Lenny Ignelzi, Jim Rider, John Smierciak, Colin Braley ASSOCIATED PRESS
President says lawmakers should 'resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater.' Meanwhile on Saturday, families and friends said goodbye to, clockwise from top left: Captain John Gaffaney, at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego; Staff Sgt. Justin DeCrow, in Plymouth, Ind.; Pfc. Michael Pearson, at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill.; and Pfc. Aaron Nemelka, in Riverton, Utah. MORE
Obama urges Congress to put off Fort Hood inquiry
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, November 15, 2009
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their investigations into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead.
On an eight-day Asia trip, Obama turned his attention home and said lawmakers should "resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater." He said those who died on the nation's largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft.
"The stakes are far too high," Obama said in a video and Internet address released by the White House while the president was flying from Tokyo to Singapore, where Pacific Rim countries were meeting.
Across the country, many people stood before flag-draped coffins during funeral services Saturday for victims of the Fort Hood shootings. Family members, friends, fellow soldiers and strangers came to pay respects to those who died in the Nov. 5 attack.
Funerals were planned Saturday for Staff Sgt. Amy Krueger of Kiel, Wis.; Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19, of West Jordan, Utah; Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow, 32, of Evans, Ga.; Capt. John Gaffaney, 56, of San Diego County, Calif.; Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, of Frederick, Okla.; and Pfc. Michael Pearson, 22, of Bolingbrook, Ill.
Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, faces 13 counts of murder in the shootings at Fort Hood. Army investigators say Hasan is the only suspect, and that he could face additional charges.
Obama already had ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies. Several members of Congress, among them Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have also called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan's contacts with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen and others of concern to the US.
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