Pentagon Hit Over Ft. Hood Shooting as 'Workplace Violence'

Original Post: News Room America

(Newsroom America) -- Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are blasting the Pentagon for classifying the Ft. Hood, Texas shootings by a radicalized Muslim officer as "workplace violence," saying it amounts to little more than political correctness run amok.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, criticized the Defense Department classification on Wednesday during a joint session of the Senate and House Homeland Security Committee, saying the White House was also at fault for failing to identify the threat as radical Islam.

Thirteen people were killed and scores more wounded when Maj. Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, went on a shooting rampage allegedly inspired by radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in late September, Fox News reported.

The men exchanged as many as 20 emails, authorities have said, and Awlaki declared Hasan a hero.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said the U.S. military has become "a "direct target of violent Islamist extremism" within United States borders.

"The stark reality is that the American service member is increasingly in the terrorists' scope and not just overseas in a traditional war setting," Lieberman told Fox News.

Authorities have arrested a number of suspects who have been linked to planned attacks on U.S. servicemembers.

In June, two men were charged with planning to attack a military facility in Seattle, Wash., with guns and grenades. In July, Army Pvt. Naser Abdo was accused of plotting a second Fort Hood attack. And in November, New York City police arrested Jose Pimentel, who has been accused of planning to attack military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"There is a serious threat within the military from people who have enlisted who are radical jihadists," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

"The Defense Department is very concerned about them. They feel they're a threat to the military both for what they can do within the military itself and also because of the weapons skills they acquire while they're in the military," he said.