September 17, 2013, - 3:12 pm
Is America Just Incompetent? Aaron Alexis Case Just Another Example of Our Desperate-But-Not-Serious Govt
So let me get this straight: a guy who had mental problems, said he was hearing voices, claimed to have PTSD, had repeated incidents of misconduct while in the Navy (EIGHT of them!), and was arrested twice in recent years over gun issues, is not only honorably discharged from the Navy but gets secret security clearance to go back to work on a Navy base. HUH?????
Is America just incompetent? Just not serious about national security or even just the security of our servicemen on military bases? It sure looks like that’s the case. Otherwise, how do you explain the access and security clearance that Navy Yard assassin Aaron Alexis had? How do you explain that he was assigned to begin work at the Navy Yard? How does this happen?
On the other hand? How did Nidal Malik Hasan happen? How did Edward Snowden happen? Clearly, we are a nation that is desperate but not serious about national security, about background checks for men and women given access to high-security information and government and military installations. The Pentagon increased security on military bases after Hasan’s jihadist massacre at Fort Hood. But the increased security is useless if guys like Alexis are given carte blanche credentials for easy entry to those bases.
And if Alexis, Hasan, and Snowden can get easy access to bases and secret and top secret information, so can Al-Qaeda (for whom Hasan was basically working). And that’s probably happening as you read this.
We are clearly a nation of clowns, of Keystone Kops. Our Swiss-cheese-porous borders indicate that, Hasan indicated that, Snowden indicated that. And, now, Alexis indicates that.
The question is: what are we gonna do about it? Answer: nothing. A buncha Republicans will grandstand (Peter King of New York alert!), and, then, they’ll do nothing after the camera lights get turned off. Then, it’s back to biz as usual, as it has been since 9/11. Security theater is just that. And government contractors will continue to collect gazillions of dollars doing waste-of-time, useless background checks, rubber-stamping guys like Aaron Alexis for more access to America’s military basis and intelligence.
And you wanna trust these guys to do background checks of illegal alien terrorists seeking amnesty?
Good luck with that.
G-d save this desperate, sinking nation.
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One other thing: why did Aaron Alexis shoot the place up? Was it just because “he’s crazy”? Or did someone convince him to do it? We have no motive here.
But we do know that the Al-Qaeda manual urges jihadists to recruit crazy people to carry out jihad. That way, when the crazy person is found out or caught, it can be easily dismissed as “the actions of a crazy person.” As I’ve noted on this site, the Detroit Al-Qaeda terror cell did that, recruiting several crazies, who were later discredited as “crazies.” One of them “jumped” (probably thrown) to his death off the Detroit-Windsor Ambassador Bridge.
Tags: Aaron Alexis, Aaron Alexis background check, Aaron Alexis Navy Yard, Aaron Alexis Navy Yard shooting, Aaron Alexis Secret Clearance, Aaron Alexis security clearance, Navy Yard, Navy Yard shooting
I completly agree with everything you pointed out. Coming from a military backgraound in the USAF, Security Specialist Field and having a secret clearance and being a current police detective gathering gang inteligence, it is beyond my comprhension how this man could work for the Navy as a contractor w/ a dishonerable discharge. I am eager and interested to learn more. The criminals, crazies and crusaders are what terrorist are. We need to take national security seriously. Not by disarming innocent law abiding citizens, but by overhauling the mental health system, sure up our boarders and complete background checks. Checks and balances and accountability for those background checks. We make a lot of excuses in this great country or ours. Every other nation in the world takes national security seriously. We will continue to become victims of senseless murdering rampages, unless we tighten things up from the top down.
MW: Incredibly, he was honorably discharged, according to media reports. DS
Mark Wassmer on September 17, 2013 at 3:44 pm