First, he said he found Saddam's WMD bunkers. Then, he claimed that the U.S. military was zapping animals to death with real-life ray guns. Now, full-time kook and former Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent Dave Gaubatz is calling for a "professional and legal backlash against the Muslim community and their leaders," following the Ft. Hood massacre. Which plays right into the hands of America's opponents.

For years, Gaubatz has warned that Muslims in this country form a kind of Fifth Column – and that President Barack Obama is part of this seditious group. (He's also called Obama a "self admitted 'crack-head.'") Gaubatz's book detailing these claims recently became an Amazon bestseller, its conclusions endorsed by a handful of Republican Congressmen.

When Maj. Nidal Hasan – a Muslim-American with links to religious radicals – killed 13 at Ft. Hood last week, Gaubatz renewed his call for a purge within the U.S. Islamic community:

Muslims know what materials are being taught in their mosques and they know many of the materials instruct young Muslims to kill innocent people who do not adhere to Sharia law. If Muslims do not want a backlash, then I would recommend a “house cleaning.” Stack every Saudi, al Qaeda, Pakistani, Taliban, Hamas, and Muslim Brotherhood piece of material from their mosque and have a bonfire. Tell the American, Jewish, and Muslim community this hatred will no longer be allowed in their mosques.

The fevered language shouldn't a surprise. Gaubatz continued to peddle claims that Saddam's chemical and biological arms had been shipped to Syria – long after such conspiracy theories were dismissed as bogus. His accusation that the U.S. military has a killer ray gun, disguised as a non-lethal weapon has gone uncorroborated. And the man has a long-standing and large problem with Muslims on American soil. He's connected to a group, Society of Americans for National Existence, which calls for the United States "to develop the notion and legal infrastructure to restrict non-Western and non-Christian immigration so that alien cultures and peoples should never come to threaten the national character of this nation." Other extremists are going even further than Gaubatz, demanding a "stop [to] the practice of allowing Muslims to serve in the U.S. military. "

Of course, most U.S. Muslims don't shoot up their fellow soldiers. Fine... You invent a jihadi-detector that works every time it's used, and we'll welcome you back with open arms.

Ironically, Hasan, the Ft. Hood shooter, made a similar argument in a 2007 presentation. In order to avoid "adverse events," like Muslim troops deserting or turning on their fellow serrvicemembers, Hasan recommended giving "Muslim soldiers the option of being released as 'conscientious objectors.'"

The U.S. military's failure to understand the cultural and religious landscapes in Iraq and Afghanistan directly contributed to setbacks in those war efforts, top generals say. You can't conduct a proper counterinsurgency if you don't understand how the society you're trying to protect. Purge the American armed forces of its Muslims, and that cultural isolation becomes only more acute. Hard-to-win campaigns become almost impossible. It kind of makes you wonder who the real Fifth Columnists are around here.

[Photo: Dave Gaubatz.org]