The debt ceiling is dominating national media coverage right now, but the arrest of Private Naser Jason Abdo on suspicion of planning a second attack on Fort Hood is going to become focus in the next few weeks. In the aftermath of Nidal Malik Hasan's rampage that killed 13 people in 2009, Republicans argued that "political correctness" was hampering the government's ability to identify extremists before they acted. Conservatives were already furious that Abdo had obtained conscientious-objector status based on his religious belief that he was prohibited from killing other Muslims, and they're likely to argue that the same problem was at work here, that Abdo's beliefs were obvious evidence of extremism, and that it was only fortune that stopped a second tragedy.
Erik Vasys, a spokesman for the FBI's San Antonio field office, said police in Killeen arrested Abdo after “concerned citizens” reported suspicious activity. After police determined that Abdo was wanted on the child pornography charge and was AWOL, they searched his motel room.
Investigators said that they found in Abdo's possession a copy of Inspire, the terror magazine published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, along with bomb-making materials. AQAP had previously urged American Muslims to act as lone-wolf terrorists and contained instructions on how to "build a bomb in the kitchen of your mom." The magazine is a pet project of extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
In 2010, Abdo reportedly wrote an essay calling Hasan's behavior "an act of aggression by a man and not by Islam." During his appearance in court this morning, he yelled out Hasan's name.
