What a nut job.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=115717Christian' praises Fort Hood shooter as 'hero'
Unrepentant: 'The FBI were the ones who actually killed those 13 people'
Posted: November 11, 2009
4:26 pm Eastern
By Joe Kovacs
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Dan Ross, 61, tried to send flowers to Maj. Nidal Hasan, calling him a "hero." (courtesy Fort Myers News-Press)
LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. – A Florida man claiming to be the apostle Peter reborn is coming under FBI scrutiny after trying to send a dozen yellow roses to the alleged gunman of the Fort Hood massacre, whom he's calling a "hero."
Dan Ross, 61, of Lehigh Acres, is standing by his action which began the day after the carnage in Texas, where 13 people (14 when including an unborn baby) lost their lives when Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly opened fire.
"That's part of Christianity, is you're supposed to love your enemies and do good to them. And so by my doing that I was immediately labeled a terrorist," Ross told NBC affiliate WBBH-TV in Fort Myers.
"The FBI came by and thought I was on drugs. I said, 'In this day and age we have telephones. You could have called me up. You're here just to intimidate me.' We're supposed to be free from fear and we're supposed to have the right – freedom of religion, free from fear, freedom of speech, and here they are."
Ross is placing more blame on the bureau's failure to prevent the tragedy than Hasan, a Muslim with connections to extremists supporting terrorism.
"The FBI were the ones that actually killed those 13 people, because they were well-informed that this guy was against the United States of America. He said that Islamic law trumped the U.S. Constitution."
(Story continues below)
Ross wanted the $59.95 FTD yellow rose bouquet delivered to the shooting suspect. His e-mail to Marvel's Florist in Killeen, Texas, had the following instructions:
I ask you to respect my freedom of Speech, and freedom of religion. The note I would like attached is: "Major Nidal Hasan. Koran 2:190 - 3. In God's eye, and those who submit, you are a hero!" ... If anyone questions you, play stupid, and say you did not know as so many were injured. My money is green like everyone elses.
The owner of the flower shop, Phil Enderle, was stunned by the request.
"This guy is praising him," Enderle told the Naples Daily News. "He's patting him on the back."
"The day prior to that, this major shot and killed 13 people ... and now I get somebody who is quoting the Koran, insulting me by telling me to play dumb, and wanting me to provide comfort to the soldier who did this."
Enderle did not fill the flower order, but instead called Fort Hood and then hand-delivered Ross' message to the FBI.
Ross, reportedly a Vietnam veteran himself with two children of his own in the U.S. military, actually claims to be Simon Peter, an apostle in the New Testament, and the Holy Spirit prompted him to send the flowers.
In an on-camera exchange with WBBH's Katie Lagrone, the reporter asked, "The Holy Spirit's talking to you right now?"
"Just a little bit," Ross responded.
Raw footage of Lagrone's interview can be viewed here:
Online reaction to Ross' actions has been mixed, with comments including:
* "This guy must be nuts. To send a terrorist flowers and call him a hero is un-American and unthinkable. What a piece of trash!"
* "The FBI should have been on Hasan not this Lehigh Acres man. Although he appears to have had a little too much Florida sunshine."
* "I think this story is sad. We have two men with different religious backgrounds. One hates and releases his feelings by killing. The other loves and releases his feelings by sending flowers. Both are vilified. We are on a precipice with a dark age on one side and enlightenment on the other, and only a puff of wind to send us one way or the other."
* "One who praises someone for a terrorist act is to be respected? NOT in my book! A good religious person would pray for this man and the victims' families not send the "alleged" murderer flowers with a 'pat on the back for 'job well done.' We are on a precipice alright for those who fail to recognize evil does exist and who are in a never-never land of denial."
* "Mr. [Ross] is a bit touched, but since this is still the good ol' USA for now, everyone is entitled to their opinion, right or wrong."