[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 17684-17685]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      FORT HOOD AND PURPLE HEARTS

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, 4 years ago an Islamic radical who 
identified with Al Qaeda and supported the cause of global jihad opened 
fire at Fort Hood Army base in Killeen, TX. The shooter eventually 
killed 12 soldiers and 1 civilian, while wounding 30 others. He might 
have killed or wounded many more but for the selflessness of a civilian 
physician's assistant by the name of Michael Cahill and an Army captain 
named John Gaffaney, both of whom charged the gunman and gave their 
lives in order to save the lives of others.
  Four years later we continue to honor their tremendous sacrifice and 
we continue to honor the memories of all those who gave their lives or 
were injured on that awful day. Back in August, the Fort Hood shooter 
was sentenced to death for his crime and appropriately so. Let me be 
clear about what the nature of this crime was. This was not an ordinary 
criminal event. This was a terrorist attack, plain and simple, 
committed by a man who had reportedly had at least 20 different email 
communications with a senior Al Qaeda figure by the name of Anwar al-
Awlaki. The late Mr. Awlaki, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 
September 2011, also had contacts, well documented, with the so-called 
Underwear Bomber, who tried to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 
just 7 weeks after the massacre at Fort Hood.
  Following the Fort Hood attack, Awlaki celebrated the shooter as a 
hero. He called him a hero. He also told Al Jazeera that prior to the 
attack, the gunman had specifically asked him whether Islamic law 
justified ``killing U.S. soldiers and officers.''
  The Fort Hood shooter had repeatedly and unapologetically said that 
these terrible atrocities which included execution-style murders were 
just part of the larger jihad against the West, which is why he shouted 
``Allahu Akbar'' just before opening fire. The shooter has said that by 
slaughtering 13 Americans, including 12 uniformed military members and 
1 civilian, he was defending ``the Islamic Empire'' and ``helping my 
Muslim brothers.''
  In short, the Fort Hood massacre was not an episode of workplace 
violence. This was a terrorist attack inspired by terrorist propaganda 
and carried out by someone who was an agent of Al Qaeda and viewed 
himself as an Al Qaeda holy warrior.
  Unfortunately, the U.S. Government so far has refused to give the 
kind of recognition that is deserved to the 12 uniformed servicemembers 
who gave their lives, and those who were injured on that terrible day. 
Part of that recognition should include Purple Hearts to the soldiers 
who lost their lives that day, and not given the civilian equivalent, 
the Medal for the Defense of Freedom, to Michael Cahill.
  In other words, the U.S. Government's official position is that this 
is not a terrorist attack on our own soil but instead is an ordinary 
criminal attack. That cannot stand. We cannot denigrate the service of 
those military members who lost their lives that day--and civilian hero 
Michael Cahill who lost his life--by saying that this is somehow 
workplace violence or some ordinary criminal attack. We need to 
officially recognize that this was a terrorist attack inspired by Al 
Qaeda and carried out by an agent of Al Qaeda on our own soil.
  Some will tell you that Purple Hearts can be awarded to victims of a 
terrorist attack only if the perpetrators of that attack were acting 
under the direction of a foreign terrorist organization. In their view, 
the Fort Hood shooter does not qualify. This argument fails to take 
into account the evolving nature of the conflict--the global war on 
terrorism.
  After all, Al Qaeda leader al-Zawahiri has urged his followers to 
conduct exactly the kind of deadly attacks that occurred at Fort Hood 
in 2009 and at the Boston Marathon in 2013. Al-Zawahiri believes that 
such ``dispersed,'' small-scale attacks will ``keep America in a state 
of tension and anticipation.''
  As he declared a few months ago, ``These dispersed strikes can be 
carried out by one brother, or a small number of brothers.'' In other 
words, it doesn't make sense to distinguish so-called lone wolf 
terrorists acting on behalf of Al Qaeda from other terrorists with a 
more explicit Al Qaeda affiliation.
  Remember, Al Qaeda doesn't issue business or calling cards, and it 
doesn't issue its staff IDs. What it does do is urge Islamic radicals 
around the world to pick up arms and kill Americans, and that is what 
Major Hasan did that terrible day 4 years ago at Fort Hood in Killeen, 
TX. For that matter, Al Qaeda views American soil as a primary 
battleground in its war against western civilization.

[[Page 17685]]

  When courageous members of our military lose their lives to Al Qaeda-
inspired terrorists, whether it is abroad or here at home, they deserve 
to receive Purple Hearts, and their grieving families deserve to 
receive the proper benefits accorded to all men and women in our 
military who lose their lives in service to their country.
  It should not matter whether they lose their lives in America--
whether it is in New York on 9/11 or Killeen, TX, 4 years ago--or on 
the battlefield in Afghanistan. It should not make any difference where 
they lose their life as part of the effort to protect innocent life in 
the war on terrorism. If they are killed by a terrorist committing 
violence on behalf of foreign jihadists, then they are casualties in 
the broader war on terrorism, and they deserve to be treated as such.
  Earlier this year I introduced legislation that would make the Fort 
Hood victims eligible for all of the honors and benefits available to 
their fellow U.S. servicemembers serving overseas in combat zones. My 
cosponsors in the House are Representatives Carter and Williams, and 
they have numerous cosponsors. Today I am offering a modified version 
of that legislation as an amendment to the Defense authorization bill. 
By enacting this amendment, Congress would honor the memories of those 
who lost their lives at Fort Hood, and it would help their surviving 
family members, all of whom, as you can imagine, have experienced 
tremendous pain and hardship as a result of this terrorist act on our 
own soil 4 years ago in Fort Hood, Killeen, TX, at the hands of MAJ 
Nidal Hasan, an agent of Al Qaeda, to be sure, and someone who deserves 
the penalty of death that has been meted out by a military jury a few 
weeks ago.
  I hope the Senate will rise up in a bipartisan way and pass this 
important legislation and erase these meaningless distinctions which 
differentiate between those who lose their lives in Afghanistan and 
those who lose their lives here on American soil. It is a just and 
well-deserved honor that these patriots have earned by their own blood, 
and these families deserve as a way of ameliorating some of the 
terrible loss they have suffered in their own service to our country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.

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