Outraged father shames U.S. Army to Congress for not deeming his son's killer a terrorist

Key members of Congress are intervening in a dispute over awarding the Purple Heart to soldiers attacked at a military recruiting office in Arkansas who were denied the honor because the shooter was charged with a criminal instead of a terrorist act.

The pledge from Republican and Democrat House and Senate lawmakers was made at a joint Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday in response to testimony from the father of Army Pvt. William Andrew Long, who was killed in the 2009 attack.

“I don’t understand why the Army has not offered the Purple Heart, at the very least,” said Rep. Chip Cravaack (R.-Minn.). “I am very disappointed in the secretary of the Army for not recognizing your son.”

Long was shot and killed in front of his mother outside the Little Rock recruiting office, and Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula was also wounded in the attack. Carlos Bledsoe, a Memphis native who converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdulhakim Muhammad, confessed to the murder and is serving a life sentence.

“Given the circumstances, I believe they are deserving of the same recognition as their colleagues in a combat zone,” said Sen. Mark Pryor (D.-Ark.).

Daris Long’s stark and compelling testimony to the panel described his frustration at President Obama and the administration’s handling of the war against radical islamists. By treating his son’s death as a “drive-by shooing,” and the Fort Hood attack as “workplace violence,” Long said the wrong message is being sent to the military community. Long also said he was insulted that attacks on the military are treated as crimes, while the Obama administration treated the shooting of abortion doctor George Tiller as a terrorist attack.

“I am convinced the government’s position is to deny Little Rock was a terrorist attack,” Long said. “To this administration’s shame, two soldiers have been abandoned on a battlefield in the advancement of a political agenda.”

“If you kill in this country under the banner of jihad, we’re told it isn’t terrorism,” Long said.

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