Chris Matthews Says, "That's not a crime to call up al Qaeda, is it?"

On MSNBC's Hardball yesterday Chris Mathews made a bizarre comparison of Ft. Hood shooter Maj. Nidal M. Hasan to Sirhan Sirhan. After that he said, "That's not a crime to call up al Qaeda, is it? Is it?" and "We cannot call him the shooter until we have a trial. That's the way we work here, you know, that's how it works in America, certainly not in the news business." Unbelievable.



From NewsBusters:
"See - we have a problem," Matthews said. "How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al Qaeda. Is that the point at which you say, ‘This guy is dangerous?' That's not a crime to call up al Qaeda, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy?

"Well, this guy, according to all the testament, admittedly it has not been admitted into court. We cannot call him the shooter until we have a trial. That's the way we work here, you know, that's how it works in America, certainly not in the news business. You can't call somebody a murderer until you get a conviction in court. And the question here is when can you identify a problem? That's what we have to deal with. And you say it's an ideological point - you can find the problem. But then we get into the business of checking out on people's thinking. And that's the problem."