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In the aftermath of the massacre at Fort Hood and the deaths of fourteen people, some members of Congress demanded investigations into why the Army and the FBI failed to identify and stop Major Nidal Malik Hasan before he had an opportunity to commit mass murder. Some of the revelations from Hasan’s past, including communications with an al-Qaeda recruiter in Yemen, have Rep. Pete Hoekstra and Sen. Joe Lieberman promising to conduct separate investigations into the failure of counterterrorism efforts. President Obama warned Congress to stay out of it, at least until the FBI finishes investigating the shootings: President Barack...

In a press release about his recent trip to Afghanistan, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan asked the public for its views on American policy. Florida Veterans for Common Sense agrees with Buchanan that the Obama administration should consider all options for troop levels in Afghanistan. But our organization considers the recommendation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal to increase troop levels by 40,000 to be the worst option. We are extremely proud of our troops, and there is no doubt they are highly skilled and motivated. Yet, no matter how well our soldiers execute their orders, they cannot prevail if the mission is...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead. On an eight-day Asia trip, Obama turned his attention home and pleaded for lawmakers to “resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater.” He said those who died on the nation’s largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft. “The stakes are far too high,” Obama said in a video and Internet...

Democratic leaders plan to repeal the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in next year’s defense authorization bill. Both the White House and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) back the strategy of using the defense bill to change policy on gays in the military, an aide to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told The Hill on Wednesday. Frank, the openly gay chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is a close ally of Pelosi. The defense bill has long been seen as a possible vehicle for changing the policy. “One legislative way or another, this policy, which is unfair to patriotic Americans...

The ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee on Tuesday night accused the White House of withholding information on the Fort Hood attack. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) said administration officials delayed briefing members of Congress about the alleged gunman, raising "red flags" about what the White House was hiding. "When they withhold information, you always start asking questions," Hoekstra told Fox News. "That's what raises red flags. What do they know that they don't want us to know?" Hoekstra linked President Barack Obama's handling of Fort Hood to a chain of other GOP criticisms of the president, including the administration's...

Recently on ABC television news, one of their videos showed a U.S. Marine hunkered down in Afghanistan complaining on camera that he was not allowed to shoot back when under fire. This situation resulted from Obama’s new rules of engagement from his new Afghanistan commander. General McChrystal explained it to BBC news that they are now advising troops to break off from firefights with the Taliban, "If you are in a situation where you are under fire from the enemy... if there is any chance of creating civilian casualties or if you don't know whether you will create civilian casualties,...

Today the President did his job, and I say that in a non-complimentary fashion. He spoke before a nation that was still in mourning over the first terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11, but he did so in a cowardly manner. At no point during his speech did he mutter any words that describe the enemy we continue to face. He spoke vaguely of "twisted logic" and "extremists", but failed to point the finger directly at Islam. If we didn't know any better, we wouldn't have a clue who or what he was talking about.

Barack Obama will likely hold off deciding his strategy and troop strength levels until December, according to a New York Times report on his upcoming meeting Wednesday with his national security advisers.That would make four months since Obama's hand-picked Afghan General Stanley McChrystal made an urgent request in August for 40,000 to 80,000 reinforcements, warning the war would be lost within twelve months without them.Obama recently asked for new troop level options and for reports on the provincial Afghan governments.Obama has made numerous excuses for delaying his decision, most prominent of them the election controversy over Hamid Karzai's reelection as...

President Obama at Fort Hood today: "It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know — no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor." Really? At his blog today, Andrew Bostom, a scholar of jihadism, cites the following passage from "Reliance of the Traveler," a widely distributed manual of Islamic law produced by al-Azhar University in Egypt, the most authoritative interpreters of theology and sharia jurisprudence in Sunni Islam, the dominant tradition among the world's Muslims:

President Obama led a memorial service Tuesday for the 13 people killed in last week's massacre at the largest U.S. military installation, telling thousands of mourners that the legacy of the dead will live beyond their "incomprehensible" slayings.

Reporting from Ft. Hood, Texas - President Obama is slated to speak at a memorial service today at this grieving Army base, where a military psychiatrist is accused of killing 13 people in a shooting rampage. The service, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. local time, will be a traditional military affair, with a sermon, a roll call of the dead and a rifle volley. About 3,000 spectators, as well as the families of the 12 soldiers and one civilian killed, are expected to attend. The tribute comes amid new questions about whether the shooting, in which dozens were also...

(CBS) Tonight, after months of conferences with top advisors, President Obama has settled on a new strategy for Afghanistan. CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the president will send a lot more troops and plans to keep a large force there, long term. The president still has more meetings scheduled on Afghanistan, but informed sources tell CBS News he intends to give Gen. Stanley McChrystal most, if not all, the additional troops he is asking for. McChrystal wanted 40,000 and the president has tentatively decided to send four combat brigades plus thousands more support troops. A senior officer says...

President Obama came in for growing criticism over the weekend for his “insensitive” handling of the bloody shoot-out in Fort Hood, Texas, where 13 people were killed by a Muslim officer in the US Army. Mr Obama is not scheduled to arrive at America’s largest military base until tomorrow to attend a memorial service for victims of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who opened fire on a group of unarmed soldiers. The President’s jarring absence from Fort Hood — in contrast to a low-key visit by the former president George Bush on Friday — is not the only...

It’s been three months since General Stanley McChrystal informed the Obama administration of the resources he needs to successfully prosecute the war.  The controversy over the elections in Afghanistan have been resolved for a week now, which supposedly kept Barack Obama from making a decision on whether to give McChrystal more troops and the number that will be sent.  This morning, McClatchy reports on an apparent trial balloon coming from the White House that Obama will split the difference between McChrystal’s medium- and high-risk options for troop support of a counterinsurgency strategy — but still won’t make a decision until...

President Barack Obama said Friday that flags at the White House and other federal buildings will be flown at half staff until Veterans Day in recognition of the shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

In the protracted Washington debate over the war in Afghanistan, the most concise analysis so far has come from America’s top soldier: “If we don’t get a level of legitimacy and governance (there), then all the troops in the world aren’t going to make any difference.”Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was speaking two days after Hamid Karzai was declared the winner, by default, in August elections so massively rigged that a U.N.-backed electoral complaints committee threw out about a million Karzai votes. That forced a run-off from which his challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah...

"..They are Americans of every race, faith, and station. They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers. They are descendents of immigrants and immigrants themselves. They reflect the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is a patriotism like no other. What they share is a commitment to country that has been tested and proved worthy. What they share is the same unflinching courage, unblinking compassion, and uncommon camaraderie that the soldiers and civilians of Ft. Hood showed America and showed the world..." I’d like to speak with you for a few minutes today about the...

Two minutes and 39 seconds later he was done and without even taking a breath back to talking about the Native American event. Nowhere in his speech or his remarks the next day did he even acknowledge that the attacker was a Muslim. In his statement after the museum attack, he correctly criticized “anti-Semitism and prejudice” but made no mention of religion in the latest incident.

President Obama says "we cannot fully know" what led Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan to kill 13 people and wound 38 others at Fort Hood, Texas Thursday. Hasan reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar!" before the killings, wrote Internet postings justifying Muslim suicide bombings, considered U.S. forces the enemy, and opposed American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as wars on Islam. His rampage at Ft. Hood has the markings of an act of Islamic terrorism. But in his weekly address, Obama says, "We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing."

White House spokesman Bill Burton told Fox News that President Obama's visit to the Army's top medical facility was planned before Thursday's shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded. In the wake of the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. base, President Obama plans to visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center Friday. White House spokesman Bill Burton told Fox News that Obama's visit to the Army's top medical facility was planned before Thursday's shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded. Although it didn't appear on the White Houses'...

5 minutes ago WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will attend a memorial service for those killed at Thursday's mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Friday said a service will be scheduled at the convenience of the families who lost loved ones during one of the largest mass shooting on a military base. Gibbs says a service has not yet been scheduled and it would be planned around the families' schedules, not the president's.

Obama's Frightening Insensitivity Following ShootingA bad week for Democrats compounded by an awful moment for Barack Obama. By ROBERT A. GEORGE Updated 9:18 AM CST, Fri, Nov 6, 2009 President Obama didn't wait long after Tuesday's devastating elections to give critics another reason to question his leadership, but this time the subject matter was more grim than a pair of governorships. After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late afternoon, word...

Getty Images President Obama didn't wait long after Tuesday's devastating elections to give critics another reason to question his leadership, but this time the subject matter was more grim than a pair of governorships. After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late afternoon, word went out that the president would speak about the incident prior to a previously scheduled appearance. At about 5 p.m., cable stations went to the president. The...

<p>WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is pushing back a trip to Capitol Hill aimed at discussing the proposed health care overhaul with lawmakers.</p> <p>Obama had planned to head to the Capitol on Friday. Now the White House schedule shows Obama planning to visit the Capitol on Saturday.</p>

White House officials tell ABC News that President Obama will visit with wounded soldiers tomorrow at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The trip was scheduled before the incident today at Fort Hood, officials said. President Obama visited wounded troops at Walter Reed as president-elect in January and has visited wounded troops at Bethesda Naval Hospital as senator. Last week the president made a secret late-night journey to Dover Air Force Base to participate in the dignified transfer of troops and DEA agents killed in Afghanistan. He is in the midst of making up his mind about a new strategy in...

Here is video of President Obama making remarks about the mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas this afternoon. He made the remarks at an Interior Department event, and prior to commenting on Fort Hood, Obama spoke for about two minutes to the crowd at the event, giving "shout outs" and thank yous to people in the crowd. At the 2:15 mark of the video he begins to comment on the Fort Hood shooting. . . (VIDEO)

Vice President Biden released a statement today expressing sympathy to those affected by the shootings at Fort Hood that left 12 dead and 31 wounded. Here is the full text, as released by the White House: Jill and I join the President and Michelle in expressing our sympathies to the families of the brave soldiers who fell today. We are all praying for those who were wounded and hoping for their full and speedy recovery. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the entire Fort Hood community as they deal with this senseless tragedy.

Shortly after Major Malik Nadal Hasan and two other unnamed shooters allegedly opened fire at the largest U.S. military installation in the world, Ft. Hood in Texas, President Barack Obama held a press conference to address the issue. Before getting around to the shooting that has already claimed a dozen lives and wounded at least 31 people, he began his remarks by saying: I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow (ph) was around, and so I want to give a shout out to that Congressional...

WATCH OBAMA ON YOUTUBE AND HIS SICKENING PERFORMANCE The very first thing he should have done is asked the audience to join him in a moment of silence for the Ft. Hood victims. He went through 2:24 of crap before getting to the most important part.

Fort Hood Tragedy -- Barack Obama Gives "Shout-Out" Before He Comments on Shooting -- FOX News

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is calling a mass shooting at a Texas Army base a "horrific outburst of violence."He says he doesn't yet know all the details but promised the government would get "answers to every single question."The commander in chief says it's a tragedy to lose a soldier overseas and even more horrifying when they come under fire at an Army base on American soil.Obama also said his thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and families of the fallen.The U.S. Army says 12 people have been killed and 31 wounded in a shooting rampage on the Fort...

What else needs to be said. This man is disgusting! Pure evil.

President Obama is within weeks of making a decision on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, Chief White House Advisor David Axelrod said on "Face the Nation" Sunday.

In his slick PR fashion, Obama's answer to the charge that he is "dithering on Afghanistan" is to feed the hungry media a military photo op. Yes, Obama can be seen in the pic saluting a US Soldier's flag-draped casket coming back from Afghanistan. Now we know why the White House insisted that our battlefield casualties should not be shielded from the media. You need tame media access for photo ops. So Obama is finally showing some respect. For the Hollyweirdos, appearance is reality. We now have a Commander in Chief who knows how to salute. He must therefore be...

DOVER, DEL. -- Earlier this year President Obama lifted the 18-year ban on media coverage of the return of fallen soldiers to Dover, a ban critics said hid the costs of war from the American people. Thursday morning President Obama -- who is weighing new strategy in Afghanistan -- saw those costs up close.

Obama Requests More Options for Troop Levels The Washington post reported two officials as saying late Friday Obama asked the Pentagon's top generals to provide him with more options for troop levels in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama grappled Friday with the costs and consequences of a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, but reached no decisions about troop levels, a top aide said, as military advisers briefed the president on an armed services already taxed by challenges around the globe. The president reviewed his options with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and made clear he wants at least one more meeting with...

FOR nearly three decades, I’ve felt conflicted about presidential salutes. After all, my United States Marine Corps instructors drilled into me the idea that “you never salute without a cover” which, in civilian, meant without a hat. My fellow Marines and I were also informed, in no uncertain terms, that we weren’t to salute out of uniform. (I don’t think that presidential blue suits, white shirts and red ties quite qualify.) So whenever I saw a president stepping off a helicopter and bringing hand to brow, my drill instructor’s unambiguous words came back to me with much of their original...

Pence to Pentagon: Rethink decision to offer H1N1 vaccine to Gitmo detainees By Tony Romm - 10/31/09 10:20 AM ET The Pentagon's announcement Friday that it would provide H1N1 vaccinations to Guantanamo Bay detainees who ask for it is a "terrible decision," one House Republican stressed Friday. The White House should immediately cancel the program to ensure Americans are able to receive those vaccinations first, added Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.). "I don't know if detainees at Gitmo should never be given the H1N1 vaccine," Pence told CNN during an interview. "But, certainly, at a time of such acute shortages, again,...

At today's White House briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Barack Obama has spent "close to 20 direct hours" in meetings on Afghanistan since Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for tens of thousands of reinforcements was submitted over two months ago with a warning the war would be lost in twelve months without more troops.Gibbs says Obama also spends "quite a bit of time" thinking about the war in Afghanistan.Gibbs was asked about a statement by the mother of one of the fallen soldiers, Sgt. Dale Griffin, killed in Afghanistan this week whom Obama met with at Dover early Thursday morning....

Catherine Herridge - FOXNews.com - October 30, 2009 Obama Administration Eyeing Navy Brig in South Carolina for Gitmo Detainees, Sources Say Sources tell Fox News that one scenario is that a "handful" of detainees who are already in the military courts at Guantanamo could be brought stateside as a "trial run" to test the system. The Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., is "very much in play" as an option to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees for military commission hearings in the U.S., multiple sources tell Fox News. Some sources describe the Naval Consolidated Brig -- which has housed at least two...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Brooklyn. Vinny. You're next. Hello, sir. CALLER: Hello El Rushbo, mmm, mmm, mmm. RUSH: Yeah, I love that. REPORTER: Listen, two days ago, and I only heard this once, ABC reported that President Obama did a midnight run to Dover airfield base. My first question to you is I've never heard of any other president doing that, and why would he go out to view the dead coming back from Afghanistan? I mean this seems like some kind of, look at me, I'm the president, you see how sorry I feel for our dead soldiers returning, but...

Rather than give the troops the reinforcements they need, Obama instead uses the dead for a photo op! What an ASS! Obama's one and only trip to the Dover Delaware Air Force Base which is the gateway for the bodies of all the nation's war dead was a photo op that almost didn't happen. 17 out of the 18 families refused their permission for the news media to cover this event. Instead of a row of coffins coming back from Afghanistan, Obama got to use only one as a prop. Readers may recall that President Bush met privately on numerous...

'I don't care what Dick Cheney thinks,' Biden says Posted: October 30th, 2009 02:40 PM ET From CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry Washington (CNN) – Vice President Biden on Friday fired back at criticism from his predecessor, former Vice President Cheney, that President Obama is "dithering" over his decision about whether to send up to 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. "I like Dick Cheney personally but I really don't care what Dick Cheney thinks and I'm not sure a lot of Americans do," Biden said in an exclusive interview with CNN. "Look at the policy they left...

ABC News' Pentagon correspondent Luis Martinez reports that Barack Obama brought twenty-four reporters, photographers and videographers from fourteen media outlets to Dover Air Force Base to cover his 'surprise' visit there early Thursday morning.The New York Times reported earlier that there was a "small contingent" of media at Dover. However, two dozen is a crowd, especially when vulnerable grieving families are involved.Liz Cheney is being attacked (and here) for pointing out that Obama imposed the question of media coverage on the families by his presence at Dover. Seventeen out of the eighteen families of the fifteen soldiers and three DEA...

Photo credit Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2009 - President Barack Obama today signed the fiscal 2010 National Defense Authorization Act during a ceremony at the White House. Obama hailed the act, which contains $680.2 billion in military budget authority, as transformational legislation that targets wasteful defense spending. The president was accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, congressional leaders and other senior officials, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "There's still more waste we need to cut; there's still more fights that...

Barack Obama was nearly denied the photo-op he traveled to Dover Air Force Base for early this morning as all but one of the military and civilian families of the fallen refused permission for the media to report on the return of their loved ones.The sole family to allow media coverage was the family of Sgt. Dale R. Griffin.According to media reports, Griffin's casket was the last to be brought off the C-17 cargo plane that carried the bodies of 15 soldiers and 3 DEA agents killed this week in Afghanistan.That is a stark contrast to the reported 60% approval...

Obama Visits Returning War Dead JEFF ZELENY October 29, 2009 President Obama left the White House late Wednesday to take an overnight trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the bodies of 18 American troops killed in Afghanistan on Monday were returning to the United States. The White House did not announce the trip in advance and kept details of the visit closely held. The president, wearing a dark suit and long overcoat, left the White House at 11:44 p.m. Also along for the trip was a small contingent of reporters and photographers who had been summoned to...

Bret Baier just said on Special Report that senior officials are telling various news outlets that Obama is going to ask for 20,000 more troops for Afghanistan. Nothing up on the website yet or anywhere else- just reported. Expect to hear the offical announcement within the week.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The White House said Tuesday that President Barack Obama would approve the Defense Department's $680 billion budget for fiscal 2010, which includes funding to increase military personnel and support the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill also includes the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, also known as the Matthew Shepard bill, a Wyoming teen murdered in 1998 because he was a homosexual. The act provides additional support for local law enforcement and prosecutors to try violent crimes that are motivated by the victim's religion, color, gender, or sexual orientation. Obama will sign the 2010 National...

<p>Years ago, I bought an old Time magazine - the issue with the 1965 Man of the Year on the cover. I kept it around to remind me both of the fallibility of men, and, even, of Time magazine. It was of Gen. William Westmoreland. He was the Vietnam era's Gen. Stanley McChrystal.</p>