Killeen
– The “Daily Herald” reporter Phil Jankowski still sounded like
he couldn't believe it.
When he went through his U.S. Mail box earlier this
week, there was a letter containing an FBI transcript of an
unpublished Al Jazeera interview Maj. Abu Nidal Malik Hasan gave over
the phone from the Bell County Jail on July 17, 2011.
“He
just sent it snail mail,” he told other reporters at the digital
media center on post Wednesday, July 31, during a break in a
pre-trial hearing in Hasan's case.
“I
could hardly believe it,” Mr. Jankowski said. “I opened it, and
here he had scrawled across the top, 'Release authorized,' and his
signature. I realized I was holding an historical document.”
In
the interview, the Al Jazeera correspondent asks if there is anything
else he has to say, and Hasan told him he was giving him an
exclusive, that he expected him to publish all of his remarks, in
full.
If
not, he warned, “I may have to seek other avenues.”
Instead,
Al Jazeera did nothing.
This
week, Hasan made a simultaneous release to Fox News.
In
a news article, Mr. Jankowski wrote that terrorism experts have
intimated to him that they feel since Hasan has been denied the
opportunity to present as his defense a motive of trying to save the
lives of fellow Al Qaeda and Taliban jihadists by attacking soldiers
about to be deployed at Ft. Hood in Nov., 2009, he is seeking to
launch his message of Islamic jihad through the media.
In
the beginning of the interview, Hasan asks the Al Jazeera reporter if
he has cleared his request with his superiors.
“I
did speak with them and – uh – we can't sacrifice our right to
editorial control...no credible news organization will sacrifice
their editorial control...,” he replied. Hasan said he would take a
chance, and went ahead with the interview.
He
began by apologizing.
“I
would like to begin by repenting to Almighty Allah and apologize to
the Muhadgeen (phonetic)...the believers...and the innocent” for
“illegal and immoral aggression against Muslims.”
Operating
as United States Army psychiatrist, he explained, “My job was to
'conserve the fighting strength of military armed forces' and by
deceit 'to win the hearts and minds' of Muslims throughout the
world...”
He
told the interviewer that using Muslim soldiers to influence “naive
and desperate Muslims is a powerful strategy...”
Hasan also said that he had intended to read a similar statement during the Article 32 hearings that serve in military courts to discover the evidence that there is a probability that an offense took place. He said his lawyers, three Army Judge Advocate General Corps officers he later fired, were "dead set...dead set" against his doing that.
Hasan also said that he had intended to read a similar statement during the Article 32 hearings that serve in military courts to discover the evidence that there is a probability that an offense took place. He said his lawyers, three Army Judge Advocate General Corps officers he later fired, were "dead set...dead set" against his doing that.
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