Solders at Fort Hood remember the fallen (AP)
Nearly a year before Maj. Nidal Hasan allegedly went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, terrorism investigators conducted an "assessment" of him before deciding he did not pose a threat.
After the shooting, the FBI is doing a new assessment — of its own conduct.
The Army psychiatrist is believed to have acted alone despite repeated communications — intercepted by authorities — with a radical imam overseas, U.S. officials said Monday. The FBI will conduct an internal review to see whether it mishandled early information about the man accused in the bloody rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 29.
President Barack Obama was joining grieving families and comrades of the victims Tuesday at a memorial service at the sprawling Texas Army base. Hasan, awake and talking to doctors, met his lawyer Monday in the San Antonio hospital where he is recovering, under guard, from gunshot wounds in the assault.
In Washington, an investigative official and a Republican lawmaker said Hasan had communicated 10 to 20 times with Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam released from a Yemeni jail last year who has used his personal Web site to encourage Muslims across the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. Despite that, no formal investigation was opened into Hasan, they said.
Investigative officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said it was his understanding Hasan and the imam exchanged e-mails that counterterrorism officials picked up.
Officials said Hasan will be tried in a military court, not a civilian one, a choice that suggests his alleged actions are not thought to have emanated from a terrorist organization.
FBI Director Robert Mueller ordered the inquiry into the bureau's handling of the case, including its response to potentially worrisome information gathered about Hasan beginning in December 2008 and continuing into early this year.
Based on all the investigations since the attack, the investigators said they have no evidence that Hasan had help or outside orders in the shootings.
Even so, they revealed the major had once been under scrutiny from a joint terrorism task force because of the series of communications going back months. Al-Awlaki is a former imam at a Falls Church, Va., mosque where Hasan and his family occasionally worshipped.
In 2001, al-Awlaki, a native-born U.S. citizen, had contact with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and on Monday his Web site praised Hasan as a hero.
Military officials were made aware of communications between the Hasan and al-Awlaki, but because the messages did not advocate or threaten violence, civilian law enforcement authorities could not take the matter further, the officials said. The terrorism task force concluded Hasan was not involved in terrorist planning.
Officials said the content of those messages was "consistent with the subject matter of his research," part of which involved post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from U.S. combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A law enforcement official said the communications consisted primarily of Hasan posing questions to the imam as a spiritual leader or adviser, and the imam did respond to at least some of those messages.
No formal investigation was ever opened based on the contacts, the officials said.
They said the decision to bring military charges instead of civilian criminal charges against Hasan did not mean it wasn't a terrorism case. But it is likely authorities would have had more reason to take the case to federal court if they had found evidence Hasan acted with the support or training of a terrorist group.
Investigators tried to interview Hasan on Sunday at the military hospital where he is being held, but he refused to answer and requested a lawyer, the officials said.
On Monday afternoon, Hasan's new civilian and military attorneys met him for about half an hour at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, said retired Col. John P. Galligan, who was hired by Hasan's family.
Galligan said Hasan asked for an attorney even though he is on sedatives and his condition is guarded.
"Given his medical condition, that's the smart move," Galligan told The Associated Press on Monday night. "Nobody from law enforcement will be questioning him."
Galligan said both he and Maj. Christopher E. Martin, Fort Hood's senior defense attorney, met Hasan. Galligan questioned whether Hasan can get a fair trial at Fort Hood, given Obama's visit to the base and public comments by the post commander, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone. Galligan also said he plans to raise the issue of Hasan's mental condition.
The most serious charge in military court is premeditated murder, which carries the death penalty.
The Army has not yet appointed a lead prosecutor in the case, said Fort Hood spokesman Tyler Broadway.
___
Associated Press writers Angela K. Brown at Fort Hood and Pamela Hess in Washington contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press
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Don't you love it? This terrorist, Nidal Hasan, gunned down during the act of killing and wounding American heroes, was the man "accused" in the bloody rampage. All this PC tiptoeing around makes me wanna puke.
Almandine, it sounds to me as if this example of discontent is a sign that all of us has had enough of the warring factions. Since the end of WW2, America has not shown strength in our armed forces. Our kids are coming home mentally exhausted from killing others who have not harmed us. We don't raise our kids to do this well.
I think we owe the next generations a world of peace and love. If the government does not cooperate, throw the bastards out. I lived through the Bush years fearing for my daughters and granddaughter having their freedoms reduced to begging the government for their freedoms. I feared the reaction to my grandson's freedom to marry the person of his choice. I'm okay as my days of breeding are long gone.
Hasan is a killer! He shot down innocent members of his own army. You are right there is no tiptoeing necessary. Good post.
I'm kinda interested in why WE OWE the world anything other than ethical treatment. WE have supported the world for generations, and see the result?
Unfortunately, Sandra, this sad episode in Texas is simply another indicator or the very high price we are now paying for our country's policy of waging wars of "pre-emption" against largely manufactured enemies.
Just before he left office, President Eisenhower warned us all to beware of what he termed a "military industrial complex" that was then growing within our country. Unfortunately, that entity has since morphed itself into a "terrorist industrial complex" that now accounts for a significant portion of our country's GDP all the while providing gainful employment to millions.
Unless and until our politicians and bureaucrats stop looking at waging war as an instrument of economic policy, the senseless killings such as those that recently happened in Texas will continue to happen.
Indeed, unless and until those politicians and bureaucrats are ALSO willing to ban ALL persons of Islamic heritage from honorably serving in our armed services, our military will remain quite powerless to stop such pervasive infiltrations.
Keith, I have a theory that is mine alone. All of us grow up believing our God is the only one and then suddenly we learn that there are many other Gods who are leading their followers often in a different direction. When we become adults and use our individual votes to elect our legislators we still have this God in our subconscious minds. I call it a "strainer" that weeds out those beliefs that are foreign.
In America we collect people from all over the world and each comes equipped with his/her strainer. The strainer can be installed by gangs, preachers, teachers and parents. I had hoped that America was no longer considered a one God nation. It is what starts our wars and even our neighborhood riots.
Banning Islam? These people come here from their own countries for the freedoms offered. But when they hit a fox hole, their Allah gives them comfort. Americans have their own individual Gods and there is never a chance to step away from the strainers and live in peace. We are all guilty.
Nidal Hasan bought a $1000 plus small powerful pistol in July. Payed for his apartment up front. According to witnesses calming and carefully decided who to shoot. Every move seems to me to be calculated. Perhaps even giving away his Koran in a way that would have a certain effect. Al Qaeda, and I don't know about the Taliban, particularly attack locals willing to translate for the US. Thus Nidal Hasan succeeded to make it difficult for Arabic translators of olive complexion, Muslim or not, to do their job without being surrounded by tension.
I know one person who made threatening noises in order to get out of the draft. A really gentle person who died of old age. To me Nidal Hasan seems to clearly want to affect the future in a calculating way.
We might have given the image of someone faking it so as to be booted out. Maybe I’m giving incompetent officials too much credit.
I wish bending the rules to deal with him would not be applied as a precedent to other suspects. Maybe I should think what I feel though before opening my mouth. But at the moment would like to see a special law or even a quicky Constitutional Amendment applied to one person and leave the rest of our rights alone.
RichardKanePA
Hasan met some pushers and was shoved off a cliff.
One thing is clear while Nidal Hasan's purpose wasn't to destroy civil liberties and Constitutional Rights, to help get the DC sniper executed in a hurry, and others to losing appeal right's, and everyone to losing more of their right to privacy, it is never-the-less a clear result.
This fits in with the ongoing campaign to claim that Mumia abu-Jamal, who was convicted many say falsely of murder, felt empowered by The Barrel of Gun, rather than by his writings and the Black Panthers were the kind of group to attacked police cars and uniforms. This to take rights away from everyone accused or convicted of a heinous crime. Some may consider this statement unfair to Tigre Hill's trailer, since he flashed the words on the screen such as "Grenades Rip 12 Police Cars", and such scenes as a black man that seemed to look like Mumia in an Arab head dress, rather than state that people convicted or charged with heinous crimes should be treated similar to those accused of terror,
http://www.phillyimc.org/en/david-horowitz-smears-...
http://www.groundupmarketing.com/barrel_test/trail...
Our Constitution is what was for the most part was attacked, yet I am one of those who crave shortcuts in finding out how something obvious in hindsight wasn’t expected ahead of time,
PS the link on my expansion of these points if you scrawl down CapitolHillBlue to “Let’s stop the hate” has again became defective unless one is signed on.
RichardKanePA.blogspot.com