The U.S. Army officer who emerged as the deadly Fort Hood shooter in 2009 -- killing 12 soldiers and one civilian -- had displayed several "red flags" indicating that he had been proselytized by radical Islamists and posed a threat to his fellow officers and to enlisted men and women wherever he was posted, according to a government report released Thursday.
Major Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, will stand trial in military court on Aug. 20, 2012, for indiscriminately shooting and killing 13 victims and wounding 33 others during his one-man-jihad, according to FBI, Pentagon and news reports.
While at first many believed that the killing spree was the act of a madman, investigators began to discover links between Maj. Hasan and radical Islam as practiced by terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda.
According to documents and emails released on Thursday, Maj. Hasan believed that at times suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks were acceptable and, in emails sent months before the Fort Hood Massacre, he offered financial support to the radical Muslim cleric with whom he communicated.
The report by former FBI director, CIA director, and federal judge William Webster scolds the FBI for not being more proactive when agents were informed that, while serving as a U.S. military officer, Maj. Hasan was communicating with the infamous American jihadist Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical U.S. Muslim cleric who was under investigation by U.S. intelligence officials for his violent beliefs and pronouncements.
Anwar al-Awlaji eventually fled the United States and took up residence in Yemen, where he served as a spiritual leader for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Webster's report states that upon receiving initial information about Hasan, FBI special agents should have immediately interviewed Hasan and notified the Army's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) or other military personnel involved in counterterrorism.
Webster also recommended that FBI agents be given special training and guidelines for this type of case involving the radicalization of American Muslims within the U.S. Armed Forces.
In the Hasan case, the FBI did not effectively utilize intelligence analysts who could have provided a different perspective given the evidence that it had, the report also stated.
The FBI's inquiry focused narrowly on whether Hasan was engaged in terrorist activity as opposed to whether he was radicalizing to violent Islamist extremism and whether this radicalization might pose counterintelligence or other threats (e.g., Hasan might spy for the Taliban if he had been deployed to Afghanistan).
This critical mistake may have been avoided if intelligence analysts were appropriately engaged in the inquiry. Since 9/11, the FBI has increased its intelligence focus by creating a Directorate of Intelligence and Field Intelligence Groups in the field offices and hiring thousands of new and better qualified analysts.
However, the FBI must ensure that these analysts are effectively utilized and that they achieve significant stature in the FBI. The FBI must also ensure that all of its agents and analysts are trained to understand violent Islamist extremism, the report recommended.
Webster's report noted that the Department of Defense possessed compelling evidence that Hasan embraced views so extreme that it should have disciplined him or discharged him from the military, but DoD failed to take action against him, according to the report.
Evidence of Hasan's radicalization to violent Islamist extremism was on full display to his superiors and colleagues during his military medical training. An instructor and a colleague each referred to Hasan as a "ticking time bomb." Not only was no action taken to discipline or discharge him, but also his Officer Evaluation Reports sanitized his obsession with violent Islamist extremism into praiseworthy research on counterterrorism.
To address this failure, the Department of Defense should confront the threat of radicalization to violent Islamist extremism among service members explicitly and directly and strengthen associated policies and training. More specifically, DoD should update its policies on extremism and religious accommodation to ensure that violent Islamist extremism is not tolerated.
DoD should also train service members on violent Islamist extremism and how it differs from Islamic religious belief and practices, the report recommended.
Replies
This political correctness is going to get us all killed.
We have done the equivalent of giving arms to German and Japanese POW's in WWII and asking them -- oh, so politely -- to help us prosecute the war against their brothers.
Sounds pretty stupid to me...
Should of - could of - does not cut the mustard. He must stand trial and face the music for his un-lawful acts.
Trial? He should face summary painful elimination. Just kill him now.
Well yesterday makes hit #3.... Fort Hood, AZ`s Fed Judge and Gabby, and now Colo. movie hit all being done to take the guns from the people. Fort Hood was done to keep the media from seeing Hillary working with the UN on the Gun taking treaty while being PC letting the terrorist keep their arms...
I want that image for a poster--to educate any drive bys,
There is that old double standard once again. On the one hand Obama and his cultist radicle CAIR groups scream and holler that the U.S. is profiling its people and should provide more sensitivity training to the extent that all the DOJ and DOD protocols have been revamped to minimize the extent to which the extremists are operating. On the other hand the FBI's most trusted linquitics experts are 95% muslims with known backgrounds or familial connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Quaida. If one wants a very close, birds eye view of their beliefs and how far the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated our ranks then you need to read, Paul Sperry's "INfiltration, How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington" and Pam Geller's "Stop the Islamization of America." There are many more but these two have been the best to date that I have found. The information found in these two books alone will give you a good start on your own research. Obama has tied the hands of our DOJ and DOD systems that does not allow our military or judicial leaders any leeway and only a small path, to use for investigative purposes. All for the sake of being politically correct in not being called a profiling racist.
The problem with ISLAM and their extremist counterparts is that they have historical biblical jealously that they were not the first born CHOSEN people. They are so resentful that they (their nation/tribe) were the product of an indiscretion with a servant.
This is the stem and basis for their hostility towards Jewish people, Israel and EVERYTHING WESTERN.
This is WHY they will not leave Israel alone. The Genesis of the battle/resentment is BIBILICAL.
It is all there in the bible for anyone to see and read.
They just use the Koran as their excuse for every evil or bad thing the extremist or crazy Islamic people who are the suicide bombers, terrorists, etc some so called documented printed license to do the evil they do. Their disregard for human life and humanity proves their mental instability.
There are no "extreme" moslems [sic]; there are only those who are not valiant defenders of the faith, and they will be dealt with as the infidels were when the caliphate has been established. Like Baptists who drink and dance, Catholics who practice contraception, and Jews who eat pork and lobster, the moslems [sic] who don't wage violent jihad are not fulfilling their responsibilities to the religion.
Don't get sucked into the "We only want to fight the 'extreme' Nazis!" whirlpool.
Point taken, Ed
A Nazi is a Nazi just the same....
What is that saying: If it acts like a duck and walks like a duck....
Muslims do what they do and those that do not - how are we to know the difference it is not like they wear a sign saying I am a suicide bomber and I hate Americans & Jews.
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