Dueling Leaks on Hasan

It seems there are competing anonymous leaks between the major papers and networks on Hasan's communication with radical Imam Aulaqi:

A terrorism expert with access to information about the case cautioned against drawing any conclusions from Hasan's communications with Aulaqi. The expert said it appears that Hasan may have reached out to the cleric as part of academic research he was conducting. The correspondence, he said, is "not a smoking gun, but communications that in hindsight raise some concern."

This morning he was tied to AQ, this evening he was just doing some innocent research. What will tomorrow bring?

While waiting it might be useful not to lose focus on the act itself, which bin Laden would/will surely praise highly just as did Aulaqi. Ironically, for years experts warned that al Qaeda had become fragmented into small cells worldwide, many acting without top down direction whatsoever and in many ways just as dangerous. Now experts are telling folks not to worry because Hasan was not connected to anyone.

MORE 11/10/09

It's a day of mourning (Obama's speech was good, btw) but not sure how today is much different than any other bad KIA episode on the front lines largely ignored by the political sea. Hopefully the departed have found the peace that exists beyond our troubled world.

Meanwhile the troubled world takes no breaks:

"I have been told that the individual who had been perhaps even encouraging the major in these violent acts, had previously had contact with three of the terrorists that were involved in the 9/11 attacks, so this may be a widening story, and the major may well have been in touch with those who were known terrorists, and if that is the case, this really opens up this situation to the fact that we need to be very very careful in the future, and we need to perhaps pay more attention to any red flags that may come to our attention."

The only difference is this one wasn't anonymous--it was attributed directly to Mueller, ironically coming the day after Obama told Jake Tapper he was reserving judgment.

FOREST/TREES 11/10/09

Debbie at RT has a link to an Adam Gadahn propaganda tape made in 2006 urging Muslims to attack Marines at Camp Pendleton in retaliation for US actions in Iraq. Which made the light go off in my head.

They say this isn't technically terrorism? Obama says maybe he might have just 'cracked'? Go back and think of some of the biggest attacks prior to 9/11-- we had the bomb at a US barracks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1995; the Khobar Towers attack in 1996, once again against a US military barracks in Saudi Arabia; and the USS Cole bombing in 2000. The African Embassy attacks were against representatives of the US Government.

Add the fragging in Kuwait after the Iraq war began and there's a fairly uniform pattern of radical Muslims engaging in what they might call a defense of Islam by attacking military and government targets. Once again the public is shocked that it could have occurred here but it's simply part of the ongoing war they've been waging since our troops set foot on Saudi soil in 1990.