Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan is still getting away with murder — this time by the hair on his chinny-chin-chin.
In an absurd turn last week, the military judge in Hasan’s murder trial, Col. Gregory Gross, was removed by a civilian appeals panel because Gross had followed military codes and ordered Hasan, an Army major, to shave.
Hasan was playing the Islamic radical in court — beard and all — but rules are rules, so Col. Gross held him in contempt and ordered that the beard be forcibly removed.
But the Armed Forces Court of Appeals heard Hasan’s cries and sided with the terrorist, yanking Gross and spelling another unacceptable delay in a slow-motion prosecution that has dragged on for three years.
“Should the next military judge find it necessary to address [Hasan’s] beard, such issues should be addressed and litigated anew,” the judges wrote.
That’s ridiculous. The next judge will now have to consider the question again — at the risk of possible removal — guaranteeing even more delays for the trial.
Truth is, Hasan’s beard is an open-and-shut case. It’s in the Army’s rulebook: Beards are forbidden except in cases of medical necessity, and “exceptions or accommodations based on religious practices will not be granted.”
Hasan knew that when he entered the Army. Had he wished to devote himself to a peaceable religious life outside the military, he could’ve retired and grown a beard down to his knees.
But he didn’t.
True, two Sikh doctors recently got permission before joining the Army to keep their beards, as did a rabbi who wished to become a chaplain.
But Hasan never sought permission nor had any interest in growing a beard during his 20 years of service; he began growing one just this year as a courtroom stunt.
And let’s be honest about the man on trial. He murdered 13 people and wounded 29 others on a terroristic shooting spree.
He’s not like the Sikh doctors and the Jewish chaplain who joined the military to heal its members physically and spiritually.
His religion is al Qaeda, his prophet is terrorist cleric Anwar al- Awlaki — and his goal was murder.
No accommodations should be made for him, nor should his prosecution be delayed yet again to accommodate his wishes.
The Defense Department has a duty to mete out swift justice to this killer — it owes that much to those who died on Nov. 5, 2009, and to the rest of the nation as well.
Every day that passes with Hasan still awaiting trial is an injustice and an infamy.
Shave his face.
And start the trial, finally.