Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Fort Hood shooter inquiry: OK to shoot my comrades?

A little news item on Christmas Eve jumped out at me: The Fort Hood shooter wrote to his radical Islamic cleric pen pal to ask what Islamic law says about Muslim soldiers in the American military who kill their comrades. Hmm — you think that was a warning sign? By coincidence, the pen pal cleric ...

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for NASCAR
Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for NASCAR
Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for NASCAR

A little news item on Christmas Eve jumped out at me: The Fort Hood shooter wrote to his radical Islamic cleric pen pal to ask what Islamic law says about Muslim soldiers in the American military who kill their comrades. Hmm -- you think that was a warning sign?

A little news item on Christmas Eve jumped out at me: The Fort Hood shooter wrote to his radical Islamic cleric pen pal to ask what Islamic law says about Muslim soldiers in the American military who kill their comrades. Hmm — you think that was a warning sign?

By coincidence, the pen pal cleric may have been killed in an airstrike.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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