A senior officer who was playing golf Thursday near Fort Hood, Texas, told CNN he witnessed the arrest of one of the two surviving suspects of the shooting at the Army installation.
Shortly after the shooting, the officer said, military police told him to clear the course and he saw other MPs surround the building that held the golf carts, he said.
The senior officer said he ducked into a nearby house for cover as 30 to 40 cars carrying MPs approached.
He said he saw a soldier in battle-dress uniform, his hands in the air. The MPs ordered him to lie on the ground and open his uniform, presumably to ensure he was not carrying explosives, the senior officer said.
Puppet Masters
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After days of negotiations, the Pentagon and Justice Department informed a Senate committee that they would not comply with congressional subpoenas to share investigative records from the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., which killed 13 people. The agencies said that divulging the material could jeopardize their prosecution of Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the accused gunman.
Comment: Alternatively, divulging the material could jeopardize their cover story that Hasan acted alone (or at all).
The Pentagon did budge in other areas, however, saying it had agreed to give the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs access to Hasan's personnel file, as well as part of an Army report that scrutinized why superiors failed to intervene in Hasan's career as an Army psychiatrist, despite signs of his religious radicalization and shortcomings as a soldier.
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Thus the US government urgently needs to punish the transgressor - to hell with evidence - to maintain its ''credibility''. But this time it will be ''limited''. ''Tailored''. Only ''a few days''. A ''shot across the bow'' - as POTUS qualified it. Still, some - but not all - ''high-value targets'', including command and control facilities and delivery systems, in Syria will have to welcome a barrage of Tomahawk cruise missiles (384 are already positioned in the eastern Mediterranean).
We all know how the Pentagon loves to christen its assorted humanitarian liberations across the globe with names like Desert Fox, Invincible Vulture or some other product of brainstorming idiocy. So now it's time to call Operation Tomahawk With Cheese.
It's like ordering a pizza delivery. ''Hello, I'd like a Tomahawk with cheese.'' ''Of course, it will be ready in 20 minutes.'' ''Hold on, wait! I need to fool the UN first. Can I pick it up next week? With extra cheese?''
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More than 50 percent of the country's healthcare infrastructure has been destroyed too. Here, a doctor sleeps in a waiting room in Aleppo last year.
More than 50 percent of the country's healthcare infrastructure has been destroyed too. Here, a doctor sleeps in a waiting room in Aleppo last year.
It's a sector that ought to be booming. Businessman Wissam* works in hospital supplies. He sells bandages, needles and disinfectants -- all products for which there is a great need in the increasingly bloody Syrian civil war. But unfortunately, Wissam has little opportunity to sell his wares.
"More than 50 percent of the Syrian healthcare system's infrastructure has been destroyed," says the man in his mid 40s. Of the 75 state-run hospitals, just 30 remain in operation. In the embattled city of Homs, just one of 20 hospitals remains open. The Al-Kindi Hospital in Aleppo, once the largest and most modern medical facility in the country, is now a pile of ash.
Wissam is matter-of-fact about the situation. The destruction of the hospitals is widespread, he says, and those who are injured or sick receive hardly any medical care. The business is "dying a slow death," he adds.
Comment: The West and the Gulf petro-monarchies must be proud of their campaign of death and destruction. Another destroyed country.
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German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle
Westerwelle stated in a partially reported interview with German newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung that such military action had "neither been asked nor is it being considered by us," according to comments published by the newspaper on the interview prior to its Saturday release.
The remarks come following a Russia-called UNSC meeting on Thursday on the developing situation in Syria failed to achieve any results.
The discussions, which lasted for less than an hour, ended as participants failed to reach a consensus with the ambassadors of China, France, Britain, Russia and the United States gradually leaving the talks.
The meeting was the second time the permanent UNSC members met to discuss a draft resolution on Syria submitted by Britain.
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Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov
"Russia opposes any resolution of the UN Security Council indicating the probability of the use of force [or] any resolution that could be used for military action against Syria," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Friday as cited in a report by the ITAR-TASS News Agency.
The remark came following an urgent meeting of UNSC's five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the US - ended Thursday without any agreement on the source of a recent chemical weapons use in Syria and a potential plan of action.
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Alan Grayson
Alan Grayson
The progressive Democrat told CNN he was opposed to a U.S. military strike against Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons.
"The administration would have to explain why this affects some vital American interest," Grayson said. "I haven't heard any discussion of that at all. I think the only people who really want in to happen are the military industrial complex. I just don't understand how this involves us, Americans."
Obama said Wednesday he was still undecided about an attack against Syria, but he also said the use of chemical weapons violated international norms and Syria needed to be punished.
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Having assumed for months that the United States was unlikely to intervene militarily in Syria, the Defense Department has been thrust onto a war footing that has made many in the armed services uneasy, according to interviews with more than a dozen military officers ranging from captains to a four-star general.
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Britain's sudden withdrawal came after Prime Minister David Cameron, deserted by rebels in his own Conservative Party, lost a parliamentary vote for provisional authorization for military action in Syria.
Assad is now under fire for mass murdering his own civilians, as he fights an internal war to keep his position of power. Even Obama has called for Assad to go.
In February 2009, Kerry led a delegation there to engage Syria. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told visiting US members of Congress on Saturday that the United States should 'move away from a policy based on dictating decisions.' Assad's guests on Saturday included US Senator John Kerry, who headed the third delegation this week to call on the Syrian president's door as Washington reviews its policies toward countries the previous administration regarded as hostile. Assad told his visitors that future relations should be based on a 'proper understanding' by Washington of regional issues and on common interests, SANA news agency reported," AFP reported at the time.
Comment: This doesn't fit with the official story. But then, mass shootings rarely do in the U.S.
Reviving the War of Terror: Patsy framed in Secret Team psy-op to generate public support for wars