AP source says Pentagon to announce wide probe of Fort Hood shooting under ex-defence official
Published Wednesday November 18th, 2009
WASHINGTON - Defence Secretary Robert Gates has tapped a former senior defence official to lead a broad Pentagon review of the circumstances surrounding the Fort Hood shootings, The Associated Press has learned.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates will announce Thursday that the unified review will involve a number of components, and will call for a quick, short-term report, followed by a longer, more extensive study, according to an administration official.
Components of the wide-ranging probe could include self-examinations by the Army and the military's medical branches, and likely look at personnel policies and the availability of mental health services for troubled troops.
It would go well beyond the specific case of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 in the Nov. 5 shootings at the Texas military post.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because announcements have not yet been made. The identity of the former official who will lead the review was not revealed.
Details still were being worked out Wednesday night, but the review would mirror other department inquiries during Gates' tenure, including a probe of the Air Force's handling of nuclear materiel.
On Capitol Hill Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said he was disturbed to learn that Hasan had communicated with a radical Islamic cleric.
Investigators have said emails between Hasan and the imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, did not advocate or threaten violence. After the shootings, al-Awlaki's Web site praised Hasan as a hero. Holder said investigators still are gathering evidence.
Under questioning at a Senate hearing Wednesday, Holder was asked what he would do to prevent such an occurrence in the future.
"I think what we have to do is understand exactly what happened that led to that tragedy," Holder said. "Were there flags that were missed? Were there miscommunications, or was there a lack of communication? And once we have a handle on that, I think that we can propose and work with this committee on ways in which we can prevent such a tragedy from occurring again."
"We are at close to the beginning stages of this inquiry, and I think we have to determine on the basis of a sound investigation exactly what happened. I will say that on the basis of what I know so far, it is disturbing to know that there was this interaction between Hasan and - and other people that is, I find, disturbing," Holder said.
As Congress prepared to open oversight hearings into the massacre, Democratic Rep. James Langevin said Wednesday there was no suggestion that Hasan was working with others. "All the information we have is that this is a lone wolf," Langevin, a member of the Armed Services Committee in the House of Representatives, said after a private briefing on the Fort Hood investigation.
Sens. Susan Collins, a Republican, and independent Joe Lieberman are investigating whether a breakdown in communication or poor judgment calls contributed to the shootings, considered the deadliest attack on a military base in the United States. The Senate Homeland Security Committee, of which Collins and Lieberman are members, was expected to open hearings in the case Thursday.
A joint terror task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan's repeated contact with the cleric, who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he was not linked to terrorism.
"The Fort Hood massacre also raises questions about whether there are unnecessary restrictions on information sharing and whether those restrictions resulted in a failure to trigger a further inquiry," Collins said Wednesday.
Hasan's psychiatry supervisors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center had expressed concerns in May 2007 about what they described as Hasan's "pattern of poor judgment and lack of professionalism." The Associated Press had reported previously that doctors there discussed Hasan's overly zealous religious views and strange behaviour months before the attack, but National Public Radio on Wednesday published an evaluation letter signed by the department's psychiatry residency program director, Maj. Scott Moran.
Moran concluded that Hasan still could graduate and did not deserve even probation because Hasan was able to improve his behaviour once confronted by supervisors. About a year after Moran's memo was written, Hasan was selected for promotion from captain to major, a position that would give him increased pay and responsibilities. He would formally become a major in May 2009 and by July was on his way to Fort Hood.
Republican Rep. Tom Rooney said any "telltale signs that he was a disgruntled major were not as apparent as the rumours you've heard." Rooney spoke to reporters after he left a classified briefing by FBI and military officials on the Fort Hood shooting.
Rooney, a member of the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee and a former Army lawyer, also said Hasan was qualified to be promoted but was in "more toward the bottom third of his class."
That Hasan would be advanced despite the serious concerns voiced by his supervisors reflects the Army's urgent need for midlevel officers. The shortage is especially serious in the medical corps, which must compete with the private sector for skilled personnel.
Between 2007 and 2009, there were 926 Army physicians, nurses, and other specialists considered for promotion from captain to major and 901 were selected - a rate of 97.3 per cent, according to statistics from the service's Human Resources Command.
"It is automatic? No. But it's pretty darn close," said retired Lt. Gen. Ronald Blanck, a former surgeon general of the Army.
-
Associated Press writers Devlin Barrett, Pamela Hess, Ted Bridis and Richard Lardner contributed to this report.
Disabled
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
