RUSH: Pete Hoekstra, a Republican from Michigan — you know, they’ve been looking at this Nidal Hasan guy. Have you seen the video of his apartment? There’s nothing in there! It looks like he’s living in abject poverty, but he was making almost six figures a year. So Pete Hoekstra said sources outside the intelligence community learned about Hasan’s possible connections to Pakistan. He might have been wiring money to Pakistan, which, of course, is facing a massive Islamist insurgency, widely believed to be Osama Bin Laden’s hiding place. Ed Morrissey has this at HotAir.com: ‘This would appear to indicate that Nidal Hasan was something other than a loner who cracked under the strain of vicarious PTSD. The man who made a $90,000 annual salary but lived like a pauper may have sent money to Pakistan, according to Rep. Pete Hoekstra. That would explain one mystery that has arisen since the shooting, but apparently didn’t push anyone to connect a few dots before it. Hasan’s finances have been a mystery since last week, when the Army major and psychiatrist allegedly shot –‘ he’s now been charged, by the way, with 13 counts of murder.
‘Hasan earned more than $90,000 a year and had no dependents, yet lived in an aging one-bedroom apartment that rented for about $300 a month. So now we have the possibility of overseas money transfers to Pakistan at about the same time the FBI was made aware of repeated communication between Hasan and a 9/11 figure in Yemen. Meanwhile, Hasan — a well-paid medical professional — lived a lifestyle of near-poverty despite living by himself. And no one in the intelligence community thought this required further investigation?’ Is this really just political correctness? By gosh, I hope that’s all it is because if there’s something else going on here, folks, we are in more trouble than I even want to contemplate. If we have militant Islamists in the United States military who are known or highly suspected to be militant Islamists and we’re looking the other way, despite all kinds of evidence that should be sounding warning bells and raising red flags, you have to wonder, is this just political correctness and incompetence going on? Boy, I hope it’s just PC. It’s bad enough if that’s what it is ’cause that’s going to be tough to fix. But if it’s something else, as in this is purposeful, then we got a bigger problem than you can possibly imagine. As I say, I hope it’s not that.
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RUSH: Brenda in Upland, California, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you?
RUSH: Fine and dandy. Appreciate your call.
CALLER: Thank you. I was calling about the think tank that Major Hasan was in that you mentioned yesterday.
RUSH: Yeah, the George Washington University International Policy Center for Strategic and International Social Studies, self-defense studies, foreign policy studies, whatever —
CALLER: (laughing) No, nonpartisan, nonpartisan —
RUSH: Nonpartisan, but it was an eight-month long or nine-month long transition seminar.
CALLER: Yes. And, you know, I got a PDF copy of it and I started reading it, and I thought it was really, really interesting. I mean their suggestions here of course is closing Gitmo, relabeling the global war on terror. Where we heard that before? They talk about man-made disasters versus natural disasters. I mean to their credit, they actually use the word terrorism in this report, but they call it a major hazard and say that it is not an existential threat to the US because we’re too big and too populous. But keep it all in the context of this was crafted and formulated with a terrorist! Hello!
RUSH: And somebody who at the time was known to be one, or at least consorting with them and e-mailing them, and now we have learned perhaps even sending them moola.
CALLER: Sending money to Pakistan. It’s unbelievable. How did we get to a point in this country where a terrorist can help shape our foreign policy and our domestic policy?
RUSH: Especially before Obama was elected, I know.
CALLER: Yes. Oh, yes, I understand that Obama didn’t appoint him to this but —
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: — this proposal was given, it was set up to give to the next administration, and as I read off, you can see that large portions of this have been incorporated into where we’re at today. (dog barking)
RUSH: That’s why I said this is almost too frightening to contemplate. By the way, what kind of dog you got back there?
CALLER: I’m sorry. She’s a Chihuahua.
RUSH: Oh, no wonder. You got a yapper.
CALLER: Oh, well, she just decided to start when I got on the phone.
RUSH: Right, because she jealous.
CALLER: (laughing) Nani. Thank you.
RUSH: You’re not paying enough attention to her.
CALLER: I know, I know, she’s terrible. She’s terribly spoiled.
RUSH: Well, what animal isn’t that lives in a home.
CALLER: (laughing) That’s true.
RUSH: That’s what they’re for. When I saw the possibility this guy is sending money to Pakistan, here’s a guy being paid in US tax dollars, he’s Palestinian, born in America but he’s Palestinian, he’s shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and everybody that was involved from all the agencies — the Army, the Pentagon, the FBI — they knew this, I don’t know about the money, but they knew it and they said, ‘Well, the Constitution, the First Amendment, we can’t do anything about this, it doesn’t rise to the level of a threat.’ And I’m thinking I just hope it’s PC that hamstrung these people, ’cause if it’s something other than that, if it was a willful look the other way, we’re in trouble, folks.
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RUSH: Now, I think the Washington Post has an interesting story on this Nidal Hasan thing. Intelligence officer unnamed said that since the FBI was in on much of this, it may be that things were treated as a criminal inquiry, where you have to deal with reasonable doubt, all kinds of restrictions, rather than terrorism. This is why the left wing’s prosecution of terrorism as a criminal matter is not going to stop terrorism from taking place.
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RUSH: Jennifer in Butler, New Jersey. You’re next. Great to have you here with us.
CALLER: Yes. Good afternoon. It is great to speak with you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Yes. I love listening how you point out the facts that are true in this country, and I’d like to find out why people won’t open up their eyes — and why they’re so naive — to see that all President Obama is spending money like he has a credit card with no limits.
RUSH: I think more and more people do. Look, I’ve seen polling data. We just had polling data from Ohio. He’s losing that state. Rob Portman is leading both Democrats for the 2010 Senate race — and Rob Portman is a great guy. He’s a Reagan capitalist and free market guy. I’ve met him a couple times. He’s tremendous. Obama’s barely holding at 50% approval. He has total disapproval on his health care and cap and trade bills. In Ohio — and the Democrats owned Ohio in 2006 and 2008 — I think more and more people are figuring this out, more and more people are worried to death. You’re always going to have 30% of the population that doesn’t care, that’s not ideological, that’s not even paying enough attention to care. But the remaining 70% — and I’m guessing at these percentages. But believe me, there’s tremendous upset out there. It’s just that these people don’t have a repository for their emotion. There’s no singular Republican out there that is willing to run around and act on their anger.
CALLER: Yeah. What they have to realize is that we’re going to be the ones who are going to be held responsible for all the injuries that he is accumulating on the government, you know, deficit and so forth. It’s ridiculous.
RUSH: Who’s going to be held accountable?
CALLER: We are, because we’re going to have to pay back to make up —
RUSH: Oh.
CALLER: — for what the government owes.
RUSH: Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Yeah, we’re all going to be destitute. If not destitute, the opportunities for prosperity and success are going to be so limited. I mean, the government is using up all the money. There isn’t any in the private sector to lend. There isn’t any in the private sector to borrow, or very little. I mean, it is a bad situation. We’re not going to be ‘held responsible,’ we’re going to bear the brunt of it.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: What you want is for Obama to be held responsible for it.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: And there’s still time to do something about this debt in 2010, if Republicans can emerge victorious there. Look, I appreciate the call, Jennifer. Thanks very much.
CALLER: Have a nice day.
RUSH: You bet. Let’s see… Ernest in Sundown, Texas. You are up. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Hello, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I have been waiting to talk to you for 21 years.
RUSH: Well.
CALLER: (chuckles)
RUSH: And now it’s happened.
CALLER: And I don’t want to be off topic because you’ve been talking about the deficit.
RUSH: There is no topic. There is no topic. Talk about whatever you want.
CALLER: Well, I was just telling Mr. Snerdley and I wanted to tell you, that I think a lot of the mainstream media is skewing the facts on this Major Hasan issue, and I’m in total agreement with you. I read your statements yesterday. I don’t get to listen to you every day. I wanted to preface what I had to say first before I get to my talking points. I don’t get to listen to you every day so the left-wing media can’t call me one of these radical extremists, okay? I’m very conservative, Republican, and I have to give you kudos since I’ve been listening to you since 1988 I think it was when you came on?
RUSH: That’s right. That’s exactly right.
CALLER: I was sitting around the table with some friends of mine with a little carry-around pocket radio, and I heard somebody saying what we thought and felt. I had lived overseas. I know these people, so I’m not talking like some kind of right-wing extremist radical.
RUSH: There are no right-wing extremist radicals in this audience.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: You aren’t one.
CALLER: (laughing) They can call me that if they want to.
RUSH: Don’t worry about what they call you!
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Screw them! I get so sick and tired of people caring about the media. They are who they are.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: You know, we’re not going to change the devil. Anybody expect the devil to change?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: No. And I don’t expect the Islamic radicals to change.
RUSH: No.
CALLER: And not all Muslims are radical. I understand that, too. I’ve worked with some. But the compassion part of Islam stops at about Surah Number Nine. The rest of it is by the sword. Anybody who’s read Robert Spencer and seen some of his stuff will know for sure. I’ve lived it personally. I was in Libya when Moammar Gadhafi took over in 1969. I have been in the middle of it. I was a teenager, but I have been in the middle of these riots. I have feared for my life (voice breaking) and these people here in this country need to wake up and realize it. If I had done this, if I had done anything similar to this —
RUSH: I know, I know.
CALLER: — when I was in the service, I would be in Fort Leavenworth.
RUSH: Yeah. Me with you.