Fort Hood and Purple Hearts

Floor Speech

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.

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.

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