Update:  Members of the joint Congressional committee “blasted” the Department of Defense for downplaying talk of terrorism and referring to the Fort Hood massacre as “workplace violence.”  The DoD was accused of being “politically correct” in avoiding association of the terrorist attacks with Islam — the same thing it was found at fault for in the months leading up to the Fort Hood shooting.

US Representative Peter King (R-NY), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is holding another hearing on “homegrown terrorism.”  While he was criticized for his earlier hearings on the subject for the implied negativity toward American Muslims, these new hearings are a joint meeting between the House and Senate committees, showing “threat is legitimate,” according to King.

King and Senator Joe Lieberman, his Senate counterpart from Connecticut, both agreed that US military soft targets are “increasingly in the terrorists’ scope.”

There is growing evidence that homegrown terrorists see military personnel and bases as legitimate, high-value targets, lawmakers said…

“People in uniform are symbols of the United States. They’re symbols of America power, symbols of America might,” Rep. Peter King…”And if they (military personnel) can be killed, then that is a great propaganda victory for Al Qaeda.”

“The records show that the United States military has become a direct target of violent Islamist extremism here in the U.S., and that means soldiers and perhaps their families are potentially vulnerable at work and at rest, in a military setting or a civilian one,” [Lieberman said.]

King went a step further, saying terrorists are likely already in uniform in the US military:

King said there is also evidence that extremists have joined the services. “There is a serious threat within the military from people who have enlisted who are radical jihadists,” King stated. “The Defense Department is very concerned about them. They feel they’re a threat to the military both for what they can do within the military itself and also because of the weapons skills they acquire while they’re in the military.”

Tennessee State Representative Rick Womick recently said he favors removing Muslims from the US military based on similar reasoning.  Both he and this most recent article cite several of the eleven recent planned or attempted attacks on the US military — four of which have been conducted by members of the US military.