Policy

Senator Calls for Classifying Fort Hood Shootings as Terrorism

Defense Department has it currently classified as workplace violence

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Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) on Tuesday rejected the Defense Department's classification of the Fort Hood shooting as a case of workplace violence.

Defense officials have declined to label the attack, which killed 13 people and wounded 29 others in 2009, as an act of terrorism. Instead, they've depicted it as workplace violence, in part because they say they don't want to jeopardize the government's ongoing case against the accused shooter, Maj. Nidal Hassan.

Graham, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the DOD's classification of the attack at the Texas military post does not give victims or their families the recognition they deserve.