US agencies come under scrutiny over Fort Hood shooting suspect

US authorities have defended their role in tracking Major Nidal Hasan (pictured), the army doctor accused of mowing down his comrades at Fort Hood last week, amid concerns agencies may have overlooked worrying signs.

AFP - US authorities on Wednesday defended their role in tracking the suspected gunman in the Fort Hood shooting amid concerns agencies may have botched the case and overlooked worrying signs.
  
A defense official said the Pentagon was never told by intelligence or law enforcement agencies that Major Nidal Hasan -- the army doctor accused of mowing down his comrades last week -- had sent emails to a hardline imam before the assault.
  
"As best as I can tell, our information is that no army or DoD (Department of Defense) organization had knowledge of Hasan emails to extremists prior to the tragic shooting out at Fort Hood," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
  
The Pentagon was unaware of Hasan's intercepted emails even though a FBI-led task force probing the case included a Defense Department employee, the official said.
  
The comments came amid recriminations in Washington over which government agency may have missed crucial clues and as investigators pored over evidence in the shooting that killed 13 and wounded dozens.
  
At the hospital in Washington where Hasan worked for six years before he was assigned to Fort Hood in Texas, officials who supervised the army psychiatrist had worried that he was "psychotic" but did not know that for months he had been writing to the radical cleric in Yemen, National Public Radio reported, citing unnamed officials.
  
With intelligence, defense and law enforcement officials coming under intense scrutiny over how they shared information or reacted to telltale clues, officials insisted there was cooperation across the government.
  
"I understand people are looking for smoking gun connections or disconnections but there's been nothing but cooperation" before and after Thursday's shooting, said a law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
  
US authorities have revealed Hasan had contacts last year with firebrand Islamic cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, now in Yemen after having spent time at a mosque outside Washington. And co-workers have recounted that Hasan voiced doubts about Muslim soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  
After learning of his contact with the terror suspect, a Joint Terrorism Task Force concluded that "Major Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning," the FBI said on Monday.
  
Authorities still believed the alleged gunman "acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot," the FBI said.
  
The case on Hasan was reportedly closed in the spring, with officials choosing not to pursue a more elaborate investigation.
  
Some analysts have questioned why Hasan was not more closely watched given his emails to Aulaqi, who is said to support Al-Qaeda and have met with members of the network.
  
It remained unclear if authorities took into account other worrying details in addition to the communication with the imam, including Hasan's purchase of a gun in August, an alleged web posting on suicide bombings and dismay among his fellow doctors about a talk he gave in 2007 on the divided loyalties of Muslim soldiers.
  
US lawmakers have vowed to probe the handling of the case and cite sweeping reforms introduced after the September 11, 2001 attacks designed to ensure intelligence agencies shared information and avoided turf wars. 
  
Hasan's civilian attorney, retired army colonel John Galligan, meanwhile said he had not received formal charges in the case and that the suspected gunman remained hospitalized at an intensive care unit.
  
The Washington Post, citing an unnamed official, reported that Hasan had never formally requested a discharge from the army for any reason, though his aunt has said he wanted to leave the military.
  
Psychiatrists and medical officials who oversaw Hasan at Walter Reed hospital held a series of meetings between the spring of 2008 and the spring of this year to discuss serious concerns about his work and his behavior, NPR reported.
  
"Put it this way. Everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your fox hole," one official was quoted as saying.
  
Another official had reportedly "wondered aloud" to colleagues whether Hasan might be capable of killing fellow soldiers, NPR said.

Date created : 2009-11-12