-
Major Malik Nidal Hasan, the US Army doctor suspected in the shooting at the US Army post in Fort Hood, Texas - Source: Reuters -
Related
US intelligence agencies learned an Army psychiatrist contacted
an Islamist sympathetic to al Qaeda and relayed that information to
federal authorities before the man allegedly went on a shooting
spree that killed 13 people in Texas last week, US sources
said.
The sources said the spy agencies intercepted electronic
communications between the suspect, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, and an
anti-American cleric in Yemen beginning late last year and reported
them to the FBI and other federal authorities.
One source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the matter, said Hasan communicated with Anwar
al-Awlaki, a cleric in Yemen known for his incendiary anti-American
teachings and sympathies toward al Qaeda.
Hassan, a US-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, was expected to be
charged in a military court following Friday's shooting at the Fort
Hood Army post in which 13 people were killed, two senior US
government officials said.
One of those officials said there was no indication that the
accused gunman had been planning an attack or was following orders
from anyone.
The comments by various US officials suggested that different parts
of the government were angling to avoid being blamed for having
failed to prevent the shooting.
One intelligence official said: "There's no sign at this point that
the CIA had collected information relevant to this case and then
simply sat on it."
In a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and
the heads of the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency,
Representative Pete Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House
Intelligence Committee, has asked intelligence agencies to preserve
the information they have on Hasan.
"I believe members of the full committee on a bipartisan basis will
want to scrutinize the intelligence relevant to this attack, what
the agencies in possession of that intelligence did with it, who
was and wasn't informed and why, and what steps America's
intelligence agencies are taking in light of what they know,"
Hoekstra said in a statement.
How US agencies acted
Hoekstra's comment was reminiscent of questions asked after the
September 11 attacks, when there was deep soul-searching and
recrimination in Washington over how US intelligence and law
enforcement agencies failed to prevent the hijacked plane attacks
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Asked if she was satisfied that the FBI and the army had
coordinated appropriately, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman
Diane Feinstein said: "(The) only thing I can tell you is that
there is an investigation ongoing ... There is a very serious
investigation that's taking place."
The shooting spree took place last Thursday at Fort Hood's crowded
Soldiers Readiness Processing Center, where US troops were getting
medical checkups before deploying abroad.
Hasan, 39, had spent years counseling severely wounded soldiers at
the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, many of whom had
lost limbs fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He was transferred to Fort Hood in April and was to have been
deployed to Afghanistan, where the US military is engaged in an
increasingly bloody war against Taliban and al Qaeda
fighters.
