A Coast Guard lieutenant accused by prosecutors of being a domestic terrorist intent on committing politically motivated killings inspired by a far-right mass murderer was sentenced Friday to more than 13 years in prison for firearms and drug offenses. Christopher Hasson, 50, had faced a maximum prison sentence of 31 years at sentencing by U.S. District Judge George Hazel. The severity of Hasson’s sentence hinged on two starkly divergent explanations for the cache of weapons seized from his Maryland home and the disturbing material found on his computer at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington. Hazel, who sentenced Hasson to 160 months, said he believes the officer was preparing to carry out a “mass casualty assault as a way to act out his white nationalist views.” “The need to protect the public is of paramount importance,” the judge said. Hasson, in his first public comments since his arrest, said he has never harmed anybody in his life and wasn’t planning to hurt anyone “in any way, shape or form.” But he apologized to his family, his colleagues and to the public, saying he knew his actions alarmed many people.
“I am embarrassed by these things and sorry for the pain they have caused,” he said. “Any semblance of hate, bigotry or advocacy of violence has no place in our Coast Guard,” said Adm. Karl Schultz, the guard’s commandant, in an emailed news release. “This includes involvement with white supremacist or extremist groups of any type. This behavior is incompatible with the Coast Guard’s Core Values of Honor, Respect and Devotion to Duty.” He said Hasson is being “involuntarily separated” from the Coast Guard without “any rights, benefits and retirement pay, which he may have otherwise been entitled.” Federal prosecutors recommended a 25-year prison sentence. They have called Hasson a domestic terrorist and self-described white nationalist, intent on carrying out mass killings. But they filed no terrorism-related charges against him.
via ap news: Coast Guard officer-terror suspect sentenced for guns, drugs
siehe auch: Terrorist-in-training Chris Hasson’s 13-year sentence is a signal to far-right ‘lone wolf’ wannabes. In his own mind at least, Christopher Hasson was going to be a right-wing avenger, like the #MAGABomber before there was a #MAGABomber: taking down the enemies of Donald Trump through violence, including Jews and George Soros, key media figures, and certain congressional leaders. Except that he would be competent. Hasson, as it turned out, wasn’t any more competent than Cesar Sayoc (whose mailed pipe bombs turned out not to work). A Coast Guardsman who collected a lethal arsenal and engaged in “red-pilling” young recruits into white nationalism, Hasson—as his sentencing today, in which he received more than 13 years’ prison time, further revealed—was only caught because he engaged in drug deals on the campus of the Coast Guard national headquarters in Maryland. A police search revealed not just his arsenal (six handguns, seven rifles, two shotguns, over 1,000 rounds of ammo), but computers full of plans to commit mass killings.
