Fort Hood victim calls for stronger vetting after Saudis at NAS Pensacola are accused of extremist ties
Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, a victim of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, says the applicant screening process at military bases needs to be scrubbed and replaced with a more stringent policy.
More than a decade after the Fort Hood shooting, foreigners are still being allowed onto U.S. military bases without proper vetting, retired Army Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford said Monday on “Fox & Friends.”
Lunsford, who was wounded in 2009 in Texas by former Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, reacted to reports that more than a dozen Saudi service members undergoing training at U.S. military facilities are expected to be expelled from the U.S. following an investigation into last month’s deadly shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida.
“We spoke about it then, that we needed to have a stronger vetting process with service members that are training with our forces here on our soil. … Nothing has changed,” he said, stressing that the gunman in Florida was able to legally purchase a weapon.
“That needs to change,” he added.
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None of the Saudis targeted for expulsion is accused of aiding the Saudi second lieutenant whom authorities say killed three U.S. sailors and injured eight other people in the Dec. 6 rampage, CNN reported. But some of them were found to have ties to extremist groups and others are accused of possessing child pornography, the report said.
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The Justice Department is also expected to conclude that the Pensacola attack was an act of terrorism, CNN reported. The FBI has been investigating the case as possible terrorism since discovering writings by the gunman, who was killed by sheriff’s deputies, The Washington Post reported.
Following the attack, about a dozen Saudi trainees were confined to their quarters in Pensacola as the FBI investigated the shooting as a possible terror attack and the Pentagon launched a review of some 850 Saudis undergoing training throughout the U.S., the report said.
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Lunsford said law-abiding Americans have to “jump through hoops” to purchase a weapon or obtain a concealed-carry permit, yet the Pensacola gunman was able to buy one to carry out his attack on U.S. sailors. He said not all foreign trainees from “friendly nations” are supportive of the U.S. military.
“We need to today, sit down and look at the policy that we’re using to screen these trainees. We need to scrub that and start over from scratch and make it more stringent and more structured so we do not have this happen again,” said Lunsford, adding that in his case, the military “passed the buck” despite numerous red flags about Nidal Hasan’s support for terrorists.
Fox News’ Dom Calicchio contributed to this report.
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