Souder sounds off on Fort Hood

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Indiana Third District Congressman Mark Souder isn't holding back his thoughts on the Fort Hood tragedy or the suspected shooter, Major Nidal Hasan.
 

"It was outrageous that our FBI director said we're not even going to look into whether this was a terrorist threat," Souder told NewsChannel 15 Tuesday. "Now we're learning that he [Hasan] may have approached Al Qaeda; he may have been connected on the internet."

Souder says it's not clear yet if Hasan was a "plant" of a terrorist network or a "copycat", meaning he acted alone but could have been inspired by terrorists.

Regardless, Souder says the incident shows a need for the military to "be very careful how we sort through the very loyal, pro-American people of Arab descent from those who may be Muslim who are out to basically blow up our own military from inside."

Souder says wants to make it clear he's not saying all Muslims are bad or that Arab Americans should be shunned. But he says the military must be more careful about who's on its bases if it's going to continue to keep troops unarmed on those bases. "We've got to know if there's somebody inside the base who can kill them," said Souder. "Clearly we're going to have to have more monitoring."

Souder said he expects the military to make those monitoring changes almost immediately and that he expects the changes to be "fairly intense."

He also said he's particularly disturbed that Hasan was counseling troops who were having problems dealing with war. Given Hasan's anti-war position, Souder said he doesn't see how that counseling could have been helpful.