officials about the shooting.

 ”It’s difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas,” the president said. “It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil.”

 He called it “a horrific outburst of violence” and said his administration will work for “answers to every single question.”

 Former president George W. Bush, whose ranch in Crawford, Texas, is about 20 miles from the perimeter of Fort Hood, said in a statement, “Laura and I are keeping the victims and their families in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.”

 A disgruntled doctor

 Hasan was born in Virginia and graduated from Virginia Tech university, according to The Roanoke Times archives.

 He later received two degrees from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., according to Hasan’s military record and a university newsletter.

 U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Austin, was briefed by military officials and said Hasan had taken some unusual classes for someone studying about mental health.

 ”He took a lot of extra classes in weapons training, which seems a little odd for a psychiatrist,” McCaul said.

 McCaul said Hasan had received poor grades for his work at Walter Reed and was not happy about his situation in Fort Hood, where Hasan apparently felt like “he didn’t fit in.”

 ”He’s disgruntled because he had a poor performance evaluation, he doesn’t believe in the mission, he’s looking at getting transferred to Afghanistan or Iraq,” McCaul said. “He’s not happy about all that.”

 McCaul added that officials planned to interview Hasan to try to determine for sure that he was not working with foreign agents.

 ”From an intelligence standpoint, that’s key, finding out if he talked to anyone overseas,” McCaul said.

 Hasan had come to the attention of federal law enforcement officials at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats, according to a federal law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

 The official said investigators were trying to confirm that Hasan was the author of the postings, one of which was a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades. One of the officials said federal search warrants were being drawn up to authorize seizure of Hasan’s computer.

 ‘It’s just nerve-racking’

 Soldiers and others described a chaotic scene at the base.

 Sirens wailed as Tammy Biggers, wife of an Army specialist deployed in Iraq, huddled in her locked house, fielding phone calls from family and friends while sending text messages to her daughter at the local high school.

 ”Now I can’t even get a hold of her. The cellphones are jammed. I can’t even send a text,” Biggers said. “They still have us on lockdown. I’m just staying right beside my computer with the news on and praying.”

 The basewide siren and announcement system, usually used to warn of tornadoes, instructed base residents to seek shelter, lock their doors and turn off the air-conditioning. Biggers had been outside her house with their chihuahua when she heard the first sirens.

 ”Down here you don’t think a lot about sirens. It could be a training exercise,” she said. Then came the orders to seek shelter. “It’s just nerve-racking.”

 ”It is crazy to see it happen on your home turf,” said Army Sgt. Dominic Moes, 28, from Boyne City, Mich. “You don’t really expect it at all, especially soldier-to-soldier. It’s pretty shocking.”

 Moes was among hundreds of soldiers waiting outside the base, which had been locked down for hours. Dozens of cars were lined up at the gate, going nowhere.

 ”A lot of us deal with the stress but it’s something else to hurt another soldier,” said Moes, who said he has deployed to Iraq three times. “These are the guys we confide in. A lot of these soldier are as close to me as my own family.”

 Specialist David Straub, from Ardmore, Ala., waited in a line of cars to re-enter Fort Hood. He said he had twice deployed and was proud that both times they “came back with everybody.”

 ”Now this happens,” Straub said. “I feel like I’ve been stabbed in the back.”

 ‘Everything’s locked down’

 The shooting also rattled the city of Killeen, near the sprawling base.

 About 15 children remained after hours at the Miles Ahead day-care center because parents were unable to leave the post when it was sealed off, said Tanisha Laws, 35, a cook at the center.

 ”You don’t know who is who or what is what,” Laws said.

 There was only one customer inside the normally busy Henderson’s Family Restaurant in Killeen.

 ”It’s dead right now because everything’s locked down,” said cashier Kelly Kuehnle, 43. “It’s a very oppressive atmosphere. Everybody’s devastated.”

 Beauty salon owner Chemar Jones said she and three employees spent a nerve-wracking afternoon holed up in the Killeen salon with the front and doors locked. Jones was worried about her cousin, a medic with the military police on Fort Hood, who she tried multiple times to reach without success.

 Shine, the Killeen spokeswoman, said she was “immediately reminded” of the 1991 massacre at the Luby’s cafeteria in the city in which 23 were killed.

 ”Our community is restless and worried,” Shine says. “Because a lot of people have family and friends working at Fort Hood, I know many are wondering if the victims are people they know. Unfortunately, for some, that is going to be true.”

 Read the original article on USA Today