gone awry. time after time, flags coming up about he is defending bin laden. he is proselytizing. nobody wants to deal with it. is the military changing its strategy in dealing with people that they perceive to be >> sir, again as i reiterate a lot this morning. our behavior captures all the key indicators that we believe would indicate someone is going to have a path. and to answer your question further about the information sharing between the department and the services and the f.b.i., i would be glad to share specific examples with you in the closed hearing about how that process now works much more effectively.

>> fort hood is personal to me. i was with a father of a young man who was still waiting word whether his son was dead or alive. so we suffered through this. i know you wanted to get it right. let that be the last case of active domestic terrorism. i'm based in the niagara falls air force base. through the hearings that we've had since my brief six months on this committee i've learned a lot. there is a hezbollah threat facing us from toronto. homeland security has reported there are more threats to terrorist along the northern

border than the southern border. we've got a large ex opinions of land in canada which is virtually unprotected. do you feel there is an additional threat and are ationdl safe guards being taken to protect them? mr. secretary? >> base commanders have the obligation to not only take the general guidance that the department of diff applies but to take in local threats, local circumstances as a factor in building their receive anti-terrorist force packages. i would say yes indeed, along the northern border, other specific areas that are challenges. base commanders are required to take those special circumstances into account. >> thank you. >> ma'am, i would like to say,

u.s. northern command is more common. has the authority to set the force protection conditions and of course their a.o.r. includes the northern and southern borders. so i think they do very well. >> thank you. >> in addition to that i would add that there's been a significant movement in northern border between agency with the u.s. attorney's office to share information and to make that available. so to take a look at that is really helping our understanding that are needed to address this problem. >> i understand that today's hearing is focused on a threat to our domestic bases. i'm also very concerned about our bases overseas. we have lost nine c.i.a. members because of threats that became reality. and i want to make sure that our focus is not limited to our bay bases here because we have men and women serve in harms' way

elsewhere. we have to protect them from the threats as well and i hope we're taking a holistic approach to this. my area has been affected by really the first known domestic after 9/11, which is the case. we have people that lived in our backyard that went over and trained with osama bin laden and they knew there was going to be an attack before 9/11. those people have been prosecuted, sent to jail and now have been very helpful to us. that case aside i want to make sure there's no place elsewhere people are engaging in activity. i understand that, you understand the issues of fort hood and i'm pleased to hear we can all agree this should never happen again. i yield back the balance of my time. >> i will note she was too modest to point out that her husband is one of the lead

prosecutors in northern new york. i would like to ask it'll panel to step down, but ask them to remain for the closed session to follow. the testimony questioning of the next within. >> now pleased to welcome mr.

long, the father of young andy long, and has a distinguished record of service to his country. that includes 17 years of enlisted service in the united states marine corps and 10 years as an officer. during his military career, mr. long served nearly eight years overseas and nearly 19 years in the operating forces of the fleet marine force. in addition to his extensionive oversea service with the federal government, mr. long spent his childhood in afghanistan and has visited roughly 50 countries, including pakistan, india, yemen, libya, syria, iraq and iran. between him and his wife janis, his family has been connected with the armed forces since 1918. i would like to acknowledge the presence of mr. melvin bledsoe

who is seated directly behind mr. long. he testified this year. he is the father of carlos bledsoe who has been convicted of murdering mr. long's son. mr. bledsoe's presence here and in support of mr. long is a testament to how two fathers stand together in the fight against violent islamist extremism. thank you for being here today, thank you for your testimony back in march. now i am privileged to recognize mr. long for his opening statement. >> chairman, ranking member thompson, distinguished members of congress, since my son's death, my view of things have changed. i've lane awake to my life's night maver when she relives being 50 feet away while andy and quentin are shot. i was a career marine. my wife served in the navy, was

honor bli discharged. our family has served various military branches since world war i. we have one son who served in iraq and one son who is buried in the ground. my faith in government is diminished. perpetrators speak free freely using the very words offensive to justify their actions. clarity is absent, little rock is a drive buy, fort hood is just work place violence. three days after andy died it was reported on the internet by major garrett who stated the white house had released a statement on the little rock shootings. but only to arkansas news outlets, if they asked for one. according to garrett the white house didn't think there was much interest in the story otherwise. we believe the push from certain press outlets and talk radio put pressure on a white house of the president's response on a

terrorist attack against abortion doctor which starkly contrasted with the statement on the killing and wounding of american soldiers in america's heartland. the white house issued a letter of condolence, we received a personal phone call from the president. the president's press statement is absent from the white house website. two new jersey men, 14 minnesota men, arrested for planning to go to somalia, and two men in seattle planning on attacking a recruiting center all resulting from federal indictments in terrorism. the government caught him and sneaked him in to arraign him in a new york federal court. he now has all the legal rights of an american citizen while andy and quinton's rights bled out on the pavement in little rock. former homeland security tom ridge said we just got lucky hen the christmas day and new york

time bombers failed. luck is not an effective counter terrorism strategy. the latest fort hood was planned by a soldier he was painted as the peaceful muslim poster boy with principles. it is telling that his discharge was on hold because he was facing child pornography charges and was awol from fort campbell, kentucky. once again, federal terrorism charges. in an attack that resulted in the first death and wounding of american soldiers on u.s. soil since 9/11, action by the department of justice is absent. little rock is more than a drive by shooting. jihad in america has been down played by the federal government and the mainstream media causing change to the families involved,

as well as flat out lying to the american people. i am convinced the government's position is to deny little rock as a terrorist attack. by not being open, transparent and despite promises to do so to this administration's shame, two soldiers have been abandoned on the battlefield in thed a vament of a political agenda, november 5, 009. an attack took place at fort hood. in each place, still no federal indictment. my take is that if you plan or fail in a terrorist attack, you will be charged. but if you kill in this country under the battle and banner of jihad, we're told isn't terrorism. we firmly believe if the white house had shown the same attitude concerning little rock as was shown in the killing of dr. keller, a clear message could have been sent. the political correctness exhibited by a government concerning anyone admitting the truth about islamic extremism,

warnings were ignored. he was able to openly praise little rock shootings in front of fellow army officers then commit his own jihad. the last planned attack in fort hood was stopped buzz an order citizen recognized the signs. if our government and press had done their jobs in calling out an honestly reporting on little rock, fort hood may have been avoided. the blatant masking and disregard of the facts not only endanger american citizens of nonmuslim faith. but those of muslim heritage who do not adhere to extremist beliefs. i grew up in afghanistan, living there for a decade. i've traveled over 50 countries. primarily many of them of muslim culture. i will not condemn the religious rights of over $1.5 billion.

but rational people do not deny these terrorist events were results of men who had adopted and were told is a particularly warped interpretation of their religion. the confusion being shown by our leaders is undermining the security and tears at the fabric of our nation. the message being sent to the military community denies these acts as terrorism. abdul, formerly carlos bledsoe was unquestionable bli a radicalized islamic extremist determined to wage jihad. my family kept silent for two years. we will not be silent again. we're speaking not out of hate but because our country needs to hear proof. this administration needs to head the words of first -- thank you. >> thank you for your testimony and your courage for being here today. thanks to your wife who is not

here, but as you have told us is the rock of the family. mr. long, one of the issues that struck us when mr. bledsoe testified back in march is why federal gfment, why the justice did not treat this as a terrorist prosecution. now if i could just say some of the things we've heard, the fact is the f.b.i. was aware of mr. bledsoe, the f.b.i. had been monitoring and then for whatever reason, appears the monitoring was pulled back. something was allowed to happen. and that rather than go through an embarrassing case or embarrassing prosecution it was deferred to the state. because i find it very unusual in the case where you had someone who was actually trained overseas, sent back here, carrying out a political, jihadist murder is not treated as a terrorist, as you said people getting on the plane to

go to so maulo are terrorists. can you tell us what you've learned in your investigation as to why this was not prosecuted as a terrorist event? >> i really cannot tell you why. ration people could not tell you why. we looked at what happened to my son, after quitting the -- he said he just doesn't rate it. second time he said we don't have enough information. so i sat down and went through the internet. abdul mouhammad has 38,300 entries on the internet alone. this is what i submitted to the secretary of the army. it was not to make the determined thing, it was to get the army to go through the regulation that was mentioned in here comes from army regulation 600, 822, paragraph 2-8. specifically says in the case of international terrorism, secretary of army has the

authority to do that. but it has to have an investigation done and submitted by security officer. to this point we still have no answer whether it's done. what we get now is just a criminal act. that denies the fact that abdul mouhammad flew to yemen on 9/11, 2007. 365 days, why would he pick that day? he's arrested on november 14, 2008. in his possession, he's got bomb making materials, he has awlaqi tapes, a fake smally passport. why would he have a fake a malia passport? he was going to somalia. i asked them that question, they said think couldn't say it. i've been to a malia, i've been

there. the average guy can't read. if you show him a piece of paper with a bunch of rubber stamps he's going to let you go through because he doesn't know whether it's his warlord or the next one who took care of it. he goes in a jail house and within hours an f.b.i. agent from nashville is interviewing him in yemen. on 9 february, this year, los angeles times reports that the federal government knew this guy was dangerously radicalized before he ever came back to the united states. the f.b.i. agent goes back in and says if you ever get out of this god forsaken place i'm going to hound you before you die. he's deported. i didn't know if the state department had anything to do with that. but also reports that under urging from the embassy he was

deported out of there rather than have a prison or a trial there. as of the hearings we had in here before, that mr. bledsoe testified at, the state department was involved in getting this guy here. now we're importing these people back in. he stays in memphis, moves to little rock within a month and gains over a thousand rounds of bullets buying in a parking lot an s.k.s. rifle, a .380 pistol and a .22 caliber rifle. and he decides to go on his jihad. when he bought the rifle and no one stopped him, he said it's on. this was his plan that he worked up according to his letters of commercial appeal while he was in the political prison in yemen with his fellow brother al qaeda people. the f.b.i., in a brief to the

national guard in little rock, called him an al qaeda adherent. the army, last august, put out a big training syllabus on how to deal with terrorism. part of that thing is they identified the little rock shootings as terrorism. they come back a letter to me saying this is just a criminal event. they don't get it both ways. he's left on the battlefield. took me two years to get these back. these are my son's dog tags. he wore these when he took four rounds of 7.62 amo from about three feet. on it there's the warrior creed, the last illini of it is, i will never leave a fallen comrade. well the army left him. >> the senator from connecticut,

mr. lieberman? >> thanks mr. chairman, and thanks to you chief long. thanks for having the courage to come before the committee to speak out in public. thanks for your eloquence. your statement was extremely powerful. it brings to mind -- people who were killed on 9/11 have had an influencing in shaping our government's reaction to 9/11. and thankfully this group of survivors that you're in is smaller, but i hope you'll think about being in contact with people, survivors of people who were lost at fort hood. and making yourself available, because your testimony is very

powerful. and it's real. it's what any of us would be thinking if we were sitting simply because he was wearing the uniform of the united states army. so i appreciate your testimony. it's very moving that mr. bledsoe is here and that you have established some kind of relationship after this tragedy. i'm sure he feels kind of pain that, it's a different kind of pain, but because of what his son has done. i want to say, before preparing for this hearing i did not know about this problem regarding the wording of the purple heart. in this case, maybe in fort hood, i think mr. chairman and ranking member thompson, just to echo what was said. we ought to get together.

i know there's an administrative process over there. i got worried hen i heard this described with the first panel that the language as it exists now in law and executive order in regulation regarding the rewarding of purple hearts has got congress in a box that nobody wants them to be in. because your son should obviously be awarded the purple heart. probably a little too quick, but i'm kind of wondering because there's a conference committee this afternoon on the department of defense authorization bills that have passed. i wonder, because i'm sure everybody will support this. i'm going to see if we can draft up some language that might be included in that conference report which hopefully will be patched by the end of this calendar year. if not, we'll do it separately as quickly as we can.

we argued a lot about how to handle detainees in the senate and the house on this bill i'm talking about, and one thing that was mentioned over and over again is that there is now a u.s. supreme court holding that says that an american citizen, such as mr. bledsoe, now also need as ab duled mouhammad, who is found to be an enemy combatent can be treated that way. in other words, as having committed an act of terrorism, perhaps in my opinion best being subject to military incarceration and the military tribunal. coming off of what you've experienced, i just want to ask you, i know you've spoken from your heart, and disappointment, anger about some of the things that the government has not done. have you received any support

and how sufficient has that support been from the u.s. government and other sources after the killing of your son? >> i believe if it was left up purely to the u.s. attorney's in arkansas, and the senior agent in charge of the f.b.i., this thing would have been in federal court. the army, i have to say in dealing with the casualty affairs officer, he happens to become a very good friend of mine. we've talked to each other on a weekly basis. he's got me pulled into the survivor outreach thing. i've talked to several other families. >> good. >> arkansas has lost around, i think at last count, 119 people that are connected with the war on terror. there are a lot of good things that have come out of this, as a part of it. but most of it's on a local

scale. >> yep. ok, my time's up. again i want to thank you. to the extent that it's possible, because it's not eedy. i know you've got a life of your own that you're living. the occasions that you can come forward and speak out, you can change the policy of this government, i believe. i thank you for being here today. >> thank you. >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. long, thank you for your service, thank you for coming to this joint hearing today. like my colleagues before me, we are deeply saddened by your tragic loss. i also want to say to tim and lieberman, i'm one of the on the

d.o.d. effort. and if there is a possibility that we can craft some language that would provide the relief for this family, and this situation, i would love to do it. >> thank you mr. thompson. let's work together today. >> i look forward to it. the board of public policy issue is i think also in conversation 250. i look forward to working with you on that. again, let me offer my personal condolences and sympathy for your loss. i look forward to doing everything to correcting the issues we have identified

because of this situation going forward. i yield back. >> i would like to point out that he fully supports the recommendation for a purple heart. i recognize the gentleman from minnesota. >> thank you mr. chairman. and thank you particular long for being here. and mr. bledsoe, thank you for being here as well. your combined efforts here, representing your son. you know, i just don't get it. military officer for 24 years. why your son has not received the purple heart. i don't understand it. after his arrest, mouhammad acknowledged the shooting of his men. he said he intended to kill as many army personnel as possible. he had a 747, two handguns, 562

rounds of amo and military books in his car. he said he had been sent by al qaeda and that the attack was justified according to azelalm i think laws and the islamic religion. jihad, to fight those who wage war. he recently returned after 16 months in yemen and was the first of two gun fight attacks in 2009. mouhammad was charged with capital murder, and 10 counts of unlawful possession of a weapon. he also faced 15 counts of engaging in a terrorist attack. i don't understand why the army has not gone ahead and offered your son the purple heart at the very least. >> they're looking at a state crime. >> correct. >> the portion they're talking on the terrorist threatening, that is gang-related. has to do it's a state law dealing with gang surpression. that you're targeting someone inside a house in a drive by

shooting type thing. the thing that i don't understand is that in mouhammad's own hand writing to the f.b.i., to the t.b.i., to the prosecutor, on 30, may, midnight. he started a jihad by shooting up a jewish rabbi's house in west little rock. he then drove to memphis. where he parked outside another jewish rabbi's house. but because the neighbors were too loud, he moved on. he then drove up to florence, kentucky, which was his first recruiting center he was planning on hitting but it was closed. in frustration he decided to come back to little rock. on the way he stopped by nashville and threw a bomb he had made in little rock at another rabbi's house in the west end of nashville.

it failed to explode. they have, my understanding is they have that in ed. me saw my son coming out of the recruiting center, and did his attack. at this point i'm sitting here looking, this guy is a 20%. his b.d.a. is 20%. the worst offense on the other 80%, material support for terrorism in that he provided his own body on 9/11, 2007 to these people in there. in a taped interview by the f.b.i. that was allowed in the trial in little rock, he specifically tells the f.b.i. that he went places in yemen. asked them what those places were. if you go back to the army doctrine, published in 2007, terrorism in the 21st century,

they specifically identified it as a front for radical jihadists and terrorists. this guy was there. there's nothing there. there's vineyards, lonnie00 mud huts run by and the same place john walker lynn went to for his training. where are these guys? where are they in here doing this stuff? >> well i can tell you sir, i will not leave your son behind. >> thank you, sir. >>ly take this as a personal challenge to me. and i'm very disappointed in the secretary of the army for not recognizing your son and i will

continue forth with that mission. >> thank you, sir. >> with that sir, i will yield back. >> i recognize the gentle lady from texas for five minutes. >> i mentioned earlier of our remorse and sympathy to your family. i want to thank you for not remaining silent. and the presence of mr. bledsoe acknowledges the pain he appearances as well. i think you were present in the room that those who are representing the united states military are certainly remorseful of this normality loss of life. and combined with that, i think the virtues of our constitution and the first amendment make us a great country and make us able to answer the concerns you have expressed. but i think we have a solution here. you have heard a senator, a

house member, another house member, another senator from arkansas, and a member from texas who experienced and mourned with those in fort hood going in a fast pace to resolve this. and i think because our country is new, not very new, at dealing with this issue of terrorism, our statutory laws may not have, in essence grappled with the change. anyone, as your son was and the other fallen soldier in uniform, in the action of their duty, andy and quentin clearly are defined as far as i'm concerned as fallen heroes. fort hood has the same crisis

and the same situation. i can't ask you why our soldiers were unarmed. i won't ask that question to you. a question that i raised. it's a policy on domestic territory, on the land of the united states. some americans would be wondering why did this happen, why weren't they armed? they have to understand that our soldiers are called to battle and out of our civilian government, we are not arming them. maybe in consideration of what we face, we have to look at those questions. the one thing i will hope, mr. long, is that from hearing from us today that your words that indicated that your faith in government is diminished will be some what, if i might say temp prate and you might see a glimmer of hope, and also a response to the activism of your family. i hope that will be something

you will come away from today. but i do want to ask this question, because out of your pain can come insight. you heard the open discussion beginning to look at a behavior of an individual in this instance, the perpetrator that you were dealing with, there were actions over and over again. and the behavior evidenced by captain hussain was not passed from one person to the next because there was no policy at that time. what other tool do you think we need when we begin to look at this domestic terrorism? recognizing the particular actor and associated with a particular style, but recognizing that this does not condemn muslims, muslim soldiers, muslim americans quhafment tools do we need, mr. long? >> first of all, mr. bledsoe and i both lost our sons that day. i'm very thankful for him being

there. the tools, i hear this discussion behavior tools. i'm a father. my kids come home, they do certain things, i know they've done something. but they're not going to tell us what they're doing. it takes me a while to figure out what they're doing. that's a neat kind of thing. sun tzuh came out 2,000 years ago. he said basically, in arkansas terms, if you know what the bad guys are doing and you know what you're doing, you're going to win all your wars. if you don't know, you're going to win half of them. but if you don't know what you're doing and you don't know what they're doing, you're going to lose everything. to me, the banishingment of certain terms and words, they were set up that mouhammad used. those aren't the words that i

used. in islamic law, in reliance to the traveler and warm peace in islam. describes jihad as a war against non-muslims. you can break that cycle. it has to be both, has to be concise. have to say the truth, work the truth. >> we're doing that here and we will not leave as my colleague said, your soldiers, your son and the other soldier and the soldiers at fort hood, we will not leave them behind. i think you have a chorus of support here today and i think by the end of this hearing we will have a resolution to honor all of those who fell in this type of action.

chairman, i thank you. i think we've learned a lot and we're ready to move forward as quickly as possible. with that, i yield back. >> i recognize mr. turner for five minutes. >> i thank you for your testimony mr. long. your elegant and spot on. i want to thank you for your service. and shining the lighten which problem. jihad is not clearly understood. and even the tools of jihad are not. takia -- >> yes, sir, i'm very well aware of that. >> the term for deceiving and fooling the enemy, the useful tool in jihad. one we should know a little more

about. again, i thank you for your testimony. god bless you and your family. i yield back. >> thank you. >> i recognize the gentle lady from california for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. first of all mr. chairman i would like to request unanimous consent to enter in a final statement for the record regarding our hearing today. >> without objection, so ordered. >> thank you sir. mr. long i would like to say that you can count on me in standing with my colleagues who have already spoken today in my effort as i will join with them for the proper recognition of your son in his service. and i want to thank you personally for your service and also for both of your sons. number two, i want to commit to you that i'm going to forward today your testimony when it is available to both the president and his administration with a personal note of what i personally heard you say here

today. you shouldn't have to say it time and time again, but i appreciate your willingness to continue to talk to us and to make sure that we're better informed and we don't make these same mistakes in the future. finally i want to thank you mr. king for your relationship with mr. long and for bringing him here today. it's these experiences that we as members of congress must know so that we can do better, and this administration is all do better. thank you sir for being here. >> mr. long, i'm not mr. king but i'm sitting here, i just happen to have my five minutes up at this point in time. mr. long, it's interesting. we can view certain subjects from different perspectives. when i was privileged to serve, i tried to take the perspective of the victims when i looked at the criminal justice system

because i thought there was a perspective that had not been appreciated for a long period of time. it doesn't mean it was the only perspective, but it was an appropriate perspective. you have a unique perspective here. and in your testimony, you said that we suffer from a lack of clarity in our effort. do you find anything wrong with the expression used of radical jihad or violent islamist extremism with the knowledge that you have with that part of the world and of different religions? and does it mislead us, does it help us? is it part of the lack of clarity or part -- >> i believe it is part of lack of clarity. let me put it this way. in the 10 years that i grew up

there, i graduated high school there. i was there during the cuban missile crisis in afghanistan. my brother in law is the former son-in-law of the king of afghanistan. my nieces are his offspring. i have a love for those people over there. i was glad that we decided to do something about this terror that was going on with them. however, islam is many things. it's a religion, and our first amendment gives the freedom with respect to the government won't interview with that. but it's also political. it's also social. it's also economic, and it's also military. when we can sort out what is what, i think we can have a better discussion on it. when you lump it all under the

protections of religion, you'll never get to that. now, we gave a certain portion of my son's insurance to dr. michael yusef down in atlanta. he sends messages into north africa, and they were moved that we didn't have this feeling of going out, ok we need to bomb them all. i am absolutely opposed to that. we need to be responsive but honest in what we're doing. that's the real thing, clarity. man-made disaster. genetic military action. that's a war. in arkansas they would laugh you out the store if your came up with words like that. >> your son is someone who served this country. in addition to your son having given the last full measure, as someone in the military, under

the circumstances we're talking about, would you consider it something you should bring to attention of your superiors if you saw fellow officer that put on his card that he was a soldier of allah? >> 1995, i had a troop overseas. he had a tattoo. it is now a practice in the marine corps when you recruit people, or when you get selected, on a part of physical they take pictures of tattoos to make sure you're not gang-related. if you have those you're not getting promoted and you're not getting in the service. if someone is doing it, it's a statutory oath that you take. i do solemnly swear. there shouldn't be a policy that you do this. when you see something wrong, you should execute that. you all took that oath. i still go by that oath. my son took that oath.

when it's wrong you need to do something about it. otherwise you are derelict in your duties. to formize it in a policy, that tells me something's broken. >> well, i thank you very much for your testimony. i think it's wonderful that we're attempting to learn from the lessons, and that we're trying to change things. it's an old saying that common sense isn't so common any more. where you have to tell people that those signs are the red flags. it seems to be self evidence those are red flags unless there's a pressure being created in your environment where you're afraid to raise the red flag. >> yes, sir. >> that goes beyond defining what the red flags are. that goes down to the atmosphere

that's been created. i don't know if you overcome the atmosphere by saying they're red flags. it's good we're saying they're red flags. but it seems to me that it's the manner in which you put those in context. and bring an alert when an alert ought to be done. so i think you very much. i return my time to the chairman. >> the gentleman from michigan is recognized. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you mr. long for your service. thank you for bringing clarity to the rume today, in a more complete way. my wife and i had the opportunity to be more proud of our son than ever before because of recruitors like your son who recruited my son into the army. a son who spent training at fort hood as well.

it had some correlation as i could picture that experience to have the pride of a son who served willingly with great desire, his country is one thing to have distinction honoring the son who served his country to the last ounce of blood is even greater. so thank you for being here. >> yes, sir. >> if i'm not crossing a line here i would like to ask if you would be willing to elaborate on, and i appreciate the fact that mrs. long is not here, chose not to be here at this hearing. but if you would be willing to elaborate what she heard, what she saw, what her reaction was, what was the last time your wife saw your son alive?

i would appreciate hearing it. >> about 10:15 in the morning, she had driven my son down to the station. he didn't have a car. at the time we were running with one car and he wasn't going to get it. she was sitting outside in the parking lot. he had gone in and they hasn't been keeping him very long, but he was kind of a shill to get others to come in, look what i did, you can do this too. he stepped out of the recruiting office with, and my wife looked out and said maybe you ought to go over and talk to him. she was about to get out of the car to go do this when another soldier came out with him. she said don't, he's got a friend there, i'll let them talk. she sat down back in the car, started reading. at that time she heard three separate gunfire bursts. as she was getting out of the car, she looked over, she could see one soldier on the ground,

another one trying to get back into the recruiting center, and a black truck driving off. at about that time, sergeant kennedy came out and grabbed ahold of her because he knew she was in the parking lot and they escorted her back through past my son. dobbs was out there doing c.p.r. on my son. inside the building, some of the other recruitors were in there trying to take care of quinton. i got a call at 10:19. she called me up and said andy's been shot. and of course my reaction is what, what are you talking about? they're doing c.p.r. on them right now. her biggest regret is she didn't get over there too him. but she also knows there were people who were confident they could provide the first aid. that is her biggest regret. i had to almost pry these out of

her fingers to bring them up here to show you these today. it took us two years, three months to get them back. the dealings with going through this, all she could see was my son's legs popping up as they're performing c.p.r. on him. the next time we saw him he was in the emergency room, he was declared dead, they allowed her to go in there, it was still all messy. there wasn't a tarp over him, she saw all the wounds. and then the next time i saw him was they had cleaned him up, we aren't able to touch him, he was evidence. and then it was two years of trying to figure out what's going on, who shot john, are the federal people going to step in? we were promised by the little rock u.s. attorney's office they would go for that. we have since met with them again. and it just goes on and on.

but i can tell you our first reaction on november 5, 2009. i was out in the gralming working on a project, and watching the news and it came up fort hood. i ran into the house because i know she watched the news. i said you got to turn the tv off. it's happened again. and her first thing was, i told you it would happen. they're not listening. and then our thing was to get ahold of my daughter so that she wouldn't see the news. so every time this happens, it's a traumatic event. and their loss down there is not lost on us. there are 1 more parents that are going through this. >> mr. long thank you. evidence of -- that is grasks.

that is a reminder to us and thank you for your willingness to share that. >> thank you, sir. >> chairman yields back. chief long i want to go ahead and thank you on behalf of myself and all the members of the committee for your testimony. it was a privilege to have you here today. we will do what we can really on two levels. one, to make sure we do all we can to make sure that what happened to your son happens to no one else. also to ensure that he gets the type of recognition that he deserves. >> mr. chairman? mr. chairman? >> gentle lady from texas. >> i echo your remarks, may i make an inquirey to chairman lieberman? >> yes, ma'am. >> chairman lieberman, it is indicated on the record there might be a conference call or conference on the d.o.d. but obviously there are, i'm so delighted mr. long chose to be courageous on behalf of his son

but also mentioned the tragedy at fort hood. is it your intent that your language would be generic, that ult maltly depending on the circumstances in fort hood that might cover that situation as well? >> to my friend, the gentle lady from texas, it happens by coincidence that this afternoon at 3:00 the first meeting of house and senate on department of defense authorization bill for the next fiscal year is convening, happens here in the house side. mr. thompson, he's one which i did not know and we'll work together. i think our aim would be to amend the language in a manner that would not just relate to private long, and the other soldier wounded there, but to certainly the folks of fort hood but to change the statute so it can be clear that in

circumstances of this kind there shouldn't be any question about the awarding of a purple heart. >> i thank the chairman for his clarification. the overall circumstances that we find ourselves in. but i thank him for that clarification and our overall sympathy to all who have fallen in battle. with that, i'll yield back. >> thank you for being here today. thank you for your testimony. we will do all we can to ensure what happened to your son does not happen to others. also as you heard from members, everything will be done at the authorization conference to try to bring some measure of justice to your son and to others who have also been killed or wounded in such a tragic way.

so with that, again thank you for your testimony. i wanted to thank all witnesses for their testimony. members of the committee may have some additional questions. we will ask you to respond to those. it will be held open for 10 days. pursuant to the motion, actually before that, senator leeb lieberman, any closing? >> no, not at all. i think this has been a very productive hearing, good really spirited content of unity among members of the committee. i think i speak for myself, i've learned a lot. i think we're carrying out our responsibility to oversee the protection of people here at home from terrorist attack, in this case particularly members of the armed services and their families. and it happens that this particular action that we have the ability to carry out, purple hearts emerges from this

testimony. so i think this has been a very thoughtful and informative and productive hearing. and i look forward to working with you and our ranking members to find other occasions to get together again in exactly this way. >> thank you senator lieberman. >> i do look forward to the purple heart, that we do what we need to do to try to make it happen. >> i want to thank senator lieberman for his willingness to hold this hearing. this is a very serious meeting. i don't know how many in the room realize the significance of having prominent senators walk over to the house side to abide by house rules, but again it shows the dedication, pate terrorism of -- patriotism, and

i want to thank him for his work he's done as chairman of homeland security for coming together today on this joint hearing. again he's a great friend and a great american and so glad to be able to work with him. the hearing record will be helder if 10 days. the hearing will stand in recess and will reconvene in 10 minutes in closed session in a room which is down one floor directly below us.

>> coming up this morning in just a few moments, "washington journal" the today's headlines and your phone calls. then at 10:00 a.m., "newsmakers." with freshman senator mark kirk. and a recent amendment putting sanctions on foreign financial institutions that do business with iran. >> for my military career i prided myself on not being afraid to tell people what i thought. because one, the worst thing you can do is let a senior leader head down the wrong road. in the back of your mind you're thinking no, sir, ma'am, maybe we ought to take another look at this. maybe we ought to look from this

perspective. because people's lives could be at stake, or we have an obligation and an duty to be good stewards of resources that the public can trust us with. sometimes you have to be kind of courageous in a meeting where everybody else's head is going up and down and you're going i think i have a different perspective. >> major general marsha anderson on her life and career as the highest ranking female african-american in the united states army. .